Republicans Are “Cowards” for Not Trashing Limbaugh
Reporter Dan Harris: “Leading Republicans are essentially being called cowards for their tepid criticism of America’s most powerful conservative radio host.”
Mitt Romney: “It’s not the language I would have used.”
Harris: “Not exactly Profiles in Courage material.”
— ABC’s World News with Diane Sawyer, March 5.
“I thought it was the most offensive thing I’ve heard on the airwaves since I’ve been in America....Why [are] so many Republicans unwilling to call out Rush Limbaugh on what he was when he said those words, which was disgusting? Why can’t you just say, what he said was disgusting and indefensible? Because I haven’t heard that from any senior Republican.”
— Host Piers Morgan to Michele Bachmann on CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight, March 5.
Upset Romney Failed to Seize “Sister Souljah” Moment
NBC’s Savannah Guthrie: “I think potentially, Romney lost an opportunity there to speak out forcefully against Rush Limbaugh. This was not a gray area....”
Moderator David Gregory: “Sister Souljah’s not just a rap reference, it’s a political reference, Mike Murphy, was this a ‘Sister Souljah moment’ that Romney missed?”
GOP strategist Mike Murphy: “In my view, it could have been and it should have been. The big myth about Rush Limbaugh is he can’t deliver a pizza let alone a vote.”
— NBC’s Meet the Press, March 4. [Audio/video (1:29): Windows Media [1] | MP3 audio [2]]
CNN Host Slams Limbaugh Yet Laughs at Maher’s Vulgarity
“Limbaugh’s disgusting comments are the work of an archaic old dinosaur living in a warped, ugly swamp, who thinks it’s okay to degrade decent young women for sport and ratings. Well, it isn’t. Shame on you, Rush Limbaugh.”
— CNN’s Piers Morgan wrapping up his Piers Morgan Tonight, March 2.
vs.
Host Piers Morgan: “If you had a choice, gun to your head, which one is it? Palin or Bachmann?”
HBO Real Time host Bill Maher: “I would need a gun to my head. I hope Sarah Palin gets in so that they split the MILF vote.” [both laugh] ...
Morgan: “May you remain gloriously uncensored on HBO....Love the show.”
— CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight, July 11, 2011. MILF is an acronym for a “Mother I’d Like to F---”
Hypocrisy Alert: Foul MSNBC Hosts Want Limbaugh Purged from Radio
“They’ve called him a great leader of the conservative movement. They had him as an honorary member of Congress. So, you can’t have him as a major spokesman in your movement and then he says something as offensive and misogynist as this, and you act like he’s just an entertainer.”
— MSNBC anchor and far-left Democratic activist Al Sharpton on NBC’s Today, March 3. [Audio/video (0:27): Windows Media [3] | MP3 audio [4]]
“If there is a time to get him off the air, this is the push. I mean, if women in this country are serious about what they hear on the free airwaves of America, there’s no better time.”
— MSNBC host Ed Schultz talking about Limbaugh on The Ed Show, March 5. In May 2011, Schultz was forced to apologize after calling conservative radio host Laura Ingraham a “slut.” [5]
Like a “Serial Murderer” With Car Full of Dead Bodies
Host Martin Bashir: “Rabid radio host Rush Limbaugh is facing new uproar over his inflammatory remarks against Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke....”
Politico White House correspondent Joe Williams: “It reminds me of how, when I used to cover police, they always would catch the serial murderer because he was driving around with a busted taillight, not because he had, like, three bodies in the trunk. I mean they would always have some incident to really capture him on and this was Rush Limbaugh’s.”
— Segment on MSNBC’s Martin Bashir, March 13. [Audio/video (0:43): Windows Media [6] | MP3 audio [7]]
“Imploring Advertisers” to “Take a Stand” Against Rush
“The advertisers that are still on [Rush’s show] are basically voting, ‘Yes, we’re okay with it.’ They have no choice — I’m an ad guy, obviously — they have no choice but to go away.... I’m actually imploring advertisers to make — maybe we can use this to make a change in the voice out there, forget even Rush. Advertisers, take a stand right now. Every single one of you.”
— Advertising executive, ex-CNBC host and regular Today show panelist Donny Deutsch on NBC’s Today, March 6.
Obama’s “Nakedly Political” Opportunism = Struggle for Civil Rights?
“I think the call from the President to Sandra Fluke will be remembered perhaps not as dramatically as the call from President Kennedy, then-Senator Kennedy, to Mrs. King, to Coretta King after her husband was hauled off into the backwoods of Georgia in shackles, but it will have a character to it that people will remember.”
— Chris Matthews during MSNBC’s Super Tuesday election coverage, March 6. [Audio/video (0:41): Windows Media [8] | MP3 audio [9]]
vs.
“The President also in danger, perhaps, of an overreach by calling this law student, she’s 30 years old, in the guise of saying, ‘Are you okay?’ I mean, obviously the Democrats want to make the most of the opportunity, but to me, that seemed a little nakedly political.”
