On Hardball: Obama's 'Gut Moment' With Daughter May Quiet Critics

May 27th, 2010 6:31 PM
Both Chris Matthews and Chuck Todd were taken aback by Barack Obama delivering a "personal connection moment" in today's press conference when he told reporters that his daughter Malia asked him: "Did you plug the hole yet, daddy?" Of the anecdote Matthews, on Thursday's Hardball, exclaimed "Talk about a sound bite guys!" and declared he delivered "personally there, in a way he rarely does."…

MSNBC's Chuck Todd Knocks Texas Conservatives for New Textbooks: 'Educ

May 25th, 2010 11:59 AM
MSNBC's Chuck Todd on Tuesday attacked new standards being adopted for history textbooks in Texas as "odd" and mocked that the state would now be teaching "education by Wikipedia." Evan Smith of the Texas Tribune appeared as a guest and fretted that the school board includes "a conservative, arch conservative bloc." Todd recounted the changes being made to the curriculum, including "the idea that…

Todd: Obama Offering Sestak Job No Different Than Cheney Offering Camp

May 25th, 2010 9:07 AM
UPDATE: Later in today's show, a clip [displayed after the jump] was played of an interview from months ago in which Scarborough unequivocally put it to Sestak that he had been offered the Secretary of the Navy position, and Sestak seems to confirm it. So much so that after watching the clip, today's guest Jeffrey Sachs, an ardent Obama fan, had to laughingly admit that, yes, Sestak had been…

Bill O'Reilly: Stop Gulf Oil Leak - 'Stuff Every Member of NBC News in

May 24th, 2010 5:05 PM
Bill O'Reilly on Monday offered an obviously satirical solution to the Gulf oil spill that has generated some ire from the usual suspects on the left: "stuff every member of NBC News in that hole."As readers are well aware, the Fox News personality has had an ongoing war with General Electric and its television subsidiary over its dramatic left-leaning approach to covering the news.With that in…

Chuck Todd: Blame Obama, Not His Staff, for Keeping Press at a Distanc

May 24th, 2010 12:03 PM
Deep in a Chuck Todd profile by Howard Kurtz in Monday's Washington Post, Todd says blame President Obama, not his staff, for his press aversion:  Despite his newfound prominence, Todd, like his colleagues, has limited access to the man he is covering. "Obama himself is the one who doesn't like dealing with the press," he says, exonerating the White House staff. "You can't even do shouted…

CBS's Lesley Stahl Imagines 'Huge Potential Advantage' for Dems Over R

May 21st, 2010 12:00 PM
On MSNBC's Morning Joe on Friday, CBS correspondent Lesley Stahl sounded positively giddy at the possibility of Democrats exploiting the Rand Paul round of TV interviews. She pushed David Gregory to agree with her that the Democrats can gain a "huge potential advantage" for suggesting the Republicans are extreme on everything. STAHL: David, don’t you think, though, that the Republicans [she must…

They Won't Say Specter or Lincoln Are Challenged by 'Liberals' or 'Fro

May 18th, 2010 6:39 AM
As the conservatives in the Tea Party movement gained strength, the liberal media often predicted they would cause harm to the Republican Party and drive out all the moderates. Wouldn't the conservatives look too extreme to win over voters? (See Rich Noyes for more.) Now that the MoveOn.org leftists are poised to remove an incumbent Senator or two, they might spread the idea that there is also a…

NBC Astonished Poll Finds Most Support Arizona Law and Anti-Terror Pro

May 12th, 2010 9:27 PM
NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd seemed astonished by how a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll confirmed solid agreement with Arizona's immigration enforcement law – “a whopping 64 percent support the law,” Todd marveled, “and we read them the law verbatim exactly as it's been written” and still, he repeated, “64 percent approve of it.” NBC also treated as surprising the majority backing…

Todd: Crist for President?; Remnick Reveals ObamaCare Passed to Gain N

April 19th, 2010 12:15 AM
Friday follies. Before the weekend ends, two quotes from journalists worth noting made on Friday night shows: ♦ On MSNBC’s Hardball, NBC’s Chuck Todd forwarded the notion that if Florida Governor Charlie Crist drops out of the Republican primary -- where polls put him way behind conservative Marco Rubio -- and wins the Senate seat as an independent, “he becomes the most powerful Senator in the…

Chris Matthews and Panel Make Excuses For Obama's Lack of Press Confer

April 4th, 2010 8:09 PM
It's been more than nine months since President Obama has held a prime time press conference, and you would think those that cover him would be outraged by it.Well, think again, for that's certainly not what came out of a panel discussion about this issue during this weekend's syndicated "The Chris Matthews Show."Quite the contrary, rather than criticize the Commander-in-Chief for refusing to…

Matthews Calls Limbaugh 'Walrus Underwater': Was This a Vulgar Referen

April 3rd, 2010 11:15 AM
CRITICAL UPDATES AT END OF POST including Matthews saying "Bush regime" in 2002.Chris Matthews on Friday referred to conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh as a walrus underwater.Chatting with guests Chuck Todd and Andrew Ross Sorkin about Limbaugh's recent comments concerning President Obama, Matthews quipped, "And this guy, this walrus underwater, makes fun of this administration, calling…

Vieira Repeats Democratic Line of the Day

March 22nd, 2010 11:16 AM
NBC's Meredith Vieira opened Monday's Today show declaring, "Good morning. It passed. Congress approves historic legislation to reform health care" and then a few seconds later noted, "Democrats are using words like 'historic' to describe the sweeping overhaul that was approved." Interesting to see the Today co-anchor acknowledge the Democratic theme and still use it, something that was done…

Matthews: Unlike MSNBC and CNN 'There's Absolutely No Debate' on Fox N

March 16th, 2010 5:54 PM
Last night it was the Republican Party that was caught in the crosshairs of Chris Matthews, which he accused of being too "narrow." Well on Tuesday's Hardball, the MSNBC host turned his sights on Fox News and charged that on their airwaves "there's absolutely no debate." During a segment in which Matthews invited on NBC chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd to break down the latest poll…

Media Reality Check: A Year of Spin for Liberal ObamaCare

March 15th, 2010 10:25 AM
The end of Congress’s long debate over ObamaCare could be near, as the President pushes for a final vote this week before his Asia trip, and House Democrats want a resolution before next week’s Easter break.Yet whether or not liberals’ dreams are ultimately realized, they have had a huge advantage throughout the process. Over the past twelve months, journalists have continually stacked the deck…