Washington Examiner’s ‘Mainstream Media Scream’ with the MRC’s Assessment
Since late January of 2012, the Washington Examiner’s Paul Bedard has once a week featured a “Mainstream Media Scream” selection in his “Washington Secrets” column. For each pick, usually posted online on Monday, I provide an explanation and recommend a “scream” rating (scale of one to five).
This post contains all the “Mainstream Media Screams” for 2014 and January of 2015.
As of February 2015, “Mainstream Media Screams” are no longer being posted on MRC.org. They are now on the MRC's NewsBusters blog. Read them here.
(“Mainstream Media Screams” for June 17, 2013 through the end of 2013. Previous “Mainstream Media Screams,” from January 31, 2012 through June 11, 2013, when the Washington Examiner was both online and a printed daily newspaper distributed around the Washington, DC area.)
Check Bedard’s “Washington Secrets” blog for the latest choice and his other Washington insider posts. Each week, this page will be updated with Bedard’s latest example of the worst bias of the week.
(For more of the worst liberal media bias, browse the MRC's Notable Quotables with an every other week compilation of the latest outrageous, sometimes humorous, quotes in the liberal media.)
♦ January 26: Mainstream Media Scream: Bryant Gumbel calls NRA ‘pigs’
I’ll add text and video here next week, but so the Washington Examiner gets the traffic for their post when it’s fresh, please read Paul Bedard’s post on their site where you can add a comment to share your assessment.
♦ January 19: Mainstream Media Scream: Michael Moore calls snipers ‘cowards’
(Washington Examiner post)
This week’s example of the media’s lefty tilt features media heavyweight Michael Moore and his painful slap at the subject of Clint Eastwood’s new Iraq War movie, “American Sniper.”
On Twitter and Facebook, he quoted his dad calling snipers “cowards” but made a point not to swipe Eastwood’s Oscar-nominated movie totally.
“My uncle killed by sniper in WW2. We were taught snipers were cowards. Will shoot u in the back. Snipers aren’t heroes. And invaders r worse,” he tweeted.
In another, he added, “But if you're on the roof of your home defending it from invaders who've come 7K miles, you are not a sniper, u are brave, u are a neighbor.”
And on Facebook, he praised the movie and actor Bradley Cooper, then added a reference to Martin Luther King Jr.:
“Most of us were taught the story of Jesse James and that the scoundrel wasn't James (who was a criminal who killed people) but rather the sniper who shot him in the back. I think most Americans don't think snipers are heroes. Hopefully not on this weekend when we remember that man in Memphis, Tennessee, who was killed by a sniper's bullet.”
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick for the week’s best Mainstream Media Scream: “The Left’s hatred of America in a tweet – a perfectly condensed example of how Moore and others so eagerly use freedom of speech to denigrate those who enable it. On a weekend when American Sniper became the highest-grossing movie ever in a January, Moore illustrated how out of touch he is with the values of most Americans.”
Rating: Five out of five screams.
♦ January 12, 2015: Mainstream Media Scream: Jerry Falwell just like murdering jihadists
(Washington Examiner post)
This week’s example of the media’s lefty tilt features former Rolling Stone executive editor Eric Bates, now executive editor of First Look Media, on MSNBC’s Now with Alex Wagner on Wednesday, talking about the terrorist attack against a French satire magazine in which twelve were murdered:
“This isn’t just Islamic extremism. If you go back to the ’80s — during the Reagan administration — when Jerry Falwell sued Hustler magazine for portraying him having, I believe it was drunken incest with his mother in an outhouse — again, in a visual form — and won a $150,000 court case against Hustler for that. It was overturned by the Supreme Court, I think, eight-to-zero.
“So you know, religious fundamentalists of all stripes and of nationalities have this penchant to say, we want to be able tell you what you can and can’t portray.”Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick for the week’s best Mainstream Media Scream:
“Talk about apples and oranges. One religious believer felt insulted by a false story about himself and employed the judicial system to seek a financial remedy. The others went on a murder spree. So sad that too many journalists desire to see moral equivalence between peaceful Christian believers and Muslim jihadists.”
Rating: Five out of five screams.
♦ January 5, 2015: Mainstream Media Scream: ABC reporter cheers Cuomo for president
(Washington Examiner post)
This week’s example of the media’s lefty tilt features ABC’s David Wright reminiscing about the late New York Gov. Mario Cuomo's toying with a presidential bid in 1992.
On Friday’s "Good Morning America," Wright sounded like he was endorsing Cuomo, who died last week.
“You know, I grew up here in New York state at a time when Mario Cuomo was governor and would have loved to have seen him run for president. He could be spellbinding,” said Wright.Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick for the week’s best Mainstream Media Scream:
“Mario Cuomo was the Barack Obama of the 1980s for the press corps, but he never fulfilled their dream by running for president. Yet, as Wright demonstrated, he still lives on in their imaginations of what could have been – a yearning they’ve never shown for a conservative.”
Rating: Four out of five screams.
♦ December 29: Worst liberal media quote of 2014: CNN’s Carol Costello’s slap at Bristol Palin
(Washington Examiner post)
Nothing came close.
Reviewing the year of Mainstream Media Screams and screeches for a 2014 title winner, nothing reached the decibel level of CNN anchor Carol Costello mocking an attack on Bristol Palin, daughter of former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
“Sit back and enjoy,” was how she introduced audio of the alleged attack, a gleeful statement she later backtracked from.
“Okay. I’m just going to come right out and say it: This is quite possibly the best minute and a half of audio we’ve ever come across — well, come across in a long time anyway. A massive brawl in Anchorage, Alaska, reportedly involving Sarah Palin’s kids and her husband. It was sparked after someone pushed one of her daughters at a party. ... And now police have released audio of that interview. It does include some rather colorful language from Bristol. Here now is Bristol’s recollection of how that night unfolded. So sit back and enjoy.”
— CNN Newsroom anchor Carol Costello on October 22, introducing audio of Bristol Palin describing how a man shoved her, dragged her on the ground and repeatedly cursed at her.Thanks goes to Brent Baker of the Media Research Center, which helps Secrets filter weekly through the long collection of rants from media bigshots.
♦ December 22: Mainstream Scream: Ed Schultz compares Cuba bow to crushing Soviet Union
(Washington Examiner post)
This week’s Mainstream Media Scream features MSNBC host Ed Schultz comparing President Obama’s decision to open relations with Cuba with former President Reagan’s demand to Moscow that it tear down the Berlin Wall.
On Dec. 17, Schultz reacted to Obama’s decision to open relations with socialist Cuba, saying, “Isn’t this Barack Obama’s ‘Tear down this wall, Mr. Castro’ — that kind of a moment?”
At the time of Reagan’s comment, the U.S. was still in the Cold War, which Reagan won when the Soviet Union crumbled under the weight of pro-democracy efforts. Cuba has shown no policy change leading to Obama's decision.
Said Schultz: “Isn’t this Barack Obama’s ‘Tear down this wall, Mr. Castro’ — that kind of a moment? I mean, if change can take place with the Soviet Union, why can’t it take place with the Cuban people here? And so, there's going to be American influence — there’s going to be American influence which is the best highway to convincing people, as I think — totally different from what we've had over the last 54 years.”Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “Yeah, it’s just like Reagan at the Berlin Wall demanding the communists allow their people to escape — if you define the same as the opposite. Obama’s new approach to Cuba will help the ruling Castros and their cronies without any promise of more freedoms for the Cuban people. It’s as if Reagan called for Erich Honecker to install a door in the wall through which he would decide who could pass.”
Rating: Four out of five screams.
♦ December 15: Mainstream Scream: Hands up from CNN panel backing Ferguson protesters
(Washington Examiner post)
This week’s Mainstream Media Scream features a CNN panel that struck a hands-up pose of solidarity with street protesters challenging the Ferguson, Mo., grand jury verdict, and other similar decisions not to bring charges against police in the shooting of black suspects.
It occurred on CNN’s Saturday broadcast. The three with their hands up: CNN analyst Margaret Hoover; Sally Kohn, also a CNN political analyst; and Mel Robbins, a CNN legal analyst. Sunny Hostin, CNN legal analyst, held up a piece of paper with “I can’t breathe” written on it.
During their on-air commentary, Kohn said, “Right now, thousands of Americans are marching in New York and Washington and across the country, demanding a justice system that applies the same to everybody and honors our values. We want you to know that our hearts are out there marching with them.”Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “So much for CNN’s ‘the most trusted name in news’ slogan, picking up and endorsing a discredited narrative which advances a left-wing view. Can you imagine a CNN panel, during the annual March for Life, declaring ‘our hearts are out there marching with them’? Of course not.”
Rating: Four out of five screams.
♦ December 8: Mainstream Scream: Chris Matthews calls Ted Cruz the new Joe McCarthy’
(Washington Examiner post)
This week’s Mainstream Media Scream features MSNBC’s Chris Matthews in a four-star rant about Sen. Ted Cruz, who he repeatedly compared to former Sen. Joe McCarthy, who crusaded against the “Red scare” of the Cold War.
