Chris Matthews

Journalists’ shutdown playbook is straightforward: single out Republicans for blame; highlight “victims” of the shutdown to build public anger; and then claim Democrats won because they were the “grown-up” party.

It’s safe to say that CNN, MSNBC, and the broadcast networks have no interest in fully explaining the Biden/Burisma corruption allegations. We got tired of waiting around, so we decided to do it for them. Using a handful of out-of-context news clips from the Trump Presidency, we’ve simulated what it might look like if the media ever actually covered the Burisma scandal.

Eight years ago this week, the liberal media touted the “major victory” of President Obama’s “historic” deal with Iran that would supposedly limit the terrorist state’s access to nuclear weapons for at least a decade.

During the 2011 debt ceiling fight, the media relentlessly harassed Republican attempts to rein in spending, as journalists demanded tax increases and blasted conservatives as hostage takers and bomb-toting terrorists.

The indictment of former President Trump has prompted gleeful cheers among many in the left-wing media, but a similar indictment of former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards 12 years ago was jeered at the time as an “overreach” that could wind up being an “embarrassment” for the Justice Department.

Thirteen years ago this week, the liberal media celebrated the final passage of the Affordable Care Act, aka “ObamaCare,” President Barack Obama’s big government answer to the millions of Americans without health insurance. Passage came after a year of media cheerleading, as journalists trumpeted the alleged benefits of Obama’s plan and denigrated conservative critics as racists or terrorists…

Eight years ago, the New York Times’s Michael Schmidt broke the news that Hillary Clinton ignored government rules and used a personal server for e-mail during her time in office. Friendly journalists spent the next week furiously attempting to spin her scandalous conduct away, ultimately deriding reporters who provided tough coverage as Hillary “haters.”

Journalists love to use past presidents to measure today’s politicians, either to build up those who exemplify their historical liberal heroes, or to belittle conservatives with whom they disagree. Here’s a deep dive into the MRC’s archives showing how the media have used presidents from George Washington to Abraham Lincoln to JFK as talking points in today’s political battles.

Joe Biden can never hope to garner the gushing praise the media habitually lavished on his onetime boss, former President Barack Obama. Liberal reporters were always thrilled whenever they were privileged to hear their hero delivering predictable liberal platitudes from the well of the House of Representatives.

Six years ago today, November 26, 2016, news broke of the death of Fidel Castro, the former communist dictator of Cuba. His death was an opportunity for journalists to salute the prison state’s advances in health care, and to mindlessly babble about how Cubans supposedly preferred donkey carts to modern automobiles.

Four years ago, Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke enjoyed a starring role in the liberal media’s coverage of the 2018 midterm elections. This year, Beto’s trying again, taking on Texas Governor Greg Abbott, but on TV news he’s gone from a rock star to the invisible man.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, at a recent event with a liberal audience, praised Justice Clarence Thomas, her ideological adversary. Sotomayor said, “He is a man who cares deeply about the court as an institution.” She added that while the two often disagree over judicial decisions, “We share a common understanding about people and kindness towards them.”

If coverage of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s hearings (set to begin on Monday) is anything like what Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominees faced, expect the liberal media to do everything they can to pave the way to an easy confirmation. When they weren’t singing the praises of their backgrounds, or even comedic stylings, liberal reporters and anchors tried to downplay the leftist leaning of…

Ten years ago this fall, then-President Barack Obama ridiculed Mitt Romney’s assessment that Russia is “our number one geopolitical foe.” On October 22, 2012, Obama dismissed the then-Republican presidential nominee with this mockery: “The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back, because the Cold War's been over for 20 years.” In the years since, outlets such as CNN have…