Since late January of 2012, the Washington Examiner’s Paul Bedard has featured a weekly “Mainstream Media Scream” selection in his “Washington Secrets” column. For each pick, usually posted online on Monday, our own Brent Baker provides an explanation and recommends a “scream” rating (on a scale of one to five).
Check Bedard’s “Washington Secrets” blog for the latest choice and his other Washington insider posts.
(For more of the worst liberal media bias, browse the MRC's Notable Quotables with an every other week compilation of the latest outrageous, sometimes humorous, quotes in the liberal media.)
Without further ado, here are the most biased quotes from the media in recent memory:
■ March 21: Mainstream Scream: View’s Behar says ‘Transgenders for Cruz is like Jews for Hitler’
I’ll add text and video here next week, but so the Washington Examiner gets the traffic for their post when it’s fresh, please read Paul Bedard’s post on their site where you can add a comment to share your assessment.
Source Author: Brent Baker
■ March 14: Mainstream Scream: Chris Matthews calls the Obama ‘thrill’ the best since JFK
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features MSNBC Hardball Host Chris Matthews reliving his thrill over Barack Obama, concluding that he's been the best on the Democratic side since John F Kennedy. Sorry Bill Clinton.
Speaking after the Thursday night MSNBC debate on CNN, Matthews recalled candidate Obama:
"I think Obama was so exciting. I think, you know, I was the 'thrill up the leg' and all that. I admit it I was overwhelmed by his speeches 'cause I'd go to all these rooms with 200 people in it and I'd never heard anybody speak like Obama. His presidency obviously couldn't live up to that level. It couldn't. It was so stellar, the excitement in those crowds. First African-American, young guy, incredibly educated and who could give a speech like nobody's been able to do since — well, certainly since, on the Democratic side, since Kennedy."
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the pick: "How nice that Matthews found a chance to revive his classic 'thrill up my leg' comment from 2008, showing his flame still burns for Obama, his one true love in politics. He may advocate for Hillary this year, but without the over-the-top passion he brought eight years ago."
Rating: Four out of five screams.
■ March 7: Mainstream Media Scream: NYT’s Brooks says Heil Trump
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks on Meet the Press saying, "If we're going to get Trump, we might as well get the Nuremberg rallies to go with it."
HOST CHUCK TODD: By the way, there was something else that Donald Trump did yesterday that grabbed my eye, and, David, I just have to show it to you and I want to get you to react to it as well. Here it is.
DONALD TRUMP, in Orlando on Saturday: I've never done this before. Can I have a pledge, a swearing? Raise your right hand. 'I do solemnly swear that I no matter how I feel, no matter what the conditions if there's hurricanes or whatever,' that's good enough, 'will vote on or before the 12th for Donald J. Trump for president!' Thank you.
TODD: David, the visual, the hands go up, Trump asks for a pledge. I was flabbergasted.
DAVID BROOKS: If we're going to get Trump, we might as well get the Nuremberg rallies to go with it. No, the number one trait that associates or correlates with Trump's support is authoritarianism, a belief in authoritarian leadership style.
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the pick: "Brooks defines the very kind of media 'conservative' for whom Trump supporters have such disdain, and Brooks sure lived up to his reputation. Trump may not appeal to everyone, but it says more about Brooks than Trump that a ridiculous Hitler comparison so readily jumps to the front of Brooks' mind."
Rating: Four out of five screams.
■ February 29: Mainstream Scream: Bill Maher mocks Scalia’s death
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features Bill Maher, on his HBO show "Real Time with Bill Maher" on Friday night, ridiculing the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and mocking his death.
"Something spooky happened exactly two weeks ago. I was talking – right at this hour right on this show, and we were talking about the fact that the Supreme Court had just scuttled the EPA's clean power plan, okay, and I said, 'How can anything get done in America when you have to run it by Antonin Scalia first?' Apparently, at that very hour, he died. He could have been watching this show thinking, 'I like Bill Maher so much. Ahhh!'"
Smiling, the liberal comedian fell backward in his chair as if he were Justice Scalia dying, inspiring laughter from the audience. After sitting up, he continued: "Okay, but, so, look, you're not supposed to speak ill of the dead, so let me not name call. But let me fact call because I have listened for two weeks about he was a brilliant jurist and he was a great intellectual. Excuse me, Antonin Scalia was put on Earth to remind poor people that the law is not your friend."
More: "You know where he was when he died, though?...an all-male [hunting club], yes, with some secret order of St. Hubertus where they wear green robes with big crosses on them, and then they murder birds that are released, not into the wild, like right in front of them. And he was actually too sick that day to do the hunting, but he was in the car because that's great too, to just be around people murdering birds. So to, you know, the idea that this brilliant mind stumbling in the woods like Dumbledore..."
