MSNBC Now Uses 4-Year-Old Daughter of Anchor To Push For Gay Marriage
MSNBC’s blatant promotion of gay marriage appears to have taken a bizarre and sad turn. Krystal Ball, co-host of The Cycle, has taken to using her four-year-old daughter Ella as a prop in a pro-same-sex marriage video.
In the 3-minute video, Ball asks her young daughter a series of questions about who she is allowed to marry, eventually asking her what happens if she loves another girl. Ball’s daughter, who is clearly taking cues from her mom, says that because she lives in New York she can marry another girl if she loves her. [See video after jump.]
MSNBC’s ‘Cycle’ Gives Daschle Platform to Bash Hagel Filibuster; No Mention Daschle Killed Bush’s Estrada Nomination Same Way
Ten years ago, then-Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) held together a Democratic filibuster of President Bush's nomination of Miguel Estrada to the Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Tom Curry of NBCNews.com notes that Republicans tried to end debate and proceed to an up-or-down vote seven times before eventually giving up. Frustrated with Daschle's obstructionism, President Bush called for filibuster reform, which Daschle dismissed out of hand, insisting,"The Senate is always going to be the Senate."
Fast forward to February 19, 2013. Appearing on MSNBC's The Cycle in part to promote his new book about the U.S. Senate, co-host Krystal Ball dutifully read back to Daschle a line from his new tome about the filibuster being abused. At no point, however, did Ball or anyone else on the panel, including token conservative S.E. Cupp, point out the Center for American Progress fellow’s hypocrisy.
MSNBC’s Ball Insists Pope Benedict Bashed Dissident Nuns for Caring for the Poor More Than Opposing Abortion, Gay Marriage
Discussing the legacy of Pope Benedict XVI on the February 11 edition of MSNBC's "The Cycle," co-host Krystal Ball praised the retiring pontiff for being a "real advocate for addressing climate change" and for joining Twitter, but lamented that he was "outspoken in keeping women from being ordained" and "went after the largest group of nuns in America for basically spending too much time focused on the poor and not enough on abortion and gay marriage."
But as we at NewsBusters have noted time and again, the nuns who were corrected by the Vatican were NOT attacked for their good social work and most certainly were not denounced for being too busy caring for the poor to deal with the politics of abortion or gay marriage. No, the Vatican's rebuke -- which was tenderly-worded and pastoral in nature, by the way -- was largely centered on questions of Catholic doctrine and ecclesiology, as my colleague Paul Wilson explained in an April 2012 post addressing a similar gripe by the Washington Post's Melinda Henneberger (emphases mine):
Watch Two Far, Far-Left MSNBC Hosts Actually Support DOJ Drone Memo
To give you an idea of how much you have to be in the tank for President Obama in order to be the typical host on an MSNBC program, on Tuesday, Krystal Ball and Toure Neblett - two far, far-left commentators! - actually came out in support of the just-released Justice Department memo that made the legal case for drone strikes against Americans.
Be sure to strap yourselves in tightly before you enter the bumpy ride in this bizarre parallel universe (video follows with transcript and commentary):
MSNBC’s Toure Slams Barbara Walters From the Left for Sexist Interview with Hillary Clinton
Barbara Walters is known for asking ridiculous questions during her famous interviews, but this time it appears she has gone too far, annoying even the liberal co-hosts of MSNBC’s The Cycle.
The day after Barbara Walters’ annual Most Fascinating People Special Wednesday night, the cast of The Cycle, most notably co-host Toure, savaged Ms. Walters for her “embarrassing, dereliction of duty” interviews with Hillary Clinton and Chris Christie. [See video below page break. MP3 audio here.]
MSNBC’s The Cycle Discusses Gun Safety: Kornacki Clashes with Cupp Over Domestic Violence Stats
When your network milked the "war on women" for all its worth, it's a little much to condescend to a conservative woman in a segment dealing with gun control and domestic violence, but Steve Kornacki turned up the volume on his boiler plate anti-gun talking points in a segment on the Dec. 3 edition of MSNBC's The Cycle that discussed Jovan Belcher's murder-suicide and the resulting exploitation by sports journalists like Jason Whitlock and Bob Costas.
