Olbermann: Obama ‘Separating Mullah Limbaugh from the Herd,’ Lates

January 27th, 2009 7:45 PM
On Monday’s Countdown show, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann branded Rush Limbaugh as the "extreme right," and made an analogy between Barack Obama talking about trying to divide jihadists from Muslim moderates during his inauguration, and the President's current efforts to isolate Limbaugh from other conservatives. Hosting  Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter as guest, Olbermann began: "In his inaugural address…

Lisa Miller's Dumb Question About Rick Warren's Prayer

January 21st, 2009 2:15 PM
While she pronounced his prayer as a "good job" for being generally non-offensive and inclusive-sounding, Newsweek's Lisa Miller -- who earlier this month suggested ditching inaugural prayers altogether -- was nagged by the "lingering question" that "remains" from the way evangelical pastor Rick Warren closed his inauguration ceremony invocation in the name of Jesus:Warren's conservative theology…

Newspapers Notice News Mags Are Turning Into Opinion Mags, But Editors

January 19th, 2009 4:33 PM
On Monday, both The New York Times and The Washington Post noticed a long-simmering trend: Time and Newsweek have increasingly abandoned news reporting in favor of being more opinionated "thought leaders." In the Post, reporter Howard Kurtz bluntly declared, "The rival editors are turning out weeklies that are smaller, more serious, more opinionated and, though they are loath to admit it, more…

Jon Meacham Sneers: Bush's Low Polls Prove He's Below Mediocre

January 19th, 2009 7:08 AM

Media Reality Check: The Media’s Inauguration Day Double Standards

January 15th, 2009 1:50 PM
The news media are giddy with excitement as Barack Obama’s Inauguration Day approaches — CNN’s Jim Acosta on Tuesday’s American Morning touted how "Obama has some big shoes to fill, roughly the size of the ones up on the Lincoln Memorial....Barack Obama’s inaugural address may be more than the speech of his lifetime. Historians and speechwriters say it could be one for the ages."But it would be a…

MRC’s Notable Quotables: Drooling Over Obama’s ‘Chiseled Pecs

January 13th, 2009 2:17 PM
Starting this week, MRC’s Notable Quotables newsletter is evolving from a printed hard-copy product to an all-electronic Web and e-mail publication, complete with audio and video clips of the worst quotes from each issue. Every two weeks, Notable Quotables offers a concise summary of the liberal media’s most outrageous and/or humorous eruptions, and the very best quotes are harvested once a year…

Matthews: Media Shouldn't Cover RNC Criticism of Hillary

January 13th, 2009 1:14 PM
Now that Barack Obama is assuming the presidency, partisan criticism is suddenly so passé.  Just ask Chris Matthews. In the course of cheerleading anchoring the MSNBC coverage of Hillary Clinton's confirmation hearing today, Matthews suggested that the media shouldn't cover the Republican National Committee's criticism of Clinton.  The comments came during the Hardball host's chat with Newsweek's…

Newsweek's Lisa Miller on Religious Fundamentalists and the Inaugurati

January 13th, 2009 11:56 AM
Invoking the threat of "religious fundamentalists abroad" and tacitly comparing them to religious conservatives in the United States, Newsweek's Lisa Miller advises President-elect Obama to ditch the practice of having clergy offer prayers at the presidential inauguration:Our new president might use his Inauguration then to showcase the values that have made this country great: pluralism,…

Newsweek’s Meacham: Don't Expect Obama to Undo 'Awful, Terrible Stuf

January 8th, 2009 12:18 PM
Call this a lowering of expectations by a figurehead of the mainstream media.Newsweek editor Jon Meacham spoke candidly about his expectations for President-elect Barack Obama at an appearance promoting his latest book about former President Andrew Jackson, "American Lion," at the Politics & Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 7.Meacham was asked to draw a comparison between Jackson…

Newsweek's Bush-Cheney Paper Dolls Contest: No More Prison Jumpsuits

December 29th, 2008 11:10 PM

Newsweek Uses Year-End Edition to Take Potshots at Palin

December 26th, 2008 3:23 PM
Newsweek sprinkled throughout its year-end double issue, with Barack Obama on the cover as the #1 member of “The New Global Elite,” a bunch of potshots at Sarah Palin -- and even derided teen daughter Bristol too. In a list of those who committed “low behavior” during 2008 (which did at least also highlight John Edwards), the magazine accused Sarah Palin of a “smear” against Barack Obama, on…

Newsweek Buries 2008 with Obit Bias

December 22nd, 2008 5:09 PM
In its year-ending double issue Newsweek couldn't resist injecting liberal media bias into its mini obituaries entitled "Remember Them Well."Yet the newsmagazine seemed to forget, perhaps intentionally, the left-of-center politics of prominent liberals profiled while using terms like "far-right" to describe the politics of deceased conservatives such as Paul Weyrich. But wait, there's more,…

Eleanor Clift: Wright Had 'Prophetic Theology', Rick Warren 'Extremely

December 22nd, 2008 4:17 PM
Rev. Jeremiah Wright was a voice crying in the wilderness that the mainstream media and middle class America weren't quite ready for and megachurch pastor Rick Warren is an ignorant evangelical rube who isn't totally without hope, given his awareness of AIDS and other favored liberal causes. That's essentially what Eleanor Clift preached to her choir in her December 19 "Capitol Letter" column, "…

ABC: Barack Obama Tops Newsweek’s List of 50 Elite People

December 22nd, 2008 1:05 PM
At the end of Monday’s ABC Good Morning America, co-host Chris Cuomo talked to Newsweek editor Jon Meacham about the magazine’s ‘Elite 50' list of influential people, as Cuomo put it: "People who will literally be able to shape our lives in many different ways." Meacham explained: "Our goal with this was, you know, elite got a bad rap this year. It wasn't a good thing to be an elitist. But there'…