Several times on Thursday’s show, Matthews linked the two, once claiming that the Texas senator is “so much like Joe McCarthy.”
The rants:
“Ted Cruz and his band on the right are at it again. They want to shut the government down. Big surprise there. Joe McCarthy is at it again ...
“This plan by the new Joe McCarthy, which is always to blame the government as lawless, it’s always they’re always traitors to the cause. Where’s he going with this? Because, you know, demagoguery is not a good career choice. It usually lasts for a while, Huey Long, Joe McCarthy, Father Coughlin. They had their spurts, like Roman candles, and then they putter out ...
“He’s so much like Joe McCarthy in the way he makes his indictments, the way he sweats and makes these arguments. Everybody is a traitor but him.”Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “Matthews really has become a parody of himself – issuing charges of McCarthyism to impugn a U.S. senator, seemingly unaware of how that makes him guilty of that very same supposed demagoguery.”
Rating: Five out of five screams.
♦ December 1: Mainstream Scream: MSNBC guest blames Ferguson on ‘white supremacy’
(Washington Examiner post)
This week’s Mainstream Media Scream features the debate over the Michael Brown case in Ferguson, Mo., and comments from a Nation magazine blogger on MSNBC that country was built on a foundation of racism and white supremacy.
In blaming America for the deadly shooting, The Nation magazine’s Mychal Denzel Smith said on MSNBC’s The Reid Report:
“The parameters of the conversation are so narrowly defined as to define racism as a personal hatred towards black people. And we’re not then dealing with the systemic ideas that uphold racism and white supremacy in this country. ... What we refuse to deal with is the idea — the fact — that our, the foundation of this country is racism and white supremacy and all of our institutions uphold that.”Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “Smith said what one suspects liberal journalists really think and what are the underlying presumptions held by most of MSNBC’s staff. America has a guilt which can never be overcome. It certainly explains how they can see Al Sharpton as a legitimate political player and journalist.”
Rating: Four out of five screams.
♦ November 24: Mainstream Scream: Chuck Todd excuses lack of Gruber ‘stupidity’ coverage
(Washington Examiner post)
This week’s Mainstream Media Scream features NBC Political Director Chuck Todd excusing the network for ignoring the highly controversial comments of Obamacare developer Jonathan Gruber that the administration took advantage of the public’s “stupidity” to pass the complicated package.
NBC Nightly News has yet to mention Gruber. Even ABC's World News Tonight did a story last week and Jon Stewart led his Wednesday show with a lengthy eight-minute segment on it. So a comedy show beat NBC Nightly News, which still hasn’t mentioned Gruber in the days since.
From Steve Malzberg’s Newsmax TV show on Tuesday, Nov. 18:
Steve Malzberg: “But why did it take nine days once the Gruber video came out, you talked about it on ‘Meet the Press’ just the other day, but the networks, nine days before they talked about it. And now it’s a huge story.”
Chuck Todd: “I’m not saying it’s not a story. Look, I’m not in charge of any of those network newscasts. But what is the news today of that? It’s a political story. Network news in general hasn’t been covering the political back-and-forth’s of Washington a lot lately. I don’t think has to do with Gruber specifically. I would just caution people on that.”Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “Todd should be embarrassed that Jon Stewart beat NBC Nightly News to what is an important enough story to have been highlighted several times even by the CBS Evening News. And does anyone believe that if the president were a Republican, such a boast of deceiving the public on a major policy wouldn’t lead NBC’s newscasts for days?”
Rating: Four out of five screams.
♦ November 17: Mainstream Scream: Clintons are ‘American royalty,’ shouldn’t fly coach
(Washington Examiner post)
This week’s Mainstream Media Scream features more TV fawning over the Clintons, this time graced with the title, "American royalty.”
It came last week when TheGrio’s Chris Witherspoon was talking about a GOP hit on Bill and Hillary Clinton’s election travel expenses on Al Sharpton’s MSNBC show "PoliticsNation." Reports show that candidates spent $700,000 to fly the Clintons in for campaign events.
Witherspoon defended the spending. “They’re the Clintons. They’re American royalty,” said Witherspoon.
“I don’t want to see them flying on domestic Delta flights in first class. I mean, they were flying on Air Force One for eight years. How do you go from that to not staying on private jets and kind of having like that luxurious travel experience? So I’m not mad about their spending,” he added.Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “Witherspoon is all too reflective of how the press corps so admire the Clintons that they really do see them as ‘American royalty’ and aren’t, as they should be, embarrassed to say so. Hard to imagine any journalists with a similar view of the Bush family.”
Rating: Three out of five screams.
♦ November 10: Mainstream Media Scream: Schieffer asks Obama, ‘Do you still hope?’
(Washington Examiner post)
This week’s Mainstream Media Scream features Bob Schieffer’s Sunday interview on "Face the Nation" with President Obama during which the host sympathizes with the president’s problems this year.
Schieffer to Obama: “Let me ask you this, you had a tough summer. We saw the rise of ISIS, the outbreak of Ebola, trouble in the Ukraine, illegal immigrants coming across the border — did you ever go back to the residence at night and say, ‘Are we ever going to get a break here?’ ”
A few minutes later: “You came here talking about hope and change. Do you still hope? Is change, was it harder than you thought it would be?”Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “No matter how far the Obama presidency spirals down, Schieffer showed there are still those in the news media disappointed by the lost ‘hope and change’ dream they so eagerly promoted. Schieffer empathized with Obama’s plight, as if Obama were a victim of circumstance and not responsible for failures or making situations worse.”
Rating: Three out of five screams.
♦ October 27: Mainstream Scream: CNN anchor Costello’s verbal assault on Bristol Palin
(Washington Examiner post)
This week’s Mainstream Media Scream really had just one clip to pick from, CNN anchor Carol Costello’s rude and crude enjoyment over an audio explanation of an assault on Bristol Palin.
Well covered by our Ashe Schow after it occurred last Wednesday, the easy slap by a prominent female media star on a young woman, this one the daughter of the former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, ranks up there as the worst example of mainstream media sneers this year.
Here’s how it went down. Costello said “sit back and enjoy” as she introduced an audio recording of Bristol Palin describing to police how a man shoved her, dragged her on the ground and repeatedly cursed at her:
Costello: “Okay. I’m just going to come right out and say it. This is quite possibly the best minute and a half of audio we’ve ever come across — well, come across in a long time anyway. A massive brawl in Anchorage, Alaska, reportedly involving Sarah Palin’s kids and her husband. It was sparked after someone pushed one of her daughters at a party. That’s what Bristol Palin told police in an interview after the incident. And now police have released audio of that interview. It does include some rather colorful language from Bristol. Here now is Bristol’s recollection of how that night unfolded. So sit back and enjoy.”
After audio clips of Bristol recounting the assault, Costello said, “I think that long bleep was my favorite part” and “You can thank me later.”
She — not CNN — apologized on Twitter and told Politico: “Over the past few days I have been roundly criticized for joking about a brawl involving the Palin family. In retrospect, I deserve such criticism and would like to apologize.”Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “CNN and Costello have sunk lower than even MSNBC’s Martin Bashir. He at least had the integrity to apologize on-air after his disgusting personal attack on Sarah Palin, and MSNBC canceled his show in response. Unlike her mother, Bristol is not a public political figure, yet Costello cackled over an assault on her. Imagine if the victim were Chelsea Clinton. It’s not nice to be a member of a family for which the media elite have nothing but contempt.”
Rating: Five out of five screams.
♦ October 20: Mainstream Media Scream: Tina Brown says GOP disciplined, ‘they’ve had their rabies shots’
(Washington Examiner post)
The Democratic spin on how the Republicans are likely to win the fall elections is in full swing with media celeb Tina Brown on Monday calling GOP candidates so calm it’s as if they’ve "had their rabies shots."
She is the star of this week’s Secrets Mainstream Media Scream because of her backhanded slap on MSNBC’s "Morning Joe."
At the time, she was talking about how Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was about even with women voters against challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes.
Tina Brown: “There’s no doubt that this year, Republicans have been far more disciplined. So, they had their rabies shots, and they’re-”
Co-host Mika Brzezinski: “Wow!”
Brown: “And they’re not giving this sort of phony uterine attacks-”
Host Joe Scarborough: “Nobody’s trying to redefine rape, that’s a good move.”
Brown: “No 'legitimate rape' talk this time. They’ve got themselves a little better disciplined.”Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “Nice of Tina Brown to think of Republicans as rabid dogs in need of shots to get under control. Imagine the reaction if a guest on the Fox News Channel made such as assumption about Barack Obama.”
Rating: Five out of five screams.
♦ October 13: Mainstream Media Scream: View’s Rosie O’Donnell calls Jimmy Carter ‘my favorite’
(Washington Examiner post)
Even Democratic presidents don’t suggest that former President Jimmy Carter is close to being their favorite former president, but The View’s Rosie O’Donnell did.
From last Thursday’s show:
Co-host Nicolle Wallace: “Carter has been harsher on Obama than George W. Bush ever has been or would be.”
Rosie O’Donnell: “And I think Jimmy Carter is an outlier in many ways. He’s not just a Democrat. I think he is a man of peace.”
