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MSNBC Tag

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on July 20, 2016 27 Comments
Where does Rachel Maddow's feminist solidarity end? When a woman has the audacity to support a Republican . . . On MSNBC, commenting on tonight's RNC, Maddow twice mocked speaker Natalie Gulbis, a professional golfer, for her current modest world ranking of about 500. In doing so, Maddow ignored the fact that Gulbis is a former #6 on the LPGA money list, has won four professional tournaments and at one point placed in the top 10 in four consecutive major championships. If Tiger Woods spoke for Trump, I suppose Maddow would dismiss him as "the 628th golfer in the world" [his current ranking.]

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on June 25, 2016 31 Comments
Could there have been bona fide reasons for Brexit? Not if you believe Joy Reid. On her MSNBC show today, Reid suggested that old and rural voters, who tended to vote Leave, had "hijacked the future of the young." She also blamed voter discontent on Prime Minister David Cameron's "austerity" program. Guess Reid reckons that people would have been happier with a UK that looked like Greece. Ron Insana chimed in to suggest that older voters were "re-romanticizing" their past, leading Reid to see a symmetry with Trump campaign, which she claims is being driven by the "nostalgia voter."

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on May 16, 2016 11 Comments
Following his massive cat fight redux with Harry Reid, Alan Grayson appeared on MSNBC and . . . things didn't go well. The Tampa Bay Times reports:
In a combative interview this morning, Democratic Senate candidate and current U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson accused MSNBC host Joy Reid of "smearing" him and "spreading lies" about him in relation to a congressional ethics investigation over a once-offshore hedge fund associated with the Orlando congressman. Reid initially wanted to ask Grayson about his confrontation with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid this week, but almost immediately after she started speaking, Grayson interjected. He started talking over Joy Reid and demanded she "correct the record" in describing the status of the ethics probe.

Posted by Mike LaChance on May 07, 2016 7 Comments
FOX News lives rent free in the heads of liberals all over America. They just can't stand the fact that one news network dares to include conservative voices alongside liberal ones. Obama has been complaining about the network since taking office and now Bernie Sanders is singling out FOX and suggesting that liberals should have a similar network. Here's the best part - He made the comments to Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. The Hill reports:
Sanders calls for Democratic version of Fox News Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders called for a more liberal version of Fox News to help fix the problems he sees in corporate media.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 07, 2016 16 Comments
Trump Acolyte Roger Stone was booted off CNN for good after sending a few less than appropriate tweets about network employees in February. Politico reported:
"He will no longer appear as a guest on CNN," a spokesperson told POLITICO. Stone had made disparaging remarks on Twitter about CNN political analyst Ana Navarro that were recently highlighted by Media Matters, a media watchdog group founded by Hillary Clinton ally David Brock.

Posted by Mike LaChance on March 12, 2016 4 Comments
Chris Matthews of MSNBC famously said during the 2008 presidential election that Obama sent a thrill up his leg but he's not feeling the same magic for Hillary in 2016. Steve Guest reports at the Daily Caller:
MSNBC’s Matthews Laments Hillary Doesn’t Give Him ‘Thrill Up The Leg’ [VIDEO] MSNBC’s Chris Matthews said Hillary Clinton in 2016 “can’t match” President Barack Obama’s oratory skills that gave him the “thrill up the leg” in 2008.

Posted by Mike LaChance on February 27, 2016 26 Comments
MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry is now protesting her own show, proving once again that the only thing lower than the network's ratings is the collective IQ of their on-air talent. The New York Times reports:
Melissa Harris-Perry Walks Off Her MSNBC Show After Pre-emptions In an unusually public flare-up, one of MSNBC’s television personalities clashed with the network on Friday in a dispute about airtime and editorial freedom and said she was refusing to host the show that bears her name this weekend.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 18, 2016 21 Comments
Remember the debacle at the CNBC Republican debate in October, where the moderators were horrendous in their treatment of the candidates? I suggested at the time GOP needs to make an example of NBC News:
The GOP has a long history of subjecting its candidates to abuse by debate moderators. From George Stephanopolous to Candy Crowley, debates are a time for network journalists to earn their battle badges by damaging Republicans. And the GOP just sucks it up and takes it....

