We’re having tea with the Mad Hatter.

If you look a little closer at the debate over the Obama administration’s betrayal of the Catholic Church, you’ll see that we’ve already lost.  Obama and his media allies have effectively shifted the argument away from the grounds upon which it should take place and on to grounds we never thought possible. Rather than debating the outrageous overreach of the government demanding insurance companies pay for birth control, we’re instead debating whether the Catholic Church should be required to do so. 

It’s all smoke and mirrors, isn’t it? We’re so busy arguing over the outrage of the White House forcing Catholic-run schools and social service outlets to provide birth control and the morning-after pills to their employees, that the very idea of forcing  private insurance companies to do the same, sounds perfectly reasonable. It’s a genius sleight-of-hand meant to have us look over there instead of over here.

Moreover, if you’ve watched the MSM coverage, you can see that the Constitution and Bill of Rights means nothing to our media overlords. Here we have the federal government violating the fundamental right upon which this country was founded — Freedom of Religion — and yet the media is taking seriously that a valid counter-argument is a woman’s non-existent right to free birth control.

Do you see the words “birth” or “control” anywhere in here:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

And yet, all day I’ve had to read and listen to the media take seriously access to free birth control as some sort of competing right.  

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- Google joins the censorship fun at the request of repressive governments.

- If only outlets reacted this way when the issue isn’t editing an image into a frog, but rather manipulating or omitting facts to convince the reader of an illogical narrative. NPPA president: Sacramento Bee photo manipulation a ‘betrayal.’

- Komen denies that activist media (and the hacking of its website and other related liberal bullying) had anything to do with its reverse decision.

- NYP reports Lawrence O’Donnell is having himself an office romance with Tamron Hall.

- Matt Lauer scores the Obama Superbowl interview. There were rumors of a testy rivalry between Lauer and Brian Williams for the Q & A.

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- Huffington Post said they simply couldn’t allow Andrew Breitbart on their pages due to “ad hominem,” but this didn’t stop them from publishing the same from Bill Maher.

- Michelle Malkin and Sean Hannity disagree on 2012 candidates. Malkin: “It’s not ‘nitpicking,’ Sean …”

- Latest ratings show AC360 beating Lawrence O’Donnell’s over-acted Shakespearian drama.

- Screencap of the day: Obamaney

Megyn Kelly joked: “As it turns out they are not the same man. Not philosophically, not ideologically, not in any other way… our apologies for that error.” Some voters would disagree.

- The Internet: Jake Tapper was robbed. (more…)

- Two super fun facts about Matt Lauer.

- The UHF of cable news now has an app.

- NYT stock downgraded. Surprise.

- Seriously, is there anything short of brain damage that qualifies as an acceptable excuse for watching MSNBC?

Take this evening’s Ed Show. Schultz accused Rep. Paul Ryan of “inciting civil war” and suggested Republicans might “want violence to take place in our society.” Not to be outdone, thankfully former Florida congressman Alan Grayson called Ryan and Republicans “the real killers,” akin to O.J. Simpson.

- Bill O’Reilly challenges Glenn Beck in the epic Restoring Battle 2011.

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From Newsbusters:

At the top of Wednesday’s NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer declared: “In your face. The Tea Party puts its confrontational style on display during a stop on President Obama’s bus tour.” Later, chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd lamented how “uplifting moments” of Obama’s Midwest tour were interrupted by “a bitter taste of the energy and confrontational style of the Tea Party.”

Throughout Todd’s report, the headline on screen read: “The Politics of Anger; Tea Party Tactics Change Race for President.” Todd noted how: “For their part, the leading Republican presidential candidates are going out of their way to defend the Tea Party’s in-your-face tactics.” In a sound bite, The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza explained that Republicans, “want a candidate who is willing to fight President Obama on all fronts at all times. They want confrontation, not conciliation.”

MATT LAUER: In your face. The Tea Party puts its confrontational style on display during a stop on President Obama’s bus tour. While the GOP’s newest candidate Rick Perry is facing some criticism from both parties. We’ll tell you why.

Has Lauer even been to a tea party?

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While speaking at the Washington Area Community Center’s Lessons for Leaders (Washington, IL) on August 6, Coach Mike Ditka lambasted the mainstream media (MSM) and heaped praise on Gov. Sarah Palin. Said Ditka:

“I understand Sarah Palin spoke here last year. I admire her. She’s a great lady, mother and wife, and that’s more important than the [bull****] the media spreads about her.”

