Tracking Liberal Media Bias Since 1996
Tuesday November 27, 2012 @ 09:42 AM ET
1. ABC Salivates Over ‘Mutiny’ Against Anti-Tax Pledge That’s Been ‘Obstacle to Raising Taxes,’ Hail New ‘Flexibility’
ABC anchor Diane Sawyer and correspondent Jonathan Karl on Monday
night salivated over Republicans breaking Grover Norquist’s anti-tax
pledge. “We did see a sign the paralysis may be ending,” Sawyer relayed
over “Tax Revolt?” on screen, touting “a Republican mutiny against a
man who had convinced them to take a pledge.” She soon trumpeted the
“new sign of flexibility.” As if that’s a bad thing, Jonathan Karl
fretted “the pledge is the biggest obstacle to any deal that would
raise taxes.” But he saw hope ahead in how “with a budget crisis on the
horizon and a re-elected President insisting on tax increases, some
Republicans are now thinking the unthinkable: Ditching the pledge.”
2. NBC Eager to See Republicans 'Peeling Off' from Tax Pledge, Pressures Rest of GOP to Do the Same
Talking to chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd on Monday's NBC
Today,
co-host Savannah Guthrie enthusiastically touted: "...we've seen a few
Republicans peeling off from a pledge they signed to Grover Norquist,
who, of course, is a lobbyist, an anti-tax lobbyist, who's been very
powerful among conservatives. Is that a significant move?" Todd replied
by urging the rest of the GOP to similarly abandon core conservative
principles: "I'll be impressed when you start seeing House Republicans
do it....where it looks like Republicans are softening, it's Senate
Republicans. If this deal could be cut between the Senate Republicans
and the White House, we wouldn't even be talking about this...the
fiscal cliff wouldn't be an issue."
3. CBS Lobbies Senator Corker to Renege on Anti-Tax Hike Pledge, Raise Capital Gains Tax
Charlie Rose and Norah O'Donnell sung from the same liberal sheet
music on Monday's CBS This Morning as they tried to get Republican
Senator Bob Corker to commit to higher federal taxes. Rose wondered if
the Corker was "prepared, as others are doing, to...say, I'm going to
forgo the [anti-tax hike] pledge because it is outdated and the
country's problems are too big." O'Donnell asked the Tennessee
politician if he was "willing to also raise the capital gains rate."
O'Donnell also cited "independent analysis" by the Tax Policy Center,
but omitted that it is a project of two liberal organizations - the
Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution.
4. CNN Pleads With Republicans, 'Don't Fear the Grover'
CNN broke out the pom-poms on Monday and cheered the Republicans who
reneged on Grover Norquist's no-tax hike pledge. CNN contributor John
Avlon lauded them as "profiles in courage." Avlon quipped that now
"people don't fear the Grover. And that's a good thing, you know."
Anchor Carol Costello clearly liked the GOP mutiny, asking "how excited
should we really be by all of this talk of throwing Grover Norquist
under the bust [sic]?" Later in the day, Brooke Baldwin enthused:
"'Don't fear the Grover.' Best quote of the day."
5. Wolf Blitzer Badgers House Majority Whip to Raise Taxes
After smiling on Republicans who stepped away from Grover Norquist's
no-tax hike pledge, CNN pressured the GOP House Majority Whip to raise
income tax rates on Monday's
The Situation Room. Anchor Wolf
Blitzer suggested a tax hike on those making over $250,000 a year,
noting "those families and those small businesses did quite well during
the years of the Clinton administration when the rate was 39.6. Why not
go back to that?"
6. Chris Matthews Outrageously Links Unhappy Conservatives to Hitler
Chris Matthews on Monday disgustingly connected conservatives unhappy
with the 2012 election to Hitler and the 1936 Olympics. After
Huffington Post journalist Howard Fineman mocked the GOP for supposedly
considering the African American and Hispanic vote to be
"extraterrestrial," Matthews spewed, "The last guy to refer to the black
auxiliary was Hitler." Matthews, known for his verbal gaffes, prefaced
the Nazi comparison by rambling, "...And these references are always
dangerous, but I'll take it anyway." Trying to explain his smear, the
Hardball anchor expanded, "During the '36 Olympics, we had Jesse Owens
and a couple other guys winning the Olympics and they [the Nazis] were
saying, "Well, they had their auxiliary out there." As if this made his
comments all go away, Matthews added that his comments have "no bearing
on the Republican Party."
7. Meet the Press Panelist Ken Burns of PBS Denounces Tea Party 'Vitriol' Motivated By Racism
During a discussion of the new film Lincoln on Sunday's NBC
Meet the Press,
PBS documentary film maker Ken Burns ranted about one of the supposed
lessons he took away from the movie: "Race is always there in
America....Do you think we'd have a secession movement in Texas and the
other places, faddish secession movement, if this president wasn't
African-American? Do you think the vitriol that came out of some
elements of the Tea Party would have been at the same level had this
President not been Africa-American?"
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