The panel's lone conservative, columnist S.E. Cupp reasoned that blaming an inanimate object for violence is a dangerous and misguided assumption, but co-host and Salon contributor Steve Kornacki could not have disagreed more. [ video & transcript below ]
GQ Magazine Mocks Romney As ‘Least Influential’: Liberals on MSNBC’s The Cycle Pick Limbaugh, Rove
How can someone who garnered nearly 60 million votes in a recent presidential election not be considered the least bit influential? As inexplicable as it sounds, that's what GQ Magazine declared when it selected Mitt Romney to headline its annual list of the 25 most uninspiring and insignificant people of the year. According to the author however, they were ranked in no particular order, "because all zeros are created equal."
Seeing a perfect opportunity to have a little fun at the expense of others, the hosts of MSNBC's The Cycle compiled their own list on Thursday. Token conservative S.E. Cupp appeared to have taken the assignment literally with a clip that introduced the world to a mild-mannered man from Indiana. Krystal Ball and Touré Neblett followed, and having some inkling of where their heads were at -- Cupp pleaded with them not to pick her. Instead they chose Karl Rove and Rush Limbaugh respectively, gloating about how wrong they both were about Romney's legitimate chance to emerge victorious. [video below the page break]
MSNBC’s The Cycle Filler Segment: ‘You Vote What You Eat’
Following a lengthy discussion of relevant topics like the president's first real press conference in almost eight months on Wednesday afternoon, MSNBC's The Cycle still found extra time on their hands for fluff. And so they brought on David Wasserman from the non-partisan Cook Political Report to present his statistical findings on, I kid you not, how handily Obama did in "Whole Foods" counties over "Cracker Barrel" ones.
The study goes all the way back to 1992, where Democrats have tended to frequent the environmentally-conscious organic grocery store -- whereas the typical Republican has an affinity for Cracker Barrel's old-fashioned American comfort food. The correlation of which is puzzling considering their differences, but the analysis went on to include the Tractor Supply Company vs. Trader Joe's and Apple vs. Golden Corral. [ video below, MP3 audio here ]
NBC Brings on Two Obama Supporters to Discuss Election, Bills it as ‘Left vs. Right’
On Wednesday's NBC Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie brought on liberal MSNBC host Krystal Ball and radio host Michael Smerconish to discuss campaign strategy in the final two weeks before the presidential election, with the headline on-screen claiming: "Left vs. Right on Final Race for the White House."
There's one problem with that assertion, Smerconish prominently supported President Obama in 2008 and has routinely filled in for left-wing Hardball host Chris Matthews on MSNBC in the years since. Apparently having someone on the left like Ball and someone center-left like Smerconish is NBC's idea of balance.
MSNBC’s ‘Cycle’ Turns to Politico Staffer Who Hailed Biden As ‘Sex Symbol’ to Analyze Veep Debate
Ten days ago, Politico staffer-turned Debbie Wasserman Schultz flak-turned Politico staffer Jon Allen published a laughably-headlined story in "Joe Biden: Sex symbol?" So naturally, Allen was the perfect choice for the liberally-slanted MSNBC's The Cycle to bring on its Friday program to review the previous night's vice presidential debate.
While Allen refused to be as gaga over Joe Biden as liberal co-host Krystal Ball was, he failed to do any fact-checking of the vice president and suggested that Biden won on the substance of the debate:
MSNBC’s Toure Denounces Twitter ‘Mob’ For Criticizing UPenn Prof Who Wanted Anti-Islam Filmmaker in Jail
The liberal panelists of MSNBC's The Cycle did their level best to help University of Pennsylvania religion professor Anthea Butler defend her now infamous tweet that the filmmaker behind the "Innocence of Muslims" video trailer on YouTube should be throw in jail. Co-host Toure Neblett went so far as to denounce the Twitter "mob" that deluged Butler's Twitter account with critical tweets. Only conservative S.E. Cupp pushed back against Butler by insisting that the YouTube video was a fig leaf justification by Islamists for violence.
"We think of this [free speech] as like an absolute right, but in fact there are limits.... So in this global world where a video clip can get spread around like wildfire, is it in fact going too far, is that beyond our constitutionally-guaranteed freedom of speech?" co-host Krystal Ball asked Butler. [MP3 audio here]
Oops! MSNBC’s Touré Neblett Says ‘We Have – or the Obama Campaign Has – Succeeded’ in ‘Defining Romney’
MSNBC's Touré Neblett had another rather telling slip of the tongue - this one of the Freudian variety - on The Cycle Wednesday.
Less than a week after accusing Mitt Romney of engaging in the "niggerization" of Barack Obama, Neblett said, "We have - or the Obama campaign has - succeeded in, or attempted to succeed in, defining Romney early when Romney was undefined for many voters" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
MSNBC’s Touré Neblett: Romney Using ‘Niggerization’ Against Obama
MSNBC's Touré Neblett just can't resist tossing out the race card whenever possible.