— NBC correspondent Savannah Guthrie on Meet the Press, March 4.
Spinning for Obama: Republican Party “Going After Reproductive Rights”
“The question for some, especially women, is: Why do the Republicans want to get government out of our lives, but into our wombs?”
— Politico’s Roger Simon on Inside Washington, March 2.
“Who woke up in the Republican Party one day recently and said, ‘I know what, let’s go after, let’s go after reproductive rights in the United States’? What was that about?”
— Anchor Brian Williams during NBC’s prime time coverage of the Super Tuesday primaries, March 6.
“I Want Hard Core Republican Conservatism Crushed”
Co-anchor Rachel Maddow: “...the prospect of Rick Santorum being the guy, the guy who runs against Barack Obama for the Republican ticket in November, and that is a hard thing to get your head around.”
MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell: “But that’s the debate I want to see. I want to see hard core Republican conservatism put up there on a debate stage with President Obama’s practical approach to governing, and I want to see hard core Republican conservatism crushed....”
— Exchange during MSNBC’s election coverage, March 6.
CNN Anchor Labels Left-Wing Ed Schultz a “Conservative”
“The issue is, you cannot call women you disagree with sluts or prostitutes. I was called a slut by Michael Savage, a conservative radio talk show host. Laura Ingraham has been called a slut by another conservative, Ed Schultz, on MSNBC....Cut it out! It’s not appropriate. It’s disgusting.”
— CNN Early Start co-host Ashleigh Banfield, March 5. Schultz is actually an ultra-liberal radio host and anchor of MSNBC’s The Ed Show. [Audio/video (0:39): Windows Media [10] | MP3 audio [11]]
Enthralled by Obama’s “Andrew Shepherd Moment”
“President Obama chose this Super Tuesday, of all days, to take on his Republican rivals who’ve been criticizing him on the campaign trail on the topic of Iran.... You can call it an ‘Andrew Shepherd moment’ — film buffs will recognize the part played by Michael Douglas in the movie The American President, where he said, you know, ‘I am the President, your 15 minutes are up.’”
— Anchor Brian Williams on the March 6 NBC Nightly News.
“Somebody today called it an ‘Andrew Shepherd moment.’ He was The American President character played by Michael Douglas who, at the end of the film, said, ‘You’ve had your 15 minutes. I am the President.’”
— Williams a few hours later during NBC’s prime time coverage of the Super Tuesday primaries.
Time for Mitt Romney to “Pick a Fight” with GOP’s Conservative Base?
Host George Stephanopoulos: “Does he [Mitt Romney] have the freedom at this point to do what a lot of people are recommending, find a place to pick a fight, show some distance from the base of the party?”
Republican strategist Mary Matalin: “That’s a ridiculous kind of pundit strategy, okay?”
— ABC’s This Week, March 11.
As If Nixon Was a Conservative
“He’s [Dick Lugar] getting challenged for not being conservative enough. Richard Nixon’s favorite mayor apparently is not conservative enough for the Indiana Republican Party. I’m still, sort of, shell-shocked by that.”
— NBC’s Chuck Todd talking about the Senate primary in Indiana on MSNBC’s The Daily Rundown, March 2.
CNN Anchor Lobbies Catholic Bishop to Get With It on Gay Marriage
“Times are changing. Views are changing. You’re changing your tactics even. Or your — I guess you say your strategy. So, why not get on board... with the 43 percent of Catholics who have no problem with gay marriage?”
— Anchor Kyra Phillips to Bishop Richard Malone, CNN Newsroom, March 8. [Audio/video (0:40): Windows Media [12] | MP3 audio [13]]
It’s “Bull--it” to Compare Unbiased Times to Fox News
Host Stephen Dubner: “There is a kind of, I think, common analog, I hope I’m not overstating it by saying that it’s common, that Fox News is to the right what the New York Times is to the left. I’m guessing you would see that as a false equivalency on a lot of levels. Tell me if I’m right.”
Editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal: “I think it’s the word I want to use here, but even on public radio-”
Dubner: “Please, we bleep so much on this show.”
Rosenthal: “Well it begins with ‘bull’ and ends in ‘it’ and you can figure out what comes in between. I think it’s absolute pernicious nonsense....Fox News presents the news in a way that is deliberately skewed to promote political causes, and the New York Times simply does not.”
— Exchange during the New York Times “Freakonomics” radio podcast [14], February 16.
Hollywood Stumbles Into Truth About MSNBC
“He’s [McCain] the most depressed I’ve seen him in the entire campaign. I can’t get him to stop watching MSNBC, which only makes him more miserable.”
— Actor Woody Harrelson, playing McCain-Palin senior strategist Steve Schmidt, in HBO’s Game Change, March 10. [Audio/video (0:30): Windows Media [15] | MP3 audio [16]]
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