‘Bassar Ashad’? Really, President Obama?
Sure, it was just one of those tongue-tied moments we've all experienced. But if it had been George W. Bush mispronouncing the name of a world leader who is very much in the news, imagine the field day the MSM would have had with it.
At his press appearance with British PM David Cameron today, aired on MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports, President Obama was seen pronouncing the name of the Syrian dictator Bashir Assad as "Bassar Ashad." PBO pauses before pronouncing, seeming to sense he's about to get it wrong, but decides to plunge ahead. There's another priceless moment: when the show cuts back to the studio, guest-hosting Chuck Todd is seen with a hilariously baffled look on his face. View the video after the jump.
NB ToonsDay: ObamaCare Disaster Edition
Every week it seems like we're learning about a new tax or regulation from ObamaCare which will burden businesses and individuals and drag down the economy. So we thought we'd give you a look at how some conservative cartoonists are taking on the train wreck that is ObamaCare:
Fake Activist ‘Liberal Chick’ Gets Gullible College Students to Sign Petition Banning Pressure Cookers
In the debate that just recently ended over a gun restriction proposal favored by Democrats, supporters of the Manchin-Toomey bill frequently cited polling statistics which allegedly showed 90 percent support for more background checks for gun buyers. What was usually left out of these questions, however, were the details, information that would likely have resulted in fewer people supporting the bill.
Of course, there are certainly many people out there who support banning any number of things deemed to be dangerous by anyone. “If it only saves one life” goes the common refrain. To test that proposition out, fake left-wing activist “Liberal Chick” took to the Florida International University campus to see if she could get students to sign a petition to ban pressure cookers, the devices used in the Boston Marathon bombing but normally used for cooking tasty food.
Letterman Sinks to Denigrating Gun Rights Senators (Inhofe, Flake, Cruz) as ‘Stooges of the Night’
In a new low for David Letterman – on both a professional and comedic level – each night this past week he devoted a Late Show “Stooge of the Night” segment to a Senator who dared to oppose the gun control bill, a law which would have done nothing to have prevented the Newtown tragedy.
Nonetheless, Letterman got very political in putting a picture of each Senator on the screen, yet the audience at his Manhattan theater remained befuddled, nearly silent after each announcement with, at best, scattered nervous laughter before Letterman followed up with a lame crack at their personal appearance. Those shots (Jeff Flake: “Reminds me a little of Gomer Pyle”; Ted Cruz: “How about a background check on his barber?”) generated a little laughter.
Real or Fake: Exposing MRC’s April Fools Day Notable Quotables
Hopefully, everyone has by now figured out that yesterday’s Notable Quotables posting was an April Fools spoof, an annual tradition here at the Media Research Center, where our staff makes up quotes in an effort to parody the everyday outrageousness of liberal journalists.
This year’s twist: While all of the quotes were attributed to MSNBC host Chris Matthews, his over-the-top rhetoric is nearly impossible to parody, so eight of the 21 published quotes in the full edition were real (as were five of the 14 in the truncated version posted here at NB). The challenge for readers was to separate the real ones from the fake ones.
After the jump, you’ll find the same text as in yesterday’s post, this time with correct attributions and links to the corresponding MRC-TV video clip for each of the genuine quotes:
Real or Fake: Exposing MRC’s April Fools Day Notable Quotables
Hopefully, everyone has by now figured out that yesterday’s Notable Quotables posting was an April Fools spoof, an annual tradition here at the Media Research Center, where our staff makes up quotes in an effort to parody the everyday outrageousness of liberal journalists.
This year’s twist: While all of the quotes were attributed to MSNBC host Chris Matthews, his over-the-top rhetoric is nearly impossible to parody, so eight of the 21 published quotes in the full edition were real (as were five of the 14 in the truncated version posted here at NB). The challenge for readers was to separate the real ones from the fake ones.
After the jump, you’ll find the same text as in yesterday’s post, this time with correct attributions and links to the corresponding MRC-TV video clip for each of the genuine quotes:
Lawrence O’Donnell ‘Desperately Misses’ Show Business, Still ‘Doesn’t Get’ Cable News
In a recent interview with Salon, MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell candidly revealed just how much he dislikes his current job as the host of MSNBC's prime-time commentary show The Last Word. In fact, the former actor who just so happens to have a cameo in the new movie Olympus Has Fallen as a news anchor admitted that he still has no idea what he's doing.
O'Donnell had recurring roles in the past on TV dramas like HBO's Big Love, USA's Monk, and NBC's The West Wing, writing and producing the latter as well. When comparing the two experiences, he said working for a cable news network is "tragic" for him. And the very thought of doing his show with an unrehearsed first draft every night is just "horrendous" and "offends (his) artistic sensibilities in some ways," he explained.
Early on in the interview, O'Donnell confessed just how much he would like to return to what he knows and enjoys. "Because I miss show business so desperately that I will do anything short of pornography at this point to hang around sets and have fun," he said.