Posted by Mike LaChance on November 03, 2015 12 Comments
The CNBC debate has sparked a number of conversations on the very real issue of liberal bias in the media. As Professor Jacobson pointed out last night, this is an opportunity for Republicans. When the issue is being discussed seriously on MSNBC, you know we've reached a turning point. Yesterday on Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough challenged his panelists to answer a simple question. Mark Finkelstein of NewsBusters has the story:
Scarborough: No Republican Has Hosted Network Sunday Show or Newscast in 50 Years In the wake of the CNBC debate debacle, Joe Scarborough went on an epic rant on liberal media bias on today's Morning Joe. He summed things up this way, in challenging the panel: "you can't do it and nobody here can do it: name the single Republican that has hosted a Sunday show, that has been an anchor of a news network for the big three networks over the past 50 years: you can not do it."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 31, 2015 73 Comments
The GOP has a long history of subjecting its candidates to abuse by debate moderators. From George Stephanopolous to Candy Crowley, debates are a time for network journalists to earn their battle badges by damaging Republicans. And the GOP just sucks it up and takes it. So why would the CNBC moderators have thought the most recent Republican Primary debate should be any different? CNBC did what it thought it was supposed to do -- mock and snicker at Republican candidates. Belittle them. Dismiss their intelligence and portray them as kooks.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on October 26, 2015 32 Comments
Discussing Paul Ryan's bid for Speaker of the House Monday, Melissa Harris-Perry made an unusual claim about the term, "hard worker." Alfonso Aguilar, Director of the conservative organization American Principles Project’s Latino Partnership said:
"But let's be fair. If there's somebody who is a hard worker when he goes to Washington, it's Paul Ryan. He not only works with Republicans but with Democrats. You know very well that I work on immigration issues, trying to get Republicans to support immigration reform. Paul Ryan is somebody who has supported immigration reform, has worked with somebody like Luis Gutierrez. Luis Gutierrez is very respectful, speaks highly of Paul Ryan, this is somebody who is trying to govern.
At which point Harris-Perry interrupted Aguilar and then proceeded to wander down a completely unhinged tangent about slavery.
"Alfonso, I feel you. But I just want to pause on one thing, because I don't disagree with you that I actually think Mr. Ryan is a great choice for this roll. I want us to be super careful when we use the language "hard worker," because, I actually keep an image of folks working in the cotton fields on my office wall because it is a reminder of what hard work looks like. So I feel you that he's a hard worker, I do, but in the context of relative privilege... and I just want to point out that when you talk about work-life balance and being a hard worker, the moms who are working, who don't have health care, we don't call them hard workers, we call them failures, we call them people who are sucking off the system."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 20, 2015 4 Comments
Last Friday MSNBC used an anti-Israel series of maps [Featured Image] frequently spread by "pro-Palestinian" boycott activists. The map sequence purports to show "Palestinian Loss of Land" since 1946. As we documented in our post, MSNBC uses anti-Israel propaganda map, the maps are a lie both individually and in sequence. The land in the first map was part of the British Mandate of Palestine, not a country of Palestine, and most of the land on the map was public land, not land owned privately by Palestinian Arabs. The second map, the UN partition plan, was the division of land the Arabs rejected and went to war over. The third map, post Israel Independence, purports to show the West Bank and Gaza as Palestinian, but in fact that land was controlled by Jordan and Egypt, respectively. The last map, showing Palestinian control under the Oslo Accords, represents a gain of land, not loss. This annotation of the maps has some of the details. Map That Lies - Annotated With all that in mind, here's the original MSNBC broadcast:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 17, 2015 15 Comments
There is a standard fixture at anti-Israel BDS rallies and events -- a map purporting to show loss of Palestinian land to Israel. But it's a completely misleading and false map. Yet MSNBC used it on air today -- a demonstration of how Big Lies become truth when repeated often enough: The map has been debunked so many times in the past, a simple Google search would have demonstrated the problem. Elder of Ziyon blog has written a definitive taken down of the map in 2012, The Map That Lies. The Tower magazine has an exhaustive research post on why the map is a lie, The Mendacious Maps of Palestinian “Loss”.  Even The Economist had an explanation why the map was deceptive in 2010, when blogger Andrew Sullivan used the map. Most important is that Map 1, which purports to show "Palestinian land" as comprising most of the British Mandate (after Britain already has lopped off most of the Mandate land to create Jordan) does not show "Palestinian" land at all. As Elder of Ziyon explained, that land was mostly public land, and there was no country of Palestine:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on October 02, 2015 36 Comments
Tragic deaths seem to dredge up the worst kind of discourse from liberal punditry. The national conversation, particularly in regards to calls for increased gun control tends to go something like this: "Someone broke a law." "WE MUST MAKE MORE LAWS. WE MUST DO SOMETHING." "Yes, but these individuals didn't follow the law to begin with." "WE MUST MAKE MORE LAWS. WE MUST DO SOMETHING." "Because criminals will follow a new law when they're already ignoring all the others?" "WE MUST MAKE MORE LAWS. MOAR LAWS. ALL THE LAWS. SOMETHING. GUNS. SOMETHING. YARRRRGHH." "We must do SOMETHING," is tired mantra and one beginning to show signs of wear and tear. Friday morning, National Review's Charles Cooke joined Morning Joe to discuss the horrific Oregon community college shooting. Cooke writes extensively about second amendment liberties.

