PBS's Tavis Smiley Brings on Radical Journo to Call Osama-Death Cheeri

A PBS viewer might be surprised that Tavis Smiley might recognize the killing of Osama bin Laden as a newsworthy event, since he believes Christians kill people in bombings every day in America. But on the day after the Osama mission succeeded, Smiley went straight to the radical left for the official PBS reaction. There's your tax dollars at work again, providing a megaphone for The Nation…
Tim Graham
May 6th, 2011 8:10 AM

Incoming CBS Anchor Pelley Mimics MSNBC’s Pledge: ‘We’re Going t

Scott Pelley, the incoming anchor for the CBS Evening News, dropped by Washington, DC’s CBS affiliate on Wednesday where he mimicked left-wing MSNBC’s “Lean Forward” slogan as he promised: “We’re going to be leaning forward.” On DCRTV.com I saw a link to online video of a WUSA-TV story about Pelley’s May 4 visit to the Gannett-owned station where he pledged: “We're going to cover hard news.…
Brent Baker
May 6th, 2011 2:16 AM

Matthews Hits Hillary For Denying Photo Showed Her Having Emotional Re

On his MSNBC show this evening, Chris Matthews criticized Hillary's lack of "humanity" for denying that, in the photo of her in the Situation Room during the attack on Bin Laden, she was having an emotional reaction.  Matthews played video of Hillary suggesting that rather than reacting in horror, she was merely stifling a cough.  Riiight. On the one hand, Hillary richly deserved Matthews'…
Mark Finkelstein
May 5th, 2011 9:47 PM

NPR Forwards Notion That Bin Laden Death is 'Fundamental Shift' For Ob

NPR's Ari Shapiro emphasized the possible political benefits for President Obama on Thursday's Morning Edition in the aftermath of the death of Osama bin Laden. Shapiro lined up sound bites from three pundits who touted the "big moment" for the "bold" President and how it amounted to a  "fundamental shift in the way Americans perceive Mr. Obama." Midway through his report, the correspondent…
Matthew Balan
May 5th, 2011 7:21 PM

Chris Matthews Dreams Up Silly GOP Debate Questions: Do You 'Fundament

Chris Matthews apparently misses moderating Republican debates and hectoring the candidates with bizarre questions. On Thursday's Hardball, hours before the first GOP face-off, the cable anchor dreamed up hypothetical queries he would like to see: "Question to Mr. Candidate, do you believe in evolution? Are you a fundamentalist who believes in the Bible as written? Has man been around millions…
Scott Whitlock
May 5th, 2011 6:38 PM

On Defensive, NY Times Takes on 'Torture Apologists' Who See Vindicati

Thursday's New York Times lead editorial defended the paper's left-wing ideological ground against conservative arguments that the killing of Osama bin Laden is a vindication of harsh interrogation methods used on terrorist detainees in Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere: "The Torture Apologists – Efforts to justify torture after the Bin Laden killing are cynical and destructive."              As…
Clay Waters
May 5th, 2011 4:37 PM

WaPo Again Pushes for Statewide Bag Tax in Md., Fails to Mention Newsp

Yesterday I critiqued Washington Post staffer Michael Laris's reporting on the Montgomery County [Md.] Council passing into law a 5-cent bag tax effective January 1, 2012. Laris omitted the fact that the county bag tax has a glaring exemption for newspaper bags, including the sleeves that protect home-delivered newspapers from the elements. This was despite the fact that his newspaper's…
Ken Shepherd
May 5th, 2011 3:21 PM

Rachel Maddow Belatedly Realizes That Fort Hood Massacre Was Terrorism

Not bad, it took her a mere 18 months to grasp this. On her MSNBC show Monday night, the first time it ran after the death of bin Laden, Rachel Maddow cited several post-9/11 examples of terrorism targeting Americans in the US -- including the attack at Fort Hood in November 2009. "Since Sept. 11, the story of terrorism targeting the United States itself has mostly, thankfully, been the…
Jack Coleman
May 5th, 2011 2:57 PM

NYT: Obama Nabbing Osama: 'Glow of National Pride;' Bush's Capture of

President Bush received a short-term boost in a New York Times poll when Saddam Hussein was captured in December 2003, his job approval rating rising to 58% from 50%, while the assassination of Osama bin Laden similarly benefitted President Obama in yesterday's NYT/CBS poll, 57% to 46%. Yet it was Obama who got the warmer initial greeting on the New York Times's front page. The first three…
Clay Waters
May 5th, 2011 2:12 PM

NBC's Gregory: Obama's 'Ultimate Leadership Moment' Dispels GOP Critic

Anchoring NBC News special report coverage of President Obama visiting Ground Zero on Thursday, Meet the Press host David Gregory used the opportunity to take a shot at critics of the administration: "...this [killing bin Laden] was the ultimate leadership moment for a commander in chief who in some ways had not been tested on this order. Who had been the target of criticism from Republicans…
Kyle Drennen
May 5th, 2011 2:06 PM

New York Times Suggests GOP Ruining Post-Osama Mood of Unity By Pushin

In Wednesday’s “Good Feeling Gone, In Congress, Anyway,“ New York Times reporters Jennifer Steinhauer and Carl Hulse suggested it was unseemly for Republicans to not accede to President Obama on domestic issues, after the killing of Osama bin Laden by Navy SEALS in Pakistan. The article superficially appears to be an even-handed “pox on both houses“ story, but the text provided a tableaux of…
Clay Waters
May 5th, 2011 1:24 PM

Fmr. Clinton WH Counsel Davis: Liberals Should Stop Cheap Shots at Bus

This morning on WMAL's "Morning Majority" program, former Clinton White House counsel Lanny Davis slammed liberals who were taking partisan pot-shots at former President George W. Bush in the wake of Osama bin Laden's killing on Sunday. While Davis didn't name names, he made veiled references to MSNBC and its "Last Word" host Lawrence O'Donnell. O'Donnell, you may recall, bashed former…
Ken Shepherd
May 5th, 2011 12:27 PM

Chris Matthews Bizarrely Mocks Rush Limbaugh as a 'Walrus Underwater

MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Wednesday mocked Rush Limbaugh's response to the killing of Osama bin Laden, deriding the conservative as a "walrus underwater." Matthews also made an odd grunting noise to back up this description. After playing a clip of Limbaugh asserting that the media have played up Barack Obama's role in the action, the Hardball anchor berated, "You know, I don't even know…
Scott Whitlock
May 5th, 2011 12:24 PM

New CBS Anchor Scott Pelley Defensively Responds to MRC Criticism

Incoming CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley was asked by the Politico's Keach Hagey for his reaction to the MRC's Profile in Bias on him and the longtime 60 Minutes correspondent, who once compared global warming skeptics to Holocaust deniers, seemed to deny the charge of liberal bias as he huffed: "CBS has been called liberal for a lot of years," adding, "It probably harkens all the way back…
Geoffrey Dickens
May 5th, 2011 11:13 AM