The firestorm over Komen For The Cure’s recent announcement that they would be cutting funding to Planned Parenthood was remarkably furious, so much so that it has degenerated into an obtuse PR mess for Komen. As I noted yesterday at the end of my piece defending Komen from the bitter Leftists at NPR, the situation was looking shaky and there was concern Komen would cave to the vitriolic attack from the Left (self-described vanguards of “free choice”, ironically).
Much of the wagon-circling against Komen was fomented by the Leftist media machine and their Hollywood sycophants, and leading the charge was Andrea Mitchell of Mitchell Reports:
This is truly activist journalism at its worst. Mitchell has no intention to inform with this piece, but to advance her Leftist agenda against the Komen Foundation’s decision. She claims to be decrying the politicization of the issue, yet she aired the segment on her own show, which she herself describes as as a “political” program.
NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell hosts an all political hour from 1 p.m. EST to 2 p.m. EST, Monday — Friday on msnbc. The show features in-depth interviews with high-profile figures and constant news updates.
The hypocrisy by Left and their media cohort concerning this issue has been stunning. They claim to only be interested in the advancement of women’s healthcare, yet their true agenda has been exposed as a mafia-like hit job to pound Komen into submission; protecting Planned Parenthood and their sacred sacrament of abortion. It does not get any more political than that.
On Sunday’s broadcast of NBC Nightly News, Andrea Mitchell hosted a segment on the upcoming GOP caucus in Iowa. Referring to the state itself, she stated:
The rap on Iowa? It doesn’t represent the rest of the country. Too white, too evangelical, too rural.
Yet literally the sentence before, she mentioned that Iowa “established that Barack Obama could attract white voters” in 2008.
During last night’s GOP debate as soon as Rick Perry called Herman Cain “brother,” I knew the MSM would jump on the race-baiting bandwagon and attempt to twist an obvious term of affection into something sinister. Some of it is just cultural ignorance on the MSM’s part. The use of “brother” is used primarily in that part of the country the MSM finds icky … the South.
So, just what did Perry mean when he called Cain “brother,” a term he didn’t use with anyone else on stage (in fact, Perry called Romney “sir” three times, even as Perry was being attacked and on the attack. His disdain was apparent with each “sir.”).
Was Perry channeling scholar Cornel West or even the late wrestler Randy Savage, both known for referring to everyone as brother? Or was Perry attempting a do-over of sorts on matters of race? (Remember that it was Cain and Cain alone who spoke out against the hunting camp incident, though the later backpedaled.) …
Gwen Ifill tweeted this: “Why is @GovernorPerry calling @THEHermanCain brother? Are they related? #scandal”
And speaking on MSNBC today, political analyst and strategist Karen Finney remarked that she was slightly bothered by Perry’s use of the term “brother” to refer to Cain. She later e-mailed me the phrase simply “hit my ear the wrong way.”
From the unlikeliest of sources, however, this bubbling, ridiculous, and predictable narrative might’ve just been stopped in its tracks:
After years of spreading the lie that Gaddafi’s “adopted daughter” had died in the 1986 American bombing raid on Libya, many in the media are finally admitting it was all a hoax. Will Andrea Mitchell of NBC News now apologize and resign for passing off terrorist disinformation as “news?”
As we noted in a column earlier this year, Mitchell went on the NBC Nightly News to say that Libya was “accused of bombing a Berlin nightclub frequented by U.S. soldiers” and that “Ronald Reagan retaliated, ordering an air strike against Gaddafi’s tent, accidentally killing his young daughter. Gaddafi escaped unharmed.” Mitchell even showed Gaddafi visiting a hospital. It was pro-Gaddafi and anti-Reagan propaganda.
The facts, which we have consistently provided, are that there were no public media reports of Gaddafi having a daughter at the time of the raid, and so it wasn’t possible that she was killed. Now it appears that Gaddafi did have a daughter with the same name, Hana or Hanna, who may have been born around the same time as the raid, and is said to be very much alive.
Whatever the ultimate truth about this girl, who may have studied to be a doctor in Libya, the dead “adopted daughter” story was a pure lie, as we have maintained for years.
The revelations are a big black eye for Mitchell, NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent and host of an all political hour from 1 to 2 p.m. EST on the MSNBC cable channel. Her bio says: “Mitchell currently covers foreign policy, intelligence and national security issues, including the diplomacy of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for all NBC News properties.”
