CBS’s Smith: ‘Does A Kennedy Belong’ in Ted’s Senate Seat

August 31st, 2009 12:00 PM
Speaking with Ted Kennedy’s niece, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, on Monday’s CBS Early Show, co-host Harry Smith wondered: "Does a Kennedy belong in your uncle’s old Senate seat?" Townsend replied: "I think if my brother, Joe, wanted to run, I think he’d put up a great race and be a great Senator, but there are a lot of people who can carry on Senator Kennedy’s legacy."Just prior to that question,…

PBS's Moyers: Forget Compromise on ObamaCare, Defeat Would 'Reinvigora

August 31st, 2009 11:05 AM
Who needs to make health care Barack Obama's Waterloo, as Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. suggested? Why not make it the president's Alamo? That's the advice PBS host Bill Moyers had for President Barack Obama in an appearance on HBO's August 28 "Real Time with Bill Maher." According to the former press secretary for President Lyndon B. Johnson, a defeat on health care/health insurance reform would do…

Harry Reid Threatens Las Vegas Newspaper

August 30th, 2009 10:51 PM
Harry Reid, perhaps emulating the bullying tactics of an out-of-control Obama administration, has openly wished for the Las Vegas Review-Journal to ‘go out of business' - a newspaper which has held opposing political viewpoints with the Senator.  But then, is this really shocking coming from a veiled supporter of the Fairness Doctrine? The comment came when Bob Brown, the Journal's Director of…

Times Watch Quotes of Note -- 'Almost Entirely White and Irritable Cro

August 29th, 2009 7:32 AM
An excerpt of Times Watch's latest "Quotes of Note," featuring the most biased things written or spoken by reporters and columnists for the New York Times.   "Almost Entirely White and Irritable Crowd" of "Angry" Obama-Care Protesters "They got up before dawn in large numbers with angry signs and American flag T-shirts, and many were seething with frustration at issues that went far beyond…

Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter: Rush Limbaugh Is the ‘Great Blowhard of

August 28th, 2009 6:10 PM
Newsweek columnist and editor Jonathan Alter appeared on Friday’s Hardball and slammed Rush Limbaugh as the "great blowhard of our time." Host Chris Matthews prompted the quote when he discussed how Limbaugh had criticized him on his radio show for calling Barack Obama the "last brother" of the Kennedy clan. Referring to Ted Kennedy's death, Matthews snarled, "What is the matter with these people…

NYT Editor Finds Kennedy’s Flaw: He Helped Reagan Win Presidency

August 28th, 2009 5:03 PM
Appearing on MSNBC’s New York Times Edition on Friday, the paper’s ‘Week in Review’ editor, Sam Tanenhaus, lamented one of Ted Kennedy’s flaws: "There’s a further paradox to this, which is we sometimes forget, I mean, all of the wonderful things being said about this extraordinary figure Edward Kennedy, that he was partly accountable for Ronald Reagan’s ascendency."Previewing his latest New York…

CNN's Bash Highlights Ted Kennedy's Scripture Quote: He Mangled Citati

August 28th, 2009 4:58 PM
On Friday’s Newsroom, CNN correspondent Dana Bash reported on Senator Ted Kennedy’s alleged “deep Catholic faith,” and zeroed-in on how he “used scripture in his push to end poverty and discrimination,” but chose a clip of his bungling a biblical citation. “My favorite parts of the Bible are always Matthew 25 through 35 [sic]- I was hungry and you gave me to eat, and thirsty, you gave me to drink…

Hailing Kennedy As Defender of Senate Ideals, NY Times Ignores Bork Sm

August 28th, 2009 4:23 PM
New York Times reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg paid tribute on Friday to Sen. Ted Kennedy as one of the last remnants of a more collegial, less combative U.S. Senate. But she neglects to point out how Kennedy himself corroded the institution he claimed to hold in such esteem.  In "For Better and for Worse, Senate Has Seen Changes in Kennedy's Time," Stolberg fretted that the Senate "has become…

AP Mostly Quotes from Leftists on Ted Kennedy's Catholicism

August 28th, 2009 12:03 PM
Jay Lindsay quoted almost exclusively from liberals in his report on Ted Kennedy’s Catholicism for the AP on Friday. Only one of those excerpted by Lindsay was a conservative, not counting Catholic Church officials.The AP correspondent led his article, titled “Kennedy’s Catholicism source of comfort, conflict,” with some glowing language, but at least portrayed how the deceased senator was not…

Douglas Brinkley on Ted Kennedy's Life: 'He Did a Kind of a Redemptive

August 27th, 2009 5:31 PM
Douglas Brinkley continued his use of religious imagery to gush about the legacy of Ted Kennedy and his apparent Catholicism on CNN’s Newsroom on Thursday. Brinkley did his best to paper over the many moral downfalls of the senator: “He’s asked to be forgiven by people. He did a kind of a redemptive work throughout his whole career. He would fall off the wagon....But he constantly said, I can do…

NYT: Ted Kennedy 'Attended Mass Every Day in the Year After His Mother

August 27th, 2009 5:29 PM
Thursday's front-page New York Times tribute to the last days of Sen. Ted Kennedy was penned by the paper's political profiler Mark Leibovich. Leibovich reliably showers love on liberal Democrats, as shown in his profiles of "happy warrior" Sen. Chris Dodd and "compelling pop-culture icon" Al Gore, but doesn't care much for Republicans like the "cantankerous" Rep. James Sensenbrenner or Sen.…

ABC Buries Harsh Kennedy Obit, One That Labels Him a ‘Failure,’ in

August 27th, 2009 4:56 PM
In the early hours of Wednesday, reporter John Donvan narrated a tough, comprehensive look at the life of Ted Kennedy, one that went so far as to assert that the Senator was sometimes "a let down, an embarrassment to his family, to his party, to himself." However, this eight and a half minute segment, which looked into Chappaquiddick, Kennedy’s cheating at Harvard and other scandals, aired at 2:…

Portfolio Editor, HuffPo Contributor Matt Cooper Compares Kennedy Deat

August 27th, 2009 4:46 PM
"It feels a bit like 9/11 on Martha's Vineyard. End-of-summer weather is achingly beautiful but the mood is melancholy because of Teddy." [click image at right to see larger image of screen capture]Thus wrote Matt Cooper, editor of Conde Nast Portfolio on his Twitter page a few hours ago. The former Time magazine White House correspondent, who also writes for Huffington Post, walked back his…

CBS: Kennedy’s Death ‘Gives New Life’ to Health Care Reform

August 27th, 2009 4:20 PM
At the top of the 8AM ET hour of Thursday’s CBS Early Show, co-host Russ Mitchell wondered if Ted Kennedy’s death could "spur Congress to pass a health care reform bill?" Correspondent Nancy Cordes answered that question: "Kennedy’s death, in a way, gives new life to health care legislation, which has really taken a beating the past few weeks at town halls across the country."Cordes went on to…