On Thursday's The Cycle, Touré accused presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney of using what he called "niggerization" against Barack Obama (video follows with transcript and commentary):
MSNBC’s ‘Cycle’ Showcases Feminist Author Promoting Abortion, Pornography
On Monday’s edition of The Cycle on MSNBC, Catlin Moran, author of the provocative book “How To Be A Woman” was brought on the show to brag about controversial women’s issues. The British author came on to talk about a variety of topics, beginning with more lighthearted fare like her hatred of high heels and delving into serious issues like her defense of pornography and her decision to have an abortion, which she insists she doesn't nor never has regretted.
Following a question by Toure Neblett, Moran argued that she didn’t understand the argument -- that both social conservatives and many left-wing feminists actually agree on -- that pornography is bad for women. Moran bragged that ”pornography is just people having sex that we’re watching” and “We just need to make some good pornography." [Video coming soon. MP3 audio here.]
Co-host Krystal Ball signaled her hearty agreement with Moran on the issue of pornography but then turned to the topic of Moran's abortion, which she addresed in her book.
Moran nonchalantly recounted her decision to abort her child, saying it was an easy of a decision it was for her, the mother of two children. Insisting that women who had abortions can simply choose to not hold any regrets, she also urged them to be open with others about having had an abortion, claiming that:
the fact women keep having abortions secret is very worrying because we fought very hard for that law. But if no women are ever admitting that they are taking advantage of that law, then that's a law that could very easily be taken away from us again as in America you are finding now.
The Cycle's lone conservative, S.E. Cupp, remained silent during the Moran interview, although the camera caught what appeared to be visible disgust or horror at Moran's claims, particularly her nonchalance about her abortion.
See relevant transcript below.
MSNBC
THE CYCLE
07/16/2012
3:23 p.m. EDT
TOURE NEBLETT: Why is better porn for women something the world needs?
CAITLIN MORAN: Well, I didn't understand the sort of old school feminist argument that pornography is bad for women. Because pornography is just some people having sex that we're watching. And I can't see why as a feminist it would damage me to see people having sex. All through history we've seen people having sex it's on vases and veloms and scrolls and that's fine. And it didn't damage us as people. And now more than 90% of teenagers in the world get their sex education from pornography. So as a good and strident feminist, I think the thing to do is not to try and ban pornography cuz you never can, we just haven’t got the time to do that. We just need to make some good pornography, in which we see women with hair that I like in outfits that look comfortable actually enjoying themselves rather than being thrown around by jocks called Brad.
KRYSTAL BALL: I wanted to turn to a more serious subject. You wrote about something in this book that almost no one writes about, which is your personal decision to have an abortion.
MORAN: Yes.
BALL: And I was wondering if you could take us through that story. How you made the decision, what the actual procedure was like and what it was like for you looking back on it?
MORAN: What the decision to write about it or the actual procedure itself?
BALL: The actual procedure and personally what it was like for you.
MORAN: All right. Well, I mean it was quite an easy decision really. As I put in the book. I know that I don't want to be blonde. I know that I don't want to backpack around india. I know that I don't want to learn how to ride a horse. And I also know that I don't want to be a mother again. I’ve already got two children. And a decision that’s so big and life defining as that, I think most women know if they want to do that or not. So I found that decision to have an abortion quite easy really cuz I just thought am I prepared to put that amount of life and pain and effort into doing a job properly for the rest of my life. Realistically, no. I must be honest with myself. I don't want to do it. And the reason that I wrote about it, is I realized I’d never read anyone else's account of doing that, which seems weird, kind of in the 21st century, in 2012, one in three women will have abortions. But I've never read anybody describing what that process is like. And I think the fact women keep having abortions secret is very worrying because we fought very hard for that law. But if no women are ever admitting that they are taking advantage of that law, then that's a law that could very easily be taken away from us again as in America you are finding now.
BALL: And one thing you write about as well is after you had an abortion you thought that down the road you might feel some regret or some sense of loss. Was that, in fact, what happened?
