When John King opened the last CNN-hosted GOP debate with a question regarding Newt Gingrich’s ex-wife, Newt lit into him, putting King on the defensive early. In fact, King remained defensive during CNN’s post-debate report.

“This story did not come from our network,” King contended. “As you also know, it is the subject of conversation on the campaign. I get your point, I take –”

Since the debate, King hasn’t let the issue go. He’s been making media appearances –after the fact–to bolster what many believe was a poor decision. Frankly, it’s hard to envision any mainstream media moderator opening up a Democrat debate with that type of question. They’d be more likely to claim it shouldn’t be asked, as it was the candidate’s personal life, none of our business, and didn’t impact on their ability to govern. (more…)

Nice headline, huh?

Actually, Wolf Blitzer is calling for Presidential Transparency on the leading Republican candidate, not the actual President.

Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday hammered Mitt Romney on why he won’t release his financial records. Seriously, Wolf?

I’ll get to Romney’s financials in a moment, but the same Blitzer, who won’t pressure the current Commander in Chief to release his academic records is attacking Romney on his financials? Yep—Dear Leader must be protected at all costs, while Republican candidates will get the full on anal exam from the activist old media. That will be the template for 2012. Some may say, “get used to it.” Sorry, as a journalist, I find it hard to get used to clear media bias.

Here’s what Wolf had to say: “Transparency; you say you’re not going to release your income tax records … why would you [not] do that?”

Romney answered by saying that at this point in the campaign it’s not a requirement, and he will “follow the law” and release the records when required if he becomes the nominee.

But the badgering over “transparency” continued by Blitzer, “What do you have to hide?”

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Liberal columnist Byron Williams of the Oakland Tribune said that MSNBC’s hiring of Al Sharpton for its 6PM slot was “more about ratings than journalism.” Now that the first month of ratings are in, the hire might end up damaging MSNBC in BOTH categories.

The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer at 6 pm topped MSNBC’s Politics Nation with Al Sharpton in the key demo 25-54 (163k vs. 141k) in September. In addition, the Blitzer-led program grew +19% in the demo (163k vs. 137k) and +22% among total viewers (590k vs. 483k) vs. last year. Sharpton was down -24% in the demo (141k vs. 185k) and -15% in total viewers (599k vs. 708k) compared to MSNBC’s programming a year ago.

The story is even more damaging when you look inside the numbers and realize that the 5:00 PM edition of “Hardball”, which airs right before Sharpton’s show, had more viewers than the civil rights activist-turned television journalist.  “Hardball” also beat Blitzer and CNN in that 5:00 PM time slot.

In other words, viewers who aren’t watching Fox News prefer MSNBC to CNN during the 5PM “Hardball” hour and then switch channels and watch CNN or Fox News when Sharpton appears on their screen. (more…)

**Link Fixed**

Washington Times – Off-the-record exchanges and thousands of confidential e-mails dating back almost four years reveal that high-profile journalists have been aiding and advising President Obama since he announced his candidacy in early 2007.

Provided by WikiLeaks to the Washington Times, the material was originally discovered by a cleaning lady at CNN.  Surfing on Wolf Blitzer’s computer during her 4:00 a.m. break, Emalina Ortiz inadvertently opened a window to “BO-WeServe”–a private forum for journalists supporting Obama’s campaign and, later, his administration’s agenda.

Shocked by what she read, Ortiz impulsively copied the archives to a flash drive and mailed it to WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange, a man she had heard Blitzer describe in his broadcasts as “a hero, someone who is not afraid to shine a light into the sewer to see what’s floating around down there.”

Spokesmen from the New York Times, the Washington Post, ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN blasted Assange for exposing communications that linked Obama’s rise and governance to support from and tutelage by some of the biggest names in journalism.

In a brief phone interview, Times Managing Editor Bill Keller railed: “The cheeky sumbitch actually asked me if I wanted to break the story.  Said I could run it with a ‘Who watches the watchers?’ angle.  What the hell’s the matter with Assange?  He knows the rules:  we’re leaked to, not on.  Only the Times destroys reputations with impunity and immunity.  He crossed a line coming after us.”

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KATIE COURIC:  We’ve never been used this way before.  The White House called the other day and gave me a list of 2012 election night analysts acceptable to them.  I don’t like it.

BRIAN WILLIAMS:  Remember when it was collaborative?   Now, they don’t even trust us to spin anything correctly.   Zucker took away my Managing Editor title and assigned it to Chris Matthews.  And he reports to Gibbs.

DIANE SAWYER:  Wasn’t so long ago they rolled over in the morning and kissed us and said they still respected us.  Now, well.  I hate to say it, but the right is right: Obama’s an egocentric narcissist who doesn’t know he’s in over his head.

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The last-place cable news network, CNN, is the channel Wolf Blizter regularly calls “the place for politics.” It also operates a website with the motto, “all politics, all the time.” So you would expect the outlet to offer only the best and most credible analysis of the political headlines.

Last night, on the final primary election night across the country, it should be no surprise to any right thinking person that CNN opened the intellectual sluices and turned loose their political heavyweights to discuss the state of American politics. Presenting Larry King and Bill Maher.

As the political sands were shifting beneath their feet and with infomercial-like dialogue, Larry King and Bill Maher delivered what can only be described as the television version of throwing in the towel to FOX and MSNBC’s election night coverage.  The closest I can come to comparison is the now legendary dialogue between the “chef of the future” Ralph Kramden and the “chef of the past” Ed Norton in a classic Honeymooners episode: (more…)

That would be Rick Sanchez to those of you, as Rush says, in Rio Linda:

Who should replace Larry King? Wow, the question of the decade right there!

The excitement is mounting in CNN Land these days as we ponder who should replace the legendary broadcaster who many say actually left his show years ago.

My first thoughts are either Joy Behar (she could just move across the hall from Headline News) or Michael Moore. It seems like they are on the show almost as often as Larry himself, so it would make the transition for the sensitive viewers much easier. They may not even know there has been a change.

Ahhhh, but before we put Larry to pasture I think of the great moments in Larry King history.

The night he called Andre Agassi “Pancho Gonzales.” Andre was sitting right there next to Larry and Pancho had actually been dead for more than ten years at the time. I was watching the interview live, the look on Andre’s face was priceless. (more…)

Well, the cat is finally out of the bag and guess who let him out?  None other than Morning Joe’s own resident heartthrob, Mika Brzezinski.  In an interview with TV Newser’s Julie Menin, promoting her new book, All Things At Once, the daughter of Jimmy Carter’s national security advisor had this to say about the mainstream media:

I’ve worked in the mainstream media for all the networks and I will say what people aren’t saying. It’s got a liberal world view. There are great people working at the networks, and they’re mostly Democrats, ok?

I think honestly what needs to happen, is we need to stop pretending about who we are and every journalist should tell us what their political affiliation is, who they voted for,  and we go from there.

I hate the polarizing extremes that we’re seeing on cable where there’s these sort of “Think my way or you’re evil” kind of subliminal message or cartoonish type characters on the right and the left. I think we try and break a lot of those barriers on Morning Joe.

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