Ditka has offered up a strong defense of Palin before. For instance, in 2010, during an interview on Fox and Friends, he said “Sarah Palin is one of the greatest people I’ve ever met.”

When he stumped for Palin/McCain in 2008, Ditka said Palin “epitomizes all the good qualities of this country.” He also called on audience members to put party affiliation and anything else that divided them aside long enough “put Country First” for a change. (Ditka lead by example by unashamedly admitting he was a Republican and a conservative, and most importantly, he said, “I am an American.”)

Of course, I don’t recall hearing Chris Matthews, Matt Lauer, or anyone in the MSM mention Ditka’s kind words for the Governor in 2010 (nor do I remember them making fun of him for being a Republican). And since that was back in the days when Keith Olbermann still had a show, you’d at least think Ditka would have made the “Worst Person in the World” list.

But alas, just silence.

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On Friday, June 10^th, when 24,000 of Sarah Palin’s personal emails were released for public consumption, the mainstream media went crazy. Matt Lauer, Chris Matthews, and Lester Holt thought for sure Palin was going down. And just like I wrote in a post for Big Journalism on that day, the Washington Post and the New York Times posted the emails online and begged their readers to go through them and find some trash on Palin.

During that morning’s episode of NBC’s “Today,” Lauer showed up live in Juneau, Alaska, where the emails were being released in hard copy, and from where he told viewers: “[Today] could be a tough day for potential presidential candidate Sarah Palin.”

Turns out it was a tough day for somebody Mr. Lauer, but that somebody wasn’t Palin.

Of course Matthews couldn’t wait to see Palin get what was coming to her for being a beautiful, decent, human who dares to champion faith, family, and America the exceptional. (I honestly think Matthews knows that if forced to stand side-by-side with Palin, Democrats in general look even more secular, Obama looks even more anti-American, and Hillary Clinton even less camera friendly.)

When Matthews’s show began on the afternoon of the 10^th, he compared the feelings he had that day to the feelings someone has on Christmas.  As he conversed on air with Michael Isikoff – an MSNBC reporter who had traveled to Juneau to get the good stuff on Palin – you could literally hear the excitement in his voice:

“It’s Christmas morning, you’re opening up Santa’s mailbox here or Santa’s pack. Mike Isikoff what do you have in the bag so far?”

Now just imagine the 300 or so viewers who watch Matthews’s show leaning in toward their televisions, just waiting for Isikoff to drop the big news. And they’re waiting, and they’re wating, and they’re waiting … and Isikoff pretty much says “move on folks, nothing to see here.” (Actually, some of his exact words were: “I gotta say so far I don’t think anybody’s found any bombshells here.”)

Enter Lester Holt, who was sitting in for Brian Williams on the night of the 10^th, and opening the “Mail Call” segment of the show with this narrative:

Responding to media requests, the state of Alaska released 24,000 pages of e-mails covering the period from December 2006, when she was sworn in as governor, to September 2008 when she was named John McCain’s running mate. With Palin a potential presidential challenger, the question tonight is: Could her foes try to use them to try and define her candidacy?

How about that Lester, huh? Here he is, as liberal as the next guy at NBC, yet he has the nerve to try to sound neutral and, with a straight face, ask: “Could her foes try to use [the emails] to try and define her candidacy?” Well the answer to Holt’s question came soon enough as the camera panned to none other than Isikoff, who was still standing in Juneau wondering how much longer he was expected to keep talking in a way that made the dwindling viewing audience believe there might actually be something in the Palin emails.

I have an idea: How about we get 6,000 of Lauer’s emails, 6,000 of Matthews’, 6,000 of Holt’s, and just for fun, 6,000 of Isikoff’s? Although that’s a total of 24,000 emails, each man is only turning over a quarter of the number of emails that Palin was forced to make public.

And there’s no need for them to be overly nervous about it. All we’ll be doing is following Holt’s lead to see if there’s something in those communiqués by which we might “define” them.

Breitbart tells TODAY’s Matt Lauer the incredible truth behind the Anthony Weiner press conference and the thinking behind the decision to release the original photo:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Washington (AP) – In a stunning announcement this morning on The Today Show, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told host Matt Lauer she will leave the Administration and challenge Barack Obama for the 2012 Democratic Presidential nomination.

Transcript follows:

LAUER:  Thanks for coming on, Madame Secretary.  Let’s get right to it:  will you seek the Presidency next year?