Wallace: “You love him, right? He’s one of your favorites?”
O’Donnell: “He is my favorite president ever and, I think, probably the most pious human being I’ve ever met in my life. And I have tremendous respect, admiration for him and his wife.”
It was a heck of a week for the liberal blabbermouth. Two days earlier, O’Donnell blamed Bush’s policies for creating ISIS: “Don’t you think the reason ISIS was created was because when Saudi hijackers [makes quote marks] attacked us, we invaded a different country that had nothing to do with it? That would incite people to radicalize, right? Why is it taking the troops out that caused it?”Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “Which is worse for Obama? That a previous failed president is criticizing his fecklessness, or that the icon of all left-wing, anti-George W. Bush crackpots so admires Carter, thus implicitly endorsing his takedown of Obama? Tough call.”
Rating: Four out of five screams.
♦ October 6: Mainstream Media Scream: CNN host urges using Ebola against Republicans
(Washington Examiner post)
This week’s Mainstream Media Scream features Van Jones, co-host of CNN’s "Crossfire," on ABC urging Democrats to use Ebola as a campaign talking point against the GOP.
On Sunday’s “This Week” panel on ABC, Jones, a former Obama aide, said:
“Well, we’ve to get our base going. The other thing, too, is that we can’t let the Republicans get away with some of the stuff they’re doing this week, just trying to bash Obama. Hey, you know, government is always your enemy until you need a friend.
“This Ebola thing is the best argument you can make for the kind of government that we believe in. A year ago, Ted Cruz shut down America’s government, shut down the CDC over shenanigans. What if that happened this year?
“You got to start putting the Republicans on the defensive for the fact that they believe that you can take a wrecking ball to America’s government, never pay a price. Obamacare means that 8 million people who couldn’t have gone to the doctor last year, if they feel sick today, they would if they got Obama[care], they can go see the doctor. The Democrats have got to start talking like that.”Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “Jones has taken to heart Rahm Emanuel's admonition that ‘You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.’ In this instance, urging fellow Democrats to exploit the fear of widespread agonizing deaths from Ebola to sell the wonders of Obamacare and the benefits of government. Sounds like he’s the one with a crisis of ideas and rational arguments.”
Rating: Five out of five screams.
♦ September 29: Mainstream Scream: Chuck Todd says AG Eric Holder ‘wasn’t political’
(Washington Examiner post)
This week’s Mainstream Media Scream features "Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd giving retiring Attorney General Eric Holder a pass on claims he ran a political Justice Department.
During “breaking news” coverage of Holder’s announcement Thursday on MSNBC’s NewsNation, Todd said:
“What’s interesting about him, he’s a very nonpolitical person. And I think people used to mistakenly think that this guy was this long-time political operative who happened to be an attorney general. That’s not him at all. In fact, that used to get him in some hot water with some of the president’s own political aides who sometimes felt that Eric Holder wasn’t thinking about the politics of an issue. ...
“Those type of issues where he’d get heat inside the White House because they felt he wasn’t political enough. And yet, to the outside world, he’d get criticized, say from Republicans on Capitol Hill, because they thought, ‘Oh, he’s being too much – too political.’ The guy wasn’t political at all and in many ways just ended up being the point person to attract a lot of – a lot of attacks.”>
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “File this one under ‘Clueless in D.C.’ If Todd can’t recognize how political Holder has been as attorney general, he needs to focus on Holder a ‘What Everyone in Washington Knows, but is afraid to say’ segment on 'Meet the Press,' where he highlights what’s common knowledge amongst those in DC, so he can discover what is obvious to everyone else about Holder.”
Rating: Three out of five screams.
♦ September 22: Mainstream Scream: Chris Matthews ridicules ISIS fear, rips neocon ‘hucksters’
(Washington Examiner post)
This week’s Mainstream Media Scream features a regular, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, host of Hardball. This time our focus on his comments during a “Last Word” segment last week.
In it he ridiculed those warning about a crisis with ISIS, suggesting it is a conservative campaign, not one actually led by President Obama and his administration.
“I’ll admit that it bothers me deeply to hear people worry aloud about ISIS coming to get them personally. Do you really believe -- I’m talking to the 14 percent who told pollsters they are seriously afraid of getting hit by the terrorist group themselves – do they really believe these characters over there in Syria and Iraq have their own personal number? Do they? That there’s a reasonable chance that your number is up because of what’s going on in the desert of Arabia right now?
“I know the political hucksters love pushing the fear button. They exalt in the word ‘Homeland’ – that ominous term, cooked up by the neocons to drive us off to the stupidest war decision in history to go into Iraq with the bugles blowing and the ideologues brimming with talk of converting the Arab Mideast into pleasant members of the United Nations, friendly neighbors of Israel and, oh yeah, moderate democracies. But that talk was for a purpose of getting us into a stupid war.
“What’s the purpose now? Why push the armageddon button now? Could it be that scaring people is one way to justify just about anything right wing, anything that exploits military force, anything that turns the United States into a relentless military presence, a machine really, in the Middle East, an endless adversary and killer of Arabs and other Muslims. People who do this can call themselves anything, neocons, hawks, whatever, what they are not are reliable stewards of American foreign policy. They ain’t taking us anywhere good.”Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “Bad timing for Matthews, who looks especially clueless. His ridiculing of fear of ISIS came the night before news of an ISIS plot to behead random people on the streets of Australia. So maybe Matthews shouldn’t be so quick to deride those who recognize the threat and think it’s better to be safe than sorry.”
Rating: Four out of five screams.
♦ September 15: Mainstream Scream: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell to Hillary Clinton, ‘Great to be back’
(Washington Examiner post)
This week’s Mainstream Media Scream features NBC’s Andrea Mitchell gleefully asking Hillary Clinton how great it is to be back on the campaign trail.
On Monday’s Today show, Mitchell was reporting Clinton’s Sunday appearance at a steak fry in Indianola, Iowa:
Mitchell: “Clinton knows coming here will make it harder to turn back. [To Hillary Clinton] Does it feel great to be back out here?”
Clinton: “It’s great. It was a great day. Couldn’t have been better.”Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “Mitchell is a leading cheerleader for Hillary amongst the press corps. Her giddy enthusiasm illustrates the former first lady’s core base: female journalists who channel their aspirations through her.”
Rating: Four out of five screams.
♦ September 8: Mainstream Media Scream: Reuters boss likens death penalty to ISIS beheadings
(Washington Examiner post)
This week’s Mainstream Media Scream features Reuters Editor-at-Large Sir Harold Evans comparing the U.S. death penalty to Islamic State of Iraq and Syria beheadings.
He was on CBS "This Morning" on Saturday discussing a book of photographs he had written a forward for when a shot of New York state’s Sing Sing prison death chair was shown.
“You know, when you think about this, it looks like an ordinary chair. You get up close to it, the stark brutality. The room is brutal in its starkness. Almost as appalling, in its sense, as these barbarians who have taken the heads off journalists in the desert. I have the same chill about this, seeing this,” he said.
Full exchange:
Fill-in co-host JEFF GLOR: These pictures of ‘Old Sparky,’ the electric chair —
SIR HAROLD EVANS: Oh, God, help me.
GLOR: — at Sing Sing prison. We were looking at this yesterday. I mean it just —
Co-host VINITA NAIR: Because you had a really emotional reaction to all this, didn’t you?
EVANS: I did. When I was a newspaper editor, I managed to get a man pardoned for a murder — he’d already been hanged — I managed to get a pardon for a man who’d been hanged for a wrongful murder.
You know, when you think about this, it looks like an ordinary chair. You get up close to it, the stark brutality. The room is brutal in its starkness. Almost as appalling, in its sense, as these barbarians who have taken the heads off journalists in the desert. I have the same chill about this, seeing this.
You know, Sing Sing — we don’t execute people in New York anymore nor do they do it in California. But it was — Thomas Edison invented this thing in trying to complete, you know, with his current, which was direct, against the Westinghouse A/C. So out of that tremendous innovation of electrical power came this, to me, monstrosity of the electric chair. Of course, lethal injections ain’t great either.Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “There’s a very big difference between the two ‘death penalties.’ In our justice system, only the very worst murderers are put death — and only after years of trials and appeals — while the ISIS killers behead the innocent in order to terrorize the world to submit to their political demands. You’d think such a long-time journalist would recognize the difference.”
Rating: Three out of five screams.
♦ September 2: Mainstream Media Scream: MSNBC blames ISIS torture on Abu Ghraib, Gitmo
(Washington Examiner post)
This week’s Mainstream Media Scream features two MSNBC newsies blaming ISIS torture of prisoners on the types of “enhanced interrogation” used by Americans at the Iraqi prison Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay terrorist prison.
MSNBC’s Krystal Ball was guesting-hosting Friday’s Ronan Farrow Daily, and discussed a Washington Post story about ISIS tactics with MSNBC terrorism analyst Evan Kohlman.
EVAN KOHLMANN: This fits into a pattern of what we’ve seen in the past where, not just Al Qaeda, but Al Qaeda, ISIS, other jihadist groups have attempted to emulate the behavior that they’ve seen meted out to prisoners at Abu Ghraib, at Guantanamo to their own captives, in other words, trying to send that message backwards and, look, I think unfortunately also ISIS derives some kind of perverse enjoyment out of this.
