Morning Edition

NPR's resident ObamaCare booster, Julie Rovner, lionized outgoing liberal Congressman Henry Waxman on Friday's Morning Edition. Rovner trumpeted how "during his 40 years in the House, he focused on passing legislation – lots of legislation – the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Orphan Drug Act, nutrition labels, food safety, and the Affordable Care Act. Waxman played a major role in all…

Rachel Martin, anchor of NPR’s “Weekend Edition Sunday” rocked her Sunday morning six weeks ago by hailing the religion-bashing punks of Bad Religion deconstructing religious Christmas carols like a "Monty Python skit."  On this Sunday, Martin hailed “Laura Jane Grace, transgendered punk,” the lead singer of the band Against Me! NPR wasn’t really as “progressive” as they could have been on…

If NFL owners and players wanted to dismiss the racially charged hazing of Miami Dolphins offensive lineman Jonathan Martin as Fun With Rookies, they better be prepared for the media nerds who want to destroy the popularity of football so it sinks to the cultural level of boxing. On Wednesday’s Morning Edition, NPR set loose its sports commentator Frank Deford to tell parents not to let their…

For Obama, NPR is turning into the Happy Talk Network. First, there was the stunning headline “Healthcare.gov Could Have Been Worse.” On Thursday’s Morning Edition, the headline was “Why Obama Shouldn’t Worry About Lousy Poll Numbers.” NPr headlines in the Bush years were in a different spirit, such as this beaut: “Naomi Wolf Likens Bush to Hitler.” The happy talker on this forget-lousy-polls…

NPR is looking quite desperate in its promotion of Obamacare. This was an actual headline at the NPR website: "Despite Glitches, HealthCare.gov Could've Been Worse." Jonah Goldberg told me "I thought you made up that headline!" He cracked on Twitter: "For instance, logging on could have permanently blinded you!" On Tuesday night's All Things Considered, anchor Melissa Block borrowed this…

Sarah Varney's report on Friday's Morning Edition is just the latest example of NPR's one-sided coverage of the health care issue in general, and ObamaCare specifically. Varney spotlighted how California's government gave a local chapter of the SEIU – a major supporter of President Obama during his two presidential campaigns – $1 million to enroll people in the state's insurance exchange.…

During the Friday episode of National Public Radio's Morning Edition, co-host Renee Montagne stated that the past several days had been “a charged week at the Capitol,” which led fellow co-host David Greene to declare: “Still, ObamaCare rolled out as planned.” Millions of people have shopped for insurance on the new marketplaces called exchanges since opening day on Tuesday, they noted.…

President Obama granted a 24-minute interview to NPR Morning Edition anchor Steve Inskeep, the man who compared him to Abraham Lincoln in a softball 2012 interview with David Axelrod.  On Tuesday's morning show, they spread the interview into three segments distributed throughout the show. The questions were mostly brief, neutral process questions about budget negotiations, but Inskeep did ask…

On Monday's Morning Edition, NPR's Scott Horsley boosted President Obama's push for new gun control measures at the Sunday memorial service for the victims of the mass shooting at the Washington Navy Yard. Horsley played four soundbites of Obama bemoaning the apparent lack of action on this issue, while including just one clip from the NRA's Wayne LaPierre. The correspondent also asserted…

Washington Post media blogger Erik Wemple recalled Daily Beast boss Tina Brown hate-tweeting her former Washington bureau chief Howard Kurtz: “am I forgetting something or didn’t I fire you for serial inaccuracy?” “That was a bit of classlessness that simply wasn’t going to go unpunished,” Wemple wrote. “And now the journalism gods have spoken, via a correction that is available on NPR.” On…

On Monday's Morning Edition on NPR, Cokie Roberts did little to hide her feelings about the Republican National Committee's recent decision to exclude NBC and CNN from hosting future debates between would-be GOP presidential candidates. Roberts asserted that "some might think it's a little bit childish." Roberts also brushed off the impact of the RNC's move, stating that it's "not likely to…

On Monday's Morning Edition on NPR, Minnesota Public Radio correspondent Elizabeth Stawicki featured Karen Pollitz of the Kaiser Family Foundation during a report about ObamaCare, but failed to mention the left-leaning political affiliation of the organization. Stawicki merely labeled the foundation "non-partisan". The public radio journalist also failed to mention that Pollitz is an alumna…

In a classic "diversity" turn at National Public Radio, Thursday’s Morning Edition promoted the comedic career of Indian-American Hari Kondabolu, who writes for the FX comedy show “Totally Biased With W. Kamau Bell.” He also has a forthcoming album of stand-up comedy. Anchor David Greene declared "The brainy, young comedian cuts through any polite talk about race or gender. And his incisive…

On Friday’s Morning Edition, NPR “Code Switch” blogger Gene Demby (exploring the "frontiers of race, culture, and ethnicity") was brought on to discuss the Zimmerman trial. For his blog at NPR.org,  he had written that trials like this are “lousy proxies for fights over big, messy social issues” like racial profiling. But in making this point, Demby highlighted his point unintentionally. He…