I am almost sure that when former Alaska Governor and 2008 GOP Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin goes home at night, she laughs herself silly at how well she can play the mainstream media on a daily basis.
Last weekend was Memorial Day and most Americans took time to remember the sacrifices of fallen veterans and celebrated the unofficial start of summer. Memorial Day weekend is also the weekend that the activist group “Rolling Thunder” holds its annual rally in Washington D.C. to keep the public attention focused on the issue of POW/MIA. In recent years the mainstream press has simply ignored “Rolling Thunder” for the most part and the annual gathering has often been relegated to local news coverage or C-SPAN at best, but this year’s gathering got a public relations shot in the arm by the name of Sarah Palin.
Members of the mainstream media once again seemed to go nuts when Palin announced, through a press release, that she and her family would be attending the rally as the starting point of her East Coast bus tour. Some in the media speculated this is a prelude to a Presidential run. MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell carried out the first hatchet job on the Palin’s appearance by trying to convince her viewers that Palin would draw attention away from the meaning of the Washington D.C. rally and brought on Rolling Thunder Spokesmen Ted Shpak to reinforce her point:
While the Palin detractors saw this as an attempt to steal the spotlight, many members of Rolling Thunder were actually quite please by her appearance and in the end she simply rode on the back of one of the thousands of motorcycles along with members of her family. She left without speaking to the gathering or engaging in political grandstanding. (more…)
MSNBC has finally broken radio silence on “Weinergate.” Their take: Protect yourself from hacking. MSNBC’s version of practicing journalism on this story involves taking Representative Weiner’s statement and accepting it without question. Truly, MSNBC is speaking truth to power. After spending 30 seconds discussing the story and only mentioning Representative Weiner’s statements, the MSNBC anchor turns to author and technology expert Daniel Sieberg for a list of self-help tips to prevent hacking.
Did it not occur to the MSNBC anchor to ask any questions involving the proper steps to take after realizing you’ve been hacked? Sieberg acknowledges that Representative Weiner is a “high profile target” but yet MSNBC seems wholly uninterested in pursuing any objective line of questioning on what is appropriate action for a “high profile” target to take after being the victim of an alleged hacking. The MSNBC anchor also seems to completely ignore Sieberg’s statement that Representative Weiner being the singular target of the alleged hacking is “unusual.”
While MSNBC’s anchors might not be interested in asking questions, Politico’s Congressional Editor Martin Kady gave an excellent analysis of the current standing of the story on Andrea Mitchell’s show. Andrea Mitchell was unable to continue interviewing Kady because the President began to make a statement concerning the appointment of the new Commerce Secretary. (more…)
Governor Sarah Palin accepts an invitation from Rolling Thunder, a non-profit veteran’s organization that holds an annual motorcycle ride in Washington D.C. every Memorial Day … and what does the MSM do? Well, what they always do when it comes to Governor Palin: using well-honed Alinsky tactics, they attack with the goal in mind of discrediting, embarrassing and undermining her. In this case, MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell put on the air Ted Shpak, national legislative director of Rolling Thunder, who claimed Palin had not been invited to Monday’s event. Furthermore, he all but accused the mother of a Veteran of hijacking a Veteran’s event for mercenary political purposes — a pretty serious charge in a country that reveres the men and women who protect us.
Andrea Mitchell on the right, obviously bitter over the epic fail of an ambush interview
And yes, of course, Andrea Mitchell got the story wrong. Way wrong. Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey, a nice guy who offers Mitchell a benefit of the doubt that can only mean he has better reportorial instincts than she does, took time out of his Friday night to get to the bottom of it all:
After I read this story last night, I got in contact with Christine Colborne, who handles the media for Rolling Thunder. She explained that Shpak didn’t know that Palin had been indeed invited to ride at the event. The invitation came from a retired board member, Michael DiPaolo, who had connections in Alaska and got Palin to agree to attend.
That’s great work on Morrissey’s part. Hat’s off and all of that. But…
Not only is the toothpaste out of the tube but The Big Picture reason the MSM operates in this manner when it comes all things Palin — and only Palin — is already a mission accomplished, and will only be further accomplished as the fight to set the record straight is waged over the next few days.
