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Open Thread
For general discussion and debate. Possible talking point: Obama wants to be able to set Medicare reimbursement rates!The White House is asking Congress to give the executive branch more power to limit Medicare's rising costs. A White House letter to top lawmakers on Friday said the move would be "a critical step forward" in controlling health care costs and providing better care. The proposal…
MSNBC: Talk Radio and Tea Party Protests ‘Push Boundaries of Decency
On Friday, MSNBC anchor Tamron Hall exclaimed: "Harsh political discourse against [President Obama] really amped up and people started to push the boundaries of what might be considered decency. From talk radio to those tea parties that we saw with some pretty offensive signs folks were holding, even in the presence of children. The anger has certainly intensified."As evidence of the supposed…
CBS And NBC Tout Continued Relevance of NAACP
Marking the 100th anniversary of the NAACP on CBS’s Sunday Morning, correspondent Bill Whitaker wondered: "A black president who addresses black issues unflinchingly...Attorney General Eric Holder dedicated to equal justice...some say begs the question, is the NAACP needed anymore? Is it even relevant? Is it time for the venerable organization to say ‘mission accomplished’?"Later in the segment,…
Pat Buchanan and Rachel Maddow Debate Sonia Sotomayor
One of the sad byproducts of journalism's decline is that you rarely see a great debate on television anymore between a liberal and a conservative without it devolving into a lot of yelling, name calling, and folks talking over each other.On Thursday night, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow invited Pat Buchanan on to talk about the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.What ensued was a…
How Will Media Report Senators Wanting Healthcare Reform Delay
Six key moderate senators on Friday called for a slowdown in the White House's push for a healthcare reform bill.Their decision was apparently precipitated by the Congressional Budget Office announcement Thursday that the legislation currently being discussed not only won't reduce healthcare costs, but also will have negative longterm ramifications to the economy given the increase in federal…
God and Guns: CNN's Costello Pits Jesus Against Gun Ownership
Owning an semiautomatic AK-47, much less giving them away free with the purchase of a pickup truck, seems just "a tad irresponsible" to Carol Costello. The CNN anchor, who said she grew up with guns in her house as a teenager, tacked to the left on gun rights in her interview with Kansas City auto dealer Mark Muller, who is giving away vouchers for the Russian-made rifles with the purchase of a…
WaPo Mag Editor: 'Any Latina Could Make a Better Decision Than a White
In today's "She Really Didn't Say That, Did She?" segment, a contributing editor to Washington Post magazine claimed that if Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor were being really honest with America, "[S]he probably would want to say, 'Not only do I mean a wise Latina, I meant any Latina could make a better decision than a white man could.'" Wow!For those unfamiliar, besides being contributing…
House Panel Votes Huge $500 Billion Tax Increase; Networks Couldn't Ca
The House Ways and Means committee approved a half-trillion dollar tax increase overnight, but the ABC and NBC morning news shows offered only a single sentence to the development, while CBS’s Early Show skipped it entirely.Neither NBC’s Today nor ABC’s Good Morning America mentioned the tax increases $544 billion price tag, as each newscast folded the development into larger pieces on President…