MS NOW (formerly MSNBC)

Is the "thrill" gone? Chris Matthews' despair over the faltering presidency of Barack Obama increased on Wednesday as the Hardball anchor compared the Democrat to George W. Bush.  An angry Matthews brought up Obama's June 13 comment that, regarding the stimulus, "shovel-ready was not as shovel-ready as we expected." The MSNBC anchor railed, "That reminded me of Dubya, who was out to lunch on…

As rioters in England set buildings aflame, hurl stones into local shops, and rip flat screen TVs off of store walls, Reuters editor-at-large Chrystia Freeland viewed Prime Minister David Cameron's fiscal policies as the "really radical" culprit. "I think that this is the result of – directly the result of – the really radical austerity program that the Cameron government is imposing,"…

At the top of Wednesday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer declared: "President Obama faces new criticism from members of his own party, is he doing enough to manage the [economic] crisis?...Should he, for example, demand that Congress cut short its summer vacation to address the situation?" In the segment that followed, the headline on screen read: "Dems Urge Obama to Get Tough With GOP &…

Liberal bias is rampant among the media, but there is no more tangible example of it than in how the media treat Conservative women. The most recent cover of Newsweek features a very wide-eyed Michele Bachmann, looking surprised and unattractive. Perhaps more disturbing is the caption Newsweek placed below the presidential candidate's photo: "Queen of Rage." Bachmann, an attractive 55 year-…

Newsweek editor Tina Brown defended her magazine's controversial cover portraying Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) as the "Queen of Rage" on the August 10 edition of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," offering no apology since the three-term congresswoman could become America's first "crazy" president. "Some people look at this picture and think, you know, Michele Bachmann looks crazy," remarked Brown. "…

MSNBC host Ed Schultz wants to be taken seriously as a TV host, but he hasn't yet learned not to promote victory for liberal Democrats before the results are all in. On Tuesday night, even after the polls closed, Schultz was touting a possible Democratic wave. Twice, he proclaimed before his 10 pm show came on that Democrats were "brilliant on the basics" in the Wisconsin ground game -- before…

The primary argument conservatives made against presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008 was that he lacked the proper experience and qualifications for the most important job on the planet. On Tuesday, Huffington Post's Howard Fineman, one of the many liberal media members that helped get the woefully lacking junior senator from Illinois into the White House, said on MSNBC's "Hardball,"…

MSNBC contributor Joy-Ann Reid on Tuesday defended a controversial Michele Bachmann Newsweek cover, justifying that the Republican presidential candidate deserved it because she occasionally has the "crazy-eyes look." Martin Bashir Guest host Jonathan Capehart didn't identify that Reid, the managing editor of TheGrio.com, is also a former press aide to Barack Obama's 2008 presidential…

MSNBC's Thomas Roberts implied Tuesday that members of Congress who oppose efforts to inject more government spending into the economy, as President Barack Obama proposed recently, are committing an "act of treason." "Why don't people look at that as an act of treason?" the daytime anchor asked the Washington Post's Ezra Klein, who shrugged off the accusation. "I don't think what happens is…

Joe Scarborough on Tuesday told his "Morning Joe" co-host an inconvenient truth that she and most of her colleagues in the media just can't handle. "A president that cannot control 45 backbenchers in the opposing Party in the House of Representatives is too weak to be President of the United States. It is that simple" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Obama advisers, Democrat senators, and terminally stupid ideologues that have been for almost two days blaming Standard and Poor's downgrade of America's debt on the Tea Party have all been ignoring a very inconvenient truth. According to MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell, "Last week's vote for a debt ceiling increase was the most bipartisan vote to increase the debt ceiling we have seen in a very,…

A clearly worried Chris Matthews on Monday fretted that a 'coy' Barack Obama is being "too cute by half" in his handling of the economy. Matthews lamented the fact that in his press conference, the President didn't exclaim, "Tax the freakin' rich!" Talking to former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, Matthews proclaimed what Obama should have said. After agreeing to "some" cuts, the Hardball…

Dylan Ratigan joined Andrea Mitchell Monday on the list of MSNBC anchors who appear to be losing faith in President Barack Obama's leadership. Discussing the type of president required to lead the country in times of crisis, Ratigan remarked, "Wouldn't anybody who wrote a memoir before the age of 50 be rather screwed up anyway?" [Video follows page break]

At the top of Saturday's NBC Today, CNBC's chief Washington correspondent John Harwood told co-host Lester Holt that the downgrade of U.S. debt provided President Obama with "a tangible consequence to point to for Republican brinksmanship on the debt and deficit reduction deal." Harwood observed: "Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, always said, 'We don't want co-ownership of the economy…