CNN Anchors Lobby on Behalf of Planned Parenthood; Hillary’s Abortion Defense = Her 'Best Day'
CNN Anchors Lobby on Behalf of Planned Parenthood
“Why do you want to defund Planned Parenthood?....Why not try to fix the organization, from your perspective, and allow all of these women to get the services that they have relied on at these 800 clinics, Planned Parenthood clinics, around the country?”
— CNN’s Wolf Blitzer to GOP presidential candidate Rand Paul on Wolf, July 30.
“Those videos have been maligned by both sides as being selectively edited and showing something that is legal and a ongoing practice....What is done in terms of using tissue for research and being reimbursed is something that you’ve long been aware of, Congressman, has long been legal, and is certainly not cause for outrage — or at least hasn’t been until now....You shouldn’t rush to defund, should you?”
— CNN New Day co-anchor Chris Cuomo to Rep. Diane Black (R-TN), August 3.
Hillary’s Abortion Defense = Her “Best Day” as a Candidate
Bloomberg host John Heilemann: “You saw her today give a very fiery, very passionate, and I thought very authentic attack on Marco Rubio specifically, and on the Republicans more generally, on women’s issues, coming out of the debate....”
Bloomberg host Mark Halperin: “In talking about reproductive freedom, in talking about Marco Rubio and his position about no exceptions for rape and incest for abortion, she was passionate and herself....Best day I’ve seen her have as a candidate in this cycle.”
— Discussion on PBS’s Charlie Rose, August 10.
Gushing Over Hillary’s “Brilliant” Granny Schtick
“She does have a new message out from the last time, which is the grandmother message, and she’s using it very well. On climate change for instance, when she says, ‘Everybody says I’m not a scientist.’ She says, ‘I’m not a scientist either, I’m just a grandmother with two eyes and a brain.’ That’s brilliant.”
— ABC’s Cokie Roberts talking about Hillary Clinton, This Week, August 2.
Hillary’s E-Mail Scandal: We’ll Never Satisfy the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy
Correspondent Pete Williams: “What we’re told, repeatedly, is that the FBI is not investigating people — it’s investigating how the system worked, and did classified information wrongly get onto the server.”
Anchor Andrea Mitchell: “Anne Gearan [of the Washington Post], there’s going to be a cloud of suspicion, though, by those who just want to see conspiracy theories. There’s almost no way she can clear this up to the satisfaction of critics on the other side in terms of the politics of this.”
— MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports, August 12.
Can We Blame Hillary’s Bad Polls on Media Unfairness?
“These unfavorable poll numbers came immediately after an inaccurate report [in the New York Times] that you confronted directly, which led to a lot of other inaccurate reporting before it was corrected — the inaccurate reporting about the referral from the Inspectors General. Do you feel that there is a problem, that she’s being treated unfairly?”
— Anchor Andrea Mitchell to Clinton spokeswoman Jen Palmieri on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports, August 4.
Bernie Sanders’s “Wonderful and Refreshing” Socialist Agenda
“Meanwhile, they have Bernie Sanders out there, you know, stating a case. And many of them probably don’t agree with everything he has to say, but it’s just so wonderful and refreshing to have somebody saying some of these things.”
— Boston Globe national political reporter Annie Linskey on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, August 12.
Biden’s Blunders = “Political Charm”
“[Vice President Joe] Biden is an experienced campaigner. If he runs, it would be his third attempt at the White House....But he’s also had his fair share of stumbles — from back rubs to BFD’s, Biden is a gaffe-making machine. But those ‘Oh, that Joe’ moments are part of his political charm.”
— ABC reporter Mary Bruce on Good Morning America, August 2.
Falsely Bashing GOP for “Not Much Diversity”
Associated Press correspondent Julie Pace: “If you look at the 17 Republican candidates right now, there’s not much diversity in terms of gender and race. What does that say to the American public about diversity in the Republican Party and should that be a priority for the party to diversify?”...
Anchor Bret Baier: “And I just will point out that the Republican Party has the same number of women and one more African American in the field than the Democratic Party.”
— During the panel segment on FNC’s Special Report, July 30. The current GOP field also includes two Hispanic candidates; there are none on the Democratic side.
Expose GOP’s Angry Radicalism by Asking About Raising Gasoline Taxes
“Why is this such a key question? Because it cuts to the core of what is undermining the Republican Party today and, indirectly, our country: There is no longer a Republican center-right that would have no problem raising the gas tax for something as fundamental as infrastructure. Sure, there are center-right candidates — like Jeb Bush and John Kasich. But can they run, win and govern from the center-right when the base of their party and so many of its billionaire donors reflect the angry anti-science, anti-tax, anti-government, anti-minorities, anti-gay rights and anti-immigration views of the Tea Party and its media enforcer, Fox News?”
— New York Times writer Thomas Friedman in an August 5 column, “My G.O.P. Debate Question,” in which he says he would ask the candidates to agree to an increase of five cents per gallon in the federal gasoline tax.
Matthews in Distress: No Questions About “Denial of Voter Rights”
“Let me ask you about what wasn’t talked about tonight and, you know, I’m proud of the fact on this show, Hardball, and other shows on MSNBC, we have been talking about denial of voter rights, I mean, almost every week....It never came up tonight in this two-hour debate.”
— MSNBC’s Chris Matthews during a post-GOP debate edition of Hardball, August 6.
At Least He’s Keeping an Open Mind
“I think Donald Trump is the loudest voice of intolerance, division and hatred right now in America.”
