NYT's Powell Defends Michelle Obama on MSNBC

June 18th, 2008 5:37 PM
The Obama campaign is trying to re-create Michelle Obama after her stumbles on the campaign trail, and the mainstream media are more than willing to pitch in. Earlier today, NewsBusters contributor Clay Waters, director of the MRC’s Times Watch project, critiqued a New York Times story, written by Michael Powell and Jodi Kantor, which helped Obama soften her image and suggested that her "…

WaPo's O'Keefe: Obama Has 'Big Lead' on Iraq. Really

June 17th, 2008 3:56 PM
Simple mistake, or wish fulfillment?  Appearing on MSNBC this afternoon, a Washington Post reporter claimed the paper's latest poll results showed Barack Obama with a "big lead" over John McCain on the issue of handling Iraq.  The only problem: the poll actually shows McCain with a small lead on the issue. David Shuster interviewed Ed O'Keefe of WashingtonPost.com at 3:03 PM EDT.DAVID SHUSTER: Ed…

'Hottest Ring in Hell' for Messing with Michelle

June 11th, 2008 5:58 PM
My late father, who worked with the toughest kids in a Brooklyn high school, used to say that when a person's reaction is disproportionate to the stimulus, something else is causing it. So when Obama campaign co-chair Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) dramatically reserved the "hottest ring in hell" for those who would go after Michelle Obama, my antennae went up. Interviewing him, MSNBC's Norah O'…

MSNBC's Shuster: Bush's Remarks 'Intellectually Grotesque and Dishones

May 16th, 2008 7:12 PM
The 9a.m. hour of Friday’s MSNBC News Live featured only slanted coverage of President Bush’s remarks to Israel's Knesset including "Hardball" correspondent David Shuster’s characterization of the President’s remarks as “clearly an intellectually grotesque and dishonest statement.” Shuster also argued that Bush’s remarks were offensive to "a lot" of people because "when you talk about Adolf…

MSNBC's Brzezinski: Bush Speech a 'Stinging Criticism' of Obama

May 15th, 2008 4:38 PM
Over a graphic which read “Pres. Bush Invokes Nazis While Criticizing Obama’s Foreign Policy,” MSNBC sought to hype Democratic reaction to President Bush’s speech in Israel. During the 9a.m. hour of Thursday’s “MSNBC News Live,” host Mika Brzezinski reported: “President Bush issued a stinging criticism of Barack Obama today suggesting that his plans to hold talks with Iran is the same as…

MSNBC: Man Avoids 'Sky High Gas Prices' by Riding Horse

May 9th, 2008 4:15 PM
Gas prices got you down? Ride a horse, says MSNBC. On a "MSNBC Live," report on "sky high gas prices" anchor Tamron Hall relayed the story of one man who is using a horse rather than a vehicle, but did not explain some important reasons why prices have soared. "The high prices have led ... one Tennessee man to find a more fuel efficient way to get around town in Bradley County: The guy…

Liberal Perception Equals Reality to American Urban Radio's April Ryan

May 1st, 2008 3:30 PM
Perception is everything, facts are trivial to April Ryan, judging from two recent comments from American Urban Radio Network's White House correspondent. [audio available here]At the April 29 Rose Garden press conference, Ryan asked President Bush the following question about the economy:I talked to [Rep.] James Clyburn [D-S.C.] before this press conference. He said, "As a man thinketh, so are…

NBC's Mitchell Smells 'Jesse Helms' GOP In Reverend Wright Ad

April 24th, 2008 5:12 PM

Time Magazine Cover Sparks Outrage from Iwo Jima Vets

April 18th, 2008 1:22 PM
The powers at Time magazine, who now approach reporting the issue of climate change with a holier than thou persona, as blogged yesterday by NewsBusters' Mark Finkelstein, have ruffled the feathers of a few Iwo Jima veterans. The Time cover story by Bryan Walsh calls green "the new red, white and blue." But Donald Mates, an Iwo Jima veteran, said this goes a little too far. He told the…

Endorsing Obama Is Costing Oprah In The Favorable Ratings

April 16th, 2008 3:27 PM
Los Angeles Times reporter and blogger Andrew Malcolm drew an interview on MSNBC Tuesday for his report at Top of the Ticket that Oprah Winfrey is suffering in popularity due to her endorsement and campaigning for Barack Obama. (MSNBC also blamed a popular YouTube video called The Church of Oprah Exposed). Malcolm and Don Frederick reported that while Oprah certainly boosted Obama’s star power,…

Daily Kos Flashback -- or -- Memo to Dan Abrams

March 25th, 2008 5:27 PM
On Monday night, we were privy to Round II of Dan Abrams' (of MSNBC's Live with Dan Abrams pseudo-fame) lukewarm game show, "Rush Limbaugh -- UnAmerican".Both times Abrams levied said assertion in response to Limbaugh's apparently effective (at least at tweaking the likes of Abrams) Operation CHAOS. Which is what Limbaugh has dubbed his call for Republicans to cross over -- where legal -- to…

We Still Don't Know If Obama Told The Truth on March 14th

March 18th, 2008 12:39 PM
The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation. -- Barack Obama, Huffington Post, March 14, 2008The key question before Barack Obama today was the one going to his integrity: was he was telling the truth when he claimed in his HuffPo piece of…

WaPo's Marcus: Harvard-Grad Mrs. Spitzer 'Serious Person' Not Some Tam

March 11th, 2008 5:15 PM
In a revealing moment of MSM elitism, WaPo editorialist Ruth Marcus, discussing the decision of Silda Wall Spitzer to appear with her husband Eliot yesterday, wanted people to know Mrs. Spitzer is a Harvard law grad and a "serious" person, not a Tammy Wynette type.Marcus was interviewed by Contessa Brewer on MSNBC this afternoon, and the pair turned to the question of why political wives tend to…

O'Donnell, Tubbs Jones Spar Over Clinton Campaign's Role in Pushing Re

March 5th, 2008 4:42 PM
The last time I wrote about Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, I described her as "ever-smiling." Scratch that. The Dem congresswoman from Ohio and Hillary co-chair just jabbed at MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell during a discussion of who is responsible for circulating the story about the Rezko trial: the media or the Clinton campaign.At one point, things got heated enough for Tubbs Jones to tell O'Donnell "…