Very stark difference between Jake Tapper and George Stephanopoulos’s reporting and that of Andrea Mitchell. Stephanopoulos/Tapper reported the fallout from the videos, namely, that it has resulted in the canning of NPR’s two chieftains and more momentum behind the push to defund it. Mitchell tried to discredit the source and defend NPR’s work. One comes across as journalism, the other pure advocacy. Watch the videos and see if you can tell the difference:
“The culture war with new and old media, an undercover upstart has dealt a major blow to the establishment.”
“You used the word ‘trumped up.’ There was nothing trumped up. Colin Powell believed every word he said at the United Nations. the preside believed every word he said. everyone in the admin believed it. other governments believe it. Those in congress who looked at the intelligence believed it, and Democrats and Republicans like, you’ve read their statements.”
The day after Andrea Mitchell is warned about the extremism of the Muslim Brotherhood by an ex-Muslim Brotherhood member, she goes on at length about how not extremist it is. Er … ?
“I do not believe that they will not seek power … their main reason for existing is the politician of Islam … for them to come up not saying they’re going to take part in talks but not aspire to sharia, is something I do not believe.”
Andrea Mitchell named the tea party movement as her pick for “person” of the year:
They’ve changed the debate on deficit reduction. They’ve got, you’ve got Ron Paul now in charge of monetary policy from the House. They have changed politics for now in Washington.
David Ignatius of the Washington Post and Helene Cooper of the New York Times chose Assange:
It’s painful to say this but I would say Julian Assange the head of WikiLeaks.
Not even in terms of being a lightning rod does Assange match the tea party. Assange hasn’t changed anything within this country except, perhaps, to remind this administration that loose lips sink ships.
The Democratic Party in Pennsylvania should be sending MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell a basket of mini-muffins for her deft handling of a potentially devastating gaffe one week before the mid-term elections.
Rep. Robert Brady (D-PA), Chariman of the Philadelphia Democratic Party, was on MSNBC with Andrea Mitchell this morning. He was explaining how the Philadelphia machine was working to ensure Joe Sestak’s victory in the closely watched Senate race in Pennsylvania. Ms Mitchell asked, “What is the secret here to turn out? In the old days, the old machine days, what we called ‘walking around money,’ handing out money to get people to vote. Is it still the case? What do you do, what is the magic in Philadelphia?”
Rep. Brady (who looks and sounds like he came right out of central casting for the part of shady, party boss) shockingly acknowledged that the cash-on-the-streets strategy is not an antiquity but still part of the Democratic Machine’s playbook in 2010: “We still have the street money and we’re very knowledgeable,” he said.
Rather than follow-up on this damaging revelation, Ms. Mitchell continued on with her scripted questions for several minutes until the very end when she decided to follow-up on the inflammatory statement. But, instead of trying to nail him and make him squirm (as one would expect a reporter to do with a politician in the midst of a serious gaffe) she threw him a safety line.
Why the delay in following-up on that statement? Is it possible Ms. Mitchell had a little suggestion planted in her ear by a producer who saw what kind of damage Rep. Brady had just done? (more…)
One of the nastiest episodes in American journalism occurred in the immediate aftermath of John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate during the 2008 election. It was a potential game-changer and, for a moment, it rocked the leftist media back on its heels. Who can ever forget Andrea Mitchell’s gaping-fish-out-of-water reaction to Palin’s electrifying acceptance speech? For one brief, horrible moment, the Marxist Media saw its dream of a People’s Republic dying, shot through the heart by the moose-hunting mom from Nowhere, Alaska.
Soon enough, though, the counter-attack began… almost as if it was co-ordinated. And you know what? It was! From the Daily Caller:
In the hours after Sen. John McCain announced his choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate in the last presidential race, members of an online forum called Journolist struggled to make sense of the pick. Many of them were liberal reporters, and in some cases their comments reflected a journalist’s instinct to figure out the meaning of a story.
In June 2007 Castro’s Stalinist regime held a “tourism fair” in Havana to kick-off an ambitious plan to boost the Cuban military’s tourist booty. By some peculiar coincidence NBC’s Today Show decided to broadcast from Havana that very week. Amidst smiling, clapping, dancing tourists, Matt Lauer and Andrea Mitchell advised viewers on how to legally vacation in Cuba.
Don’t look for this from NBC, but Castro’s Soviet-trained and armed military and secret police own most of Cuba’s tourist facilities. Along with providing these inquisitive Cuban officials with certain “insights” regarding visitors to Castro’s fiefdom, this set-up also insures that most of the money that tourists spend in Cuba lands in the pocket of the only people in Cuba with guns.
