Lecturing Republicans: "Admit Reality" and Stop Pushing for ObamaCare Repeal
“Admit Reality” and Stop Pushing for ObamaCare Repeal
Anchor George Stephanopoulos: “I think one of the most interesting things we saw in the President’s speech right there, it was for a plea for the politics to end. He says the debate about repeal is over. Wishful thinking?”
ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd: “A little bit of wishful thinking on this. If you think about this, the President does get — you have to give the President ground to have some celebration....A little bit of dancing in the end zone. I think Republicans would be really smart [to] let him have the touchdown, don’t ask for instant replay, get off of repeal and basically try to argue over cost. Get off of the whole idea — this is the law of the land. Admit reality.”
— Exchange during ABC News live coverage of the President’s April 1 speech touting the latest ObamaCare enrollment figures.
Barack Obama, the “Comeback Kid”
“Health care’s comeback kid; Obama exults in 7M enrollment mark”
— Headline and subheadline over an April 2 front-page “news analysis” by USA Today’s Aamer Madhani.
Only a Crackpot Conspiracist Would Doubt ObamaCare Numbers
“Plus, the health care law truthers. They’re the right-wingers who loved the enrollment figures when they were low. Now that they’re up, the truthers are saying the numbers are cooked. It’s all a conspiracy.”
“Up next: We have seen the birthers and the 9/11 truthers. Remember them? Now meet the health care truthers, those creatures of the far right who say the Obama administration is cooking the enrollment numbers on the Affordable Care Act. That’s ahead.”
— Host Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball, April 3, teasing a segment about conservatives questioning the validity of President Obama’s claim that 7.1 million people have enrolled in ObamaCare.
Host Chris Matthews: “What can you say about these guys besides they are health care enrollment truthers right now?...”
Salon’s Joan Walsh: “That’s exactly it. This is a new form of birtherism....They’re sore losers. It’s sour grapes politics.”
— Exchange later in the same show.
When Will Mainstream Media Start “Being Fair to ObamaCare?”
“Give me a number. What would it take? What number would the mainstream media be happy with to think that we’re definitely headed in the right direction when it comes to health care reform in America?...Tonight’s question: Is the mainstream media being fair to ObamaCare?”
— MSNBC’s Ed Schultz on The Ed Show, April 7.
CNN’s “Card-Carrying Member of ObamaCare” Insists It’s Not Socialism
“I guess you could say I’m a card-carrying member of ObamaCare. While reviewing my options, something occurred to me. You know who should be angry about ObamaCare? Real socialists. The Tea Party opponents of the Affordable Care Act promised them a government incursion that the new law doesn’t deliver on....The only liberty interest that’s being sacrificed under the Affordable Care Act is one’s ability to be uninsured. And even that is violable. You can still exercise your right to be uninsured, but you’re going to have to pay a fine. Look, it’s too soon to know if the law’s going to work. We need to know about the mix within the states between the healthy and the sick and whether premiums are affordable. The only thing for certain is what it isn’t — socialism.”
— New CNN host Michael Smerconish during his 9pm ET hour Smerconish, April 1.
Pompous Piers Goes Out With an Anti-Gun Lecture
“The gun lobby in America, led by the NRA, has bullied this nation’s politicians into cowardly, supine silence....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....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!”
— CNN’s Piers Morgan wrapping up the last edition of Piers Morgan Live, March 28.
Brian Hypes: Climate Change Risks “Human Civilization”
“We’ve never been warned like this before, all of us, about climate change, nor have so many countries agreed quite this much on the clear and present danger it represents. Here is the takeaway: Unless the world changes course quickly and dramatically, the fundamental systems that support human civilization are at risk.”
— NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, March 31.
Conservatives = “Trotskyite Radicals” on Global Warming
“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.”
— New York Times columnist Tom Friedman on the April 6 Face the Nation on CBS.
A Fine Example of Liberal Tolerance: Agree with Us or Go to Jail
“Man-made climate change happens. Man-made climate change kills a lot of people. It’s going to kill a lot more. We have laws on the books to punish anyone whose lies contribute to people’s deaths. It’s time to punish the climate-change liars....Denialists should face jail. They should face fines....I’m talking about Rush and his multi-million-dollar ilk in the disinformation business. I’m talking about Americans for Prosperity and the businesses and billionaires who back its obfuscatory propaganda....Those malcontents must be punished and stopped.”
— Gawker.com staff writer Adam Weinstein in a March 28 post, “Arrest Climate-Change Deniers.”
Conservative Donors Make the Perfect “Demons”
“Harry Reid has been out there delivering this message for weeks, and I think others are just realizing the power of it. Look, everybody knows that in politics you need demons. And the Koch brothers are uniquely qualified to play that role. I mean, they couldn’t be any better for it if they were carrying around pitchforks and had horns.”
