'Morning Joe' Furthers Durbin Complaint, Ignores Another Dem Senator's

December 21st, 2009 12:08 PM
There was something very important that I did not see on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” this morning.The very first bump-in on the show was a montage of Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.):COBURN: What the American people ought to pray, is that somebody can’t make the vote tonight. That’s what they ought to pray.[...]DURBIN: I don’t think it’s appropriate to be invoking prayer to wish…

MSNBC’s Ratigan Apologizes For Yelling At Congresswoman In Friday In

December 21st, 2009 11:58 AM
As NewsBusters’ Noel Sheppard reported on Saturday, on Friday’s Morning Meeting program on MSNBC, host Dylan Ratigan got into a shouting match with Democratic Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz over health care legislation. On Monday, he apologized for the outburst: “...the way I went about that on Friday was a disservice to our viewers....I have some work to do.” Ratigan’s heated…

Stephanopoulos to McCain: Is There Any Issue You'll be 'Joined at the

December 21st, 2009 10:13 AM
In an interview in which he hit the 2008 Republican presidential nominee repeatedly from the left, George Stephanopoulos pleaded with Sen. John McCain to "name an issue next year where you are going to be joined at the hip with President Obama." [audio available here]The live interview via satellite occurred six hours after McCain joined the other 39 Senate Republicans in voting against cloture…

ABC's Roberts: People Will Be Thrilled by Health Bill Once They 'Under

December 20th, 2009 5:14 PM
“There's a lot in” the health care bill as it now stands -- even without the “public option” or expanded Medicare -- “that people are going to like” and a “lot of people are going to like a whole lot once they see what's in it,” ABC News veteran Cokie Roberts contended on Sunday's This Week as she blamed Democratic messaging, not the substance, for declining support: “I think the Democrats lost…

Stossel & Mackey Blame Govt for High Health Care Prices, People Die Wa

December 20th, 2009 4:41 PM
On Thursday’s Stossel show on Fox Business Network, host John Stossel got to do the kind of show he was not able to do earlier this year when he was at ABC, as he devoted an entire show to the debate over access to health care, and gave attention to the market-based plan utilized by most employees of Whole Foods, which uses health savings accounts and encourages employees to shop around for…

CBS ‘Early Show’ Frets Over ‘Liberal Backlash’ Against Obama

December 18th, 2009 11:51 AM
On Friday’s CBS Early Show, co-host Russ Mitchell introduced a report on difficulties President Obama is having with left-wing: “President Obama is facing a growing backlash from liberal supporters on the issue of health care reform.” White House correspondent Bill Plante described the: “...anger really among the President’s former grass roots supporters on the Left.”After citing former…

Newsweek's Connolly: Daddy Obama Needs to Get Congresskids in Line

December 17th, 2009 6:19 PM
Reminiscing about how her father would end dinner table squabbles between her and her sister, Newsweek's Katie Connolly on Tuesday rejoiced that President Obama had said "Enough!" in order to get Senate Democrats in line:Today, it sounds like the president has finally reached that point with the Senate Democrats and their increasingly aggravating health-care squabbles. He's ready to issue a…

CBS: Dems ‘Tantalizingly Close’ On Health Care; Republicans Use

December 17th, 2009 12:48 PM
At the top of Thursday’s CBS Early Show, correspondent Nancy Cordes excitedly proclaimed that Senate Democrats “are tantalizingly close” to passing a health care bill and derided Republicans for trying to “thwart” the legislation using “stall tactics.”  Cordes reported on the urgency of Democratic efforts to get 60 votes in the Senate: “Leaders are trying to craft a compromise that everyone can…

Gibson Empathizes with Obama: 'Holy God, What a Weight that Is on Your

December 16th, 2009 8:34 PM
In his swan song interview with President Barack Obama, which consumed more than ten minutes of World News, ABC's Charles Gibson couldn't have provided a friendlier or more empathetic platform to Obama on the “weight” of sending troops to war and how “devilishly difficult” it's become to pass a health care plan because of a few rogue Senators. Gibson, set to retire Friday, teased his last…

CBS Relays Liberal Anger 'Their Agenda is Being Hijacked by a Few

December 16th, 2009 12:59 AM
A night after MSNBC's Keith Olbermann demanded Senator Joe Lieberman “just resign already” as he shrieked “you are embarrassing humanity!”, CBS joined in targeting Connecticut's “independent Democrat” for daring to oppose liberals on health care. “He holds the 60th vote needed to get the health care reform bill passed in the Senate,” anchor Katie Couric intoned, “and Nancy Cordes tells us…

AP Readers' Rule: Quickly Skip to the Final Paragraphs; Article Cites

December 16th, 2009 12:01 AM
Longtime readers of Associated Press dispatches have long since learned that many of the most important facts of a story -- especially facts that put the government, bureaucrats, and leftists in a bad light -- are often found in its final paragraphs. This is a way for the wire service to boast that it really did report all important facts while usually ensuring that harried broadcasters and other…

CNBC Host Upset 'American Political Community' Worried about 'Killing

December 14th, 2009 6:11 PM
It's a good thing New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wasn't a used car salesman because CNBC "Squawk on the Street" co-host Mark Haines would have driven off the lot in a lemon. Friedman appeared on the Dec. 14 broadcast of "Squawk on the Street" to promote the paperback release of his book, "Hot, Flat, and Crowded." And once again, he made the case the United States is lagging behind in…

CBS: Obama West Point Speech ‘Contradictory;’ Health Care Bill

December 14th, 2009 12:14 PM
In an unusually tough interview with President Obama on Sunday’s 60 Minutes on CBS, correspondent Steve Kroft described the President’s West Point speech as being “greeted with a great deal of confusion” and that “some people thought it was contradictory.” He later said of the health care bill: “some people think is incomprehensible....I’ve not met anybody who’s read it.”Kroft began the interview…

WaPo’s Klein: Lieberman Willing to Cause 'Deaths of Hundreds of Thou

December 14th, 2009 1:40 AM
Whatever happened to just opposing policy for the sake of it being bad policy, as is the case of many people's view of the current health care reform proposals making their way through Congress? That reason is just not good enough for some, particularly Washington Post blogger and food critic Ezra Klein. In a post on The Washington Post's Web site dated Dec. 14, Klein viciously attacked Sen. Joe…