Networks Defend Obama as ‘Critics Pounced’ and Took 'Too Literally

On Friday morning, the major broadcast networks were out in full force to defend President Obama after his remarks at a press conference Thursday afternoon in which he said that “we don’t have a strategy yet” in how to militarily address the Islamic terrorist group ISIS in Syria. Leading the way was NBC’s Today, where co-host Matt Lauer told NBC News political director and moderator of Meet…
Curtis Houck
August 29th, 2014 12:50 PM

Whoops! MSNBC's Diaz-Balart Blanks on Rick Perry's Name

Of all the names that it would be embarrassing for an MSNBC network host to blank on, Rick Perry's would have to be at the top of the list.  How countless many times has the Lean Forward network had fun at Perry's expense over his "whoops" moment during a 2012 presidential debate? But that unfortunate fate befell Jose Diaz-Balart today, hosting his own new MSNBC show.  The topic was the way…
Mark Finkelstein
August 29th, 2014 12:31 PM

Golf Is Not the Answer

Immediately after his telephone call consoling the Foley family on their son's grisly murder at the hands of Islamofascists, President Barack Obama took a powder. He headed for the golf course. Yes, the golf course! He had golfed eight times in 11 days, as the world was in tumult the likes of which we have not experienced since the late 1930s. There is something very odd about this man. He seems…
R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr.
August 29th, 2014 12:24 PM

As Obama Admits 'We Don't Have a Strategy' in Syria, Nets Obsess Over

Although all three networks covered Barack Obama's admission on Thursday that "we don't have a strategy" for responding to Islamic militants in Syria, ABC, CBS and NBC journalists were really animated by the President's tan suit. GMA news reader Amy Robach on Friday enthused, "Finally this morning, some presidential critics are saying, 'yes, we tan!'" [For a video montage, see below. MP3 audio…
Scott Whitlock
August 29th, 2014 12:07 PM

Chelsea Clinton Finally Pulls Curtain On Her Journalistic Charade at N

Chelsea Clinton has announced the obvious: she’s leaving NBC News, telling People magazine in a statement she will “continue focusing on my work at the Clinton Foundation and as [her husband] Marc [Mezvinsky] and I look forward to welcoming our first child." New York magazine tweaked the news that Chelsea was "Leaving Her Unbelievably Cushy Fake Job at NBC." As NBC nepotism goes, she made…
Tim Graham
August 29th, 2014 11:12 AM

Hollywood Critic: Jon Stewart's Movie Is a 'Sideshow,' Would Vanish Wi

Embodying the old Hollywood joke “I’ve always wanted to direct,” Comedy Central star Jon Stewart took an entire summer off last year to direct a film called “Rosewater” about Newsweek reporter Maziar Bahiri being abducted in Iran. In an early review in The Hollywood Reporter, film critic Todd McCarthy implies it’s a direct-to-video dud. Only Stewart’s adoring liberal fans make this film…
Tim Graham
August 29th, 2014 9:46 AM

Scarborough Defends 'No Strategy' Obama: 'Straight Out of The Art of

Alexander the Great.  Stonewall Jackson. George S. Patton. To this list of some of history's greatest military strategists, a new name must be added: that of Barack Obama.  That is, if you agree with Joe Scarborough's take on President Obama's statement at yesterday's press conference that "we don't have a strategy yet" regarding possible attacks on ISIS in Syria. According to Scarborough,…
Mark Finkelstein
August 29th, 2014 9:17 AM

NY Times Continues Partisan Hackery on Benghazi: GOP Only 'Trying to D

The New York Times invariably casts any GOP inquiry into the intelligence failures that led to the death of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, as a purely partisan venture. The pattern was noted last year by the paper's own Public Editor Margaret Sullivan, who wrote before hearings in May 2013, "The Times has had a tendency to both play down the subject, which has significant news value, and to…
Clay Waters
August 29th, 2014 9:03 AM

Satire Fail: Colbert Wrongly Claims Brent Bozell, Others Wanted Zero C

Stephen Colbert tells his interview guests that they’re about to be interviewed by a moron. Sometimes he sounds like that during the rest of the show. On Wednesday night, Colbert mocked MRC president Brent Bozell and others for allegedly arguing that the shooting of Michael Brown was caused by national media coverage. It’s a completely inaccurate caricature. Only a fake-conservative TV moron…
Tim Graham
August 29th, 2014 8:03 AM

Following Obama's Lead, AP Story on Ukraine Avoids Describing Russian

On Thursday, an impatient Terry Moran at ABC News tweeted the following (HT Twitchy): "Say it: Russia has invaded Ukraine. Any other description is just weasel words." Clearly, both President Obama and the folks at the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, haven't been sympathetic to Moran's plea, instead opting for "weasel words." Obama, when directly asked if he "considered…
Tom Blumer
August 29th, 2014 12:29 AM

AP Headline Describes 160 Syrian Soldiers Massacred by ISIS as 'Dozens

I struggle to come up with a reason, other than an irresponsible attempt to minimize the impact of the horror, why the headline at a Thursday evening Associated Press story by Zeina Karam and Ryan Lucas about "more than 160 Syrian government troops" massacred by ISIS is "JIHADISTS KILL DOZENS OF CAPTURED SYRIAN SOLDIERS." But that's how the wire service is presenting it:
Tom Blumer
August 28th, 2014 11:03 PM

Ed Show Guest: Former NFL Coach Mike Ditka Was a 'Segregation-Era' Pla

To close out his MSNBC show on Thursday, Ed Schultz invited on a Native American social activist to discuss the push by liberals and sympathetic members of the sports media to force the NFL’s Washington Redskins to change their name.  In discussing recent supporters of the name in Sarah Palin and former NFL coach and player Mike Ditka, author and Native American activist Gyasi Ross smeared…
Curtis Houck
August 28th, 2014 10:40 PM

Black NY Times Columnist Charles Blow Claims Bill O'Reilly Is True 'Ra

During a segment on Tuesday evening's edition of The O'Reilly Factor, the Fox News Channel host stated he “does not, does not believe in white privilege. However, there is no question that African-Americans have a much harder time succeeding in our society than whites do.” [video below the jump] Those assertions led Charles Blow, a columnist for the New York Times, to ask in his Thursday…
Randy Hall
August 28th, 2014 10:26 PM

Would It Kill You to Hire More Black Cops? Actually, Y

As the story of Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson's shooting of Michael Brown begins to look less clear-cut than we were led to believe by Brown's friend, Dorian Johnson, the "voices of oppression" on MSNBC now say the real issue is that there aren't enough blacks on the Ferguson police force. As Brown may or may not have said seconds before his death: I give up.
Ann Coulter
August 28th, 2014 9:41 PM