— Washington Post political columnist Dana Milbank on MSNBC’s PoliticsNation, April 7.
So-Called Journalist Finds It “Fun” to Join Obama’s Partisan Rally
Co-host Joe Scarborough: “Speaking of women, yesterday, 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.”
Co-host Mika Brzezinski, a former CBS News weekend anchor: “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,’ clapping, and almost like ‘praise Jesus.’ It was fun.”
— Talking about the President’s push for the “Paycheck Fairness Act” on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, April 9.
Wailing About the “Persecution” of Lois Lerner
“With health care dissipating as a potent political topic and scant red meat to take home to their Tea Party base over the recess, Republicans are trying to freshen up their favorite faux scandals and conspiracy theories....The attempt to criminally prosecute this woman really does ratchet up the level of what you might call persecution of her.”
— Host Joy Reid on MSNBC’s The Reid Report, April 9, talking about the House Ways and Means Committee recommendation of criminal charges against Lerner for her role in the IRS targeting of conservative groups.
Lack of Government Limits = “Democracy for Sale”
“For all practical purposes, this ruling is just one more sign that we no longer have any campaign laws that really matter. More and more, the very rich are taking control of our politics.”
— Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer on the CBS Evening News, April 2.
“As you look at this, here’s a new reality — right? — American democracy for sale. How do you have candidates in the future now going to the wealthiest donors in the country and saying, ‘I want an unlimited amount of money?’ How does that not at some point lead to corruption?...If I’m a person of great means, and I’ve got all these candidates saying ‘I want an unlimited amount of money,’ do you not worry that leads to corruption at some point?”
— Host David Gregory to plaintiff Shaun McCutcheon on Meet the Press, April 6. While the Supreme Court ruled there cannot be limits on the overall amount of money a person may contribute, the donation to a particular candidate or candidate committee continues to be capped at $2,600 per election.
NBC Yearns for “Remedy” to Conservative Court Decision
Anchor Brian Williams: “And Pete, back to ‘the voice of the people,’ as Justice Breyer put it, for the people who think what happened today was bad, looking for remedies, what would those be?”
Correspondent Pete Williams: “Well, there’s not much Congress can do because the Court said this is based on the Constitution...”
— April 2 NBC Nightly News.
Believe It or Not: There Are “Very, Very Powerful” Conservatives at ABC News
ABC Nightline co-anchor Dan Harris: “[In] my experience the bias is toward doing the, let’s just say, sexiest story possible, so that could have a conservative slant, that could have a liberal slant. What we want is viewers. We operate in a capitalist context....We actually have some very, very powerful voices, and I’m not going to say who, within our building, who are conservative. Very, very powerful....”
Host Steve Malzberg: “On air?”
Harris: “Yes. So-”
Malzberg: “Name one.”
Harris: “No. But I wouldn’t name one I thought was liberal either. So I’m just being fair.”
— Exchange on NewsmaxTV’s The Steve Malzberg Show, April 4.
Favoring Traditional Marriage = “Donating to the KKK” and “Owning Slaves”
“An analogy would be, you know, if this guy had donated some money to the KKK, and was then meeting with a company run by a black CEO. It’s just — it’s beyond the pale. Once you are donating money that strip people of their civil rights, you have stepped beyond the pale.... What if Brendan Eich’s position had been, ‘I want the civil right to own slaves?’ Would he still — would that be okay, because it’s just his opinion?”
— Business Insider investigative reporter Jim Edwards on the BBC’s World Have Your Say radio program on April 4, talking about the campaign that forced out Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich for donating $1,000 in support of California’s pro-traditional marriage Proposition 8 in 2008.
Using Art As Excuse to Bash Bush’s “Unforgivable Crime”
“Just because a painter has — for example — the blood of up to 136,012 dead Iraqis on his hands does not, in itself, prove that he lacks talent....One imagines that the excitement over Bush’s paintings forms part of a desperate national hunger for expiation from the unforgivable crime of his presidency, as if translating Bush into a sweet retiree at his easel will erase the illegal war, the obscene economic policy, the environmental spoliation, the executive power grab, the drowning of New Orleans. It is not to be.”
— Art critic Jason Farago in the British newspaper The Guardian, April 4.
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PUBLISHER: L. Brent Bozell III
EDITORS: Brent H. Baker, Rich Noyes, Tim Graham
DEPUTY RESEARCH DIRECTOR: Geoffrey Dickens
NEWS ANALYSTS: Scott Whitlock, Kyle Drennen, Matthew Balan, Matt Hadro and Jeffrey Meyer
INTERN: Paul Bremmer