MORAN: I mean there's almost a kind of laziness or-- the thing is, women aren't honest about their lives and what the process of being a woman is like, then we get into trouble. And the very few accounts that I’d seen of women who’d admitted to having abortions always start the piece with, well of course, it was a very difficult decision and I regretted it for the rest of my life, every year on the date that the child would have been due, I feel upset. I know that I have in some way ruined my life, but it was the best choice between two difficult ones. And I didn't find that to be the case. And all the friends that I had who’d had abortions did not find that to be the case either. I'm not saying that there aren't women out there who will regret it and will struggle with that decision, but just to know that it’s not, that it is an option not to feel guilty. You know, some women statistically will find that decision quite easy and be fine with it. So, you know I felt very privileged to be the first person, as far as I know, to have written where you describe what the process is like, and what the people are like that you meet when you're there and how you feel afterwards and let women know who are maybe going through a similar thing that dude it is actually an option to feel fine about this.
MSNBC’s ‘The Cycle’ Spins Mandatory Voting As Good For America
The day before the Supreme Court ruled ObamaCare's individual mandate constitutional -- as a tax, not as an exercise of the commerce clause -- the mostly-liberal panel at the brand-new 3 p.m. program The Cycle explored the question of what, in the view of the panelists, that government should consider making Americans do against their will.
For her part, panelist Krystal Ball insisted that America should be more like Australia, which forces its citizens to vote in it federal elections or else to pay a fine. Unsurprisingly, Ball's fellow liberal panelists Toure Neblett, and Steve Kornacki were sympathetic to the proposal, with only conservative panelist S.E. Cupp denouncing it as antithetical to the notion of political liberty.
Ball, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2010 in a safely Republican district, stated that such a measure would mitigate the influence of money in politics and lead to a more "representative democracy." Furthermore, Ball stated that the absence of money in our elections would decrease grassroots operations aimed at suppressing the vote.
Salon.com's Steve Kornacki agreed stating that it will lessen the nasty side of campaigning which seeks to turn out voters who are favorable to your side while discouraging voters favorable to your opponent. Toure, the inimitable 9/11 truther, also agreed and said that Election Day should be a national holiday and that voter registration should be mandatory as well.
Cupp was the only voice of reason stating that apathy isn't nor should be a crime. Conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg agreed. In response to former Obama budget director Peter Orszag, who holds the same position, Goldberg wrote in the National Review on June 27 that:
One of the chief benefits of coerced voting, according to Orszag, is that it increases participation. Well, yes, and kidnapping drunks in pubs increased the ranks of the British navy, but it didn’t turn the conscripted sailors into patriots.
There was also an inane notion that a lottery and cash prize for people to incentivize them to vote was a free market initiative.
Goldberg slams this and the utopian mindset that this mandatory voter participation would create a more "representative democracy." In fact, as Goldberg states, "... fining people, say $15, if they don’t vote and using the proceeds to set up a lottery to bribe reluctant voters. If the old line that lotteries are taxes on stupid people is correct, then the upshot of this proposal is that the cure to what ails democracy is an influx of large numbers of stupid voters."
Sorry Krystal, but incentivizing people to vote with the carrot of a lottery and the stick of a fine doesn't make it a free-market initiative, because free markets by definition are marked by freely-contracted exchange, not government coercion and subsidy.
MSNBC’s Touré: Obama Being Interrupted ‘Cannot Be Disconnected From the Fact That He’s Black’
NewsBusters reported moments ago that MSNBC contributor Julian Epstein strongly suggested President Obama being interrupted during a press conference in the White House Rose Garden Friday was because he was African-American.
About an hour later, MSNBC's Touré took it a step further saying definitively, "This disrespect of this human being cannot be disconnected from the fact that he’s black” (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):
After Touré said this on the Dylan Ratigan Show, fellow MSNBC contributor Krystal Ball agreed saying, “100 percent.”
Host Ratigan asked Touré to elaborate.
“There is a basic, lesser humanity generally ascribed to black people, even one this alpha, this much in power, this much in control,” answered Touré.
“You’re saying the willingness for white power to disrespect black power is higher than white power to disrespect white power?” asked Ratigan.
“Absolutely,” Touré said, “or just for white people to see a black person in power and say, ‘I don’t have to respect you.’ And even at the point of decorum when he says, ‘I’m speaking, I have acknowledged you rude person. But we are doing this thing together, and I’m still talking.’ And he continues to interrupt. That’s when it gets really disrespectful.”
For those unfamiliar with Touré, he's also a 9/11 Truther.
That said, in the course of about an hour, three MSNBC contributors blamed this incident on the color of the President's skin.
Tough to believe in 2012, isn't it?
To receive my articles hot off the presses follow me on Twitter ow.ly/btalc and Facebook ow.ly/btald.
— Noel Sheppard (@NoelSheppard) June 9, 2012