Clarence Thomas
In an exclusive softball interview with Anita Hill designed to clear the decks for Joe Biden about his handling of the Clarence Thomas hearings in 1991, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell was eager to turn the conversation away from liberal complaints about the Democratic frontrunner to unsubstantiated accusations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
There's no question that animosity exists on both sides of the political spectrum, but have you noticed how personal it has become for many on the left? It is disturbing how intolerant and filled with rage leftist extremists have become, and how many more people are falling into the category of leftist extremism. But what concerns me as much as this pattern of ill will and abuse from leftists is that it is unchecked by their peers and often applauded.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, neurosurgeon and current HUD director Ben Carson
and former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain all worked hard to reach the pinnacles of their chosen professions. But their career accomplishments mean nothing in the eyes of comedian D.L. Hughley who belittled them for committing the unforgivable sin (in his eyes) of being liked by Republicans.
Tina Brown, the feminist former editor of Newsweek, The New Yorker, and Vanity Fair, appeared on MSNBC Live with Stephanie Ruhle on Tuesday morning to tell Joe Biden his career is over. “Joe Biden comes from the sort of crustacean era of gender relations, let’s face it,” she said.
New York Times reporter Peter Baker managed to peel himself away from the Mueller report long enough to lavish almost 1,400 words on a biography of the late first lady Barbara Bush, The Matriarch, on Thursday: “To Barbara Bush, Donald Trump Represented ‘Greed, Selfishness.’ The story’s text box expanded the argument: “Because of Mr. Trump, Mrs. Bush gave up on her party.” Baker reveled in Barbara Bush’s hostility toward Trump, and Nancy Reagan.
Former Vice President Joe Biden is expected to announce a run for president some time in April and has been testing the waters and smoothing over rough spots in his past. As part of that effort Tuesday night, he made yet another public apology to Anita Hill, the law clerk who falsely accused Justice Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. The apology drew the attention of the CBS Evening News, who highlighted it Wednesday.
Nina Totenberg, National Public Radio's legal affairs correspondent, talked to Grant Reeher on public radio station WRVO, warning about the Supreme Court’s threat to abortion rights, criticizing the hearing performance of Brett Kavanaugh, and denying her outlet’s liberal bias. The NPR member station, which serves New York state from the campus of SUNY-Oswego, posted on Friday some transcribed highlights from Reeher’s half-hour interview with Totenberg, whose liberal bona fides are well-established on NewsBusters.
The New York Times’ got rather overdefensive in Thursday’s “In Attack, Trump Aims ‘Enemy of the People’ Directly at The Times.” The paper stretched its complaint against Trump’s concerning slogan to cast blame on him for every worrisome development experienced by a Times (or Washington Post) journalist anywhere: "They have added up to a rough few days for freedom of the press, a once-sacrosanct American notion that has been under sustained assault since Mr. Trump made fiery denunciations of journalists -- and the rallying cry “Fake news!”-- into hallmarks of his campaign and presidency."
New York Times political reporters Maggie Haberman and Annie Karni clearly objected to President Trump meeting with “hard-right” activists led by Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, in Sunday’s “Trump Is Said To Have Met Wife of Justice And Activists.”
New York Times’ Susan Chira, a “senior correspondent and editor on gender issues,” interviewed Anita Hill for some reason for Friday’s paper, “Hill Reflects: ‘Clearly the Tide Has Not Turned.’” Hill is seen by the press as a victim of both Clarence Thomas and the all-white, all-male Senate Judiciary Committee who brutally questioned her and has achieved secular sainthood, so there are never any inconvenient questions. Interviewing and citing Hill in the aftermath of sexual allegations against Republicans is a regular thing at the paper now. This one is keyed to the accusations hurled against now-Judge Brett Kavanaugh, whom the paper promises “we’re still investigating.”
Journalists have been bashing conservative Supreme Court judges for decades. Even after Clarence Thomas was confirmed, reporters never liked him much. On November 2, 2007, Jeffrey Toobin sneered that Thomas is “angry,” “bitter,” and “isolated.”
CNN has made a hero out of Kaitlan Collins, after the young White House correspondent was banned from one press briefing for her petulant behavior a few months ago. But maybe they should make sure their reporters actually know what they’re talking about before giving them important assignments like reporting from the swearing-in ceremony of the next Supreme Court justice.