Posted by Amy Miller on September 22, 2015 5 Comments
Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is not having a good time this cycle. Charges over the DNC's "rigged" debate schedule have gained traction, and activists and prominent Democrats from presidential candidate Martin O'Malley to congressional leader Nancy Pelosi have taken to national media outlets to question DWS's decision to limit the number of official debates her candidates are allowed to participate in. On Saturday, that frustration boiled over. Spectators at the New Hampshire Democratic Party convention drowned out DWS's speech with cries of "we want debates! We want debates!" further embarrassing the party and giving stronger legs to efforts meant to push the DNC toward a more substantial debate schedule. MSNBC caught on to the controversy this week. Not only did they call DWS out for limiting the number of debates, they directly accused the party of playing flack for Hillary Clinton's campaign. Ouch. Courtesy of the Washington Free Beacon:

Posted by Mike LaChance on September 13, 2015 17 Comments
It's not every day that you hear people on MSNBC talking about Sarah Palin in a positive way and that's what makes this so much fun. Melissa Harris-Perry and her guests not only agree that Hillary doesn't come across as authentic, they suggest that Sarah Palin does. Jack Coleman of NewsBusters reported:
Gasp! MSNBC Panelist Says Hillary Should Emulate Palin's Authenticity It took nearly seven years, but at long last it's finally been heard -- praise for Sarah Palin on MSNBC. Even better, one of the people praising Palin -- and there were three, count 'em, three libs on the Lean Leftward cable network today doing so -- suggested that flailing Democrat Hillary Clinton could do worse than to look toward Palin as a political model to emulate. The gratifying twofer came on MSNBC's usually cringe-inducing Melissa Harris-Perry show during a panel discussion of authenticity or the lack thereof among politicians.

Posted by Mike LaChance on August 27, 2015 10 Comments
MSNBC is dropping the Reverend Al Sharpton's program 'PoliticsNation' from its daily lineup and moving him to a weekly slot which will air on Sunday mornings at 8 am. Alex Weprin of Politico reports:
MSNBC moves Al Sharpton to Sunday mornings Sharpton's last weekday "PoliticsNation" will be Sept. 4. He moves to Sundays a month later on Oct. 4, according to a memo sent to MSNBC staff by the channel's president Phil Griffin Wednesday evening. "I want to congratulate Al and his team. For four years they have done a terrific job bringing his voice and a big spotlight to issues of justice, civil rights and equality. And as many of you know, The Rev never missed a show," Griffin wrote in the email. "I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do with a Sunday morning newsmaker program." The 6 pm hour will temporarily be filled by "MSNBC Live," the channel's weekday news program. A permanent replacement will be named "soon after" Sharpton moves, per Griffin.
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