Leave Influencing Elections to Us Biased Journalists
“Do you think it’s fair that, just because you have billions of dollars, you can influence elections?”
— ABC’s Barbara Walters to conservative businessman and philanthropist David Koch in a clip shown on This Week, December 14.
Reporter Mocks “Barking” Dogs of the “Kamikaze Caucus”
“Boehner wins Speakership for 3rd term in light of 25 #GOP defections. Never in doubt but the Kamikaze Caucus is alive & barking”
— NBC congressional reporter Luke Russert in a January 6 posting on Twitter.
Wretched America Will Be Even Worse Thanks to New GOP Congress
“The police killing unarmed civilians. Horrifying income inequality. Rotting infrastructure and an unsafe ‘safety net.’ An inability to respond to climate, public health and environmental threats. A food system that causes disease. An occasionally dysfunctional and even cruel government. A sizable segment of the population excluded from work and subject to near-random incarceration. You get it: This is the United States, which, with the incoming Congress, might actually get worse.”
— New York Times food writer Mark Bittman in a December 14 piece for the paper’s “Sunday Review” section.
Childhood Dreams of a White House Run by “Spellbinding” Cuomo
“You know, I grew up here in New York state at a time when Mario Cuomo was governor and would have loved to have seen him run for president. He could be spellbinding.”
— Correspondent David Wright on ABC’s Good Morning America, January 2.
Washington Post “Fact-Checker” Says Media Bias Is a “Myth”
Host Brian Lamb: “Who gets the maddest? Who protests the most when you’re about to put one of these four Pinocchios in the Washington Post?”
Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler: “I would say, just speaking as a general matter, I think Democrats tend to get a little more upset, because I think they have bought into the myth of the liberal media, and they kind of think that the media is on their side, whereas Republicans, they firmly believe in the myth of the liberal media.”
— Exchange on C-SPAN’s Q&A, December 28.
Predicting “Anti-Clinton Bias” in Media’s 2016 Coverage
Co-host John Heilemann: “Every major news organization that we know right now is getting ready, is getting their teams ready, and every single one of them knows that if Hillary Clinton is running....”
Co-host Mark Halperin: “And let’s be realistic about the way investigative reporters work. They basically want to knock the candidates out....You knock out the Democratic front runner, that’s a big scalp. There is an anti-Clinton bias in the press right now.”
— Exchange on Bloomberg’s With All Due Respect, December 17.
More Government Spending Means an “Increase to Prosperity”
“For a long stretch, government spending cutbacks at all levels were a substantial drag on economic growth. Now, finally, relief is in sight. For the first time since 2011, local, state and federal governments are providing a small but significant increase to prosperity....Across the nation, state and local governments, Democratic and Republican alike, are spending on projects that were stalled....Even federal spending in some sectors is on the rise.”
— New York Times correspondent Dionne Searcey in a January 2 news story.
Mad Dash to Cuba Before It’s “Ruined” by Capitalism
Anchor Shepard Smith: “You know the fear among anybody who’s ever been there, or who cares at all about the Cuban people, as so many of us do — the last thing they need is a Taco Bell and a Lowe’s. I mean, we don’t need a-”
FBN’s Gerri Willis: “Toilet paper, toothbrushes, right? Toothpaste.”
Smith: “That’s it. But you know, it’s all one big idea and it all sort of comes together and, you wonder, are we about to get up in there and ruin that place?”
— FNC’s Shepherd Smith Reporting, December 17.
“The rest of us are all going to be rushing to get to Cuba before it turns into Miami Beach, while it’s still that unspoiled, seemingly, place, with the classic cars....People want to see Cuba as it is, before it becomes more developed.”
— The Daily Beast’s Eleanor Clift on The McLaughlin Group, December 21.
Faulting U.S. Embargo, Not Communism, for Cuba’s Economic Woes
“Havana, known for its charm and vintage cars, is on life support, its economy crippled by the long-standing U.S. embargo. People here now hope that will change.”
— Correspondent Mark Potter on the December 17 NBC Nightly News.
Obama’s Boost to Castro Brothers = Reagan’s Challenge to Gorby?
“Isn’t this Barack Obama’s ‘Tear down this wall, Mr. Castro’ — that kind of a moment? I mean, if change can take place with the Soviet Union, why can’t it take place with the Cuban people here?”
— Host Ed Schultz on MSNBC’s The Ed Show, December 17.
Babs Fawns Over “Charismatic” Fidel Castro
Co-host Rosie O’Donnell: “I’m going to name some of the people you interviewed, and tell me what word first pops into your mind when I say the name. Okay? Here we go. Fidel Castro.”
ABC’s Barbara Walters: “Maybe the most charismatic person I have met.”
— ABC’s The View, December 12.