CLINTON:  Yes, Matt.  Our country’s heading in the wrong direction way too fast.  We must slow down if we wish to delay our collapse by a couple of decades.  So I’m reporting for duty.

LAUER:  Opens you up to a disloyalty charge.

CLINTON:  Somebody has to speak up.  Obama’s poll numbers suggest we’re on track to lose both the White House and Senate, Matt.  Meanwhile, my numbers are in the stratosphere, mainly because people like you have generously ignored my disastrous tenure at State.

LAUER:  [blushing] Well, it’s what we do, Ma’m.

CLINTON:  Last week, I offered the President an option to avoid a primary battle.   He rejected it.

LAUER:  What option?

CLINTON:  Replace Biden on the ticket with me.  I’d rally the troops.  We’d win and, at the least, retain the Senate.  Then Obama does the mother of all end runs around the Constitution and names me CP—Co-President.  In January, 2012, we take the oath together and deliver dual inaugural addresses. (more…)

If you’re tired of hearing me remind you that the corrupt MSM’s 2012 gameplan is to keep a relentlessly hostile spotlight on the Right in order to ensure Obama’s re-election, you’re going to get a lot more tired of it before this is all over. Simply put, if 2012 is a referendum on Obama, he loses, and so the media will stop at nothing to target the Right and make the election all about us for the next 19 months. Any narrative that can be created to destroy us will be, and as you’ll see below, the MSM track is already being laid to create an insidious wedge between Republicans and the crucial Independents Obama will need to recapture the White House.

We’ll start with the Today Show’s Matt Lauer. Please listen closely (you’ll have to scroll down some at the NewsBusters page):

“…and when you look at some of the things the Tea Party and others on the far right….”

One of the Left’s favorite rhetorical tricks is to oh-so casually state the most dishonest and outrageous things; the idea being to send a message that this is now a settled matter and no longer in dispute — a well-known, universally accepted fact. See how that works? Lauer knows exactly what he’s doing here. He’s sending a message to millions of Americans that the Tea Party is “far right,” is scary and extremist. And naturally this all fits into a larger puzzle the corrupt MSM is currently fitting together about the “scary” Republican Party as a whole — you know, as opposed to President Obama aka Mr. Calm, Cool and Reasonably Centrist.

The plan? Scare the crucial Independent vote back into the Obama 2012 camp. Isn’t that obvious?

Furthermore, do you think Lauer ever uses the term “Far Left” to describe MoveOn, Media Matters, or the Daily Kos? A good faith search of Google and Media Matters says no.

My next example is even worse. But first some background on one of my favorite “journalists,” who really should be one of yours… one Mr. Jonathan Martin of Politico.

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NY Daily News:

Matt Lauer will follow Meredith Vieira out the door at NBC’s “Today” show.

But not for a while, according to “Entertainment Tonight,” which reported the veteran show host had told his NBC bosses he’ll leave when his contract expires in December 2012.

NBC officials would say nothing for the record on Wednesday.

“There seems to be an awful lot of speculation around news anchors these days, and it’s not our practice to comment on any of it,” said a Today spokeswoman. “Matt Lauer has a long-term contract with NBC News and Today.”

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Of course you did, NBC.  How could you resist?

NBC will apparently be naming the remarkably shady developer of the Ground Zero Mosque one of its “People of the Year.”  NBC released a preview of what appears to be yet another slobbering, softball interview of Gamal this time performed by Matt Lauer.

Here is an impromptu summary of some issues regarding El Gamal’s from Robert Spencer at JihadWatch.org:

Marisol summarized part of the problem with this here: “Meanwhile, the thug Sharif el-Gamal has been sued for an unpaid loan, and faced eviction from his SoHo office over $39,000 in back rent. He was found to owe $21,000 in fines on a property with 13 violations. And there are other unanswered questions.”

El-Gamal has also threatened a Muslim opponent of the Islamic supremacist mega-mosque at Ground Zero; spoken at an event for Hamas-linked CAIR; and has a history of thuggishness, including a recent comment about how beating people up is “exercise & stress relief.”

So why is NBC honoring this thug? Because the mainstream media is avid to get this Islamic supremacist mosque built, and the will of the people be damned.

Could NBC make it any clearer what they think of the opinions and sensitivities of their viewers or 70% of the American public at large?  I think we are all looking forward to seeing both the rest of the list and who NBC passed over in order to bestow this honor on El Gamal (other than Imam Rauf).

