ABC’s Muir Serves Up Hardballs for Hillary
“I want to know, in your most private of moments, is there ever an instance when you ask yourself, ‘why am I doing this again?’... Is your mother’s voice in your ear and give me one line that you repeat to yourself?”
— World News Tonight anchor David Muir to Hillary Clinton, September 8.
Smearing GOP as Terrorists = “Coming Out Swinging”
“In the swing state of Ohio, Hillary Clinton coming out swinging, comparing Republicans to terrorists on women’s issues.”
— ABC reporter Cecilia Vega on World News Tonight, August 27.
Nothing to See Here in Hillary’s E-Mails
Fill-in co-host John Berman: “If I could shift to Hillary Clinton just for one moment.... There is, as far as I can tell, nothing in here that reeks of illegality.” ...
Host Alisyn Camerota: “If there’s no smoking gun, when does the e-mail issue go away — and voters don’t seem to care about it, according to polls. When does the e-mail issue go away for Hillary?”
— CNN’s New Day, September 1.
Co-host Savannah Guthrie: “With this latest batch of 7,000-plus e-mails, is there a smoking gun on that issue?”
NBC’s Chuck Todd: “No, there’s not....Whether she knowingly passed around classified information in an unclassified setting, there is no evidence to suggest that, that story doesn’t hold up.”
— Exchange on NBC’s Today, September 1.
“We’ve been up all night going through these e-mails, more than 4,000 e-mails, more than 7,000 pages — there isn’t anything that seems to be what you would call, you know, a smoking gun....Are we ever going to get out of this cycle? Is she ever going to get out of this cycle?”
— Anchor Andrea Mitchell on the September 1 Andrea Mitchell Reports on MSNBC.
Never Apologize for Anything, Hillary
“Did she owe you an apology, Chris? ’Cause she didn’t owe me an apology. She didn’t do anything to me. I mean, seriously, who is she apologizing to? Is she apologizing to the, you know, the 20 or 50 or 100 people who are on her campaign plane with her? I don’t understand, who is she apologizing to? The American people? The American people don’t care about this.”
— Esquire’s Charles Pierce to Chris Hayes on the September 8 edition of MSNBC’s All In, discussing the Hillary Clinton e-mail scandal.
Dick Cheney, “Political Sociopath”
“That is a portrait of a political sociopath for Dick Cheney....Political sociopath, yes. I actually went and looked up on the Mayo Clinic website the definition of that disorder and it fits Mr. Cheney to a T — inability to ever express remorse, to admit error, manipulative, dishonest.”
— CNN political commentator Paul Begala on the September 1 Anderson Cooper 360, attacking former Vice President Dick Cheney for blaming the rise of ISIS on Barack Obama.
CNN to Trump: Please Explain How Racist You Are
“You said — you know, it was a tribute to people wanting to take their country back — because I know you’ve heard the criticism — that that phrase was used with Nixon — and people out there saying it is a dog whistle to some, sort of — there’s some sort of racist intent behind it.”
— CNN Tonight anchor Don Lemon to Donald Trump on September 1.
Sneering at “Seriously Wrong” GOP Voters
Co-host John Heilemann: “The key thing is: Trump, Carson, Fiorina and Cruz. Four anti-establishment candidates. All of them total over 50 percent of that vote in Iowa....Trump, Carson, Cruz, Fiorina add up to about 53 percent.”
Guest co-host Mike Barnicle: “53 percent....So that means that if I lived in Iowa, I would want to know where each of those members of that 53 percent were. I would want to live as far away from them as possible. Because there is something seriously wrong with the Republican Party if those people, combined, have a majority of the voters.”
— Bloomberg’s With All Due Respect, August 31.
Seventeen Candidates, Every One an “Idiot”
New York Times host Susan Lehman: “And what about the Republicans? How do you think they could wrestle the political conversation away from Trump and his xenophobic ideas?”
Editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal: “Well, they might come up with a candidate who can actually run for office without making an idiot of himself. They don’t seem to be able to have done that, yet.”
— Exchange during an “Inside the Times” podcast, September 3.
Paul Krugman: “Anti-Rational” Republicans at “War With the Enlightenment”
“The entire Republican Party is controlled by climate denialists, and anti-science types more broadly. And in general, the modern GOP is basically anti-rational analysis; it’s at war not just with the welfare state but with the Enlightenment.”
— New York Times columnist Paul Krugman in an August 28 blog post for NYTimes.com.
