NYT Public Editor: No 'Crop' of Bushes, 'No Evidence of Politics'

Conservatives on Twitter all noticed how The New York Times cropped the Bushes out of its front-page photo from Selma. To her credit, Times public editor Margaret Sullivan replied by noting that technically, the photo was not “cropped” – it was not a larger photo that included both the Obama family and the Bushes. The paper didn’t alter a photograph. But the Bushes were “cropped” out –…
Tim Graham

Professor: GOP Selma Message Was That Blacks ‘Are Not Our People’

For the University of Chicago’s Harold Pollack, this past weekend’s commemoration yielded a “fairly astonishing” juxtaposition of President Obama’s “largeness of spirit” and Republican apathy, or worse. In a Washington Monthly blog post, Pollack argued that the low GOP turnout for “an event sacred to African-Americans sent an unavoidable message: These are not our people...Such discomfort with a…
Tom Johnson

CNN Asks Savage: Was It 'Appropriate or Necessary’ to Ask Carson That?

On CNN’s Reliable Sources March 8, media correspondent and host Brian Stelter interviewed radical gay activist Dan Savage about author and neurosurgeon Ben Carson’s comments about homosexuality. After Carson told CNN's Chris Cuomo last week he thought being gay was “absolutely a choice,” Savage lashed out at Carson on Twitter. Stelter brought up Savage’s scathing tweet to Carson where he invited…
Kristine Marsh

Mark Shields: GOP Was ‘Post-Orgasmic’ Following Netanyahu’s Speech

On Friday, March 6, liberal columnist Mark Shields used his weekly appearance on PBS NewsHour to harshly criticize Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before Congress. Speaking to co-host Judy Woodruff, Shields proclaimed that Netanyahu “made a very impassioned, I would say, eloquent indictment, criticism of the president’s policy. The Republicans were rapturous. They were…
Jeffrey Meyer

Norah O'Donnell Fawns Over Caroline Kennedy: 'Like a Head of State'

The media's decades-long love for all things Kennedy continued on Monday's CBS This Morning. Co-host Norah O'Donnell reported from Japan to fawn over U.S. ambassador Caroline Kennedy. Previewing an upcoming 60 Minutes story, O'Donnell enthused, "She's almost greeted like a head of state here in Japan. Incredibly popular."
Scott Whitlock

Stelter Asks Dan Savage: ‘Was it Appropriate or Necessary’ to Ask

CNN gives full context for Savage, but short soundbites for Carson.
Kristine Marsh

Ben Stein on Jimmy Kimmel: 'The Only Comedian Who Could Be President'

In Entertainment Weekly cover story that's basically a list of tributes to ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, Ben Stein claimed the host is a "genius," and also a man of the people: "Jimmy is the only comedian who could be president. If he were president, I would trust him to do the right thing, even though he's a Democrat." 
Tim Graham

MRC's Notable Quotables: Media Fury Over Criticism of Obama

This week, journalists lash out at ex-NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani for saying he doesn't think Obama loves America, even as Bloomberg's Mark Halperin agrees Democrats said similar things about George W. Bush: "It's a huge double standard in the media." Also, CNN's Christiane Amanpour scoffs at Benjamin Netanyahu's "Strangelovian" speech warning of the dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran, while Netflix…
Rich Noyes

Year After Eich Ouster, Is Political Correctness Sinking Mozilla?

It has been eleven months since the firestorm over Mozilla co-founder and just-promoted CEO Brendan Eich ended in his resignation. Eich's "offense" had nothing to do with how he planned to run the business. What led to his departure shortly after he was named CEO was that six years earlier he had given $1,000 to those who supported the California Proposition 8 ballot measure prohibiting same-sex…
Tom Blumer

Bill Press: Boehner Guilty of 'Treason' for Inviting Netanyahu

In the immortal words of the drill sergeant played by Warren Oates in "Stripes" -- lighten up, Francis. Back in January when House Speaker John Boehner invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress and warn the world of the peril from Iran building nuclear weaponry, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Boehner breached diplomatic protocol by not first getting…
Jack Coleman

New York Magazine: Brian Williams Avoided 'Divisive' News Stories

Did you know that Brian Williams avoided stories that were critical of the Obama administration? So what vicious "rightwing" organization is making such a claim? Actually this was a charge coming from NBC News reporters themselves in an lengthy New York Magazine article about the troubles at NBC News.
P.J. Gladnick

'The Only Person Who Could Beat Hillary Clinton Is Michelle Obama'

Was he serious? It certainly wasn't obvious that conservative commentator Ben Domenech was kidding when on today's Up With Steve Kornacki he said that "the only person I think who could beat Hillary Clinton is Michelle Obama." Domenech's comment came during a segment devoted to the subject of who might jump into the race should Hillary decide not to run.  The mere fact that there was such a…
Mark Finkelstein

NY Times Trims the Bushes...Out of Front-Page Photo of Selma

Ben Smith of the Daily Signal tweeted out a shocking visual: the New York Times front page on Sunday cropped George W. and Laura Bush out of its photo of a Selma anniversary march. They cropped it just to include President Obama. (Notice the Bushes didn't try to crowd right next to the president to get into the frame.)
Tim Graham

Nicolle Wallace Downplays Hillary's E-Mail Issues as 'Media Problem'

While Bloomberg TV’s Mark Halperin suggested on ABC's This Week that the Hillary Clinton e-mail scandal could disqualify Mrs. Clinton from 2016, Nicolle Wallace, former Communications Director for President George W. Bush, downplayed their significance and instead bizarrely claimed that “the media hyperventilation over everything that the Clintons do reminds me so much of how they treated Bush…
Jeffrey Meyer