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Over the past couple of months, a lot of readers of my website, AtlasShrugs, have been asking me why I go on these consistently belligerent TV shows to discuss Islam, knowing that:

• It is going to be a hostile environment;
• I will be debating liars, deceivers and Islamic supremacists;
• I will be defamed, smeared and slandered;
• The playing field will be grossly unfair;
• I will be interrupted, cut off, and rebuked;
• I will be given much less time than my opponent.

I will tell you why. It is an opportunity, however compromised. Voices like mine, Robert Spencer’s, Wafa Sultan’s and Ibn Warraq’s are never heard in the mainstream media. The truth is hidden from the masses, and the media’s criminal negligence is cloaked in good intentions. Well, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

This is guerrilla warfare in the information battlespace, in the war of ideas. These media opportunities were hardly perfect, but they were something. Why make perfect the enemy of the good? They were better than the traditional blackout on our freedom- defense initiatives. It was a shot, and I was taking it and running with it, no matter how disgusting it all was.

From the media’s perspective, the Ground Zero mosque was an historical phenomenon. For the first time, a major news story became the most important national and international news story without the media. Think about that. Unlike the fringe pastor in Florida, who tweeted a Qur’an threat and the media descended like locusts to a Florida backwater to create a news story, a narrative, the Ground Zero mosque was not shaped by the media, not covered by the media — not at first anyway. (more…)

All week we’ve been exploring America’s ten most left-biased working journalists and now we come to spot number four on the list. And so, for his close attention to pushing the spin and as one of the most active members of the Old Media’s Obama Butt Covering squad, we are pleased to award the number four spot to NBC Political Director Chuck Todd.

Todd is one of those journos that came from Democrat political circles — having worked for Iowa Democrat Senator Tom Harkin’s 1992 presidential run — and then crossed over into the world of “journalism.” With that you just know that he can be as unbiased as the best of them in his reporting. Well, if he can we’ll never know it because so far he has not been. Just the opposite, really.

Todd has done a bang-up job for the left in his journalism career. Likely Todd’s loyalty to the Democrat Party is probably why he felt the need to slam Senator Joe Lieberman last year, for instance. Proving his blindness to real political analysis, Todd claimed that Joe Lieberman was the “polar opposite” of the Senate’s lone socialist Senator Bernie Sanders (officially an “independent”).

In a discussion on the Today Show about the then yet to pass Obamacare bill, Todd said of Lieberman and Sanders, “Meanwhile, the Senate’s two Democratic independents, polar opposites ideologically, are split over the bill’s government-run public option and both are threatening to scuttle the process if they don’t get their way.” (more…)

It was April 15, 2009 when Speaker Pelosi pronounced the Tea Party protests as fake, using the term AstroTurf (as in phony grass roots).

The entire MSM covered that story and many worked overtime to brand the Tea Partiers as “AstroTurf” in an effort to discredit a genuine, homegrown movement the likes of which has not been seen in this country in decades.

Despite the fact that tens of thousands of people were part of hundreds of protest events held around the country on Tax Day 2009, NBC’s Chuck Todd appeared on the Today Show telling Matt Lauer the Tea Party movement was one that “hasn’t really caught on”:

On August 4, of last year, while on MSNBC’s Hardball, Senator Barbara Boxer joined in the discredit chorus, telling Chris Matthews that the protesters were “too well dressed” and too well organized to be legitimate: (more…)

For everyone who read the above headline and said, “not bloody likely,”  give yourself two points.   The silence is frightening.

People Magazine’s latest piece on that rapidly dimming Northern Light known as Levi Johnston is no surprise to people who know and respect Sarah Palin.  The only ones astonished to discover that a 17-year-old boy lied in order to get famous are the professional journalists who would rather interview Tina Fey pretending Sarah Palin than to be forced to actually speak with the former vice-presidential candidate herself.

It was a pretty good ride for Levi Johnston. After surfing the wave of celebrity that was primarily fueled by a willingness to lie about almost everything about Sarah, Todd and Bristol Palin, Levi has finally come clean in the pages of People, admitting; “”I publicly said things about the Palins that were not completely true.”

Not completely true?  As in, you lied, Levi?   You lied about the impending divorce of Sarah and Todd?  How about the story you told claiming the former Governor joked about her Down Syndrome baby, referring to the child as “retarded?”  What about the whoppers told on the CBS Morning Show, The Today Show, or Tyra Banks show? (more…)

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…)