After French Terror Attack, Fretting About an Anti-Muslim “Backlash”
“Congressman, after 9/11 you and others did so much to persuade Americans not to react negatively and not to paint people with a broad brush. This is a challenge for France, which has had a lot of negative legal actions and restrictive laws and a large Muslim community, more than seven percent. What is the challenge as they approach this manhunt to not begin racial or religious profiling?”
— Andrea Mitchell’s first question to Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports, January 8.
Of Course, Jerry Falwell Didn’t Murder a Bunch of People
“This isn’t just Islamic extremism. If you go back to the ’80s — during the Reagan administration — when Jerry Falwell sued Hustler magazine for portraying him having, I believe it was drunken incest with his mother in an outhouse — again, in a visual form — and won a $150,000 court case against Hustler for that. It was overturned by the Supreme Court, I think, eight-to-zero. So you know, religious fundamentalists of all stripes and of nationalities have this penchant to say, we want to be able tell you what you can and can’t portray.”
— Former Rolling Stone executive editor Eric Bates on MSNBC’s Now with Alex Wagner, January 7, talking about the terrorist attack against a French satire magazine that left 12 dead.
More Upset Liberal Gun Control Agenda Failed to Pass
“Some call for an extreme use of force to respond to Paris attacks, but school shootings in US have killed more and US leaders do nothing.”
— A January 7 Twitter message, later deleted, from New York Times Beijing bureau chief Edward Wong.
The Inscrutable Politics of Paul Krugman
“As a Times columnist, I can’t do endorsements, so you have no idea which party I favor in general elections.”
— Left-wing New York Times columnist Paul Krugman in a December 29 interview with Vox.com’s Ezra Klein.
CNN Panel’s Solidarity With Anti-Cop Protesters
“Right now, thousands of Americans are marching in New York and Washington and across the country, demanding a justice system that applies the same to everybody and honors our values. We want you to know that our hearts are out there marching with them.”
— CNN political analyst Sally Kohn wrapping up an hour of live coverage on December 13 as she, CNN analyst Margaret Hoover and CNN legal analyst Mel Robbins raised their hands, while CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin held up a piece of paper with “I can’t breathe” written on it.
Mourning the Mistreatment of America’s “Royalty”
“They are America’s First Couple, the closest thing that we have to royalty, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. But speaking to People magazine, according to the Obamas, they’re sometimes treated less than like royals, or the First Couple, and more like the help.”
— Anchor Don Lemon on CNN Tonight, December 18, talking about People magazine’s interview with the First Couple, “The Obamas: How We Deal with Our Own Racist Experiences.”
Obama’s Christmas Party = Wall-to-Wall MSNBC Anchors
“I had never been to the White House Christmas party before. This was a first for me....And then, boy, oh, boy, did I see a lot of MSNBC anchors. I mean, you couldn’t take two steps without hitting one.”
— Fox News host Megyn Kelly on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live, December 17.
No Change Since Civil Rights Victories of the 1960s?
Co-host Norah O’Donnell: “One of the things I looked up, you know, given, given the Voting Rights Act, 1965, I went back and looked — 13 states have passed more restrictive voter ID laws in the last three years, that states are trying to make it harder to vote.”
Actor David Oyelowo: “Yeah. This very act that was passed, that was fought with blood, it was dismantled as of last year....One of the things the film does is you see the parallels between Selma and Ferguson, you see the country hasn’t changed enough, hasn’t changed that much. So, you know, the notion that we no longer need the Voting Rights Act, I think, is criminal.”
— Talking about the British citizen Oyelowo’s film Selma, about the 1965 civil rights marches in which participants were attacked by police, on CBS This Morning, December 15.
It’s Just “Reality” that “Craziest Politicians” Are Republicans
“How do you feel about facts? Do you hate them? Are they super annoying, like science? Are you frightened of communists, Muslims, and vaginas? Good news! This month, America is inaugurating a new class of elected representatives, and while some of them are bright, able politicians, a few of them are seriously looney....Yes, this list is Republican-heavy, and while that may seem like standard liberal-media bias, the reality is that Democrats just aren’t keeping pace right now in the crazy department.”
— GQ writer Stephen Sherrill explaining his magazine’s list of “America’s 20 Craziest Politicians” in the January 2015 issue. GQ’s list included 17 Republicans vs. just three Democrats.
Next Year, I’ll Treat Those “Clowns” with Respect
“Treat the 24 Republicans considering running for president respectfully — even though I think most of them probably belong in the clown car. It takes a lot of courage to enter the arena of politics. You’ve got to stand up and have the courage to fail in front of a lot of people. So I’ll treat them all respectfully.”
— Longtime Newsweek correspondent Eleanor Clift, now a writer for the Daily Beast, announcing her New Year’s resolution on the January 4 edition of The McLaughlin Group.
PUBLISHER: L. Brent Bozell III
EDITORS: Brent H. Baker, Rich Noyes, Tim Graham
DEPUTY RESEARCH DIRECTOR: Geoffrey Dickens
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