He even went so far as to admit that he doesn't have much authority or credibility as a newscaster anyway, which would allow him to take other acting roles in the future. O'Donnell cited Tom Brokaw and Jim Lehrer as 'real newsmen' who have never accepted any offer to play fictionalized versions of themselves.
Brian Williams however, "who is, by far, by many miles, the best actor in history of TV newsmen," according to O'Donnell, has been on sitcoms because there's "no credibility or authority at risk. It’s comedy." But "[w]ere you to ask Brian to do a drama, I think he’d say no." Not O'Donnell though, he's game for anything -- except pornography.
With such high praise for Williams, one has to wonder if O'Donnell thinks he can arrange a guest spot on his daughter Allison's HBO show Girls. He is 'desperate' after all.
Saturday Night Funny Video: Obama’s Decision to Pardon the Sequester and Send It to Portugal
ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel sent a producer out to Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles to ask passing pedestrians a nonsensical question: “What do you think about President Obama’s decision to pardon the sequester and send it to Portugal?”
Hilarity ensued in the very sure answers given by the very ill-informed low information potential voters in the “Confusing Question of the Day” segment aired on this past Monday’s (March 4) Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC.
CNN’s Soledad O’Brien Embarrasses Herself Attacking Fox News Chief Roger Ailes
While being ignorant of the facts is not as bad for a journalist as deliberately suppressing them, not knowing what you’re talking about can be far more embarrassing—and amusing.
Soledad O’Brien, the soon-to-be-former host of CNN’s “Starting Point,” proved that point definitively yesterday when she revealed that she had basically no knowledge of the new favorite story among left-of-center journalists, the supposed racism of Fox News president Roger Ailes.
Barney Frank’s Strange Obsession With Misogynistic Henny Youngman Line
What's with Barney Frank and his odd obsession with a Henny Youngman line that—had virtually any other politician used it—would result in him being accused of the worst kind of misogyny?
Back in 2011, I noted that, appearing on Morning Joe, Frank had quoted the hoary Henny line: "How's your wife? Compared to what?" Yet there was Barney again this evening, this time on Al Sharpton's MSNBC show, breaking out the identical line. Really: what gives? And imagine the feminist outrage if, say, Mitt Romney had dared use the line during his presidential campaign. View the video after the jump.
Playboy TV or Fox News?
What's the correlation between Fox News and Playboy TV?
Well, on a relatively new online game show called Let's Ask America, web cam contestants were playfully asked which one would offend liberal parents more if they stumbled upon their teenage son watching one or the other. (video clip below; h/t email tipster John Heckman)
Dear Leader: CNN Correspondent Wrote Obama Letter Every Day for Four Years
Most people would cut a 13-year-old girl some slack if she became obsessed enough with Justin Bieber to write the teen singer emails and letters all the time, but what if an ostensibly professional journalist were to do the same to a politician?
This odd scenario actually is not a hypothetical, however. A CNN correspondent named Tom Foreman has been doing just that, writing a letter every single day to President Obama for the past four years.
Letterman Admits He Apologized to Palin So He Could ‘Go Forward Making Fun of Her’
Sounds like a personal vendetta ahead of genuine regret. CBS Late Show host David Letterman admitted to Oprah Winfrey, in an interview first aired Sunday night, that he backtracked after outrage erupted following a sex joke he told involving Sarah Palin’s then-14-year-old daughter Willow, not because it was highly inappropriate, but primarily so he could continue ridiculing Willow’s mother:
I’ll tell you why I apologized. I felt like Sarah Palin was somebody I wanted to continue to be able to make fun of and I felt like if I don’t apologize, if I don’t sincerely express my regret, I will not be able to go forward making fun of her.
Saturday Night Funny Video: Women v Men Via Corn on the Cob
A humorous look at men versus women – as seen through how they tackle eating corn on the cob, a contrast caught by NBC’s Tonight Show and shown by Bret Baier at the end of FNC’s Special Report back on Tuesday, December 4.
Baier’s reaction to the guy’s method: “Ingenuity.”
Liberals Fall for Hoax ‘Study’ Claiming Fox News Viewers Are Mentally Deficient
Whatever its origins, there seems to be an innate desire among many lefties to classify those who disagree with their belief system as mentally, morally, or psychologically inferior—or preferably all three. This being the case, it should come as no surprise that in addition to cooking up real academic studies using biased questionnaires designed to make conservatives look stupid, statists also have a habit of getting taken in by fake “studies” which validate their alleged superiority.
Perhaps the most famous such hoax involved the fictitious Lovenstein Institute and a ranking of presidential IQ which supposedly showed former president George W. Bush as having the lowest intelligence of all presidents in the 50 years preceding him. Gleeful statists repeated this meme on numerous blogs and even in some newspapers, never bothering to check whether or not a Lovenstein Institute actually existed. Fast forward to 2012 and once again, the left has been taken in by another hoax “study,” a press release from a fictitious Intelligence Institute which claimed that the average IQ of Fox News Channel viewers is 80, 20 points below the standard IQ of 100.
