If GOP Ruled, IRS Scandal “Would Be a National Obsession”
“[The IRS scandal is] a test for the media....[When] any government agency, particularly one as powerful as the IRS, engages in something that even people sympathetic to the administration say looks weird and suspicious, it’s incumbent upon on all of the national media to aggressively ask more questions. The Republicans in Congress are asking questions. I think with a different administration, one that was a Republican administration, this story would be a national obsession.”
— MSNBC and Time magazine senior political analyst Mark Halperin, formerly the political director for ABC News, on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, June 23.
Mocking IRS’s Targeting of Tea Party: “Are There Any Actual Real Victims?”
“Here is the story many are missing: Why should primarily political organizations get a taxpayer exemption, basically get a handout from the tax code?...So while the IRS is certainly not a good guy here — they have been terrible about being forthcoming — are there any actual real victims?...We know what really is working here for Republicans. Beating up the IRS, good for the base. Good politics there makes for great fundraising e-mails. But let’s remember what the controversy itself is about.”
— NBC News political director and chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd’s “Takeaway” on his daily 9am ET MSNBC show The Daily Rundown, June 25.
Sneering at Ted Cruz, “Partisan Hack”
Anchor Carol Costello: “Senator Ted Cruz says a special prosecutor should be brought in to investigate [the IRS]. John, wouldn’t that be a good idea?”
The Daily Beast editor 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 the matter, it immediately turns into a partisan hackathon as opposed to a search for the truth.”
— Exchange on CNN Newsroom, June 27.
If Only Some “Proof,” Journalists Would “Be Galloping After” IRS Story
“All these hearings, all these investigations — where’s the proof of the crime? Howie, this morning, there were 100,000 stories on Google News about the IRS investigation. There’s a welter of coverage... but there’s no proof of a crime. And the coverage reflects that. Every journalist in town would love if there was proof of a scandal, they would be galloping after it. They’re not trying to protect President Obama. That’s over.”
— Sirius-XM Press Pass radio host Julie Mason, a former White House correspondent for the Houston Chronicle, Washington Examiner and Politico.com, on the June 29 edition of FNC’s MediaBuzz.
Religious Conservatives = The Segregationists of Today?
“Long, long ago, there were segregationists who made a religious argument and said that they found somewhere in the Bible, for example, a justification for racial segregation in the South and, obviously, that did not hold water. Now, this is perhaps a bit different. It deals with employees of the company, as you said, nobody has an obligation to go to work for Hobby Lobby, but there is another side of this....”
— Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, June 30.
Opening an “Ugly Can of Worms” If Religious Freedom Acknowledged?
“Some say if Hobby Lobby prevails, it could open this ugly can of worms. It could mean companies could fire employees because they’re single and pregnant, or if the owner is a Christian Scientist and owns the — no one could get health care at all. Would that happen if Hobby Lobby prevails in this case?”
— Anchor Carol Costello to constitutional law professor Gloria Browne-Marshall on CNN Newsroom, June 26.
A Truly “Welcoming” America Would Not Protest Illegals
ABC reporter David Wright: “This week, protesters here [in Murrieta, CA] 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....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.”
— ABC’s World News, July 4.
“When you see the footage of these furious crowds yelling ‘Go home, go home,’ I think it brings — I will say personally, I found it to be a shameful moment to be an American, to see people treated like that, people who are seeking a new day here in America.”
— Host Alex Wagner on MSNBC’s Now with Alex Wagner, July 2.
Now That It’s Obama, MSNBC Decides Impeachment = “Treason”
Fill-in host Michael Eric Dyson: “The President is acutely aware of the dire situation facing the children and their families crossing into the United States, as evidenced by his tireless effort to help them. The President’s push towards positive and crucial change was met with treasonous accusations.”
Clip of Sarah Palin: “The tipping point in this drive towards impeachment for me has been the illegal immigration issue, the crisis created by Obama.”
— MSNBC’s The Ed Show, July 9.
vs.
“Mr. Bush, our presence in Iraq must end, even if it means your resignation, even if it means your impeachment.”
— Then-MSNBC host Keith Olbermann on Countdown, September 4, 2007.
Pushing Obama’s Plan for Even More Mandatory Freebies
“In a survey of 185 countries, just three don’t require paid family leave: Oman, Papua New Guinea and the U.S....The fact remains, many women can’t even get a paid day off to give birth. And while the President is able to give White House employees paid maternity leave, extending that to the rest of federal employees and beyond would take literally an act of Congress.”
