Ed Schultz Rips Limbaugh With Lies About Wisconsin: 'Wrap Your Fat Ass

February 20th, 2011 10:31 AM
MSNBC's Ed Schultz was in Madison, Wisconsin, last week predictably showing solidarity with protesting public employees. On Friday, the "Ed Show" host badly misrepresented Governor Scott Walker's budget repair plan in order to bash conservative talk radio star Rush Limbaugh at one point asking, "Hey, Rush, why don’t you wrap your fat ass in the flag?" (video follows with partial transcript…

Ed Schultz Exposed for Exaggerating How Much Wisconsin Governor's Plan

February 19th, 2011 7:29 PM
As NewsBusters reported Saturday, Rachel Maddow wasn't the only MSNBC commentator last week that lied to viewers about the budget battle in Wisconsin. Having misrepresented the same nonsense as Maddow about the Badger State having a surplus instead of a deficit Friday, Ed Schultz was exposed by Politifact for dramatically exaggerating how much Gov. Scott Walker's repair plan would cost public…

Time's Joe Klein, WaPo's Charles Lane Excoriate Liberal Behavior in Wi

February 19th, 2011 6:11 PM
Two liberal editorialists are letting the liberals have it over their tactics in the Wisconsin battle against new Gov. Scott Walker. In a Washington Post piece posted on Saturday, editorial writer Charles Lane excoriates fellow liberals: This is hypocrisy on an epic scale. I can't think of a more overwhelming refutation of the claim that incivility is the unique province of the American right…

NBC Equates Madison to Egypt While Ignoring ‘Scott Stalin’ Placard

February 19th, 2011 4:45 PM
“On the broadcast tonight, the uprising at home,” teased NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, touting “another day of fury in Wisconsin. Workers angry about what they call a plan to balance the budget on their backs.” Williams set up his Friday newscast by equating the left-wing protests with those against Arab dictatorships: “From the Mideast to the American Midwest tonight, people are…

Rachel Maddow Exposed for Lying About Wisconsin Having Budget Surplus

February 19th, 2011 3:33 PM
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow began her show Thursday claiming, "Despite what you may have heard about Wisconsin's finances, Wisconsin is on track to have a budget surplus this year." On Friday, the website Politifact exposed Maddow's assertion as 100 percent false (video follows with partial transcript and commentary):

Bozell on 'Fox & Friends' Discussing Wisconsin, 'Hannity' Tackling Fed

February 19th, 2011 3:32 PM
NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell appeared on Friday's 'Fox & Friends' to discuss the media's lack of interest in uncivil rhetoric from left-leaning labor unions massing in Madison, Wisconsin over the past few days. Some protesters' signs have depicted Republican Gov. Scott Walker as Hitler, others as recently-deposed Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak. Some even depict crosshairs over…

Norah O'Donnell Misses Wisconsin Governor's Motives for Budget Cuts

February 18th, 2011 6:08 PM
In the midst of outcry that Wisconsin teachers were skipping school to protest the governor's new budget bill and demand collective bargaining rights, NBC's Norah O'Donnell provided the teachers' motives as an argument for their side. She failed to mention why Wisconsin Gov. Walker cut into their benefits in the first place. Covering the story on MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports," O'Donnell…

Networks that Railed Against Rhetoric of Tea Parties Offer No Comment

February 18th, 2011 4:06 PM
The same networks that assailed the allegedly extreme invective from the Tea Party have, thus far, not found anything interesting about signs implying that Scott Walker, Wisconsin's Republican governor, is a Nazi or a dictator in the style of Egypt's Hosni Mubarak. On Thursday's newscasts and Friday's Today, Good Morning America and the Early Show, the extreme rhetoric of some of the signs…

Apocalypse Now: Wisconsin vs. Big Labor

February 18th, 2011 12:22 PM
Welcome to the reckoning. We have met the fiscal apocalypse, and it is smack dab in the middle of the heartland. As Wisconsin goes, so goes the nation. Let us pray it does not go the way of the decrepit welfare states of the European Union. The lowdown: State government workers in the Badger State pay piddling amounts for generous taxpayer-subsidized health benefits. Faced with a $3.6 billion…

ABC's One-Sided Take on Wisconsin Protests Includes an Interview With

February 18th, 2011 12:19 PM
Good Morning America on Friday spun the protests in Wisconsin from the perspective of the unions and Democratic lawmakers who oppose Republican efforts to reform collective bargaining. Co-host George Stephanopoulos even interviewed a Democratic lawmaker from a top secret location outside the state. Correspondent Chris Bury's piece on the protest featured five clips of those protesting the…

CBS's Chris Wragge Tries to Grill Gov. Walker on 'Breaking Unions,' Bu

February 18th, 2011 12:04 PM
Update: Video and audio added. On Friday's CBS Early Show, co-host Chris Wragge attempted to portray Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's efforts to curb costly benefits for public sector unions in his state as purely political: "Your teachers union, which votes Democratic...hit very hard. Yet your police, state trooper, firemen unions, who all supported and endorsed you, did not get touched in…

Tea Party Plans Wisc. Protest to Counter Unions

February 18th, 2011 11:47 AM
A prominent Tea Party group has announced that it will stage a counter-protest in Wisconsin on Saturday aimed at supporting a measure in that state to revoke public employee unions' collective bargaining rights and to force them to pay a slightly larger amount into their own health and pension plans. That measure sparked large protests in Madison Thursday by union groups, and a walkout by…

Nets Champion Wisconsin Public Employees ‘Rising Up’ in ‘Mutiny

February 18th, 2011 2:14 AM
ABC on Thursday night championed a “mutiny in America” by public employees in Wisconsin whom NBC’s Brian Williams trumpeted for “rising up and saying no to some of the most extreme cuts in the nation.” ABC’s Diane Sawyer teased: “Tonight on World News, a mutiny in America. Public workers take to the streets as governors try to cut their pay and perks.” Sawyer framed coverage from the grievance…

Media Myth: Liberals Never Use Violent Rhetoric or Imagery

February 17th, 2011 11:43 AM
In the weeks following the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) there was a constant media barrage dishonestly contending liberals never use violent rhetoric or imagery. As Wisconsin's Republican Governor Scott Walker tries to balance his state's budget with a bold move limiting the collective bargaining rights of public employees, the Left have come out in force dispelling the myth…