E! Talk Show Host Chelsea Handler Calls Sarah Palin 'Really Stupid

Late night talk show host and author Chelsea Handler was invited on Tuesday's Today show to plug her new book Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang and couldn't leave the show without taking a dig at earlier guest Karl Rove, as well as Sarah Palin who she called "Really stupid." When asked by 10:00am hour Today host Hoda Kotb how she felt about having her book released at the same time as the former White…
Geoffrey Dickens

CBS 'Early Show' Declares Obama 'On the Offensive' on Health Care

At the top of Tuesday's CBS Early Show, co-host Harry Smith proclaimed: "President Obama makes a tough final push, going on the offensive against health insurance companies. Will it work?" Later, co-host Maggie Rodriguez gushed: "It looked like a campaign rally yesterday with President Obama center-stage taking his fight for health care reform out of Washington and into America's heartland."…
Kyle Drennen

NBC's Curry Prompts Ventura to Claim Bush Admin Knew About

NBC's Ann Curry invited former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura to promote his new book of conspiracy theories, on Tuesday's Today show, and pressed the former professional wrestler to throw out the loony charge that the Bush administration had foreknowledge of 9/11. On to promote his book American Conspiracies, Ventura charged that the CIA was involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy and…
Geoffrey Dickens

HuffPo Demands Rich Pay 'Fair Share' in Death Tax

Imagine the audacity of wanting to dispose of your own money as you see fit? The idea is hateful to Bill Scher of the Huffington Post, who demanded in "Super Wealthy Deathly Afraid Estate Tax Would Reduce Deficit" on March 9 that the wealthy "pay their fair share." Scher railed against the Bush tax cuts, and asserted that a 35-45 percent inheritance penalty (the estate tax or death tax) isn't…
Anthony Kang

AP: House Dems' ObamaCare Iteration to Penalize Businesses Using Part

Rush mentioned this on the air as his show opened. It comes from the Associated Press, in a later paragraph of an Obama cheerleading item ("Obama pitches health plan in spirited appearance"; AP picture at right is from that story) by Julie Pace and David Espo. The paragraph in question opens by giving readers the impression that either Pace, Espo, or another AP person has actually seen language…
Tom Blumer

Chris Matthews's Bizarro Movie Reference: Dick Cheney Like Father of S

Has Chris Matthews's brain been exiled to the Phantom Zone?The "Hardball" host has a penchant for making loopy cinematic references, such as the time he compared Rush Limbaugh to the villain in the James Bond film "Live and Let Die."Well, yesterday the MSNBC host made some odd, labored metaphor that found the former vice president being compared to Jor-El, the biological father of Superman (audio…
Ken Shepherd

George Stephanopoulos Goes Easy on Gibbs, Shows No Interest in Naked S

ABC's George Stephanopoulos on Tuesday showed little interest in grilling Robert Gibbs over serious allegations made by a Democratic Congressman. Talking to the White House press secretary, the Good Morning America host could only manage a single question: "[Representative Massa has] made very specific and pointed charges against Rahm Emanuel, Democratic leaders in the House. What's the White…
Scott Whitlock

Matt Lauer Gets Combative with Karl Rove on Today

In the final and easily most combative portion of Matt Lauer's three-part exclusive interview with Karl Rove, the Today co-anchor assaulted the former White House advisor, on Tuesday's Today, with accusatory charges on the run-up to the war in Iraq to the handling of Hurricane Katrina, to his role in the CIA leak scandal. The most volatile moments came during the Iraq and Katrina topics where…
Geoffrey Dickens

Maddow and Guest Frank Shaeffer Can't Discuss La.-Based 'Operation Exo

As did Martin Luther King Jr., I have a dream.I dream that my 10-year-old son of pale skin hue will one day grow to maturity in a nation where he won't be dismissed by liberals as some old white guy with a fetish for firearms. Rather, that my son will be judged by a still-revered belief in the singular importance of character. Agreed, such an expectation is probably more delusion than dream,…
Jack Coleman

Opinion: Dan Rather, From Buckwheats to Watermelons

My boss, Brent Bozell, told me that (in his opinion) Dan Rather is not a racist, but let's not consider his recent faux pas about Barack Obama and his failure to get the health care bill passed as an isolated incident.It was not.On Sunday, March 7th, Dan Rather said the following about the president…"Listen he's a nice person, he's very articulate…"When Rather got to "articulate", I knew we had…
Bob Parks

NY Times Has (Some) Praise for National Enquirer Breaking Edwards's St

A Monday New York Times story by Stephanie Clifford gave one cheer to the National Enquirer tabloid for its work on breaking the news of former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards's affair with Rielle Hunter, and their child. It was a story the Enquirer pursued almost alone and which could earn it an unprecedented Pulitzer: "From Rumor to a Hint of Respect." But the excuses Clifford…
Clay Waters

MSNBC's Ratigan Happy GOP 'Renounced' Liz Cheney, Unlike 'Nazi and Rac

On Monday's The Dylan Ratigan Show on MSNBC, host Dylan Ratigan dragged out his standard attack against the tea party movement as he also bashed Liz Cheney for criticizing Justice Department attorneys: "Liz Cheney goes so far off the right-wing deep end, that now even some right-wingers are saying she has gone too far. If only the tea party would do the same with its Nazis and racist members."In…
Kyle Drennen

NBC Applauds Obama’s ‘Fighting’ Mode as He Catches Up with Sawye

“During the presidential campaign, candidate Barack Obama often used the phrase ‘fired up’ to do just that to the crowd. Democrats have been openly wondering when he was going to bring that campaign energy and fire to an issue like health care reform,” Brian Williams announced at the top of Monday’s NBC Nightly News,” and “today the President chose an event at a quiet Philadelphia suburb to get…
Brent Baker

Open Thread

NB Staff