Activist for Illegal Immigration: An “Icon” Like Cronkite & Murrow
“I think that, as a reporter, many times you have to take a stand when it comes to racism, discrimination, corruption, public life, dictatorships and human rights. We have to take a stand. The best examples of journalism that I have — Edward R. Murrow against McCarthy, Cronkite during the Vietnam war or the Washington Post reporters forcing the resignation of Richard Nixon — that’s when reporters challenged those who are in power. And I think it is our responsibility to do that. I find it ironic and fascinating that I’m being criticized by other reporters for asking questions. Isn’t that the essence, exactly, of what we do?”
— Univision anchor Jorge Ramos on the August 30 This Week.
“Well, he’s an absolute icon in the Hispanic community, I mean he is a very, very big deal, and you know, he’s also sort of someone they swoon over.”
— ABC’s Cokie Roberts on This Week, discussing liberal Univision anchor Jorge Ramos, August 30.
Media Cheer Iran Getting Nukes as Obama “Victory”
“In a major win for the Obama administration, the nuclear deal with Iran now appears unstoppable. The President has now locked down all the votes he needs for the controversial agreement to survive in the Republican-controlled Senate.”
— NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt, September 2.
“A big victory for President Obama.”
— ABC’s World News Tonight anchor David Muir, September 2.
“Victory lap. The White House hits the magic number today, enough Senate votes to sustain Iran deal.”
— Andrea Mitchell Reports anchor Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC, September 2.
“This a major diplomatic victory for the President....This is something that will shape the Obama legacy...”
— CNN Newsroom correspondent Jim Acosta September 2.
Charter Schools = “Demonizing All Teachers”
“I would also suggest that for many who are African-American, [New Orleans is] not a better city in part because this so-called success story in the schools also included charterizing the entire system, which also meant demonizing all teachers.”
— MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press, August 30.
Obama Will Save the Climate “Refugees”
“Our team on an extraordinary journey to a place that is rapidly disappearing. Families bracing to flee what could be the first American refugees of climate change....It’s an emergency at the top of the world right now, and Americans are right on the front lines. Up next, our journey to a spectacular place on Earth where American families are living in fear as a rapidly changing climate threatens into inundate them.”
— NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt highlighting Barack Obama’s global warming pitch, September 1.
PBS Host Cheers Iran Deal as Loss for Israel
“Take that, Bibi.”
— NewsHour host Gwen Ifill in a September 2, tweet directed at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reacting to the news that Barack Obama has the votes to stop any effort against his deal with Iran.
Aging Actor Still Hates Bush
“I always had trouble with Bush being the president. I thought he was limited and unqualified.”
— Actor Robert Redford in the September 2 USA Today. Reford will be starring as Dan Rather in Truth, an upcoming film about the journalist’s controversial, false reporting on George W. Bush.
Assailing Christian County Clerk: “Bitch,” “Monster” Like George Wallace
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg: “This is a woman who has been married more times than anyone at this table combined.”
Co-host Michelle Collins: “Four times. She’s my top candidate for ‘this bitch got a man.’... Have you seen the lady? Sorry. I’m serious. She’s a monster.”
— The View co-hosts discussing Kentucky county court clerk Kim Davis, who was jailed and then released for refusing to sign-off on gay marriage licenses, September 8.
“Going to jail for what you believe in does not necessarily put you on par with Martin Luther King. Jeffrey Dahmer was in jail because he believes in eating people. That doesn’t make him a freedom fighter (audience laughs and applauds). And frankly, if you’re going to compare Kim Davis to someone from the 1960s civil rights movement, it should be this guy — that’s right; that’s right — Alabama governor and dippity-do poster boy, George Wallace, who famously stood in the doorway of the University of Alabama in defiance of the Supreme Court order to desegregate.”
— Comedy Central’s Nightly Show anchor Larry Wilmore, September 8.
Get Ready for Some Carefully-Planned Spontaneity
“Hillary Clinton to Show More Humor and Heart, Aides Say”
— NYTimes.com headline for a September 7 story by New York Times reporter Amy Chozick.
Gushing Over Hillary: “The Smartest, Most-Qualified Person”
“Let’s just get this out of the way. Let’s talk about the e-mails. I
mean, I actually don’t think you need to. It’s just that people keep
bringing it up. They have not found a thing. They keep saying they’ve
found something, but then we don’t hear anything about it. So they
haven’t found anything.”
— Ellen DeGeneres, host of her eponymous show, to Hillary Clinton, September 10.
“You are the smartest, most-qualified person for this job....If I look at all the other candidates, someone who is for rights across
the board — equal rights for women, equal rights for every ethnicity,
equal rights for everyone — it is — the only person I can look at is
you.”
— Later in the same show.
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