Weekend Open Thread

Discuss the news, sports, or anything else you like...
NB Staff
October 5th, 2013 6:00 AM

Charming Chad Henderson: Fake Obamacare Insurance Buyer, Big Obama Fan

(UPDATE: Chad Henderson has locked down his Twitter account. His Instagram account remains, for now.) Earlier today, I noted (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog) that "Obamacare Poster Boy" Chad Henderson, who was written up in the Washington Post, Huffington Post and several other news outlets, and who at one point was scheduled to appear on a Health and Human Services Department conference call (…
Tom Blumer
October 4th, 2013 11:56 PM

Is It The Onion…. Or Is It Slate

Sometimes the left approaches satire in its ongoing propaganda campaign to make the partial government shutdown seem worse than it is. Take Amanda Marcotte's October 1 Slate article "Government shutdown: From WIC to the panda cam, seven ways the shutdown will hit women hardest," no doubt a continuation of the whiny "war on women" meme only idiots fall for. My favorite paragraph in Slate's list…
Amy Ridenour
October 4th, 2013 10:48 PM

Jon Stewart Mocks MRC Study on Media's GOP Blame for Shutdown: It's Li

Jon Stewart “stooped” to publicizing a Media Research Center study last night on “The Daily Show.” Actually, he mocked an MRC study by Rich Noyes as adding a bucket to Fox’s “Bull[bleep] Mountain.” Ah, yes, Jon Stewart, the man who said “Crossfire” was ruining America with its harsh partisan talk and held a “Rally for Sanity” with his keynote address announcing “We can have animus and not be…
Tim Graham
October 4th, 2013 10:11 PM

NBC Broadcasts More 'Dear Congress' Attack Tweets, But Tweeters Also S

On Friday night's NBC Nightly News, reporter Kelly O’Donnell and producer Shawna Thomas brought out more tweets addressed to its “Dear Congress” hashtag. It’s a little fun now to see what other tweets these Twitter correspondents are posting. A “MrKristoff” was quoted for tweeting “@johnboehner Enough already. Stop claiming to speak for American people & start Listening. #DearCongress”.…
Tim Graham
October 4th, 2013 8:26 PM

MSNBC's Bashir Uses Senate Chaplain's Prayers to Condemn Republicans f

Republicans are godless anti-government zealots responsible for a federal government shutdown that will literally kill people, MSNBC's Martin Bashir charged in the closing "Clear the Air" commentary on his Friday, October 4 program. But in a not-so-clever twist, the ever-sanctimonious Bashir -- who has a penchant for selective Bible-thumping to push liberal agenda points -- sought to enlist the…
Ken Shepherd
October 4th, 2013 7:28 PM

George Will’s First Comments on Fox News: ‘The President’s Rathe

As NewsBusters reported Tuesday, George Will has joined Fox News. In his first comments on the network, Will said on Friday's Special Report, "The President’s rather enjoying this [shutdown], and if the emblematic statement of the first Obama term was 'A crisis is a terrible thing to waste,' this term defined after just nine months is 'A crisis is a beautiful thing to create'” (video follows…
Noel Sheppard
October 4th, 2013 7:06 PM

Cal Thomas: What the Republican Response to ObamaCare Should Have Look

If Republicans were smart (I know, but stay with me) their focus during the Obamacare debate should have been less on blocking its implementation and more on a page they might have taken from the Democrat's playbook, which is to rally the country to its side by use of sentimentality and the threat of impending doom. The good news for Republicans is that there's still time. It's a sure bet…
Cal Thomas
October 4th, 2013 6:37 PM

Rasmussen Column: In Budget Battle, Congress Is Consumed by Symbolism

The political stalemate leading to the so-called shutdown of the federal government has shown with devastating clarity how official Washington is consumed with symbolism over substance. The symbolism begins with the word shutdown itself. Despite the noise and fury in Washington, the vast majority of Americans haven't noticed any change in their daily lives because most of the federal…
Scott Rasmussen
October 4th, 2013 6:33 PM

Letterman Asks Audience How Many Signed Up for ObamaCare, Nobody Respo

It seems a metaphysical certitude the Obama-loving David Letterman didn't expect this response. During the opening monologue of CBS's Late Show Thursday, when the host asked the audience, "How many folks signed up on the ObamaCare," not one person responded (video follows with commentary):
Noel Sheppard
October 4th, 2013 6:21 PM

NBC Shutdown Story Ignores Harry Reid Rejecting GOP Plan to Fund Cance

On Thursday's NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams introduced a full report on cancer research at the National Institutes of Health being stopped under the government shutdown: "And there are the millions who are feeling the impact of this shutdown very close to home and across this country, including some for whom this standoff feels very much like a matter of life and death for them." In…
Kyle Drennen
October 4th, 2013 6:03 PM

CNBC’s Michelle Caruso-Cabrera Schools Morning Joe Panel On Potentia

The Morning Joe crew, along with much of the liberal media, has lately been ringing the debt-ceiling alarm, saying that a failure to raise the debt ceiling by October 17 would cause a default that would devastate the U.S. economy. But on Friday’s Morning Joe, CNBC’s Michelle Caruso-Cabrera stepped onto the set and took a wrecking ball to the wall of hysteria surrounding a possible default.…
Paul Bremmer
October 4th, 2013 6:01 PM

AP Reporter Slams ‘Seething’ Arizona Republicans for Trying to Kee

In a piece filed today, Associated Press reporter Bob Christie and his editors provided a textbook example of how to use loaded language to tilt coverage while still being entirely accurate with the facts. Covering a controversy in Arizona over the federal government’s closure of the Grand Canyon National Park and the state government’s attempts to keep it open, Christie painted the conflict as…
Matthew Sheffield
October 4th, 2013 4:52 PM

Time Magazine Grouses Shutdown Harming 'Vital Obama Foreign Policy Goa

Are you happy now, Republicans? You went and forced the president to cancel his trip to Asia and with it an important foreign policy overture. That's the message Time magazine is sending readers with Michael Crowley's October 4 post, "Shutdown Dents Vital Obama Foreign Policy Goal," which was plugged on the Time.com front page with a photo of a frowning President Obama given the teaser headline…
Ken Shepherd
October 4th, 2013 4:45 PM