Yet Castro apologists and/or agents (both on the payroll and off) keep insisting that a flood of rich Western tourists will magically smother Cuban Stalinism whereupon the island nation will quickly mutate into a bigger (and more historic and picturesque) Cozumel. This logic (which Matt and Andrea naturally shared) seems to go something like this: rewarding and enriching the KGB-trained and heavily armed guardians of Cuba’s Stalinist status-quo will magically convert them into instant opponents of that Stalinist status quo.
Amazingly, this line of reasoning fails to convince those with first-hand experience under Cuba’s Stalinist regime. But never mind this insufferable rabble of “Cuban-American right-wing crackpots!” and their congressional allies. And never mind the evidence. (more…)
From a speech by Jimmy Carter at the University of Havana on May 14, 2002 which was broadcast throughout Castro’s islandwide fiefdom and trumpeted worldwide by all “news” agencies with Havana bureaus:
My nation is hardly perfect in human rights. A very large number of our citizens are incarcerated in prison, and there is little doubt that the death penalty is imposed most harshly on those who are poor, black, or mentally ill. For more than a quarter century, we have struggled unsuccessfully to guarantee the basic right of universal health care for our people. …but Cuba has superb systems of health care and universal education.
Thus did a former President of the United States prostrate himself before a regime that jailed and tortured political prisoners at a higher rate than Stalin’s and murdered (in absolute numbers) more political prisoners in its first three years in power (out of a population of 6.4 million) than Hitler’s murdered in its first six years (out of a population of 70 million.) Not to mention that Pres. Carter’s host insulted his nation as “a vulture preying on humanity!” and came within a hair of nuking it.
In the past, I have claimed that the mainstream media is in bed with the Obama Administration. This time, I mean it literally.
According to the New York Post, Obama budget boss Peter Orszag is engaged to ABC correspondent Bianna Golodryga. Meanwhile, his ex-girlfriend Claire Milonas, gave birth to his illegitimate child on November 17. Orszag is already a two-time father by his first wife (they are divorced, naturally).
Bianna Golodryga and Peter Orszag
The media is treating this whole story as a seedy morality play starring an incredibly nerdy Director of OMB. But even though it now appears that Orszag was spreading his seed just as profligately as taxpayer money, that isn’t the real story.
The real story here is actually Bianna Golodryga and the extremely cozy relationship that sometimes develops between reporters and their sources.
Golodryga, according to her profile at ABCNews.com, covers “the economy and business beat for all of the network’s programs, including World News Tonight, Good Morning America Weekend, and Nightline… Golodryga reported extensively on the housing and credit crisis as well as the collapse of Bear Stearns.” (more…)
Bow-wow. You can call me Bo. I’m President Shoutout’s family mutt, a Portuguese water dog with curly black hair. My real name isn’t Bo, but I’m not telling you my real one. Bo is fine. It’ll do anyway. Took the White House brain trust four months to come up with it — you wouldn’t believe the names they actually considered. Let’s just say that “Alinsky” was a contender until Axelrod said “why don’t you just name it ‘Arafat’ and kiss off flyover country for 2012?” Yeah, he called me “it.” Axelrod’s a real sweetheart. Barry’s chief political advisor, which means he spent the whole presidential campaign sending candygrams to the press corps so they wouldn’t do their job. He could have accomplished the same thing with a Hershey bar stolen from an orphan’s Halloween bag. I got his number. Axelrod smells like cabbage and tries to kick me when Barry’s not looking.
Right now, I’m sitting in the Oval Office with Barry, Axelrod and Chief of Staff and resident kneecapper, Rahm Emanuel, while the three chumps cool their heels in the waiting room. Barry’s staring out the window, going JFK on us, trying to figure out which precise upward angle of the chin registers that weary-but-resolute toughness that the press corps laps up. If he sticks that jaw up any higher he’s going to drown in a drizzle if you ask me, but the pose does seem to bring a flush to the freshly sculpted cheeks of Andrea Mitchell. (more…)
On my Twitter account, I follow a few hundred mainstream media-types (keep the enemy closer, right?), and unless I've missed it (and I hope I have), not a single one has spoken out in defense of Roland Martin. Not one. How scary is that. The politically correct Groupthink...
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