Notable Quotables: Prayer = 'Meaningless Platitudes' from 'Cowards'

Now online: the December 7 edition of Notable Quotables, MRC’s bi-weekly compilation of the latest outrageous quotes in the liberal media. This week, the media double down on Obama's anti-gun agenda and mock those who offer prayers as "cowards" hiding behind "meaningless platitudes."

Also: NBC's Chuck Todd fears that, after San Bernardino, "our politics could be very ugly and very negative" thanks to Americans' "Islamophobia," while CNN can't figure out if the attack was because of radical Islam or "postpartum psychosis." Highlights are posted below; the entire issue is posted online with 27 quotes at www.MRC.org.

Prayer = “Meaningless Platitudes” from “Cowards”

“God Isn’t Fixing This”
“As latest batch of innocent Americans are left lying in pools of blood, cowards who could truly end gun scourge continue to hide behind meaningless platitudes”
— Front-page headline and sub-headline of the New York Daily News, December 3.

Co-anchor Gayle King: “I thought that headline was very powerful.”...
Co-anchor Charlie Rose: “We have to do something. As the New York Daily News said, God is not going to fix it. We have to fix it.”
— CBS This Morning, December 3. The San Bernadino shooting was the work of two radicalized Muslims, an American citizen and his Pakistani-born wife.

Dear Prayer People: “Shut Up and Slink Away”

“Dear ‘thoughts and prayers’ people: Please shut up and slink away. You are the problem, and everyone knows it.”
— Washington Post columnist Gene Weingarten in a December 2 tweet just hours after the shooting occurred.

Chuck Fears “Very Ugly” Politics of “Islamophobia”

“I have some fears of where this conversation goes, if this turns into being an American Muslim, an American citizen, and the investigation comes out that this is a radicalized situation and all this stuff. I think the consequences on our politics could be very ugly and very negative....It’s just going to raise the issue of Islamophobia again.”
— NBC Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd on MSNBC Live, December 3.

Clueless Media Can’t Acknowledge Reality

“Motive elusive in deadly Calif. rampage”
— Washington Post front-page headline, December 4.

“California Shooters Leave Clues, but No Clear Motive”
— Front-page headline in the Wall Street Journal, same day.

CNN Confused: Is It ISIS, or “Postpartum Psychosis?”

“Obviously, her involvement is a game changer in how enforcement, law enforcement will look at this. But I just have to ask you, could there be something else, anything else that could have explained her involvement? Something like a postpartum psychosis?”
— CNN host Erin Burnett on the December 3 OutFront, talking about Tashfeen Malik, who along with her husband, Syed Farook, perpetrated the San Bernadino attack that killed 14 and wounded 21.

Seizing on Tragedy to Push Liberal Anti-Gun Agenda

“We are attacked by foreign terrorists and we go to war and spend trillions of dollars to defend ourselves. But we are terrorized daily by gun violence, and we do nothing? When will we, as a nation, finally decide to take action? What will it take?”
— Ex-CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather in a December 3 Facebook post about the California shooting.

No Mass Shootings In Europe?

Host Chris Matthews: “But do you think we’d have mass shootings if we didn’t have guns? How would we have them?...We don’t have mass shootings all over Europe. We don’t have mass–”
GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum: “What do you mean? We just had a mass shooting in Paris!”
— Exchange on MSNBC’s Hardball on December 1, just 18 days after the terrorist attack that killed 130 people.

Indicting Pro-Life Conservatives for Planned Parenthood Shooting

“I don’t think, Paula, we can ignore the rhetoric that has been out there from the Republican Party, from the right. And the bottom line there is, yes, that is sort of tossing fuel onto something that’s already very, very flammable.”
— CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin on ABC’s The View, November 30.

“Don’t tell me that there’s no connection between the hateful rhetoric that goes on with Republicans in this country, towards women in this country, and Planned Parenthood. It’s simply — there is clearly a connection, and the Republicans are in denial.”
— Ex-MSNBC host Ed Schultz in his November 30 podcast.

Obama’s Climate Summit = Fighting Terrorism

“The recent terror attacks are tragic, and many lives will never be the same because of them. They should not be minimized. But climate change is another form of terror — and it’s one we’re wreaking on ourselves.”
— CNN’s “2 degrees” blogger John D. Sutter in a CNN.com article, November 29.

To read the entire December 7 edition of Notable Quotables, please visit www.MRC.org.