Dog Ate the Homework? Newspapers Take Four Days to Notice Lois Lerner

The networks have mostly ignored new stories on the Internal Revenue Service claiming on Friday they lost two years of lost e-mails from IRS official Lois Lerner (and then six others) in the investigation of IRS attempts to inhibit conservative groups in the Obama years. But what about America's leading newspapers? Not Saturday. Not Sunday. Not Monday. The Watergate hounds at The Washington…
Tim Graham
June 19th, 2014 11:33 AM

NBC's Guthrie Grills John Kerry: Aren't 'Chickens Coming Home to Roost

In a remarkably tough interview with Secretary of State John Kerry aired on Thursday's NBC Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie interrogated the nation's top diplomat on the Obama administration's failure to prevent terrorists from invading Iraq: "It seems like the U.S. was totally caught off guard by this....did you act too slowly? I mean, [Iraqi Prime Minister] Maliki was asking for help with air…
Kyle Drennen
June 19th, 2014 11:14 AM

CNN's Brooke Baldwin Asks the Right Questions, Gets Right Balance on B

It is a rare occasion when I have reason not to criticize a news report, but to praise it copiously. But give credit where it’s due: In Tuesday’s early afternoon newscast on CNN, host Brooke Baldwin and her crew aired several superb segments relating to the arrest of alleged Benghazi-attack mastermind Ahmed Abu Khatalla. Baldwin led her newscast with a few words of welcome, and then this: “…
Quin Hillyer
June 19th, 2014 10:59 AM

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough Mocks IRS Excuses: 'Who Are These Idiots

On Thursday's Morning Joe, co-host Joe Scarborough had a little bit of fun with the IRS claiming to have thrown away Lois Lerner’s computer containing the e-mails at the center of the scandal surrounding the IRS targeting of conservative organizations.“Who are these idiots," Scarborough exclaimed at one point. He mocked, “This is one of the most important people at the Internal Revenue…
Jackie Seal
June 19th, 2014 10:14 AM

Hairy Hang-Up: New York Times Reporter Revels in Shallow John Bolton B

As Iraq descends once more into chaos in the wake of Obama's withdrawal of U.S. troops, New York Times reporter Jennifer Steinhauer took a lazy, snarky tone in a Thursday news profile  of "neoconservative" John Bolton, he of the "sea-otter mustache" (and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations) who has been outspoken against Obama's foreign policy: "Former Envoy Pipes Up in Conservative…
Clay Waters
June 19th, 2014 10:04 AM

Networks Boost First Lady in ‘Food Fight’ Over School Lunches

More than 60 percent of outside experts in ABC, CBS and NBC reports argue in favor of school lunch requirements.
Julia A. Seymour
June 19th, 2014 9:44 AM

Nets Cover ’22 Jump St’ More Than Two Times That Devoted to Americ

An American teenager, along with two Israeli teens, has been kidnapped in Israel. “[T]wo jihadist groups had posted claims of responsibility for kidnapping the teens,” according to The Washington Post. Israel is in an uproar as the government tries to find them. But in America, the broadcast networks are breathlessly covering the new movie “22 Jump Street.” In fact, ABC, CBS and NBC have…
Matt Philbin
June 19th, 2014 9:43 AM

Networks Cover ’22 Jump St’ More Than Twice American Teen Abducted

Kidnapping ‘destabilized region,’ but goofy teen movie gets priority.
Matt Philbin
June 19th, 2014 9:34 AM

MSNBC's Wolffe Contradicted by NBC As He Wrongly Claims No Al-Qaeda in

Appearing as a guest on Wednesday's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, MSNBC.com executive editor Richard Wolffe mocked former Vice President Dick Cheney for his recent criticism of President Obama, and inaccurately claimed that "there was no Al-Qaeda in Iraq" before Cheney "led the decision to invade Iraq." After dismissing Cheney as being in his "last throes," Wolffe recalled: "Let's…
Brad Wilmouth
June 19th, 2014 9:01 AM

Did Scarborough Just Call Maddow 'Intellectually Weak' and 'Afraid

Looks like it's not just in Iraq where civil war is breaking out. Seems that it could also be happening at MSNBC, with Iraq ironically being the flashpoint. Two nights ago, Rachel Maddow condemned TV shows that book original Iraq war hawks like Paul Bremer. Maddow specifically called out her very own MSNBC for having given Bremer air time.  And just where had Bremer appeared on the Lean…
Mark Finkelstein
June 19th, 2014 7:32 AM

Liberal St. Louis Paper Dumps George Will In Bow to Feminist Rage

The liberal St. Louis Post-Dispatch has bowed to the "Fire George Will" folks and discontinued his syndicated column after he wrote about liberal universities now being pressed to stem an alleged tide of campus sexual assault. They're switching to big-government conservative Michael Gerson, the former chief speechwriter to President George W. Bush. "The change has been under consideration for…
Tim Graham
June 19th, 2014 6:35 AM

'Return of Dick Chee-knee!': MSNBC's Chris Matthews Loses Mind Over Fo

MSNBC's Chris Matthews put his pro-Hillary puffery on the back-burner this evening to lead off Hardball with a screed against his favorite archnemesis Dick "it's pronounced CHEE-knee, by the way" Cheney. Chris failed to disappoint with his loopy, nonsensical rant against the former vice president, at one point comparing him to a pitch man for the website Diedinhouse.com. Matthews even…
Ken Shepherd
June 18th, 2014 10:40 PM

Josh Marshall: Democrats’ Obamacare Success Has Forced GOP Into ‘A

It’s been common for a few years to observe that Democrats and Republicans barely talk with each other anymore, but if you believe Talking Points Memo editor and publisher Josh Marshall, these days the two parties aren’t even truly fighting with each other. In a Tuesday blog post, Marshall claimed that each party now is “operating in [its] own political universe.” In one universe,…
Tom Johnson
June 18th, 2014 9:54 PM

NBC/WSJ Poll: 54 Percent Say Obama 'Can't Lead, Get the Job Done'; 'Ni

Fifty-four percent of respondents in a brand new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll believe that President Obama "can't lead, get the job done," contrasted with 42 percent who say he can. What's more, a healthy plurality, 41 percent, also answered that "the performance of the Obama administration" has "gotten worse" in the past 12 months. Yet the NBC Nightly News ignored those stunning numbers in its…
Ken Shepherd
June 18th, 2014 8:26 PM