NPR Lines Up Slams on Latino Republican As 'Immature' In Massachusetts

On his own website, liberal Rep. Ed Markey boasts he “continues to be one public broadcasting’s most ardent supporters, fighting to fight to protect one of our most precious landmarks on the entire media landscape.” So it wasn’t surprising when NPR reporter Tovia Smith filed a sympathetic story on Friday’s Morning Edition whacking away at Markey’s Republican opponent in the special election…
Tim Graham
May 25th, 2013 6:53 AM

Paul Krugman’s Flagrant ‘Austerity’ Double Standard

Generally speaking, we try to avoid mentioning shrill leftist New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, not because he makes no absurd statements but because he makes so many of them. An exception to this rule must be made, however, thanks to an excellent piece by economist Robert P. Murphy in the American Conservative headlined “Heads Krugman Wins, Tails ‘Austerity’ Loses.” In the past several…
Matthew Sheffield
May 25th, 2013 12:24 AM

As Stockholm Riots Move Into Fifth Day, Press's Aversion to the M-Word

A Google News search on "Sweden riots" done tonight at 10 PM ET (not in quotes, sorted by date, with duplicates) returned 314 items. Adding the word "Muslim" to the search reduced the number of results to nine. Fewer than a handful are from establishment press outlets, and one of those only appeared in the search results because a commenter and not the story's writer used the M-word. That…
Tom Blumer
May 24th, 2013 11:09 PM

Roger Ailes Rallies the Troops: 'To Be a Fox Journalist Is a High Hono

Fox News boss Roger Ailes wrote a pep-rally memo to his employees in the wake of the James Rosen investigation news. Washington Post media blogger Erik Wemple called it a "masterpiece." "For all those who wonder what it is about Ailes that endears his people to him — and that makes him such a good interviewee for any media reporter lucky enough to get an audience with him — just read this,"…
Tim Graham
May 24th, 2013 9:54 PM

WashPost's Milbank Mocks Nikki Haley, 'Reached Out to' White Supremaci

Appearing as a guest on Thursday's PoliticsNation on MSNBC, Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank mocked South Carolina Republican Governor Nikki Haley as someone who has "reached out to a minority" in the form of white supremacists since they are a "minority," as he reacted to accusations that a member of her reelection committee is a white supremacist. Milbank:
Brad Wilmouth
May 24th, 2013 7:04 PM

Chris Matthews: 'Ted Cruz is the Unsmiling, Contemptuous Face of the W

"Pay attention to Senator Cruz because he is the unsmiling, contemptuous face of the wild, nasty, hard-right fringe of a Party that once competed with the Democrats to be the country’s governing Party." So said MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Friday's Hardball (video follows with transcript and commentary):
Noel Sheppard
May 24th, 2013 6:28 PM

'PoliticsNation' Panel Mocks Republican Outreach to Minorities

On his May 23 program, the Rev. Al Sharpton’s PoliticsNation panel turned to the thorny issue of race in politics. As could be expected, it was not a balanced discussion as Sharpton’s panel was an Amen pew of liberal pundits: the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank and left-wing XM Radio host Joe Madison. For his part, Milbank snarked that the GOP is made up of “a coalition of white southern men…
Andrew Lautz
May 24th, 2013 5:45 PM

Networks Give Three Times More Quotes to Supporters of Gay Scout Admit

Touting the Boy Scouts' "landmark" and "historic" decision to allow openly-gay members, CBS, ABC, and NBC gave supporters of the decision three times as many quotes as their opponents got on Friday morning's news stories. The networks gave 10 soundbites to supporters of the new Scouts policy and only three to its opponents. Supporters included President Obama, gay scout Pascal Tessier, and…
Matt Hadro
May 24th, 2013 4:52 PM

State Dept. Official Who Altered Benghazi Talking Points Promoted; Onl

News broke late Thursday afternoon that President Obama had made his selection for the appointee to the position of Assistant Secretary of State to Europe and Eurasia, Victoria Nuland. Normally, that's a snoozer of a nomination unworthy of national media coverage but in this case, it should have garnered media attention.  If the name vaguely rings a bell, it is because Nuland was the…
Nathan Roush
May 24th, 2013 4:49 PM

HUH? Slate Editor: Kaitlyn Hunt Case 'Is About Gay Rights. But It’s

This is one of those stories that have you asking yourself if you’re still on planet Earth.  Emily Bazelone of Slate, a Washington Post affiliated site, wrote today that the case of Florida 18-year-old Kaitlyn Hunt’s sexual affair with a 14-year-old girl “is about gay rights. But it’s not about that.”  This isn’t Bazelon’s first foray into trying to defend the indefensible.  In the aftermath of…
Matt Vespa
May 24th, 2013 4:28 PM

ABC’s Jim Avila Hectors Sen. Sessions for Opposing Immigration Plan

Liberal media members love to demonize any politician who stands in the way of their notion of progress, and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) has planted himself squarely in the path of the current immigration reform train. It was no surprise, then, that ABC News opted to berate him in an interview posted online to the network’s Power Players blog. [Read the post and watch the video here.] Even…
Paul Bremmer
May 24th, 2013 4:23 PM

Christie Dismisses Climate Change Question from NBC's Lauer as 'Distra

In an interview with Chris Christie on Friday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer grilled the New Jersey Governor on his skepticism that man-made climate change caused Superstorm Sandy: "You said you don't think there's been any proof thus far that Sandy was caused by climate change. Several experts I've heard from say the destruction, though, from Sandy, was probably more severe because of…
Kyle Drennen
May 24th, 2013 4:19 PM

Bill Maher: Ted Cruz Has 'The Steely-Eyed Focus of a Serial Killer

Despite HBO's Real Time being off for the Memorial Day weekend, host Bill Maher felt it was necessary to offend a conservative without the aid of television. So he took to his blog Friday to attack Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tx.) writing, "[H]e's got Newt Gingrich's ambition and ego mixed with the steely-eyed focus of a serial killer":
Noel Sheppard
May 24th, 2013 4:18 PM

MSNBC’s Krystal Ball Gushes Over Obama Speech, Claims the President

In a way you have to hand it to Krystal Ball. The former Democratic congressional candidate-turned-MSNBC co-host is always hard at work spinning for the Obama administration, come what may. Appearing on Thursday's Politics Nation, the co-host of MSNBC’s The Cycle raved about President Obama’s May 23 national security speech, claiming the president is “reining in his own power,” a “remarkable…
Andrew Lautz
May 24th, 2013 3:42 PM