Tea Party "Not So Bright," Maybe Like Hitler's Mobs; Anchor Targets Sarah Palin's Outlaw Bus
CNN Host: Tea Partiers Not Bright, Like Hitler's Mobs?
Host Piers Morgan: "Where is the similar mob to Mussolini's and Hitler's in the modern democratic era?...The Tea Party?"
Ann Coulter: "No. No, no, no."
Morgan: "The nearest thing to it in America?"
— CNN's Piers Morgan Tonight, June 7. [Audio/video (0:52): Windows Media | MP3 audio]
Piers Morgan: "Are you wild about them?...The Tea Party?"...
Ann Coulter: "Oh, yeah, I love them."
Morgan: "See, I don't really get that....I don't get that because you're a smart cookie."
Coulter: "So are the Tea Partiers!"
Morgan: "What do people think about you? You're intelligent. You live a provocative life."
Coulter: "I believe you're insulting the Tea Partiers."
Morgan: "Well, they're not among the brightest of spellers, are they?"
— Exchange a few moments later on the same program.
Sarah Palin's Bus Tour a "Low Point" for the Media
"What I make of the coverage of this Palin bus tour — not the tour, but the coverage of it — is a media low point. Chasing around someone who, so far, is not running for President and who has been playing the kind of 'tease the media' games that only movie stars and reality stars play, is kind of a media low point."
— Correspondent Jessica Yellin on CNN Newsroom, May 31. [Audio/video (0:36): Windows Media | MP3 audio]
Palin's Painted Flag a "Breach of Federal Law"
"The whole thing [Sarah Palin's bus tour] could be in breach of a federal law, because the United States Flag Code establishes important rules for the use and display of the Stars and Stripes, the flag of the United States. Under standards of respect and etiquette, it's made clear that the flag of the United States should never be used for any advertising purpose whatsoever. Yet that's precisely what Sarah Palin is doing. She's using the flag of the United States for her own financial purposes. She drapes herself in the Stars and Stripes and makes millions of dollars in the process. This has got nothing to do with the presidency and everything to do with filling her pockets."
— MSNBC's Martin Bashir on his 3pm ET Martin Bashir, May 31. [Audio/video (1:02): Windows Media | MP3 audio]
ABC: When Government Cuts Spending, People Die
Diane Sawyer: "Tough choices were on the table today as dozens of House Republicans went to the White House....Hovering over the meeting in that room, the stories of cuts already made and their consequences."
Correspondent Jake Tapper: "On Monday, first responders in Alameda, California, stood by as a suicidal man walked into the Bay. Why? Due to budget cuts, they no longer train for water rescues. So they watched 53-year-old Raymond Zack drown....The problem is even bigger on the federal level. In Washington, D.C., Republicans say with $125 billion in new federal debt each month, the federal government needs to make even deeper cuts. They proposed cutting this year $35 million from the Food Safety Inspection Service, responsible for maintaining the safety of meat, poultry and eggs. And almost $53 million in transportation security grants to cities, which help fund explosives screening devices and bomb-sniffing dog teams."
— ABC's World News, June 1.
Fretting Obama Will Lose a Vital Critic from the Left
Anchor Scott Pelley: "Help us understand why Congressman Weiner matters."
Correspondent Nancy Cordes: "Well, Scott, he holds kind of a unique position in the Democratic caucus. You know, the President has a lot of critics on the right but Weiner is one of his most outspoken critics on the left wherever liberals feel that the President is straying too far from their principles in the pursuit of compromise. It's unclear how well he's really going to be able to perform that role now, a role that even the President has said is very important."
— CBS Evening News, June 6.
Upset Over Damage to a "Rising Star"
"Beyond the laughs here, this guy [Anthony Weiner] is a rising star in this state, especially in the city of New York, considered a front-runner for the next mayoral campaign. He talks about the personal toll this is taking on his marriage. What about the political toll?...How does he get ahead of this story again, or get it behind him?"
— NBC's Meredith Vieira to White House correspondent Chuck Todd on Today, June 2.
First Reaction to Weiner's X-Rated Tweet: Let's Smear a Conservative
"In his defense, I think we do need to point out that the person behind this is Andrew Breitbart, who has made a practice of targeting Democrats — Shirley Sherrod most notoriously of all. And his stories tend to fall apart on close inspection."
— CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin on Anderson Cooper 360, May 31.
"Look, Breitbart is a proven liar, okay? He doctored the Shirley Sherrod tapes. He's done this over and over again. Why would anybody take this fool seriously?"
— 6pm ET anchor Cenk Uygur on MSNBC News Live, June 1.
Obviously, "Somebody Is Out to Get" Anthony Weiner
Co-host Joy Behar: "But, Barbara, couldn't he be fully clothed almost and then they photocopy it and put it like that?"