But we shouldn’t be surprised about this. Unfortunately, that’s the price of Abu Ghraib and that’s the price of continuing the camp in Guantanamo is that these folks are going to try to continue to use it as a propaganda issue and they’re going to torture our hostages with that knowledge.
KRYSTAL BALL: And I think, Evan, that’s an important distinction because these are brutal, murdering terrorists, right. Whether we waterboarded or not, they would be engaging in horrific acts, but when we do things like waterboarding, that the president has called torture, when we do things that are against our own principles, we hand them an easy piece of propaganda.
KOHLMANN: Yeah, because look, how can they justify this otherwise? They can easily justify it now because, if anyone questions them, they point to Abu Ghraib photos. They point to Gitmo. If they didn’t have these issues to point to, it would be very, very difficult for them to justify treating hostages like this.Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: ”The propaganda points for the terrorists only work because gullible people in the media give credibility to the baseless propaganda. So, the U.S. should be inhibited from pursuing information from terrorists because terrorists will cite those methods to rationalize their murder of innocents? That’s quite a pile of moral equivalence from Ball and Kohlman. And how do the terrorists justify decapitation? They can’t blame that on mimicking Dick Cheney.”
Rating: Five out of five screams.
♦ August 25: Mainstream Media Scream: George Stephanopoulos frets over ISIS ‘overreacting’
(Washington Examiner post)
This week’s Mainstream Media Scream features ABC's “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos fretting over the potential for strong U.S. action against the terrorist group ISIS.
It occurred Sunday on his show while talking with the Weekly Standard’s William Kristol.
Stephanopoulos: “On the bigger questions, Bill Kristol, it struck me how quickly this has all moved. From ISIS being a minor threat, the president talking about it several months ago as the ‘junior varsity,’ to now ‘an imminent threat,’ the words of Chuck Hagel, to the United States. And I guess I wonder, is there a danger here of over-reacting?”
Kristol: “I wish there were, but I think the fundamental danger remains under-reaction...”Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “Amazing. After months of President Obama hemming and hawing so much so that even some prominent Democrats have become frustrated with his limited action against a dangerous threat, Stephanopoulos channels the concerns of the far-left who are afraid Obama might actually do something substantial.”
Rating: Three out of five screams.
♦ August 18: Mainstream Media Scream: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell injects race in Ferguson crisis
(Washington Examiner post)
This week’s Mainstream Media Scream features NBC’s Andrea Mitchell injecting race into her coverage of the turmoil in Ferguson, Mo. over the police shooting of unarmed African American Michael Brown.
On Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” Mitchell declared that Rev. Al Sharpton was in Ferguson “on a peace mission” days after she tweeted “Detained for reporting while black?” about police in Ferguson arresting Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery.
Her full tweet: “@washingtonpost demanding why @WesleyLowery taken in prevented from taking video by #Ferguson police. Detained for reporting while black?”
Actually, Lowery was arrested with a white reporter for the Huffington Post, Ryan J. Reilly, and wrote about their situation in the Washington Post.
Then there is her Sunday exchange with Wall Street Journal’s Jason Riley:
ANDREA MITCHELL: Before we go, I want to ask you about Ferguson because you have written a whole book, Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make it Harder for Blacks to Succeed. What we have seen in Ferguson certainly shows the disengagement between a local police force and the community.
JASON RILEY: You could say that. I don't want to litigate this in the press. If the officer used excessive force I think he should be prosecuted. But at the same time, let's not pretend that our morgues and cemeteries are full of young black men because cops are shooting them. The reality is that it’s because other black people are shooting them. And we need to talk about black criminality. Blacks are only 13 percent of the population. But they’re 50 percent of homicide victims in this country and 90 percent of those victims are killed by other black people. We need to talk about that.
MITCHELL: We certainly saw that the blacks were the victims of the looting, as well.
RILEY: The same time, at the same time, the same weekend that this went down in Ferguson, we had 26 shootings in Chicago. But Al Sharpton didn’t head to Chicago. He headed to St. Louis because he has an entirely different agenda, which is to continue to blame whites.
MITCHELL: Just to say — well, that is actually not his agenda — because he’s actually there on a peace mission today.Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “It takes chutzpah to say on the air, with a straight face, that long-time race hustler Al Sharpton is ever ‘on a peace mission,’ but given the eagerness Mitchell’s tweet shows to instantly blame racism, it sadly shows how she puts race-baiting ahead of facts.”
Rating: Five out of five screams.
♦ August 11: Mainstream Media Scream: Chuck Todd, NBC ignore their poll results showing Obama’s fall
(Washington Examiner post)
This week’s Mainstream Media Scream features NBC News political reporter and “Meet the Press” anchor-in-waiting Chuck Todd ignoring the network’s own polling that showed President Obama at a record job approval low.
Typically that would be a huge story, but NBC’s Brian Williams didn’t mention it, nor did Todd. In the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released last week, Obama’s job approval is under water, 40 percent approve to 54 percent disapprove.
On Tuesday night, instead of mentioning any of the poll findings, Williams spent 40 seconds showing an online video of a Norwegian mom trying to get her two-year old son to go to bed on a hot summer night.
On Wednesday, the “Today” show brought Todd in to relay highlights from the survey, but he skipped the approval number. He concentrated on general disapproval of the Washington political scene and how people are angry.
“It’s not just an angry public, it’s not just a frustrated public at Washington, it’s almost an exasperated public. We used this poll to try to understand: How hard was it to dig out of the great recession? And these people are angry and they are fed up with Washington and throwing up their hands,” said Todd.
“They’re really frustrated at Washington, that they’re not doing their job, they say. Over 70 percent think that Washington should be doing more for this economy and they’re not doing it, they’re just sitting on their hands,” he added.Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “A complete abdication of basic journalistic responsibilities. If a record low approval for the president is not news, what is? Just last week, former Obama press aide Reid Cherlin insisted ‘Barack Obama never had reporters eating out of his hand the way that right-wingers love to allege.’ No, Obama has always had a compliant press corps, and NBC, Brian Williams and Chuck Todd prove he still has one.”
Rating: Five out of five screams.
♦ August 4: Mainstream Media Scream: Fox’s Juan Williams says racism behind impeachment
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features Fox News analyst Juan Williams describing those supporting impeachment of President Obama as a whites-only group, suggesting racism is behind the movement.
Fox News Sunday Host Chris Wallace: “Do you think that the Republican opposition to this president, you heard [Rep.] Hakeem Jeffries talk about hatred, is racial or do you think it’s based on principles and policies?”
Juan Williams: “Well, all I can do is look at the numbers. If you look at the core constituency, the people who are in, let's say Tea Party opposition, support of impeachment, there's no diversity. It's a white older group of people. As to whether or not it's racial, you know, President Obama and others have said there's some people who don't like him because of his race, some people who do like him.
"But I would say if you just break it down as a matter of political analysis and say who is this group, it reminds me that the Republican Party has become almost a completely white party.”Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “A very disappointing rant from Williams, who sounded more like Chris Matthews than as astute political analyst in impugning Obama's critics as a bunch of racists. That's the kind of easy demagoguery you expect on MSNBC, not on Fox News. After all, a just-as-white Republican Party opposed Bill Clinton and tried to impeach him.”
Rating: Five out of five screams.
♦ July 28: Mainstream Media Scream: David Gregory hits Paul Ryan’s ‘sympathy’
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features NBC "Meet the Press" host David Gregory suggesting that Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan's new anti-poverty plan doesn't have a “lot of sympathy” for the poor.
From Sunday’s show:
Gregory: Let’s talk about your own attitudes about people who are poor and their views on government. You were on this program in January of last year and you said the following.
Ryan, January 27, 2013: We don’t want a dependency culture. Our concern in this country is with the idea that more and more able-bodied people are becoming dependent on the government than upon themselves for their livelihoods.
Gregory: It doesn’t sound like there’s a lot of sympathy for people you think need the government’s help. What you seem to be saying is that, you know, people have a problem, you know, with their own dependency here the government is only furthering.
Ryan: That’s not my intent and that’s far from it. My point, and I’ll make it again, is we don’t want to have a poverty management system that simply perpetuates poverty.Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “All too typical of a liberal who presumes spending money equals caring, Gregory puts emotion ahead of facts. To him, it’s Ryan’s attitude that matters, not the impact and effectiveness of government policy. Once again, by disparaging conservatives, the media establishment stand as an impediment to reforming entitlement programs.”
Rating: Four out of five screams.
♦ July 21: Mainstream Media Scream: For a change, Chris Matthews praises Ronald Reagan
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream is more of a purr because it features the unexpected praise of former President Ronald Reagan by MSNBC's Chris Matthews. It came in his “flashback” recalling how Reagan, when facing a crisis like the downing of the Malaysian passenger airliner last week, was more forceful that President Obama.
