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MSNBC Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 21, 2014 30 Comments
Elizabeth Warren is doing the best she can with the ideology she has. So it was a shock to see Chris Matthews, of all people, call her out for being all talk and no real action. As if she would just say things for political effect. Or take advantage of situations unfairly for her own gain. Come on Chris. Leave Elizabeth alone. From The Daily Caller:
Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren clearly expected a softball interview with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews on Thursday night. But midway through her predictable talking points, the left-wing “Hardball” host unexpectedly struck out at the progressive darling over what he views as Democratic inaction on jobs and infrastructure.

Posted by Mike LaChance on May 17, 2014 20 Comments
Much has already been written about the Satanic black mass which was supposed to take place at Harvard last week but I feel MSNBC's recent participation in the story warrants one more post on the subject. In the video below, MSNBC's Chris Hayes attempts to make some moral equivalency between Satanism, Christianity, freedom of speech and freedom of religion. What he fails to understand and neglects to adequately explain to his handful of viewers is that the outrage over the Harvard black mass wasn't an attempt to squelch the religious rights of Satanists as much as it was recognition of extremely poor taste on Harvard's part. Whether you like the school or not, Harvard is one of the nation's most prestigious institutions of higher learning and is therefore held to a higher standard. In short, people expect better from Harvard. As a spiritual entity, Satanism would not exist without Christianity. The very central premise of Satanism is the rejection and mockery of Christianity, which explains why a host on MSNBC would rush to defend it. One has to wonder if MSNBC would defend free speech and freedom of religion if a group of Harvard students decided to burn a Koran on campus. Jim Geraghty of National Review recently noted the irony...
Dear Harvard Satanists: Go to Hell. I Hear You’re a Fan of the Management:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 12, 2014 9 Comments
Oh, they thought they had Fox News right where they wanted it.  The proof they'd been waiting for that Fox News was racist. Heather Childers on Fox & Friends First mistakenly referred to U. Conn. as the NAACP champs rather than NCAA champs. There was pure joy in Mudville.  As of this writing, this TPM video has over 800,000 views: The Raw Story headlined it as "A Freudian Slip?" (emphasis in original):
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People — or NAACP — is a civil rights organization focusing on equality for African-Americans and other minorities. At least 10 of the 15 players on the winning UConn team were African-Americans.
The never subtle Gawker proclaimed it outright racism:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 27, 2014 14 Comments

Remember Obama and Deval Patrick's "just words" similarity? That's nothing compared to this hysterical video mash up from The Blaze: ...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 18, 2014 26 Comments

What's in a name?...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 27, 2014 18 Comments
Melissa Harris-Perry hosted a panel on the question: "Are attacks against Wendy Davis sexist or standard political fare?" Harris-Perry gave a pretty good intro, pointing out that narrative failures are political problems for women and for men. And she did highlight that Wendy Davis' narrative is not quite as portrayed in her campaign. But were the attacks "gendered" if not outright "sexist." Watch the video below. Does it strike you, as it did me, that the panelists could not generate any visible indignation over the supposedly sexist treatment of Davis? They mouthed the words, but seemed a bit shy about it after listening to Harris-Perry's intro about the discrepancies in Davis' narrative. Davis' parenting and maternal commitment were an express part of her narrative -- when that narrative failed, it was not gendered or sexist, it just was what it was. There was no dissent among the panelists. Jonathan Capehart particularly dropped the ball by suggesting that Newt Gingrich is an example of a man leaving his first wife and kids behind who did not pay a price. But in fact, Newt has been excoriated for it and it was a damaging blow to his presidential ambitions, as I explained to Kirsten Powers. This should have been a panel that breathed "sexism" fire. That all they could muster were a few glowing embers of "sexism" tells you something right there. There doesn't appear to be any fire in the belly even at MSNBC to defend Wendy Davis' failed personal narrative. Here's the video, in two parts:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 11, 2014 18 Comments
Melissa Harris-Perry of MSNBC presided over an appalling segment in which panelists mocked Mitt Romney's family because of his adopted black grandchild.  She later apologized profusely. Yet for unknown reasons, Ta-Nehisi Coates in The Atlantic rushed to Perry's defense not by defending her conduct, but by attacking her critics as racist.
The Smartest Nerd in the Room: Why Melissa Harris-Perry is America's foremost public intellectual, and what she means On Saturday, Melissa Harris-Perry apologized on air for segment that made light of the Romney clan's adoption of a young black boy. On Sunday, Mitt Romney accepted Harris-Perry's "heartfelt" apology, noting, "I've made plenty of mistakes myself." I've watched the offending segment several times now. I can see how a white parent who'd adopted a black child (or vice versa) would find the segment flip and offensive. It would not have surprised me if those concerned about adoption, equality, and racism voiced some protest about the segment. Instead what we got was week of invective driven mostly by a conservative movement with less lofty concerns.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 09, 2014 27 Comments
We have addressed Koch Derangement Syndrome before.  One of the most obsessive purveyors was Think Progress. Now Rachel Maddow has caught the bug, and it's eating away at her reputation as the intellectual giant, ahem, of MSNBC. She's come undone. The short version is that Maddow went all in claiming the Koch brothers were behind a Florida law requiring drug testing for welfare recipients.  Except that it wasn't true, and her explanation was lacking in logic or credibility. The logic is so convoluted it's hard to summarize.  Basically it involved participation by the Florida Foundation for Government Accountability (“FFGA”) in the State Policy Network (SPN), to which the Kochs contributed about $40,000 over several years.   FFGA defended the drug testing law.  Maddow blamed the Kochs. (Video here) This was the worst form of guilt by association -- that some group involved in an issue was a participant in a larger group to which the Kochs contributed.
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