Co-host Barbara Walters: "Somebody has to go to a lot of effort to get you in trouble."
Behar: "Well, somebody is out to get him, apparently, 'cause they don't like his politics."
— Exchange on ABC's The View, June 2. [Audio/video (1:01): Windows Media | MP3 audio]
"Weinergate" Just Another Opportunity to Smear Clarence Thomas
"Know who's probably loving #Weinergate? Clarence Thomas. In fact, given his porn affinity, I'm surprised Weiner hasn't blamed the Justice."
— Politico reporter Ken Vogel in a June 1 Twitter posting about the Weiner scandal.
The Clinton War Room Reunion
"I had a great trip yesterday. I went to Chicago, talked to new mayor, Rahm Emanuel, former White House chief of staff. It was his first time he's speaking out on a national stage....He is very happy.... The former congressman and White House chief of staff to President Obama is off to a fast start, already working his Rolodex to bring new jobs to the windy city....[to Emanuel] You know, if you do a good job here, a lot of Democrats are going to be talking about you to run for President in 2016."
— ABC's George Stephanopoulos touting his interview with Emanuel on Good Morning America, June 1.
Trying to Scare Candidates Away from "Hard-Right Positions"
"In the first presidential election since the Tea Party's emergence, Republican candidates are drifting rightward on a range of issues, even though more centrist stands might play well in the 2012 general election....Independents may be far less enamored of hard-right positions than are the GOP activists who will wield power in the Iowa caucuses, the New Hampshire primary and other nominating contests."
— AP writer Charles Babington in a May 30 piece headlined, "GOP presidential contenders drift to the right."
Pro-Growth Policies = "Oligarchy" of the "Very Wealthy"
"Well, he's serious in that he's pandering to the segment of the Republican Party, the very wealthy, by basically letting them off the hook for any responsibility. They're interested in buying back a government. And so he is out there trying to see to it that he is the one where they shower all their wealth on, so he can turn around then and lead the government and be the person who heads their oligarchy."
— Former CNN correspondent Bob Franken on MSNBC News Live, June 8, talking about Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty's proposal to cut tax rates to spur economic growth.
Stop Talking About Debt Reduction — We Need More Spending!
"Is this [May's 9.1 percent unemployment] kind of a wake-up call, do you think, to shift the political debate from what's been all about debt reduction and shift it back to job creation? I mean, is this an opportunity, for instance, to try to talk about creating jobs, and adding, maybe, another stimulus?"
— Host Christiane Amanpour to Obama White House economic advisor Austan Goolsbee, June 5 This Week.
"Gutsy" Barack Obama "Rode to the Rescue"
"Two years after the government rode to the rescue with taxpayer dollars, Chrysler is humming along, posting a 10 percent increase in sales in May, upgrading facilities, and returning people to work. Indeed, GM, Ford, and Chrysler have all returned to profitability, and are gaining market share for the first time in more than 15 years, according to an administration report released on Wednesday."
— CBS correspondent Dean Reynolds on The Early Show, June 3.
"This was a gutsy call by the President to launch the auto bailout and that's a sign of some recovery."
— NBC's David Gregory on Today, June 3.
NPR Correspondent: Liberal Media Too Nice to Conservatives
"It is true that journalists tend to be more 'liberal' than the average American. But hyper-awareness of that fact has caused some of our most respected mainstream media outlets to bend over backwards to compensate — offering far more conservative voices than liberal ones...."
— NPR's On the Media host Brooke Gladstone in an interview with CNN.com's "In the Arena" blog posted May 31.
Grew Up Worshipping at the Altar of the Gray Lady
"Ms. Abramson said that as a born-and-raised New Yorker, she considered being named editor of the Times to be like 'ascending to Valhalla.' 'In my house growing up, the Times substituted for religion,' she said. 'If the Times said it, it was the absolute truth.'"
— From a June 2 NYTimes.com story by managing editor Jeremy Peters, quoting newly-named New York Times editor Jill Abramson. In the paper's June 3 print edition, the second half of the quote was removed from Peters' front-page story.
Outgrowing Quaint Notion of Reporters Keeping Opinions Out of News
"Barely a week goes by without something reminding Anita Hill of her role in U.S. history....Two decades later, I still remember the stomach-churning sense of disbelief among the crowd that squeezed into the student newspaper office to watch the hearings on TV. We were baby journalists, still wedded to the idea that we weren't supposed to have opinions. But what was unfolding in Washington made no sense: Hill had no reason to lie. Thomas did."
— The Oregonian columnist Anna Griffin, a former reporter for the Charlotte Observer, June 8.
PUBLISHER: L. Brent Bozell III
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