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the pick: "In the midst of journalistic condemnations of 'juvenile' behavior from Republicans at the latest presidential debate, along comes a liberal hero and big Obama donor to show how low politics can really go: marking the passing of a respected and influential jurist by using him as fodder for cheap insults and ridicule from a 'comedian' who can't dream of matching Antonin Scalia's intellect."
Rating: Five out of five screams.
■ February 22: Mainstream Scream: Roland Martin says GOP ‘Invited Evil In’
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features TV One's Roland Martin on Sunday's "This Week" on ABC charging that the Republican Party, in wooing the Tea Party and now Donald Trump, "invited evil in and not evil is taking over."
He said: "This is their problem. They invited evil in and now evil is taking over, okay. 2009, the night of Obama's inauguration, 'we will stop him at every turn.' They loved the Tea Party anger. They took advantage of it in '10 and '12 and '14. They always said, 'we can control it. We can harness it.' Now, all of a sudden, Trump is taking advantage of it. He led the whole birther deal. The Republican establishment at some point has to say, 'you know what, we played with fire and now it's about to consume us.'"
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the pick: "There's lots of evil in the world, but Martin, who in 2013 was named 'Journalist of the Year' by the National Association of Black Journalists, sees it so easily in conservatives who want constitutional government. If socialists take over the Democratic Party, will he see them as evil or just compassionate people who want to help others?"
Rating: Four out of five screams.
■ Mainstream Scream: PBS frets Sanders ‘thwarting’ first woman president
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features the recent Democratic presidential debate, with questioner Gwen Ifill of PBS asking Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders if he is "thwarting history" by potentially knocking off Hillary Rodham Clinton.
PBS's Gwen Ifill the Democratic debate on Thursday night, February 11:
"Senator, do you worry at all that you will be the instrument of thwarting history, as Senator Clinton keeps claiming that she might be the first woman president?"
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the pick: "I channeled her inner 'I am woman, hear me roar.' In this case less in inspiration than in distress, conveying the fear of women in the press corps that this interloper Sanders will ruin the script the media are laying out of Hillary making history."
Rating: Four out of five screams.
■ February 8: Mainstream Scream: NBC reporter says it’s ‘crazy’ women don’t like Hillary Clinton
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features Chris Jansing, senior White House correspondent for NBC News, saying on MSNBC that it's "crazy" for young women to not support Hillary Clinton as the first female president.
It came Friday when she was discussing with host Tamron Hall comments from female University of New Hampshire students at a "watch party" for the Thursday night MSNBC Democratic debate. Jansing reported the students "overwhelmingly said Bernie Sanders won the night."
DAYTIME HOST TAMRON HALL: The big headline for me in the randomly selected group of people, the young women there did not care that Hillary Clinton could be the first woman president.
CHRIS JANSING: That's crazy to me. It really is.
HALL: In fact, several of them were offended when she brought the line up pointing to the fact, that, 'How can I be establishment, I'm a woman running for president.' I'm going to play a little of what they said.
FEMALE COLLEGE STUDENT: I also am a woman. I also face discrimination as being a woman. Her feminism does not represent my feminism. And I think that's really important to differentiate that.
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the pick: "Jansing reflects the worst inclination of journalists: identity politics. But, of course, it only works for liberals. Jansing doesn't expect women to automatically back Carly Fiorina."
Rating: Four out of five screams.
■ February 1, 2016: Mainstream Scream: Lester Holt concerned voters hurt Hillary’s feelings
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features NBC News anchor telling Hillary Rodham Clinton that he "winced" when she was called dishonest by a young voter during the recent CNN Democratic presidential debate.
The interview came on Friday after the debate.
Lester Holt: "I want to ask you about a moment at the town hall the other day. A young man, a Bernie Sanders supporter, stood up and said young people don't trust you."
Taylor Gipple, at CNN's January 25 Democratic town hall: "I've heard from quite a few people my age that they think you're dishonest."
Holt: "And when he said that I winced. And I was wondering, you've obviously been in tough battles, political battles, but do you get your feelings hurt sometimes?"
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the pick: "Pathetic. A year after the Brian Williams fiasco, his replacement embarrassed himself by treating Hillary Clinton as some kind of sympathetic victim. It's very difficult to tell any difference between the stridently left wing MSNBC and NBC News when NBC's star anchor is so in the tank for the candidate of whom MSNBC's star, Chris Matthews, declared: 'Personally and politically, I think she's great.'"
Rating: Five out of five screams.
■ January 25, 2016: Mainstream Scream: Matthews slaps Mark Levin, ‘One of the Most Distasteful Human Beings’
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features MSNBC's Chris Matthews -- who else? -- sneering at top talk radio host Mark Levin over the conservative's positive comments about Sen. Ted Cruz.
It came during an exchange on his Hardball show January 18 with NBC News correspondent Katy Tur. During the exchange he also mispronounced Rush Limbaugh's name as "Lim-ba" and then "Lim-bo."
