By Mark Finkelstein | Monday June 22, 2009, 09:05 AM
Drugs instead of surgery. One MRI instead of three. That was the frightening foreshadowing of health care rationing that a senior Obama administration official offered on GMA today.
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was part of a troika of Obama officials discussing the prez’s health care plan with Diane Sawyer. Sebelius of course depicted the rationing not as a reduction in health care services, but as the provision of smarter, better services. You can believe it if you want. (Continued)
By Mark Finkelstein | Friday June 19, 2009, 09:57 AM
When candidate Obama talked about bringing us all together, this is presumably not what he had in mind . . .
There was surprising consensus on today’s Morning Joe around the fact that this is an arrogant White House. It was press secretary Robert Gibb’s boast—responding to Pres. Bush’s rather mild recent remarks—that “we kept score last November and we won” that set things off. Willie Geist analogized it to an athlete whose team is ahead telling an opponent to “look at the scoreboard.”
Pat Buchanan took it from there, with Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and even John Harwood, not known as a blood enemy of the Obama admin, chipping in.
Conversation highlights: (Continued)
By Mark Finkelstein | Wednesday June 17, 2009, 09:19 PM
Are Pres. Obama’s GM chickens coming home . . . to roost?
Chris Matthews, clearly nervous for his guy, is fretting poll numbers showing a substantial majority of Americans opposed to the GM bailout. So shook up was the Hardball host on PBO’s behalf that he ended today’s segment on the subject muttering “this sounds bad. This sounds bad. This sounds bad.”
It was NBC News political director and chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd opining that the bailout’s success or failure will weigh heavily in the public’s assessement of PBO that set Matthews to worrying. (Continued)
By Mark Finkelstein | Friday June 12, 2009, 07:57 AM
Would you leave your 14-year old daughter alone with David Letterman? Sarah Palin’s not so sure. On this morning’s Today, after displaying the Palin statement shown in the screencap: “it would be wise to keep Willow away from David Letterman,” Matt Lauer had this question for the Alaska guv.
MATT LAUER: Are you suggesting that David Letterman can’t be trusted around a 14-year old girl?
SARAH PALIN: Hey, take it however you want to take it. (Continued)
By Mark Finkelstein | Thursday June 11, 2009, 09:17 PM
No doubt noticing the pub Letterman got for his vulgar comments about Sarah Palin’s teenage daughter, Keith Olbermann apparently decided to outdo the Late Show host when it comes to making vile remarks about a woman.
From this evening’s Countdown, addressing himself to Ann Coulter in the course of naming her his “Worser Person.”
KEITH OLBERMANN: Ann, to use the vulgarities of the gutter, you are a worthless . . . Coulter. (Continued)
By Mark Finkelstein | Tuesday June 09, 2009, 08:09 AM
If a Category 5 hurricane were approaching our shores, ABC would presumably not knock the weatherman who warned us of it. But let Sarah Palin warn us of what is transparently true: that Barack Obama has strayed far from the Founding Father’s vision for America, and Good Morning America will paint her as “polarizing.”
It happened today in a report by ABC’s Dan Harris. In fairness, Harris was seeking something of an “on the one hand, on the other” moment, and did play a clip from Bay Buchanan praising Palin. But then came this: (Continued)
By Mark Finkelstein | Monday June 08, 2009, 08:12 AM
Rush made them do it!
In one of the more absurd, if creative, defenses of the MSM yet, Mike Barnicle has blamed the media’s liberal bias on its reaction to “talk radio.”
Morning Joe actually got off to a refreshing start today, with Mika Brzezinski frankly acknowledging that the MSM leans heavily left, that she herself tends to vote Dem, and that the liberal media needs to diversify politically, bringing in more conservatives. Mika even implied that the only politically diverse news network is . . . Fox!
It was Joe Scarborough’s recent personal brush with liberal media bias that set off the conversation . . .
(Continued)
By Mark Finkelstein | Saturday June 06, 2009, 12:53 PM
In the guise of supposedly softpedaling his shunning of French prez Sarkozy, whose dinner invitation he spurned, Pres. Obama has actually rubbed in the snub.
Check out this report on the incident [emphasis added]:
This morning in Caen France, the President was asked why he was not spending more time in France and specifically why the Obamas turned down a dinner invitation last night by the French power couple President Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni.
“What it means is that I have a very tough schedule,” the President laughed back, “I would love nothing more than to have a leisurely week in Paris, stroll down the Seine, take my wife out to a nice meal, have a picnic in Luxembourg gardens. Those days are over, for the moment.”
Notice what’s missing from PBO’s list? (Continued)
By Mark Finkelstein | Friday June 05, 2009, 09:01 PM
On this evening’s Hardball, NBC News correspondent Jim Maceda reported that in the wake of his speech, Arabs view Barack Obama not at all as an American president, but as an “enlightened regional leader” and “an imam.”
Chris Matthews was, naturally, thrilled. (Continued)
By Mark Finkelstein | Friday June 05, 2009, 08:23 AM
Good Morning America assembled a cheering squad for Sonia Sotomayor this morning consisting of Cokie Roberts, Sam Donaldson and a professor of women’s studies, Phyllis Coontz of Pitt, who declared:
“Women are more sensitive. They think about other people.”
Yeah, unlike those selfish male firefighters who went charging into the burning towers on 9-11. (Continued)
Filed in Uncategorized
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Tagged 9-11, ABC, Cokie Roberts, firefighters, gender differences, Good Morning America, media bias, MSM, Phyllis Coontz, Sam Donaldson, Sonia Sotomayor, University Pittsburgh, women's studies
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