— Univision and Fusion news anchor Jorge Ramos on CNN’s Reliable Sources, August 9.
Republicans Deserve Any Damage Caused by Their “Trumpenstein” Monster
“I used to be really sick of Trump....But I’ve completely changed. Now, I’m real interested in hearing what he has to say, because my basic attitude is, [it] couldn’t happen to a nicer political party. They’re getting what they deserve. They have created ‘Trumpenstein.’ It’s their own Frankenstein monster. And this is what happens when you do what they’ve done for the last five to 10 years — it’s their just desserts as a political party.”
— Longtime Newsweek senior editor Jonathan Alter, now a Bloomberg columnist and MSNBC contributor, on MSNBC’s PoliticsNation, August 11.
So Much Easier If Conservative Talk Radio Would Just Go Away
“The unanimity among establishment Republicans — many of them conservatives by the definition of anyone but purists — that right-wing media has become a big problem for the party, and their readiness to talk about it, was something of a surprise to this reporter of three decades’ experience in Washington. Of the establishment Republicans among several dozen conservatives interviewed, nearly all were flummoxed about how to moderate the party. Most expressed despair. The common hope was that the ultimate 2016 nominee could and would speak truth to power — the power, that is, of conservative media and their allies in the well-heeled advocacy groups.”
— New York Times national reporter Jackie Calmes in her July 27 paper for Harvard’s Shorenstein Center, “‘They Don’t Give a Damn About Governing’ — Conservative Media’s Influence on the Republican Party.”
MSNBC Slams Reagan: Just as Wacky as Trump or Palin
“Today is Medicare’s birthday. It was 50 years ago today that Lyndon Johnson signed the Medicare bill into law in 1965. One of the loudest opponents of Medicare was actor Ronald Reagan, who was then the Donald Trump of his time, a celebrity with no governing experience and very forceful opinions about government....Reagan’s fantasies about what Medicare would do to America makes Sarah Palin’s false attacks on ObamaCare seem shy.”
— Host Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC’s The Last Word, July 30.
PBS Anchor Gets Huffy: “I’m Not Part of the Liberal Media”
Columnist Mark Shields: “I really think he [Trump] made a serious mistake by going, retaliating, attacking Megyn Kelly....First of all, Fox News is the validator, it’s the gatekeeper for Republican, particularly conservative voters. And you don’t go after — it is not like you’re attacking Chuck Todd or Judy Woodruff or some member of the liberal elite establishment. You’re attacking the mother church when you go after Fox.”
Anchor Judy Woodruff: “Well, let’s make a distinction here, please. I’m not part of the liberal media.”
— Exchange on the PBS NewsHour, August 7.
Mourning the Departure of Jon Stewart, “Invaluable Patriot”
“Oh, my goodness, it is the end of an era. In a few days, Jon Stewart will bid farewell to The Daily Show and all of us....The saddest thing about this is that the Republican first debate is Thursday night. So we don’t have Jon Stewart Friday.”
— Co-host Tamron Hall on NBC’s Today, August 3. Stewart’s show never aired on Fridays.
“Along the way, for many millennials and for the media elite, Stewart came to be regarded as a beacon guiding his viewers through a sea of spin and cynicism....Stewart remains impossible to replace — a true 21st century anchor.”
— Correspondent Chris Connelly on ABC’s Good Morning America, August 6.
“Four nights a week for sixteen years, Jon Stewart, the host and impresario of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, has taken to the air to expose our civic bizarreries. He has been heroic and persistent. Blasted into orbit by a trumped-up (if you will) impeachment and a stolen Presidential election, and then rocketing through the war in Iraq and right up to the current electoral circus, with its commodious clown car teeming with would-be Commanders-in-Chief, Stewart has lasered away the layers of hypocrisy in politics and in the media. On any given night, a quick montage of absurdist video clips culled from cable or network news followed by Stewart’s vaudeville reactions can be ten times as deflating to the self-regard of the powerful as any solemn editorial — and twice as illuminating as the purportedly non-fake news that provides his fuel....Stewart set out to be a working comedian, and he ended up an invaluable patriot.”
— New Yorker editor David Remnick writing in the August 10 issue.
CNN’s Weird Logic: When Ted Cruz Cooks Bacon, Kids Could Die
“We no longer respect our weapons. We forget that guns can actually kill. If you want the facts to back that up, 100 children were killed in unintentional shootings between December 2012 and 2013 — the year after the Newtown shootings, by the way — and there have been 1,104 accidental shootings so far this year. It’s great Senator Cruz loves guns. Nothing wrong with that. But seriously, while a jury in Colorado decides whether James Holmes gets life or death for killing 12 people, should you fry bacon on your machine gun?...At what point do you cross the line or is there no longer a line to cross?...Can’t he just say he loves guns? Why did he have to fry bacon on his machine gun?”
— CNN Newsroom anchor Carol Costello, August 4, talking about a light-hearted Internet video where Cruz cooks bacon by wrapping it around the barrel of an AR-15 rifle at a shooting range.
PUBLISHER: L. Brent Bozell III
EDITORS: Brent H. Baker, Rich Noyes, Tim Graham
DEPUTY RESEARCH DIRECTOR: Geoffrey Dickens
RESEARCH ANALYST: Mike Ciandella
NEWS ANALYSTS: Scott Whitlock, Kyle Drennen, Matthew Balan, Jeffrey Meyer and Curtis Houck
INTERNS: Connor Williams, Spencer Raley
