AP Seems to Celebrate Wall St. Doing Poorly, Pretends Main St. Is Okay

The Associated Press's choice of a headline to accompany business writer Stan Choe's Saturday morning report on the state of the economy — "MAIN STREET HOLDS UP AS WALL STREET STRUGGLES, FOR A CHANGE" — has a couple of interesting implications. Is AP celebrating the fact that Wall Street is struggling? Or does the idea that "Main Street" is holding up "for a change" mean that it hasn't been…
Tom Blumer

Stephanopoulos, Todd Gang Up on Cruz, Rubio over SCOTUS Nomination

In separate Sunday morning interviews of Republican presidential candidates and Senators Ted Cruz (Tex.) and Marco Rubio (Fl.), ABC’s This Week host George Stephanopoulos and NBC’s Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd urged them to consider whomever President Obama nominates to replace the late conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia since “the people elected President Obama” and he…
Curtis Houck

Lefty Blogger: ‘I Can’t Watch’ Fox News ‘Without Feeling Ill’

Democrats have long envied Republicans’ message discipline, which presumably means Dems are relishing what Martin Longman calls the “disarray” in the GOP and in its main “official organ,” Fox News. “I don’t think right-wing media is set up to deal with an unorthodox candidate [Donald Trump] who doesn’t consistently hew to the conservative line,” remarked Longman. “I also don’t know how they’d…
Tom Johnson

MSNBC Whines: GOP Will Keep Court from ‘Governing the Country’

Anchoring live coverage of the death of Antonin Scalia on Saturday night, MSNBC’s Ari Melber whined that the GOP not approving a successor to the conservative would impede the “governing of the country.” Reporter Perry Bacon agreed, echoing Democratic talking points: “I think you're right. I think you're already hearing that.” 
Scott Whitlock

Bill Kristol Schools ABC’s Dowd on Dems Delaying GOP Judicial Picks

During the panel segment Sunday morning on ABC’s This Week, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol schooled ABC News political analyst and former Bush administration official Matthew Dowd on how Democrats have long politicized judicial nominees after Dowd lamented that “Republicans have made a mistake” in reacting to the death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia and urged them to consider…
Curtis Houck

Wash Post Headline: ‘Supreme Court Conservative Dismayed Liberals’

What was the most important thing for readers of Washington Post to see on the front-page of the paper Sunday morning? A headline focusing directly on the death of Antonin Scalia? No. In bold, large font, the Post declared, “Supreme Court Conservative Dismayed Liberals.” 

Scott Whitlock

NBC Goes to Clinton Operative to Blast GOP on Scalia Replacement

According to the journalists at NBC’s Today, a Hillary Clinton operative is the perfect person to weigh in on replacing conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Co-host Craig Melvin brought on Ron Klain to blast Republicans for declaring that a new president would pick the next judge, not Obama. 
Scott Whitlock

Belafonte: Black Prez 'Awakened Right-Wing,' 'Shocked Racist Forces'

Appearing as a guest on Sunday's Fareed Zakaria GPS, veteran singer Harry Belafonte declared that there is a "new wave of racist definitions and racist practices" in the U.S., and went on to claim that the election of a black President "awakened a right-wing energy" and "shocked a lot of racist forces in this country."  He then added: "I think a lot of the hurdles, problems that Obama has faced…
Brad Wilmouth

Surprise: ABC, NBC Honor Scalia as a ‘Legendary’ ‘American Original’

The morning after the shock news that Supreme Court Judge Antonin Scalia died, ABC and NBC actually opened their Sunday shows with nice tributes to the “legendary” “American original,” seeing the conservative as a “giant” who was “funny and sarcastic.” That didn’t stop Good Morning America and Today from constantly referring to Scalia as “controversial.” 
Scott Whitlock

ESPN’s Sage Steele Shuts Down America-Bashing Canadian

This year when ESPN decides who should receive their Courage Award, they might want to consider giving it to one of their own.
Bruce Bookter

BBC News Sportscaster Stays True to Faith, Never Works a Sunday

One of the raps on secular news journalism is that folks in the profession tend to be markedly areligious if not irreligious, compared to the general population. But there are notable exceptions. Here's one I came across last week from across the Pond.
Ken Shepherd

Krauthammer: ‘Amazing Debate’ Was ‘Thermonuclear’ Compared to Dems

Fox News contributor and syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer received the first comments late Saturday night on FNC’s post-Republican debate coverage and ruled that if the Democratic debates could be described as “skirmishes with the occasional subtle jabs,” the latest GOP debate on CBS could be chalked up to being a “thermonuclear” war “if the previous Republican debates have been World War…
Curtis Houck

Williams: Originalist Scalia Failed to ‘Anticipate Abortion,' iPhones

Opining during MSNBC’s breaking news coverage early Saturday evening on the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Rachel Maddow took a swing at the Senate Republicans for wanting “a functionless Supreme Court for an entire year” and Brian Williams complained originalists like Scalia failed to “anticipate” things like abortion, airplanes and iPhones.
Curtis Houck

Toobin Lectures GOP on Having ‘Bad Moments’; Laments Roberts Criticism

CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin took part in the network’s post-Republican debate panel Saturday night and used the occasion to lecture the GOP candidates for all having “bad moments” in “a raucous screamfest” and rallied to the defense of Chief Justice John Roberts to lament the direction of the party he doesn’t even belong to. Further, liberal CNN presidential historian Douglas Brinkley…
Curtis Houck