Slate Trumpets Armed Muslim In 'Sea of Often Explicit Islamophobia'
Michelle Goldberg used a Tuesday item for Slate to tout Micah Naziri's open-carry protest outside the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio. Goldberg zeroed in on how Naziri's clothing "made him stand out...[as] an armed Muslim in a sea of often explicit Islamophobia." She later played up how "a group of burly men who called themselves Bible Believers" held anti-Islamic signs near the…
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Bee Compares Platform to Westboro Baptist Church, Pence Living in 1952
In the first of unfortunately two shows for the week, TBS’s Full Frontal host Samantha Bee compared the substance of the 2016 Republican National Convention (RNC) platform to views held by the Westboro Baptist Church and took predictable shots smearing Indiana Republican Governor Mike Pence as anti-woman and backward thinking.
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HBO's Maher: Pence 'Super Hates Gay People,' 'Hates the Poor'
On Friday's Real Time, HBO host Bill Maher attacked presumptive Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence as someone who "hates poor people" and "super, super hates gay people," who, because being Catholic "wasn't oppressive enough," "became an evangelical Christian."
He then attacked Donald Trump and his son as "a**holes," and compared Trump's children to the infamous sons of former Iraqi…
Slate Writer: Journalists Should Stop Using 'Terrorist,' 'Terrorism'
Adam Ragusea, writing at Slate.com, believes that the word "terrorist" has become "uselessly arbitrary and loaded," because it "has acquired a powerful religious—and specifically Islamic—connotation" that "is substantively consequential."
As a result, Ragusea believes that the Associated Press, whose Stylebook sadly exerts nearly ironclad control over language used in U.S. establishment press…
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PBS: Perhaps Nice Terrorist Was 'Disgruntled,' 'Upset With His Life'
We are so fortunate to have expert psychoanalyst Judy Woodruff on call at PBS. (That's sarcasm, folks.)
Friday evening, Woodruff, apparently because whatever evidence there is of ISIS involvement in Thursday's terrorist massacre in Nice, France is in her view insufficiently direct, speculated that "It could have been the act of one person disgruntled, upset with his life."
Bloggers on Pence: ‘Unprincipled Puppet’ Or ‘Lunatic Conservative’?
Much like Phil Mickelson took a big early lead in the British Open, Esquire’s Charles Pierce has taken a big rhetorical-excess lead in early blogging about Donald Trump’s VP pick, Indiana governor Mike Pence, calling him a “very strange and completely unreconstructed wingnut” whose paper trail contains “a rich deposit of sweet crude crazy.” Kevin Drum of Mother Jones described Pence as "not…
NYT Hits Pence: 'Out of Sync...Offending Gays...Dangerous Anachronism'
New York Times reporters Michael Barbaro and Monica Davey portrayed Donald Trump’s socially conservative vice presidential running mate as a potentially “dangerous anachronism” in “Mike Pence: A Conservative Proudly Out of Sync With His Times.” By contrast, The Times wrote a flattering article on potential Hillary Clinton running mate Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, who carries a 90% rating (out of 100…
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MSNBC Guest on France Attack: ISIS Is ‘Punks and Thugs,’ Not Islam
Like their fellow cable news outlets, MSNBC offered rolling coverage throughout the night Thursday into Friday due to the Nice, France terrorist attack and one such guest told breaking news anchor Brian Williams that ISIS should be known as “punks and thugs and mercenaries” instead of being associated with Islam.
MSNBC Tweet Calls Nice, France Terrorist Attack a 'Deadly Truck Crash'
News of the evening terrorist truck attack in Nice, France first appeared at the Drudge report at 5:06 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time Thursday afternoon. By 5:28, Drudge was linking to an item noting that conducting a terrorist attack with a truck is something "that jihadist propaganda has suggested for several years."
Friday at 12:15 a.m. Eastern Time, hours after it was known that what had occurred…
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MSNBC Frets 'Nativism,’ Touts ‘Opportunity’ for Hillary Post-Nice
On Thursday night, MSNBC’s The Last Word spent the duration of its show on the Nice, France truck terror attack and New York Times columnist Frank Bruni lamented that the “really, really volatile moment” could be used have negative connotations on both European and “French politics” in light of Brexit with “feelings of nativism, wanting to close doors.”
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CNN Complains GOP Platform Puts Faith, Families Above LGBT Agenda
In the past two election cycles, the media tried to paint the GOP as anti-women. In 2016, they might add “War on LGBT” to that false narrative. On CNN’s Newsroom Thursday morning, anchor Ana Cabrera tried to portray the GOP as bigoted by saying the Republican platform went out of its way to be anti-gay. Cabrera began by asking CNN and Newsbusters contributor Jeffrey Lord if Trump agreed with the…
Daily Beast Columnist: Dubya Can Redeem Himself By Trashing Trump
In an Internet meme from President Obama’s first term, George W. Bush asked America, “Miss Me Yet?” Even though The Daily Beast’s Michael Tomasky is a liberal, he does miss Dubya, after a fashion. In a Monday column, Tomasky called Bush “one of the worst presidents” ever but conceded that when he was POTUS, the Republican party was a mere “war-starting, economy-wrecking” outfit, while today’s GOP…
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MSNBC: Obama Did 'His Best to Speak to Our Angels' in Dallas Speech
In the initial moments following the Dallas, Texas interfaith service on Tuesday afternoon to memorialize the slain Dallas police officers, MSNBC hailed President Barack Obama’s very politicized speech as “part sermon, part speech” and one that “[spoke] to our angels” reminiscent of his Charleston, South Carolina address on June 26, 2015.