NBC Promotes Democrat Clay Aiken Running for Congress: 'From Pop Singe

On Friday, NBC's Today kicked off its 2014 midterm election coverage by doing a fawning puff piece on former American Idol contestant Clay Aiken running for Congress in North Carolina as a Democrat. Co-host Willie Geist proclaimed: "A race that's getting a lot of attention. Clay Aiken is used to being at the mercy of the voters. He came in second on American Idol in 2003 and now he's running…
Kyle Drennen
May 2nd, 2014 11:55 AM

CNN’s Tapper: Jay Carney Has Been ‘Dissembling,’ ‘Obfuscating

CNN’s Jake Tapper had some strong words for White House press secretary Jay Carney on Thursday. Appearing on The Hugh Hewitt Show, Tapper accused Carney of making “dissembling, obfuscating,” and “insulting” comments regarding the September 2012 Benghazi attacks. Hewitt came right out and called Carney a liar, but Tapper was not willing to go quite that far. He remarked, “[C]alling somebody a…
Paul Bremmer
May 2nd, 2014 11:34 AM

Univision, Telemundo Obsess Over Racist NBA Owner, Ignore Bad News for

Much like their English-language counterparts, the flagship evening news programs of the Univision and Telemundo television networks found plenty of time to cover the scandal over racism that rocked Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, but no time to devote to news developments which cast President Obama and his administration in a negative light. Over the course of four days between…
Ken Oliver-Méndez
May 2nd, 2014 10:45 AM

Open Thread VIDEO: MSNBC's Never-ending 'Conversation' on Racism

A new YouTube channel, Digitas Daily, has an amusing little montage about MSNBC's non-stop talk about racism. It's a clever one-minute look at how the Lean Forward network has been Johnny One-Note. So we thought we'd give you a look at it below the page break. As an added bonus, we also embedded another video Digitas Daily did a few weeks back, headlined, "He Reports. They Recite," about the…
NB Staff
May 2nd, 2014 10:03 AM

Former AP Bureau Chief Says Blow Off White House Briefings, They're 'A

Former AP Washington bureau chief Ron Fournier is advising the White House press corps to toughen up. “The typical White House reporter considers President Obama's team the most secretive in memory, stingier with information than the tight-lipped Bush White House and, according to a Politico survey, prone to lie.” So Fournier advised in National Journal that it’s time to be “both fair and…
Tim Graham
May 2nd, 2014 9:38 AM

'Yelps of Outrage': White House 'Media Monitor' Helps Carney Staff Pus

The White House can play “Twitter police” with the White House press corps. Yahoo White House correspondent Olivier Knox relayed “Reporters who regularly cover Obama have become familiar with seemingly out-of-the-blue emails or telephone calls from officials taking issue with their tweets — often thoughtfully and constructively, sometimes with obscenity-laced yelps of outrage.” Even instant…
Tim Graham
May 2nd, 2014 7:42 AM

Krauthammer: ‘Media Are Somewhat Embarrassed’ By Missing Benghazi

Columnist Charles Krauthammer contended, on Thursday’s Special Report with Bret Baier, that the release of the Ben Rhodes memo has changed the media dynamic in interest toward the Benghazi scandal because journalists are now “embarrassed” over being “rolled” by the White House:  “What’s changed now, and we saw it in the briefing room, is I think the other media are somewhat embarrassed by the…
Brent Baker
May 2nd, 2014 2:04 AM

Chris Matthews Thinks It's 'A Little Ridiculous' to Blame Obama Admin

MSNBC's Chris Matthews ranted on Thursday's Hardball that "it's a ridiculous" to hold the Obama administration culpable for the lack of security around the Benghazi compound during the September, 2012 attacks. "But the idea that somebody else should have been covering for him [Ambassador Chris Stevens], that someone else should have the army there waiting to defend him, I think it's a little…
Matt Hadro
May 1st, 2014 11:42 PM

Bill O'Reilly Hammers Howard Kurtz for Being Too Soft on Benghazi Bias

On Wednesday night’s O’Reilly Factor, Howard Kurtz conceded the media are kind of allergic to covering Benghazi. But he would not agree that this “allergy” is about protecting Barack Obama. O’Reilly ticked off the media avoidance: no Benghazi e-mails coverage in the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal. “The Washington Post ran the story on page 17.…
Tim Graham
May 1st, 2014 11:12 PM

GOP Finds Only 67% of ObamaCare Enrollees Paid First Premium; Networks

House Republicans determined that just two-thirds of ObamaCare enrollees paid their first month's premium in the federal marketplace, but the broadcast networks ignored their finding on Thursday evening, while FNC's Special Report with Bret Baier devoted a full story. If true, the report would drastically undercut the White House's number of ObamaCare enrollees. A report by the House Energy…
Matt Hadro
May 1st, 2014 10:25 PM

Ed Schultz Oddly Claims Donald Sterling 'Made His Thoughts Public

Ed Schultz might be the only man in America who engenders sympathy for LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling by the mere act of opening his mouth. On his radio show Wednesday, Schultz revealed himself to be a staunch opponent of thought crime -- even when it occurs "behind closed doors" -- and quickly drew resistance from a caller who described himself as a longtime listener. (Audio clips after…
Jack Coleman
May 1st, 2014 8:10 PM

NBC, CBS Ignore Congressional Hearing on Benghazi; ABC Gives It Only

On Thursday evening, ABC was the only broadcast network to cover the day's congressional hearing on the Benghazi attacks. Both CBS and NBC ignored the hearing. ABC only covered the story for 46 seconds; they gave twice that amount of coverage to the U.S. Olympic speedskating suits. World News quoted retired Air Force Brigadier General Robert Lovell, at the U.S. Africa Command headquarters…
Matt Hadro
May 1st, 2014 7:43 PM

Lindsey Graham: You Couldn't 'Increase MSNBC's Ratings If You Put Guns

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) had some harsh words for the folks over at MSNBC during an interview with Newsmax's Steve Malzberg.  Appearing on The Steve Malzberg Show on Thursday May 1, Graham slammed MSNBC: "I don't think you could increase MSNBC's ratings if you had a gun to people's heads." [See video below.]
Jeffrey Meyer
May 1st, 2014 7:06 PM

Column: A Man of Sterling Character

I had listened to roughly eight hours of commentary on Donald Sterling and the ugly remarks he made in conversations secretly tape-recorded by his girlfriend, before I heard anyone mention a wife. HE HAS A WIFE? At first, I thought the topic must have changed when I left the room, but no -- the TV talking heads were still discussing Sterling advising his girlfriend to stay away from blacks.
Ann Coulter
May 1st, 2014 6:07 PM