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Open Thread: Is There a GOP Establishment
The race toward 2012 has cemented the idea of a Republican "establishment." Some call former House Speaker Newt Gingrich the establishment, having spent most of his career inside the Beltway. Others call former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney the establishment, pointing to his lack of success at capturing the support of Tea Party voters.
Do you think a Republican establishment exists that can…
December 20th, 2011 11:23 AM

NBC's Curry to Bill Clinton: Does Gingrich Have 'Temperament' and 'Lea
During a fawning interview with Bill Clinton on Tuesday's NBC Today, co-host Ann Curry asked for the former President's thoughts on Newt Gingrich running for president: "You also, having worked with him, I'm wanting to know, putting aside politics, do you see Newt Gingrich as a man who has the temperament, the leadership qualities, to be President of the United States?"
Clinton took the…
December 20th, 2011 10:28 AM
GOP Moderates, Still 'Dwindling' Away After 15 Years in the New York T
Those GOP moderates just keep “dwindling” away. New York Times Political editor Richard Stevenson Sunday wrote about Americans Elect, a new organization that favors an alternative nominating process for electing a president in the name of nonpartisanship: “Group Clears a Path For a Third-Party Bid.” But what Stevenson called a “process to enable creation of a centrist ticket” was in fact packed…
December 20th, 2011 9:11 AM
The Best Notable Quotables of 2011: Battle of Our Readers vs. Media Ex
It's always interesting to see how the several thousand readers who voted in the MRC's "public ballot" differed from the 48 media experts who selected our Best Notable Quotables of 2011 (a panel which included talk radio hosts Mark Levin and Neal Boortz, Human Events editor-in-chief Tom Winter and Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby). This year, there were six categories where our readers and…
December 20th, 2011 8:55 AM

Chris Christie Calls Out Mika: 'You're Diving Deeply Into The Obama Ta
Welcoming Chris Christie onto the set of Morning Joe today, Joe Scarborough warned Mika Brzezinski that the New Jersey governor "has come to straighten you out."
Christie was good to Scarborough's word, bluntly telling Mika, among other things, that "you're diving deeply into the Obama tank." Video after the jump.
December 20th, 2011 8:43 AM

Pile of MSNBC Hosts Go to White House for Coffee Talk with Obama
On his blog Political Punch, ABC's Jake Tapper reported "an all-star list of progressive and liberal media folks" had coffee with President Obama in the Roosevelt Room on Monday -- including MSNBC hosts Ed Schultz, Rachel Maddow, and Chris Hayes. In the Bush years, it was considered a major scandal for Roger Ailes to send a note to the White House, but MSNBC stars meet with Obama, and it's just…
December 20th, 2011 8:40 AM

MSNBC's Schultz Derides GOP 'Fearmongering' on Iran As Panetta Hints a
On Monday's The Ed Show, MSNBC host Ed Schultz accused Republican presidential candidates of "fearmongering" on the issue of the danger posed by a nuclear Iran, but, ironically, on the same day the CBS Evening News led its show with an interview with Obama administration Defense Secretary Leon Panetta who hinted at the possibility of a nuclear strike on Iran within the next year because the…
December 20th, 2011 6:11 AM

Unreported: Full-Time Employment Barely Up Since Recession Ended
See-no-evil economic reporting during the Obama years has "somehow" missed a number of developments in the makeup of the American workforce which I believe would not have been missed (or deliberately overlooked, take your pick) if a Republican or conservative were in the White House. One of them relates to full-time employment.
Did you know that seasonally adjusted full-time employment in…
December 19th, 2011 11:59 PM

UNICEF Turns Santa Claus Into Poor-Hating Jerk In Christmas Ad Campaig
If you find it off-putting that Best Buy is sticking it to Santa Claus in its "Game On, Santa" ads, that is nothing compared to a new ad by UNICEF (much better known for Halloween.) The New York Daily News is one of the few major media outlets to notice UNICEF turned Santa into a jerk.
"Santa won't bother going to poor countries this year, so the United Nations Children's Fund will go instead…
December 19th, 2011 11:12 PM

Panic on the Web: 'Is Global Warming Driving Polar Bears to Cannibalis
A story prominently displayed on the Science News headlines at Yahoo! News on Friday came from LiveScience.com, which used this question as its headline: "Is Global Warming Driving Polar Bears to Cannibalism?" and later in the article, after asking the question "are polar bears more often resorting to cannibalism because of increased hunger and desperation, or are we simply more frequently…
December 19th, 2011 10:48 PM

WaPo Story Notes ObamaCare State and Federal Exchange Set-ups Running
Imagine that -- A massive government bureaucracy given almost a head start of more than three years to get up and running appears to be well on its way to not being ready.
Julie Appleby covered the situation at the Washington Post yesterday. Steven Hayward at Powerline accurately called it an item which "ought to be on the front page above the fold," and wasn't. It also "just so happens" to…
December 19th, 2011 7:03 PM
Maria Conchita Alonso Runs Into Sean Penn, Calls Him 'Communist A--hol
Last March, Venezuelan raised actress Maria Conchita Alonso wrote a NewsBusters published open letter to Sean Penn in which she scolded the Oscar winner for his ill-informed support of Hugo Chavez.
On Sunday, Alonso had a run-in with Penn at the Los Angeles airport, and as she told Steve Malzberg filling in for Chris Plante on WMAL radio Monday, she ended up calling her foe a "communist a--…
December 19th, 2011 6:51 PM
CNN Revisits Propaganda Visit to North Korea in Reporting on Kim Jong
Reporting on the death of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il on Monday, CNN's American Morning re-visited a soft report from then-correspondent Alina Cho's heavily-guarded visit to the country in 2010.
Cho admitted that the state controlled where she went – but her reporting was fawning at times in what clearly was the state's effort to produce propaganda for outside nations. [Video below the…
December 19th, 2011 6:32 PM

Schieffer: Romney 'Has Taken Such a Hard Line' on Illegal Immigration
CBS's Bob Schieffer displayed his liberal leanings on Sunday's Face the Nation when he raised the issue of illegal immigration. Schieffer claimed during an interview of Newt Gingrich that "Mitt Romney has taken such a hard line, it seems to me, on immigration that some within the Republican Party are saying he is simply running off Hispanic voters."
The journalist asked Gingrich for his take…
December 19th, 2011 5:31 PM