As Other Outlets See Romney Debate Win, NYTimes Plays It Neutral: 'Fee

The first Obama-Romney presidential debate of 2012 ran under this less-than-informative banner headline in Thursday's New York Times: "Obama and Romney, in First Debate, Spar Over Fixing the Economy." The actual headline to the story by Jeff Zeleny and Jim Rutenberg also failed to capture the sense, overwhelming even among the liberal press, that Romney had helped himself with a sharp,…
Clay Waters
October 4th, 2012 11:21 AM

Hold Your Phone: New York Times Publishes MRC Letter to the Editor On

MRC's Christian Robey suggested a letter to the editor on Monday for David Carr's strange column attacking MRC's letter attacking the media for rigging this presidential election by hounding Romney and protecting Obama. Carr wrote Brent Bozell assembled "conservative royalty" to attack "ostensibly tendentious coverage." Some of us were skeptical that a liberal newspaper would deign to publish…
Tim Graham
October 4th, 2012 11:21 AM

Open Thread: Non-Debate Edition

We're focusing on last night's debate so please use this thread to post on any other news topic that you'd like.
NB Staff
October 4th, 2012 10:56 AM

Chris Matthews Continues Tantrum Over Romney's 'Etch-A-Sketch' Debate

Picking up where he left off Wednesday night, on Thursday's NBC Today, MSNBC's Chris Matthews continued to whine over President Obama's poor debate performance and ranted that Mitt Romney has "been accused of etch-a-sketch, last night was his greatest achievement. Everything he said within days ago, he's ignored." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump] Prior to Matthews'…
Kyle Drennen
October 4th, 2012 10:55 AM

Tom Brokaw: If Romney Performed Like Obama Did Last Night 'It Would Ha

There has been a lot of harsh criticism for Barack Obama's performance at Wednesday's presidential debate, but maybe the strongest came Thursday from former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw. Appearing on MSNBC's Daily Rundown, Brokaw said, "I think that this morning we have a kick-start to this presidential campaign. If it had been Romney performing like the president last night, it would…
Noel Sheppard
October 4th, 2012 10:50 AM

Philly Teacher Tells Student to Take Off Romney Shirt: 'That's Like Me

A Philadelphia high school teacher is accused of telling one of her students to take off a Romney-Ryan T-shirt claiming it was like her wearing a KKK shirt. NBC's Washington affiliate said 16-year-old Samantha Pawlucy, a sophomore at Charles Carroll High School in the Port Richmond part of the city, wore a pink Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan T-shirt last Friday.
Noel Sheppard
October 4th, 2012 9:12 AM

Stop the Presses: Lawrence O'Donnell Tells Politico 'I Liked the Job J

As Matt Vespa at NewsBusters noted earlier this morning, MSNBC's Howard Fineman was extremely unhappy with Jim Lehrer's performance as moderator in last night's first presidential debate. Vespa reports that Fineman "seemed agitated to the point of calling Lehrer 'useless' and equated his moderating of the debate to 'criminal negligence.'" In what may be seen as a surprise, the same network's…
Tom Blumer
October 4th, 2012 8:54 AM

Carville: Obama 'Gave a Sense That He Wasn't Happy to Be There

Appearing as a panel member on CNN's post-debate coverage on Wednesday, Democratic strategist James Carville gave President Obama a poor grade for his debate performance, asserting that 'I did everything I could not to reach it, but I had to reach it, and it looked like Romney wanted to be there, and President Obama didn't want to be there."
Brad Wilmouth
October 4th, 2012 8:43 AM

George Zimmerman Sues NBC Over Edited 911 Tape

In March, NewsBusters broke the story about NBC's Today show airing an edited audiotape of George Zimmerman's 911 call the day he shot Trayvon Martin in Florida. On Thursday, the New York Post reported Zimmerman is suing the Peacock Network.
Noel Sheppard
October 4th, 2012 8:20 AM

Bristol Palin: 'My Mom's Way Hotter Than Julianne Moore

Bristol Palin had some harsh words for Emmy-winning Game Change star Julianne Moore Wednesday. In an interview with Us Weekly, the daughter of the former Alaska governor said, "I don't think she's a good interpreter of my mom. I think my mom's way hotter than that."
Noel Sheppard
October 4th, 2012 7:55 AM

Stephanopoulos Breaks Pro-Democratic Streak - 'Crisp' Romney to Get 'B

ABC's George Stephanonopoulos carried a eight-out-of-nine record of declaring the Democratic presidential candidate the winner into Wednesday night's Obama-Romney presidential debate. Surprisingly, the Clinton administration veteran affirmed that Mitt Romney scored points on President Obama: "I think Governor Romney definitely more crisp in his presentation tonight....he was able to be…
Matthew Balan
October 4th, 2012 2:37 AM

Liberal on Liberal Violence: MSNBC’s Fineman Slams ‘Useless’ Jim

MSNBC contributor Howard Fineman lamented how the president was on the defensive in his first bout with Republican nominee Mitt Romney. Jim Lehrer, who moderated the October 3 debate, has a history of bias that is usually cloaked with his soporific disposition. However, Fineman seemed agitated to the point of calling Lehrer “useless” and equated his moderating of the debate to “criminal…
Matt Vespa
October 4th, 2012 2:11 AM

National Journal's Fournier (Formerly of AP) Offers Novel Obama Excuse

Having seen the candidate the press corps so obviously favors perform poorly while his opponent shined, Ron Fournier at National Journal, an Associated Press alum, dove so deeply into excuse-making that I half expected him to claim that the dog ate President Obama's debate prep. The primary culprit, according to the forlorn Fournier, is something over which Obama has no control, as seen in…
Tom Blumer
October 4th, 2012 1:45 AM

Exasperated NBC Reporters Whine: Why Didn't Obama Bring Up 47 Percent

On NBC News’ live Wednesday night debate coverage a clearly upset David Gregory was shocked that Barack Obama didn’t hit Mitt Romney with the liberal media’s favorite talking point, as he whined: “He didn’t bring up the 47 percent!” Obama not mentioning the hidden camera video of Romney talking about the 47 percent also stunned NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams who asked Savannah Guthrie…
Geoffrey Dickens
October 4th, 2012 1:19 AM