Media-Backed Obama Mortgage Program Flops

Obama's home loan modification program was talked up by the bailout-friendly news media as a potential "ray of light" for struggling homeowners. But on June 21, Associated Press reported the mortgage assistance program is "falling flat." The broadcast networks supported the mortgage modification and housing bailout when Obama launched it in 2009, after criticizing Treasury Secretary…
Julia A. Seymour

MRC Study: Media Blackout of Supreme Court 'Battle

When President Obama picked Elena Kagan to replace Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, the broadcast networks referred to the upcoming Senate confirmation process as “contentious” a “meat grinder” and a “battle,” warning Kagan was “in for a fight.”But a Media Research Center analysis of the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts in the six weeks since Kagan was nominated shows the broadcast…
Rich Noyes

Open Thread: An Oily Rebuke of Big Government

NB Staff

Zbig Brzezinski's Brainstorm: Invite Iran To Kibitz On Afghanistan

Great idea.  While we're at it, let's invite al Qaeda to a conference on Israel's future . . . On Morning Joe today, Zbigniew Brzezinski recommended that the US organize an "international conference" on Afghanistan's future—and invite Iran to participate. The former Carter National Security Advisor didn't say what positive contributions he might expect from a country working in defiance of…
Mark Finkelstein

WaPo Paints the Spitzer-Parker Show as a 'Democrat' and a 'Conservativ

The Washington Post Style section promised an article on CNN's new Eliot Spitzer-Kathleen Parker chat show with this front-page blurb: "Odd couple on CNN: New show pairs a conservative with a Democrat." Inside, in an article surprisingly shy on her typical snark, TV columnist Lisa de Moraes also described the pairing as the "disgraced/rehabbed former governor Eliot Spitzer, the New York Democrat…
Tim Graham

87 Senators Sign Letter Urging Obama's Support of Israel, Media Mostly

On Monday, 87 Senators signed a letter to President Obama affirming their support for Israel while urging his.This comes in response to last month's highly-publicized flotilla incident in the Mediterranean Sea and the United Nations predictable anti-Israel reaction.A similar letter has been circulated in the House that has apparently garnered 307 signatures.Despite the overwhelming bipartisan…
Noel Sheppard

HuffPo Writer Also Wants to Eradicate Limbaugh, Beck, and O'Reilly

Huffington Post blogger, Frank Schaeffer, has been trying to eradicate elements of the right for quite some time.  Katie Bell had a great post on Monday covering his recent call to ‘eradicate' fundamental Christianity. It's no secret that Schaeffer is very critical of religious elements in society.  But on a side note, were you aware that he is a former member of the religious right?  Apparently…
Rusty Weiss

Media Help Obama Bash Republicans, Forget 'Polarizing' Charge Against

President Obama's weekly radio address on Saturday devoted the entire hour to a hyper-partisan, long-winded, meandering speech about his Republican critics being too -- wait for it! -- partisan. Fortunately for him, a compliant national media would simply forward the attack on their own pages and never pause long enough to smell the irony. In the middle of alleged job offers, controversial…
Candance Moore

Greta Van Susteren Says Spitzer-Parker Show 'Bad News for Keith Olberm

Fox News host Greta Van Susteren says the just-announced new CNN show pitting former New York governor Eliot Spitzer against faux conservative Kathleen Parker is bad news for MSNBC's Keith Olbermann.Writing at her Greta Wire blog Wednesday, Van Susteren said, "[I]f CNN is to be successful, it will have to draw viewers from Keith Olbermann's viewers."  She continued, "The total number of cable…
Noel Sheppard

NBC's Williams Blames Obama's Plummeting Approval on Getting Dragged I

Unlike Katie Couric on Monday night, on Wednesday evening NBC's Brian Williams didn't hide the bad news for President Obama in the network's latest poll, but Williams and Savannah Guthrie sure seemed to lament the public mood's swing against Obama as Williams attributed it to how Obama “had to touch” the gulf oil leak, “he had to own it and now he's getting tagged with how he's reacting to it.”…
Brent Baker

NBC Guest: Obama White House a 'Team of Nine-Year-Olds

NBC's Today show on Wednesday refreshingly brought on a conservative guest who ripped the Obama administration's management of the war in Afghanistan. Daniel Goure of the Lexington Institute blasted the "dysfunctional organization" at the White House overseeing the war: "It's not a team of rivals. It's a team of nine-year-olds, and something needs to be done about that" [audio available here].…
Matthew Balan

CBS's Katie Couric Fawns Over Left-wing Feminist and Her Outrageous Cl

"[Carly Fiorina's] position on taxation would deprive women of childcare."The Hyde Amendment "penalizes poor women terribly.""You can't be a feminist who says other women can't" have an abortion.These are just some of the outrageous statements left-wing feminist Gloria Steinem made during an interview with CBS anchor Katie Couric on the latest installment of "@katiecouric," which was posted to…
Alex Fitzsimmons

Matthews: Canning McChrystal Helps Obama’s Oil Spill Image

Another leg tingle is on the way for MSNBC "Hardball" host Chris Matthews. Wednesday on "Andrea Mitchell Reports," Chris Matthews asserted that the President's image had been tainted because "BP has been the front institution, not the United States government, in this whole horror down in the gulf."Yet, the White House no longer needs to worry, because to Matthews, the releasing of General…
Rachel Burnett

Rolling Stone 'Runaway General' Reporter: Aloof Obama 'Didn’t Really

While the media are attempting to grapple with the change in leadership of the Afghanistan war and what that all means, one thing that could be learned from this, which has been ignored, are valid criticisms of President Barack Obama and his ability to command the U.S. military. Michael Hastings, author of the now-famous Rolling Stone magazine article "Runaway General" that captured several…
Jeff Poor