Host Chris Matthews: "There's something strange about Cruz. Has Trump got to him with this 'nasty' comment that now Rush Limbaugh is now defending him? Imagine having Rush Limbaugh saying, 'Oh, no. He's not nasty.' This is Rush Limbaugh as your character witness."
NBC News correspondent Katy Tur: "I think it's Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin are defending Ted Cruz."
Matthews: "Oh my God! Mark Levin is one of the most distasteful human beings out there."
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the pick: "A classy as always Matthews, disparaging a conservative opinion leader with a personal insult – though I'm sure Levin has the same opinion of Matthews."
Rating: Four out of five screams.
■ January 18, 2016: Mainstream Media Scream: Chris Matthews slaps reporters for ‘taking Cruz's side’ on citizenship
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features one of favorites, MSNBC's Chris Matthews, taking a shot at "straight reporters" for backing up Sen. Ted Cruz's claim, backed by many Constitutionalists, that he is a U.S.. citizen despite being born in Canada.
His comments came to Washington Post reporter Robert Costa, on MSNBC late Thursday night, Jan. 14, after the Republican debate:
Why are these straight reporters out there all taking Cruz's side on his right to run? Is it just they want a bigger number of candidates? I mean, because if you look at the Constitution and the normal original intent of the Republican side and the conservatives – I mean, for example, if Cruz were voting for who gets on the Supreme Court he'd be voting for only somebody, only someone who is a literal interpreter of the Constitution who literally would go by point, what did they mean by that back in the late 18th century? And what did they mean when they said 'natural born?' He wouldn't be talking about liberalizing it.
So why are they getting away with this two-faced Cruz attitude where I can be liberal in my attitude to the Constitution when it's convenient to me personally, politically. How do they get away with that?
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the pick: "Better question: How does Chris Matthews get away with seeing himself as a journalist capable of making impartial judgments? It's nice he has a sudden respect for a strict constructionist view of the Constitution. As he might say, how convenient for him."
Rating: Four out of five screams.
■ January 11, 2016: Mainstream Media Scream: Tavis Smiley calls Trump ‘religious and racial arsonist’
(Washington Examiner post)
There seems to be no end to the hate spewed by the mainstream media at Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump. This week's Mainstream Media Scream features the late, from PBS host Tavis Smiley during his appearance Sunday on ABC's This Week.
He was talking about the Trump's comments about challenger Sen. Ted Cruz's birth in Canada.
"I'm happy to see Donald Trump go after Cruz on this issue because, to Donna's [Brazile] point, they did it so — there's nothing to it, but let me be clear, there is nothing to it but we're so aggressive going after President Obama on nothing to that either a few years ago, so I'm tickled by it.
"What troubles me though is that, that Trump is still, to my mind at least, an unrepentant, irascible religious and racial arsonist and so, when we talk about how Trump is rising in the polls, you can't do that absent the kind of campaign he's running, the issues that he's raising and for us to say Donald Trump is rising in the polls and not connect that to the base message that he's putting out there, I think just misses the point."
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our pick: "Smiley is a perfect representative of the media elite: disdainful of Trump and Cruz, denouncing Trump with the ridiculous exaggeration that he's an 'irascible religious and racial arsonist' and then using Trump to impugn all Republicans. Likely a preview of campaign coverage whether or not Trump is the GOP nominee."
Rating: Three out of five screams.
■ January 4, 2016: Mainstream Media Scream: ABC covers for Hillary Clinton on ISIS-Trump
(Washington Examiner post)
This week's Mainstream Media Scream features ABC's Good Morning America tossing Hillary Clinton a bone on her claim that Donald Trump's call for a freeze in Muslim immigration is helping ISIS recruiting -- before the group actually used his words in a video.
At the Democratic debate on Saturday, Dec. 19, Clinton declared ISIS was using Trump's words to recruit when it wasn't -- yet.
But over the weekend, when Trump did appear in a video from extremists, the show said, "Does this mean Hillary Clinton may have actually been right?"
From the Jan. 2 Good Morning America:
ANCHOR DAN HARRIS: Good morning, America. Breaking overnight: Donald Trump starring in a new terrorist recruitment video. So does this mean Hillary Clinton may have actually been right?
.....
REPORTER MARY BRUCE: This is the first known instance of extremists using Trump's language to attract followers, although not by ISIS as Hillary Clinton predicted.
HILLARY CLINTON (December 19 debate): He is becoming ISIS's best recruiter.
BRUCE: The Democratic front-runner ignited a war of words with Trump when she warned that his rhetoric would become recruiting fodder.
HILLARY: They are going to be people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists.
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the pick: "That didn't take long. Barely 31 hours into the election year and ABC News decided to mislead viewers in order to cover for a false statement by Hillary Clinton. It's doubtful any of the Republican candidates will get such a gift from ABC. Couldn't have started the year with a more vivid example of how the media serve and protect liberal Democrats."
Rating: Five out of five screams.