From the end of the July 17 "Hardball" on MSNBC:
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Let me finish tonight with a flashback. From the moment I heard about today's shooting down of a Malaysian airliner over Ukraine, I remember that 1983 shooting down of a Korean airliner over Soviet airspace. Back then, the Soviets, still in a Cold War mindset, refused to even admit responsibility for the deliberate murder of 269 passengers, including U.S. Congressman Lawrence McDonald of Georgia who was aboard. Here's how President Reagan reacted.
PRESIDENT REAGAN, Sept. 2, 1983 (at Point Mugu Naval Air Station): “What can we think of a regime that so broadly trumpets its vision of peace and global disarmament and yet so callously and quickly commits a terrorist act to sacrifice the lives of innocent human beings? What can be said about Soviet credibility when they so flagrantly lie about such a heinous act?”
MATTHEWS: “I can tell you, he was speaking for the American people back then who were absolutely furious at what the Soviets had done. Their cold-blooded killing of so many innocent people, their brutal destruction of so many human lives, their utter lack of compassion for the people aboard that plane. And here's the way our president and we, the American people, felt.”
PRESIDENT REAGAN, Sept. 6, 1983 (at the White House): “We know it will be hard to make a nation that rules its own people through force to cease using force against the rest of the world. But we must try. This is not a role we sought. We preach no manifest destiny. But like Americans who began this country and brought forth this last best hope of mankind, history has asked much of the Americans of our own time, much we have already given, much more we must be prepared to give.”Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “An amazing moment with Matthews acknowledging the superior response, by Reagan compared to Obama, to an international crisis. Matthews illustrated how Reagan, unlike the current occupant of the White House, understood his role as leader of the free world under threat from evil forces.”
Rating: One out of five screams.
♦ July 14: Mainstream Media Scream: David Gregory asks if GOP laments on immigration
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features "Meet the Press" host David Gregory asking Rep. Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, if the GOP laments not pushing comprehensive immigration reform.
From the Sunday show:
DAVID GREGORY: Do you lament — you’re going to be leaving politics. Do you lament the Republican Party’s stand on immigration reform? On an unwillingness to come together to find some path to — a path to citizenship for those illegal immigrants here to somehow fix some of these problems?
MIKE ROGERS: To say this is a Republican problem is just completely wrong.
GREGORY: It’s a Republican political problem for sure in elective politics, is it not?
ROGERS: The Democrats have the same problem. And so, I think there’s a way to move forward on this that’s responsible. ...Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “Gregory echoed the liberal establishments presumption that believes in the holy grail of ‘comprehensive immigration reform’ to magically solve all problems — as if he and Democrats are really concerned with GOP success. If only real life were as simple as a television soundbite.”
Rating: Three out of five screams.
♦ July 7: Mainstream Media Scream: ABC calls protesters ‘anti-immigrant’
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features ABC correspondent David Wright rapping “anti-immigrant” protesters and describing the nation as no longer welcoming to immigrants.
On Friday’s "World News" on ABC, Wright called those in Murrieta, California protesting the buses bringing in illegal immigrants “anti-immigrant” and then ended by contrasting President Obama’s upbeat message, about America “welcoming” immigrants, with how “it sure doesn’t look that way in Murrieta.”
David Wright: A different sort of fireworks today in Murrieta, California.
Protester: I hate that all of our country is being invaded.
Wright: This week, protesters here blocked several busloads of undocumented immigrants. They hoped to do so again today, but the anti-immigrant protesters were outnumbered three to one, and, so far, the buses haven’t come.
....
Wright: Today, at a ceremony for new citizens in Washington, D.C., the president made no mention of the anger across the Southwest.
President Obama: The basic idea of welcoming immigrants to our shores is central to our way of life. It is in our DNA.
Wright: But it sure doesn’t look that way in Murrieta. David Wright, ABC News, Los Angeles.Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “President Obama thinks the media are hostile to him? Wright perfectly encapsulated how the media are portraying this issue through a liberal prism favorable to Obama by portraying his critics as unreasonable - conflating concern over uncontrolled illegal immigration with opposition to all immigration.”
Rating: Four out of five screams.
♦ June 30: Mainstream Media Scream: CNN analyst hits Ted Cruz, Darrell Issa ‘hackathon’
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features a CNN panel discussing the Internal Revenue Service scandal and analyst John Avlon of the Daily Beast slapping Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Darrell Issa for partisanship.
On CNN’s "Newsroom with Carol Costello" last Friday:
Costello: “Sen. Ted Cruz says a special prosecutor should be brought in to investigate. John, wouldn’t that be a good idea?”
John Avlon: “I’m not sure Ted Cruz is often accused of having good ideas when it comes to impartial inquiries. ... Whenever Ted Cruz or Darrell Issa walks into these matters, it immediately turns into a partisan hackathon, as opposed to a search for the truth.”Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “Did Avlon ever consider that it turns into a partisan ‘hackathon’ because journalists like him are less interested in leading a pursuit of the truth than in enacting the self-fulfilling prophecy: dismiss hearings as a ‘hackathon’ so they are perceived that way? A very nice benefit for Obama from having so many friends in the media.”
Rating: Four out of five screams.
♦June 23: Mainstream Media Scream: NBC gushes over John Kerry-Leonardo DiCaprio ‘bromance’
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features NBC's Savannah Guthrie introducing an interview with Secretary of State John Kerry with references to his star power and even his “bromance” with actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
In her Friday story on "Today" about a day in the life of Kerry, Guthrie said:
“The job is not without glamour, with Angelina Jolie last week at a London conference and Leonardo DiCaprio this week talking ocean conservation. [To Kerry] They call this the bromance picture to end all bromance pictures.”Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “It must be nice to be a liberal Democrat. You get such affectionate coverage, with network anchors giggling with you over your ‘face-to-face’ encounters with the celebrities who love you while your foreign policy trips from one fiasco to another.”
Rating: Three out of five screams.
♦ June 16: Mainstream Media Scream: TV’s Jane Pauley begs Hillary Clinton to run: ‘If not you, who?’
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features longtime television personality Jane Pauley urging Hillary Clinton run for president. Pauley, who campaigned for President Obama in 2008, was on CBS News “Sunday Morning” when she said to Clinton, “If not you, who? Who is the viable woman of either party who could win a primary nomination in 2016 if not you?”
JANE PAULEY: If not you, who? Who is the viable woman of either party who could win a primary nomination in 2016 if not you?
HILLARY CLINTON: Well, I think there are a number of qualified women who are holding office.
PAULEY: I’m not saying qualified.
CLINTON: But politics is so unpredictable, whoever runs has to recognize that the American political system is probably the most difficult, even brutal, in the world.
PAULEY: Here is why I think you’re going to run. You quote a poem in that speech [in her 1969 address to fellow Wellesley students]. T.S. Elliott. ‘There’s only’ — this is 1969 — ‘there’s only the trying again and again and again to win again what we’ve lost before.’ That 21-year-old girl you were will not take no for an answer, my prediction.
CLINTON: Well, we’ll see, Jane. We’ll see. There’s a lot of food for thought in that.Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “Pauley, fresh to CBS News after decades at NBC, acted more like an unfulfilled ‘I am woman, hear me roar’ feminist than any kind of journalist scrutinizing a potential presidential candidate. Being a woman — at least a liberal Democratic one — is qualification enough for Pauley. If Pauley feels so strongly, she should quit journalism and join the campaign. And maybe she will, since she did volunteer for Obama in 2008.”
Rating: Four out of five screams.
♦ June 9: Mainstream Media Scream: Ed Schultz says there’s ‘nothing American about Ted Cruz’
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features MSNBC's "Ed Show" host Ed Schultz slapping down Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's criticism of President Obama's prisoner swap and even suggesting that Cruz's view is un-American.
It came after Schultz showed a clip of Cruz on ABC's “This Week,” arguing that the Bowe Bergdahl deal set a “a very dangerous precedent.”
Ed Schultz on his June 2 show: “Ted Cruz has zero credibility. He has zero foreign policy experience. He’s a guy from Texas who doesn’t have a clue. All he knows is that he’s got a big name and a big state behind him and he can get on any show he wants. And it’s all pablum, anything to take down the President. There’s nothing American about Ted Cruz.”Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “As if Ed Schultz and Barack Obama are the fonts of foreign policy expertise. I’d bet after this Bergdahl deal, more Americans trust Cruz’s instincts over Obama’s. Schultz’s case isn’t helped by the snide condescension in questioning the patriotism of those who dare disagree with Obama.”
Rating: Four out of five screams.
♦ June 2: Mainstream Media Scream: Oops, CNN host thinks Michelle Obama has presidential powers
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features CNN anchor Carol Costello giving first lady Michelle Obama credit for signing legislation for kids into law, something only the president can do. She was discussing efforts to roll back a healthy kids initiative Mrs. Obama was pushing that has come under assault in Congress.
On her broadcast week, Costello said, “That was Mrs. Obama back in 2010 when she signed the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act into law. Well now some members of Congress and the food industry want to roll back that initiative and loosen requirements to cut costs. Today the first lady takes the unusual step of delivering White House remarks speaking out against that House measure.”Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “What an embarrassment. Costello is so mesmerized by Michelle Obama that she really thinks Mrs. Obama has presidential powers? Costello probably realizes she does not, but deep down thinks the first lady should, and the wish came through in quite a flub.”
