Nelson Mandela

An indignant Chris Matthews on Monday took internet attacks on the late Nelson Mandela, allegedly from conservative commenters, and slammed the right for a lack of respect towards the South African leader: “Don’t they know that it’s not nice to make fun of a person so recently deceased, much less the world’s most honored champion of human freedom?” Yet, how did the journalists at MSNBC and…

With all the coverage of Nelson Mandela's death along with the harsh winter weather hitting many parts of the country, last Friday was a big news day. Not for CNN's Anderson Cooper who had his worst ratings of the year bringing in only 255,000 total viewers.

With the departure of commentator George Will to Fox News, the job of representing the conservative point of view on ABC’s This Week seems to have settled upon Matthew Dowd. Trouble is, Dowd is not really what anyone could fairly characterize as a conservative. Beyond the fact that he was a Democratic strategist for decades before switching to work for former President George W. Bush in the…

On the Friday, December 6, All In with Chris Hayes show on MSNBC, during a discussion of Nelson Mandela's support for violent resistance, the Daily Beast's Michael Moynihan admitted that the former South African leader had a "moral failing" because he "associated with" dictators who "did the same things to their people" as "was done to him." Referring to an article by Moynihan on the subject…

On Sunday's NBC Meet the Press, host David Gregory used the death of former South African President Nelson Mandela to lecture American politicians: "Mandela refused to be consumed by hatred and insisted on working toward a common purpose with his political foes. That, seems to me, is what is missing from this era of argument in Washington." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump…

On Friday's PoliticsNation, MSNBC's Karen Finney accused Republicans of practicing their own form of "apartheid" by "separating people and dividing people" as she and host Al Sharpton discussed comments some right-leaning public figures have made in the aftermath of Nelson Mandela's passing. Referring to former Senator Rick Santorum comparing Mandela fighting against the oppresssion of…

  For someone who loves to make pop culture references, Chris Matthews can't seem to get them right. On Friday night, the Hardball host sneered at Rick Santorum comparing his fight against ObamaCare to Nelson Mandela's struggle against apartheid. A cocky Matthews derided, "That's like Snoopy fighting the Red Dragon." [See video below. MP3 audio here.] As any Peanuts fan will tell you, Snoopy…

There was a really delicious exchange on ABC’s This Week Sunday that conservatives across the fruited plain will greatly enjoy. After hate-spewing MSNBC contributor Michael Eric Dyson bashed former Vice President Dick Cheney for once wanting Nelson Mandela put on a terrorist list, Matalin shot back, “When will you ever get tired of beating up on Darth Vader” (video follows with transcript and…

At the Daily Beast, Michael Moynihan attempted to overcome the tendency of journalists and celebrities to make Nelson Mandela a secular saint. Moynihan recalled that when Margaret Thatcher died, these same people denounced her for here "indulgence" of right-wing dictators like Agosto Pinochet in Chile, who allowed his country to become a democracy. ABC called her reign an “elective…

Since the announcement of Nelson Mandela's death Thursday, the media have been in a virtual wall to wall tribute to his life and legacy. Yet not everyone thinks they're painting an accurate picture of the man. Quite the contrary, Cornel West told CNN's Jake Tapper Friday, "We are witnessing the Santa Clausification of Nelson Mandela" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

The media's determination to pin anything negative on Texas Senator Ted Cruz apparently knows no bounds. Even as the establishment press, with Politico's Reid Epstein being one of the more recent examples, attempts to give President Obama the Mother of All Free Passes for the disastrous rollouts of HealthCare.gov and Obamacare in general, Cruz, currently perceived as a strong 2016…

With the passing of Nelson Mandela yesterday, it was a metaphysical certainty that the media would draw parallels between the legendary South African leader and Barack Obama. So it was not a surprise when it happened during a tribute package at the beginning of Friday’s Morning Joe. As triumphant footage of Mandela rolled on the screen, co-host Mika Brzezinski read a scripted narrative: […

On Friday's CBS This Morning, former Time magazine managing editor Richard Stengel unexpectedly zeroed in on a part of Nelson Mandela's legacy that apparently wasn't sufficiently left wing. Moments after he lionized Mandela as "the George Washington of South Africa", Stengel asserted that "he [Mandela] had not been very progressive about HIV and AIDS when he was president". Veteran 60…

With the recent high profile dismissal of hosts Alec Baldwin and Martin Bashir, you would think MSNBC executives would have warned their on air employees to tone down the inflammatory rhetoric. Apparently not, for on Now with Alex Wagner Friday, Chris Matthews actually said that South Africa's last apartheid era leader F.W. de Klerk was more of a patriot than Senate Minority Leader Mitch…