— Newly-named senior White House correspondent Chris Jansing on the June 23 NBC Nightly News.
“A lot of good talk at the White House yesterday. You know, the whole conversation about managing work-life balance....Of course, the U.S. is the only developed country to not offer paid maternity leave, which is pretty remarkable and unbelievable. Other countries on that list, by the way, I think Papua New Guinea and Oman. So, you know, I think it’s time. It’s way past time.”
— NBC’s Natalie Morales on Today, June 24.
Is President Hillary the Cure for American Sexism?
Host George Stephanopoulos: “You also write in your book about some of the sexism you faced even as a prosecutor. Any as a Supreme Court justice or does it go away?...[Narrating] And on a Supreme Court dominated for generations by men, she’s now one of three female justices. We talked about the difference a woman judge makes, justice makes. [to Sotomayor] Do you think a woman president would make a big difference?”
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor: “Oh, probably at least in some little girl’s perceptions of herself. And that is important enough.”
— Recorded interview shown on ABC’s This Week, June 22.
Boehner Lawsuit = Third World Coup?
“This is the kind of Mickey Mouse that goes on in Third World countries before they have a coup because people were just sick of it. Anyway, we won’t have one because we are America.”
— MSNBC host Chris Matthews on the July 7 Hardball, talking about House Speaker John Boehner’s lawsuit against the President for taking actions that exceed his constitutional authority.
Fawning Over Kerry and His Hollywood “Bromance”
Co-host Savannah Guthrie: “From breakfast with senators and the ceremonial duties of office to back-to-back trips to the White House, Secretary of State John Kerry has taken his new job and run with it....It’s a moment a lifetime in the making. The son of a foreign service officer, a decorated Vietnam veteran who famously came to protest the war, a senator for decades, and a former presidential candidate, Kerry seems more determined now than ever to make his mark....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.’”
Secretary of State Kerry, laughing: “It’s the angle. It’s not a fair angle.”
— Profiling Kerry on NBC’s Today, June 20.
Are You “Disappointed” in Americans for Their Lack of Faith in You?
“More than half of the Americans have lost confidence in your ability to lead the country and get the job done. That must have been stunning to you. Disappointing?”
— ABC’s George Stephanopoulos to President Obama in a recorded interview for Good Morning America, June 27.
Ex-Correspondents Agree: Media Have Been Helping Obama
“I think to some degree they [journalists] have been played by propaganda interests who suggest that if these stories are covered they are simply phony scandals and Republican-generated, which they’re not, in my opinion. From a neutral viewpoint, there are many important questions to be asked and implications here. But the propaganda campaign says that if you’re interested in the story you’re a conservative and a right-wing nut. And media should not be swayed by that, but I think to some degree they are.”
— Former CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson on FBN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight, June 19, talking about the lack of coverage of Obama’s various scandals.
“Overall, the mainstream media has been less eager to hold this administration accountable than it was to hold the Bush administration accountable.”
— Former NBC News investigative correspondent Lisa Myers in a soundbite played in a story on NPR’s Morning Edition, July 7.
CNN Coos: How “Fantastic” to Receive Obama’s Parenting Advice
Co-anchor Kate Bolduan: “Mr. President, we need to wrap up. But since she has been kicking throughout our entire interview, the little miss would probably want to know if you have any best advice for first-time parents, this one included?...Yours have turned out pretty well. Thank you, Mr. President.”...
Co-anchor Michaela Pereira, following the interview: “Getting parental advice from the President of the United States. Fantastic.”
— CNN’s New Day, June 23.
Rise of Tea Party = Rise of Nazi Germany?
“This has happened before in history. In Germany in the ’20s and ’30s, there was this right-wing reactionary element that was so terrified of anarchy and communism, that they said, ‘You know what? There’s a group of street thugs that are real ideologues, and they’re willing to take it and they’re willing to bloody themselves. And you know, once they get into power we can control them.’ And that was why they backed them. ‘We can control this.’ And what they didn’t realize...What is true is that ideologues are only loyal to ideology.”
— Graphic novelist, cartoonist and former Saturday Night Live writer Max Brooks, son of Mel Brooks, on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, June 27.
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, Jeffrey Meyer and Curtis Houck
INTERNS: Laura Flint, Jackie Seal and Connor Williams