Rating: Five out of five screams.
♦ May 19: Mainstream Media Scream: NBC’s Chuck Todd sneers at GOP health hit on Hillary Clinton
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features NBC White House Correspondent Chuck Todd's warning on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" over the Republican effort to question Hillary Clinton's health. He suggested that the GOP was throwing former President Ronald Reagan “under the bus a little bit.”
From Wednesday’s Morning Joe on MSNBC:
“The fact is she’s the same age, she’s going to be the same age as Reagan was. If you're going to go down this road and try to claim that she’s going to have some issues, or health issues, and things of that, of this or that nature, then you may have to be throwing your own guy, Ronald Reagan, under the bus a little bit. So I think that this is a dangerous, tricky road to go down.
“And as we saw with [Karl] Rove, you go down this road, and you stumble down this road, I mean, I agree, at any point, any presidential candidate’s got to release their health records. I don't care if they’re 45 or 70. Okay, because at the end of the day, you want to know. I think it's important, the American public wants to know, they want to make their judgment about who your running mate is, things like that. So that is fair game. But to sit there and say it’s only really applies to her. And you go down that road, it’s going to look a little sexist if you’re not careful. And it's going to backfire.”Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “Here's the latest instance of a journalist more interested in brushing back those who dare raise questions about Hillary Clinton's qualifications for the presidency than in pursuing Clinton land dissembling. It's only because of Karl Rove that Bill Clinton revealed his wife's concussion ‘required six months of very serious work to get over.' In 1978 and '79, the Reagan team didn't mislead anyone about his health.”
Rating: Three out of five screams.
♦ May 12: Mainstream Media Scream: A potpourri of anti-GOP rants from Chris Matthews
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features MSNBC's Chris Matthews at his anti-Republican crankiness height. From last Thursday's Hardball:
“Let me finish tonight with this insidious plan to scare up right-wing voters and scare off the votes the of those who tend to vote Democratic. This is just the kind of campaign mentality that leads to trouble on the part of those who pursue it. Everyone knows the Republicans are heading for a good election night this November. They are poised to win the Senate. Poised, at least, and to pick up five to ten seats in the House of Representatives. You know it. They know it. Believe me, smart Democrats know it.
“So why this plan to roll up the score, to bring out the crazies on the right and to drown out the progressives, including many minorities who will be intimidated by the new Republican-pushed voter laws? I've watched how exactly this kind of stuff blows up in your face. It did with Richard Nixon several times in 1950 when he called his senatorial opponent pink right down to her underwear and in 1972 when he took a sure win for re-election and turned it into Watergate.
“The trouble with nasty politics like the kind we're getting from the House leadership is that it makes you look nasty, makes it look like you're money-grubbing on the deaths of those four American diplomats, like you're ready to kill a little more faith in government to get a few more votes. It's a rotten deal, and the people who play it will pay for it. Maybe not this year, but in the years to come. You can't build a brand by painting a bathtub ring around your rivals. Why? Because people, voters, are watching when you do it. So is the media. Nobody wants somebody in the White House who got there through scare tactics and keeping people from voting.”Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “A potpourri of Matthews at his crankiest, denouncing conservatives as ‘nasty’ while sounding very much like an old man yelling at the neighborhood kids to get off his lawn. Matthews needs new material.”
Rating: Four out of five screams.
♦ May 5: Mainstream Media Scream: Meet the Press ratings boost with will.i.am
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features efforts by the slumping NBC Sunday public affairs show "Meet the Press" to get a ratings boost by featuring William Adams, founder and frontman for Black Eyed Peas, better known by the stage name will.i.am.
During the regular media roundtable hosted by host David Gregory, the singer sounded a bit confused by Washington, at one point saying, “I don't understand the complex between Republicans, Democrats, Congress. Like that whole dance, to me, it just turns me off.”
That amused Gregory, who, as the panel laughed, turned to Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz for help. “Congressman, can you explain that?”Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “The Sunday morning interview shows are supposed to bring an understanding of the national government in Washington, D.C., to viewers across the country, not showcase naive outsiders who boast of their ignorance. It seems David Gregory, frustrated by plummeting viewership, is now just trying silly gimmicks to create a buzz.”
Rating: Four out of five screams.
♦ April 28: “Mainstream Scream: CBS’s Bob Schieffer says only Mitt Romney can save GOP”
(Washington Examiner post)
This week’s Mainstream Media Scream features CBS Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer suggesting that the Republican Party is so scared of having a right-wing presidential candidate that Mitt Romney will run again if moderate Jeb Bush declines to enter the race.
During his show’s roundtable, Schieffer said:
“Jeb Bush is apparently now thinking about running. And, you know, I have a source that told me that, if Jeb Bush decides not to run, that Mitt Romney may actually try it again. Because they‘re very concerned that the party is not moving forward, that the party has moved so far to the right that, you know, they can’t elect a presidential candidate.”Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “Whoever planted this little nugget with Schieffer knew they had an eager recipient, open to the idea Republicans are just too darn conservative and credulous to the notion the third time would be the charm for Romney. No journalist better encapsulates the conventional wisdom of the Washington press corps than Schieffer.”
Rating: Three out of five screams.
♦ April 21: Baby bias: 5-to-1, media coos over Chelsea Clinton’s baby vs. Jenna Bush’s
(Washington Examiner post)
Politically speaking, two Bushes have been president to one Clinton, but when it came to the media's cheering of baby news from former first daughters Jenna Bush and Chelsea Clinton, it was Clinton who was declared American royalty.
A Media Research Center study for this week's Mainstream Media Scream found that the Big Three nightly network broadcasts gave Bush a combined 33 seconds for her happy news to Clinton's four minutes, 32 seconds. And the morning news shows gushed over Clinton, seeing "royalty" in the new grandchild to Bill and Hillary Clinton.
The MRC report for Secrets:
On Wednesday morning, December 12, 2012, Jenna Bush Hager, the daughter of former President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush, announced on NBC’s Today show that she was expecting. The broadcast networks were hardly excited, as illustrated by how that evening the NBC Nightly News allocated 33 seconds to the revelation while neither ABC’s World News nor the CBS Evening News bothered to mention it.
ABC’s newscast, however, made time to feature a Barbara Walters “exclusive” with Hillary Clinton, in which Walters yearned to learn: “Will you consider running for president in 2016?”
Fast forward to this past Thursday. Chelsea Clinton, daughter of a president and first lady belonging to the media’s preferred party, announced she’s pregnant – and the networks broke out the baby showers in joy. The ABC and NBC evening newscasts devoted full stories, consuming more than two minutes each, while CBS gave it 32 seconds.
The next morning, ABC’s Bianna Golodryga (wife of Peter Orszag, former OMB director for President Obama), couldn’t contain her excitement on Friday’s Good Morning America: “This morning, Americans have their own royal, or, rather, presidential baby, to look forward to.”Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick of the baby news coverage for this week’s scream: “Television news has spent more time fawning over Hillary Clinton as grandmother over the last few days than they have over past year looking into her role in Benghazi. The Clintons are truly royalty to too many in the press corps, as exemplified so well by the glowing Golodryga.”
Rating: Four out of five screams.
♦ April 14: Mainstream Media Scream: MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski says of Obama, ‘Praise Jesus!’
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features MSNBC's "Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski and her ?Praise Jesus!' moment at the White House helping President Obama push for "Paycheck Fairness Act" April 9.
Co-host Joe Scarborough: “Speaking of women, yesterday, a big event at the White House. You were there along with [top Obama aide] Valerie [Jarrett], and a lot of other people and, of course, the president. Tell us about the event.”
Brzezinski: “So this is the East Room of the White House, and it was sort of like a church revival. I'm telling you, every time the president made a comment about why women should be paid equally to men -- equal pay for equal work, talking about the same jobs -- you'd hear like 'okay,' and there'd be clapping, and like almost 'praise Jesus!' It was fun.”Media Research Center Vice President of Research and Publications Brent Baker explains our pick: “Yes, the Obama White House serves as the media’s temple, a revival house where Brzezinski and other journalists go to praise their deity and get re-energized to promote his policies. Brzezinski is just more open than the rest of the Washington press corps in admitting the obvious.”
Rating: Four out of five screams.
♦ April 7: Mainstream Media Scream: NYT’s Tom Friedman slaps climate change skeptics
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman rapping climate change skeptics for not conforming to the mainstream view that global warming is real and a danger.
On Sunday’s CBS' "Face the Nation," in a segment promoting sister network Showtime’s upcoming global warming series, "Years of Living Dangerously," Friedman said:
"Let me put it in personal terms. So, your son or daughter has a disease and you go to 100 doctors. 97 percent of them, 97 of the hundred say this is the cause and this is the cure. And three percent say this is the cause, this is the cure. That is what it is on the climate science. 97 percent of experts say this, three percent say that and conservatives are saying 'I’m going go to with the three percent.' That’s not conservative, that's Trotskyite radical. Okay? That you would go with the three percent and not the 97 percent."Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “If anyone is employing Trotskyite tactics in the global warming debate, it's Friedman and the conformists who want to eliminate dissent from anyone who dares to question the presumptions behind their big government regulatory agenda in the guise of scientific ?consensus.' If the science is so solid, why are they so eager to denigrate doubters?”
