Obama Admin Requested YouTube Yank Anti-Islam Video; Network Newscasts

Early Friday afternoon, the Washington Post's David Nakamura confirmed that on Tuesday, September 11 -- before the attack in Benghazi that killed Amb. Chris Stevens -- the Obama National Security Council asked YouTube to pull down a video "trailer" for "The Innocence of Muslims," saying it may violate the video-sharing service's "terms of service." Such a move would have removed the film from…
Ken Shepherd
September 17th, 2012 5:55 PM

MSNBC's Michael Eric Dyson: Republicans 'Watch More Porn and Go to Mor

MSNBC contributor Michael Eric Dyson made a comment on the Martin Bashir show Monday that left the Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart totally speechless. Talking about Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's position on abortion and marriage, Dyson said, "He needs to speak to his fellow Republicans whose numbers ain’t so hot in that regard, and who watch more porn and go to more strip…
Noel Sheppard
September 17th, 2012 5:31 PM

'Atlantic' Reporter Blames Netanyahu for Poor U.S.-Israel Relations

Appearing on Sunday's NBC Meet the Press, The Atlantic's national correspondent Jeff Goldberg acknowledged poor U.S.-Israel relations and proceeded to blame Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for causing the rift: "I've never seen an Israeli prime minister mismanage the relationship with the United States or with the administration the way this prime minister has." [Listen to the audio…
Kyle Drennen
September 17th, 2012 5:11 PM

Former Romney Spokesperson Rips Media for Overlooking Obama's Policies

Former Romney spokesperson Richard Grenell called out the media on Monday for not focusing hard enough on President Obama's foreign policy record. "The media needs to start looking at policies, not just lip service from this President," he told CNN's Carol Costello. "You know, there has been criticism that Romney spoke out too early in the Middle East after 15 hours of a developing violence…
Matt Hadro
September 17th, 2012 5:03 PM

ABC Forced to Respond to MRC Complaints on Skimpy Convention Coverage

An executive producer at Good Morning America was forced to defend ABC's skimpy convention coverage, huffing that the network stressed quality over quantity. The Associated Press on Monday picked up a report by the Media Research Center pointing out that ABC had the least amount of convention coverage, less than half than that of CBS. When pressed on it by the AP's David Bauder, Good Morning…
Scott Whitlock
September 17th, 2012 4:30 PM

Andrea Mitchell: I Plead Guilty To Being One of The 'Elite, Smart Peop

Gee, and you thought Barack Obama had an inflated opinion of himself.  After watching Andrea Mitchell in action, he might actually need self-esteem therapy  . . . On her MSNBC show today, Mitchell rolled a clip in which Rick Santorum told the Value Voters Summit audience that "we will never have the elite, smart people on our side."  After asking a former Santorum aide what he he meant by…
Mark Finkelstein
September 17th, 2012 4:06 PM

CBS Plays Up Politico's Reporting on Apparent 'Turmoil' in Romney Camp

Like their colleagues on NBC's Today show, Monday's CBS This Morning forwarded a recent Politico report about supposed "turmoil inside the Romney campaign," which was stuffed with unnamed sources. Norah O'Donnell spotlighted "this finger-pointing that's going on...and whether or not they mismanaged the messaging in terms of Romney's big convention speech." John Dickerson hyped that "what's…
Matthew Balan
September 17th, 2012 3:48 PM

'Meet the Press': Liberal Journalists All Agree, Nothing Obama Could D

In a stunning display of group-think on Sunday's NBC Meet the Press, a panel of journalists all concluded that no American president could have possibly prevented the ongoing crisis in Middle East or responded to it any better than Barack Obama. [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump] The hand-wringing began with The Atlantic's Jeff Goldberg absolving the President of any…
Kyle Drennen
September 17th, 2012 3:31 PM

Bozell Video: 'The Public' Waiting for Romney to Call Media Out on The

"The public is waiting for Mitt Romney to say, 'I've had enough of you folks,'"  NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Fox Business Network's Stuart Varney this morning. The Media Research Center founder and president noted that unlike President Obama, Romney actually entertained questions from the media after his September 11 statement, where he was subjected to six different iterations of…
NB Staff
September 17th, 2012 3:26 PM

New York Times Blares Mildly Good Poll News for Obama on Two Consecuti

The New York Times is milking its latest poll, showing some good news for Obama, to maximum effect. Sunday's front-page featured a poll story from one of the paper's top Obama boosters, White House correspondent Jackie Calmes (pictured): "Challenged on Medicare, G.O.P. Loses Ground." Text box: "Polls Show Favor for Obama on Issue of Party Trust." Calmes writes from Orlando:
Clay Waters
September 17th, 2012 2:38 PM

Reporters Gang Up on Romney? That's No Conspiracy, It's Being 'Strateg

On CNN's Reliable Sources on Sunday, host Howard Kurtz granted the media mantra that Mitt Romney was quick to politicize the Mideast embassy attacks, and added, “But for the next, what, 36, 48, 72 hours, the press made him the issue. Was that fair?” Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page said, “Well, yes...what happened here was quite legitimate.” Kurtz also talked about whether it looked "…
Tim Graham
September 17th, 2012 1:11 PM

Fox News and the 'Power of Media to Breed Hate

Last week, we reported that the National Hispanic Media Coalition was demanding that the FCC investigate "hate speech" on Fox News and talk radio. This same group is promising a "webinar" on Tuesday titled "The Power of Media to Breed Hate, Impact Health and Shape Opinions." Together with the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center and the polling firm Latino Decisions, they will announce that…
Tim Graham
September 17th, 2012 12:48 PM

Democratic State Senator Charges Racism at Play in Ohio Early Voting D

All this week during the 11 a.m. Eastern MSNBC Live program, "we're going to look at the ballot battles that could decide the race for the White House," MSNBC's Richard Lui noted today as he set up a segment with two liberal opponents of voter ID laws -- "wired into the concerns of minority voters" -- Ohio State Senator Nina Turner (D) and Common Cause staff counsel Stephen Spaulding.…
Ken Shepherd
September 17th, 2012 12:39 PM

NYT Reporter John Eligon Talks 'Far-Right Republicans' in Kansas, Pred

A label-crazy New York Times report from John Eligon in Kansas City, Mo., on a kerfuffle over Obama's birth certificate featured loaded language about "far-right Republicans" pushing "stringent social policies." "Citing a wave of angry backlash, a Kansas man on Friday withdrew a petition in which he argued that President Obama should be removed from the state’s election ballot because he did…
Clay Waters
September 17th, 2012 12:27 PM