Rating: Four out of five screams.
♦ March 31: Mainstream Media Scream: On way out, Piers Morgan demands gun control
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features CNN's Piers Morgan, his last day on air, blasting the National Rifle Association and claiming he's helped push gun control with a tremendous whack.
At the end of his final show for CNN on Friday night:
“The gun lobby in America, led by the NRA, has bullied this nation’s politicians into cowardly supine silence — even when twenty young children are blown away in their classrooms. This is a shameful situation that, frankly, has made me very angry — so angry, in fact, that some people are criticizing me for being too loud, opinionated, even rude when I’ve debated the issue of guns. But I make no apologies for that. As Sir Winston Churchill said, ‘If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver — hit the point once, then come back and hit it again. Then, hit it a third time — a tremendous whack.’
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“My point is simple: More guns doesn’t mean less crime, as the NRA repeatedly tries to tell you. It means more gun violence, more death and more profits for the gun manufacturers. And to those who claim my gun control campaigning has been anti-American — well, the reverse is true. I’m so pro-American, I want more of you to stay alive. But I’ve made my point. I’ve given it a tremendous whack.
“Now, it’s down to you. It is your country. These are your gun laws. And the senseless slaughter will only end when enough Americans stand together and cry 'enough!' I look forward to that day. I also look forward to seeing you all again soon. Thank you, and God bless America. Oh, and while I’m at it, God bless Great Britain, too. Good night.”Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “Good riddance. Morgan was annoying to the end with his condescending lecturing of Americans about gun rights inspired by colonial fears of the country from which he hails: Great Britain. He rudely yelled at guests to 'shut up' when they dared defend gun owners. Now we can all shut him off and CNN can spend another hour with talking heads re-hashing the search for the Malaysian Airlines plane.”
Rating: Four out of five screams.
♦ March 24: Mainstream Media Scream: NBC ‘surprised’ Obama not on list of greatest leaders
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features NBC's "Today" hosts expressing surprise that Fortune Magazine's new list of the 50 greatest leaders didn't include President Obama.
From the Thursday, March 20 "Today" show on NBC:
Savannah Guthrie: “We are back now at 8:14 with ?What's Trending Today.' And this morning, Fortune magazine is releasing its first list of the world's 50 greatest leaders. The issue's out tomorrow. We're going to get an exclusive look right now at who makes the list. Bill Clinton comes in at number five and makes the cover. There are a lot of other notable names here.
“Tell you what, though, there may be some talk about one leader who did not make the list, the leader of the free world, President Obama. Fortune tells us he was not overlooked, he just did not make the cut.”
Natalie Morales: “In the top 50.”
Matt Lauer: “Yeah, that’s surprising.”Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “Another example of how out of touch the media elite are from the rest of America. Obama’s approval rating is cratering, well below 50 percent, as his foreign policy experiences setback after setback. Yet Guthrie and Lauer are surprised he’s not automatically considered one of the world’s ‘greatest’ leaders.’ ”
Rating: Three out of five screams.
♦ March 18: Mainstream Media Scream: CNN’s Chris Cuomo ‘sick’ over GOP theme music
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features CNN's "New Day" morning show co-host Chris Cuomo decrying the “Price is Right” theme song used to introduce winning Florida Republican House candidate David Jolly, unaware it was a salute to longtime host Bob Barker, who had endorsed Jolly.
Moments before Cuomo made his lament, correspondent Dana Bash played a clip from Jolly's rally — including the famous TV game show's theme — as she covered the results of the election last week. Co-anchor Michaela Pereira pointed out the musical choice, as a lead-in for her colleague's rant: "Did you notice what they're playing there?"
Cuomo: We're watching the video there of the guy celebrating the win, and the song is called "Sixth Finger Tune." It is the theme song from The Price Is Right-
Brooke Baldwin: How do you know the name of that?
Cuomo: They just told me in my ear what the name of the song is. I wouldn't know anything. [Pointing to earpiece] You see this? There's my brain-
Baldwin: [Pointing to earpiece] The brilliant people talk to Chris in his ear — the smart people-
Cuomo: Here's the secret to Chris Cuomo's intelligence on TV — it's hanging right there. But here's the thing-
Baldwin: Yes.
Cuomo: What a metaphor for what politics has become — that they are playing the theme song of "The Price Is Right"-
Baldwin: The Price Is Right!
Pereira: From The Price Is Right!
Cuomo: When they celebrate a victory, because it's about the money! It makes me sick.Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “Not so much ‘what a metaphor for what politics has become,’ but a metaphor for what CNN has become: Vapid, uninformed political commentary in search of proving liberal points -- instead of focusing on a big setback for President Obama and Obamacare. Cuomo proved himself about as informed on current events as the typical screaming Price is Right contestant.”
Rating: Four out of five screams.
♦ March 10: Mainstream Media Scream: MSNBC duo call Sarah Palin a ‘moron’
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features two MSNBC "Morning Joe"favorites, co-host Mika Brzezinski and frequent guest Mike Barnicle, on Monday calling Tea Party favorite Sarah Palin a “moron” following her address to CPAC on Saturday.
Barnicle led off the MSNBC tirade: “I have a question. The word conservative can mean many things. I mean, there’s many definitions to it, but what does it say about a group, CPAC, where the most popular speaker they had and the one who received the most rousing reception is a moron, Sarah Palin? I mean, she received a reception at that group that took the roof off the place. Sophomoric, nearly libelous, not amusing. What does it say about that group?”
Later in the segment, host Joe Scarborough said: “Barnicle, you need to lighten up. The kids are just having fun, okay?”
Added Brzezinski: “A moron? A multi-million dollar moron selling a message ...”
Scarborough: “What are you talking about? Stop saying that.”
Brzezinski: “… that the extremes love to gobble up.”
Scarborough: “You don’t think that. A very smart woman. You think she’s a smart woman.”
Brzezinski: “I think she is savvy in terms of selling a message that makes a lot of money.”Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “The easy retort would be to say it takes one to know one, but Sarah Palin would never sink that low to denigrate Barnicle or Brzezinski with such a personal insult, so I won’t. It’s too bad, however, that MSNBC hosts don’t, while decrying the supposed incivility of the ‘far right,’ show any hesitation to deride politicians with cheap name-calling — if they are popular conservatives.”
Rating: Five out of five screams.
♦ March 3: Mainstream Media Scream: Tony Kornheiser links Arizona to Nazi Germany
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features sports analyst and former Washington Post columnist Tony Kornheiser comparing Arizona to Nazi Germany during his show on ESPN, "Pardon the Interruption."
Said Kornheiser:Arizona has become, in recent years, the most recalcitrant backward-looking state in the country when it comes to social change. They were the last to ratify Martin Luther King Day as a holiday. They have this bill which enabled police to stop somebody and say, "Because we think you’re an illegal alien." And now you have this, with gay people. How are they supposed to be identified? Should they wear a yellow star, because my people went through that at one point.
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “No place is safe from liberal hyperbole, not even a sports show. It figures it would take a Washington Post veteran to interject politics, but the comparison is too ludicrous to take seriously.”
Rating: Four out of five screams.
♦ February 24: Revolving door: New trend is Obama aides taking top media jobs
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features a new report from the Media Research Center about the revolving door between Team Obama and the news media. The total has now reached 30, with MSNBC's debut of two shows Monday, Ronan Farrow's “Ronan Farrow Daily” and Joy-Ann Reid's “The Reid Report.” Both have toiled for President Obama.
“Ours is a strict ‘revolving door’ list, sticking to those with jobs as reporters, editors, correspondents, anchors, producers or media executives, not those who just have or had roles as ‘contributors’ to news outlets,” said MRC.
The MRC report lists all 30.
“I've tracked the news media-political position revolving door since the Reagan days, and never have I seen so many journalists leave the news media to help advance the cause of a presidential administration by joining it. At least 25 so far, with White House press secretary Jay Carney, who had been Time magazine's Washington Bureau Chief, the poster child,” said Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker.
“Today, some examples of those spinning the other way, taking media jobs after working for Obama. Ronan Farrow, who held several jobs in Obama’s State Department, gets an MSNBC show as does Joy-Ann Reid, who toiled in the press office during Obama’s 2008 campaign.
“The more common news media to Obama revolving door is just one more sign of the far from adversarial relationship between the two, where the Obama administration treats news outlets as free recruitment services and journalists look to the administration for cozy jobs where they can push their liberal views without the pretense of journalistic strictures.”
Rating: Five out of five screams.
♦ February 17: Mainstream Media Scream: Mika Brzezinski ponders Hillary Clinton having White House affair with younger man
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features Mika Brzezinski, of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" show, decrying Sen. Rand Paul and other Republicans as sexist “little peanuts” for raising Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky when talking about Hillary Clinton's 2016 bid. She also suggests that sexism is at play, and asks what would have happened to Hillary Clinton had she had an affair.
From Monday morning's show, Brzezinski said: “Any Republican who is bringing this up and dredging this up is a misogynistic, sexist hypocrite because if Bill Clinton can win again with all these problems and Hillary Clinton, they can bring down because of this and they think they can even go after it, they are clueless and they are complete sexists because it's not even her affair.
“Now, let me ask you this. If she had an affair in the White House with a younger man, would the same result be 20 years later, ten years later, would she be able to run again and win? Hell, no. This is still a man's world. You guys are all -- I'm sorry, not you but, just please. I better not go on. This whole thing's ridiculous and these Republicans, please. Please keep doing it. Rand Paul, please. I beg you, keep going after it. Because I'll tell you right now, it will backfire so badly. It will backfire so badly and you guys will be in the same exact place where you are right now. ...
“There's a man/woman, sexist misogynistic, hypocritical thing going on here. ... If you’re Hillary Clinton and you’re weighing whether to run, and these little peanuts do this? You’ve just inspired her to run!”Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “Mika Brzezinski: I am woman, hear me roar! She’s running to head up the media’s Hillary Clinton Protection Squad, resurrecting the vast right-wing conspiracy so she can denigrate anyone who dares bring up a topic harmful to Saint Hillary. Of course, she ignored the underlying point about Democratic hypocrisy in attacking Republicans for a supposed ‘war on women’ while embracing a man who conducted his own war on women.”
Rating: Four out of five screams.
♦ February 11: Mainstream Media Scream: Chris Matthews tells GOP Obama’s ‘not the freaking devil’
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features a regular, MSNBC's Chris Matthews venting about the GOP “Amen chorus” against President Obama on his show "Hardball."
“The continual statement that gets you where you want to go in right wing Republican politics – and that’s almost the same thing now — is simply always being against the president. Somebody in the room says the president ought to be executed. You pile on and say, yeah, he is an outlaw.
“Anything that's nasty, 'oh the president's screwing the economy,' 'he's costing jobs,' anything that's nasty about this guy has now become the Amen chorus of the Republican Party. You can't ever put your hand up like John McCain did wondrously. Remember? And he said, no, he's a good man when the woman said he is an Arab -- not that that's a bad thing -- but she meant it's a bad thing. He said, no, he's a good American.
“When is anybody else going to do that? Is that like something you don’t do anymore in Republican Party, say a wait a minute, hold your horses, we disagree on policy, but he’s not the freaking devil?”Media Research Center Vice President of Research and Publications Brent Baker explains our pick: “Better question: When is Matthews going to stop painting conservatives as devils by recognizing that not every conservative is a racist inspired by Jefferson Davis to hate Obama – a derogatory caricature he repeatedly forwards?”
Rating: Three out of five screams.
♦ February 3: Mainstream Media Scream: NBC’s David Gregory begs public to give Obama credit on economy
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features NBC's David Gregory complaining on NBC's State of the Union coverage and his "Meet The Press" Sunday show that President Obama isn't getting the credit for the economy, which he said “is getting better.”
Near the beginning of NBC's State of the Union coverage, he insisted “the economy's getting better,” declaring: “That's what this president had to do. He had to make the economy better. And, yet he's not getting a lot of credit for it.”
Then, on the Feb. 2 "Meet the Press", Gregory fretted to White House chief of staff Denis McDonough: “Do you ever wonder why the president doesn’t get more credit for an economy that is rebounding? What’s the disconnect there?”Media Research Center Vice President of Research and Publications Brent Baker explains our pick: “The disconnect is Gregory’s disconnect from reality. To whatever extent the economy is slightly improving, it’s despite Obama’s policies, such as the burdens and uncertainties of Obamacare. President Reagan fixed the economy within three years, yet the media continuously derided “Reaganomics.” Obama has yet to achieve Reagan’s success, but journalists like Gregory never deride ‘Obamanomics.’”
Rating: Four out of five screams.
♦ January 27: Mainstream Media Scream: New Yorker editor heralds scandal-free Obama
(Washington Examiner post)
This week’s Mainstream Media Scream features the New Yorker’s David Remnick, author of the lengthy interview with President Obama, hailing the president’s “huge” achievements during an interview with Charlie Rose on PBS. He also credits Obama with a scandal-free administration, shrugging off Benghazi, the IRS and National Security Administration snooping affairs, and Obamacare’s troubles.
REMNICK: That the fact that this country didn't fall into a depression, an economic depression, which it could easily have done. The fact that we are out of Iraq for all the problems in Iraq. Getting there in Afghanistan. The auto industry saved. Gay rights more and more ensured, not without help from the president of the United States. The fact that there's been no scandal, major scandal, in this administration, which is a rare thing in an administration. The fact that science is now discussed as science. The fact that climate change, however woefully inadequate the measures for it, is now --
ROSE: Does this measure up to greatness for you?
REMNICK: Well, let’s wait till the end. Let’s wait till the end. A lot of things could go wrong and —
ROSE: But all those things have already happened.
REMNICK: Well, I think those achievements are huge, yes.
ROSE: Huge?
REMNICK: Yes.Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “To think it was in the very interview with Remnick that Obama had the chutzpah to complain about how Fox News and Rush Limbaugh were undermining his wonderful policies. Remnick's genuflection before Obama's greatness demonstrates, for the umpteenth time, that the mainstream media are in the tank for Obama, itching for opportunities to trumpet his fantastic accomplishments.”
Rating: Four out of five screams.
♦ January 21, 2014: Mainstream Media Scream: Ed Schultz baffled Democrats are running from Obamacare
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features MSNBC's Ed Schultz, host of "The Ed Show," expressing shock that Democrats aren't embracing Obamacare in their campaigns.
On last week’s show, he said:
“I was visiting with some lawmakers last night in Washington and, obviously, we talked a lot about health care when I was visiting with them, and I asked them, ?Are you -- do you have a problem running on it?' There does seem to be, for some reason, a reluctance by Democrats to run home and talk about how positive this health care law is. And I find that very interesting.”Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “Schultz has lost all touch with reality if he is really baffled about why Democrats are distancing themselves from Obamacare. He’s redefined ‘in the tank for Obama.’ If this is the kind of advice Democrats heed from MSNBC, things are looking a lot brighter for Republicans this fall.”
Rating: Three out of five screams.
♦ January 13, 2014: Mainstream Media Scream: MSNBC's Chris Matthews warns GOP ‘haters’ will ‘erase’ Obama
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features a regular, MSNBC's Chris Matthews, warning that Republicans want to return America to its racist, Jim Crow past.
He opened his Jan. 7 episode of "Hardball" by recounting how President Obama will solve income inequality, but he despaired that without lots of Democratic voters in the 2014 midterms, the GOP will instead push the nation back.
“If only the people who voted in 2010 show up this November, you can kiss all this goodbye. You'll see the beginning of the end to what could have been -- what many of us believe should have been -- an historic turn toward full democratic government in this country, where everyone has a chance for the top office, where everyone is looked after by those in power. It will mean Republican control of both the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. And with that, a slow grinding effort to kill not just the president's health care plan, but his presidency itself and the legacy it promised.
“It will be a double downing of efforts to suppress the votes of those who voted for him in historic numbers, the return to something like Jim Crow days, relevant of all the old anti-black gimmickry of that time — literacy tests and poll taxes and all the rest. The goal will be to erase not just Obama from the history books, but any evidence that someone of his background should ever think of being president. It will mean victory for the haters.
“And believe me, it could well mean another war, like the two we got from [George] W. [Bush], wars that achieved nothing but the deaths of Americans and the growing hatred of those we claim to be out there saving. The Dick Cheneys of the city, right here in town, are still aprowl, still stalking one more chance to get us back there in Iraq, still there in Afghanistan and heading toward Libya or Syria or Iran, wherever they can point the way and blow the bugle.”Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “Matthews is the wacky uncle who lacks self-awareness and so never figures out everyone is laughing at him while he’s spouting off with accusations impugning the motivations of others. He’s the ‘hater’ with an irrational, paranoid fear of conservatives.”
Rating: Four out of five screams.
♦ January 6, 2014: Mainstream Media Scream: Bryant Gumbel accuses GOP of extortion
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features the return of former "Today" co-host Bryant Gumbel to discuss the top stories of 2012, during which he slammed the GOP over the government shutdown.
Reviewing Culturalist.com’s list of top news stories of 2013 on "Today" last week, current co-host Matt Lauer said to Gumbel:
“At number five, the federal government shutdown. I think that was on most of our lists as well.”
Gumbel: “Yeah, but I called it the GOP shutdown. ... I thought it was a false equivalency for people to say it was a government shutdown, a failure of government. It was not. It was a few individuals who were trying to extort the government.”Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: “A reminder of why we don't miss Gumbel. He was MSNBC before there was an MSNBC. You could always count on him to arrogantly deliver the liberal spin with contempt for conservatives.”
Rating: Four out of five screams.
>> Previous “Mainstream Media Screams,” for June 18, 2013 through the end of 2013. <<
>> “Mainstream Media Screams,” from January 2012 through June 11, 2013. <<
— Brent Baker is the Steven P.J. Wood Senior Fellow and Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center. Follow Brent Baker on Twitter.