MSNBC.com Prepares Readers to Challenge Their ‘Crazy’ Conservative Relatives
Armed with so-called 'facts' disguised as the same liberal talking points we're all too familiar with, MSNBC's staff of bloggers published an article yesterday that detailed the top 10 comebacks that are guaranteed to confound and demoralize any Republican relative who dares to speak ill of Obama at the Thanksgiving dinner table.
The "Lean Forward" network won't let their bias take a rest even for the holidays, nevermind that politics is hardly polite conversation for the dinner table on any given holiday, let alone Thanksgiving. But family harmony is a small price to pay for dutifully defending President Obama to your relatives who aren't buying into the hope-and-change mantra.
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 ]
Joy Behar Compares Romney to ‘Horny Speed Dater’
Obscure cable 'news' network Current TV's aptly named show, Say Anything with Joy Behar concluded an episode on Monday night by putting forth a different perspective on Mitt Romney that was of course related to all the worn-out liberal judgments of him.
Behar justified her endorsement of President Obama's re-election by comparing his Republican challenger to a "horny guy doing speed dating." You know the type, a man who is willing to "say anything to close the deal" and just wants to get in the pants of every girl he meets. But in this case, it's the collective pants of America. [ video below, MP3 audio here ]
Toledo Blade Asks: ‘Could Mr. Romney Take Our Coffee?’
In the quadrennially important swing state of Ohio, one of the Toledo Blade's featured front page stories on Sunday wondered if Mormonism would shape Romney's policy. Following an endorsement of Obama last week in which there was no mention of the president's beliefs, religion editor Timothy Knox Barger's penned a 2,500 word piece that resorted to scare tactics and conjecture.
Among them was a seemingly legitimate concern that Romney might try to impose a ban on certain things that he's known to abstain from himself -- like coffee for instance.
Saturday Night Funny Video: Who Won the ‘First Lady Debate’?
A pretty funny bit from ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live proving some people accept whatever they are told and have no hesitation about pronouncing their opinion on it. Even if it never occurred. Kimmel sent a camera crew onto Hollywood Boulevard, outside his Los Angeles studio, to ask people who “won” the “First Lady Debate”?
As excerpted, the Thursday before last, at the end of FNC’s Special Report with Bret Baier, passers by weren’t shy about sharing their assessments of how Michelle Obama and Ann Romney performed in the supposed “First Lady Debate.”
CNN Newsroom Hypes Tina Fey’s Rant: Flatters Her in the Process
Not content to restrict the ongoing firestorm surrounding Senate candidate Richard Mourdock to the media, CNN's Newsroom turned to liberal comedienne Tina Fey to bash the Indiana Republican some more this morning.
"Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock better watch out," CNN Newsroom anchor Carol Costello warned, teasing the story at the top of the program. "Tina Fey is coming after them. Why the comedian says their rape comments will make her lose her mind." [ video below, MP3 audio here ]
‘Mika Made Me Republican’
Talk about the law of unintended consequences . . . On today's Morning Joe, Willie Geist interviewed an audience member sporting a T-shirt reading "Mika Made Me Republican."
The good-natured fellow explained that his daughter had made the T-shirt for him, that he was an independent who had voted for Perot, and that he watches Morning Joe daily because he likes to hear what the other side has to say. Whatever it was that Mika has been saying, it has apparently driven him into the Romney camp. View the video after the jump.
Does Chris Matthews NOT Read NBCNews.com? Still Thinks Ryan Washed Clean Pots at Soup Kitchen
A few days ago the liberal media was all abuzz over how Paul Ryan supposedly muscled his way into back of a soup kitchen in Ohio and started washing already-cleaned pots and pans as a photo op.
It turned out later, however, that soup kitchen staffers had left some dirty pots and pans for Ryan to wash. Yes, it was part of a campaign photo-op, but the pots and pans were actually dirty and Ryan actually cleaned them. NBCNews.com's "First Read" blog noted the crucial update to the tempest-in-a-teapot on Tuesday. But judging from today's Hardball, MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews doesn't read his sister network's website.
Saturday Night Funny Video….Make that Audio: Woman Wants Signs Moved to Direct Deer to Other Crossings
An Obama voter who assumes if he can lower the seas then local transportation departments can get deer to obey highway signs? A woman called a Fargo, North Dakota radio station last month to complain about how she’d hit three deer with her car over the years and wants deer crossing signs moved so the deer will cross less busy roads – as if deer read and follow roadside signage! Is she for real? Listen and judge for yourself.
“Why are we encouraging deer to cross at the interstates?” She insisted: “They can direct the deer population anywhere they want to by moving the deer crossing sign.”
Humorless Liberals Fall for Satire That Claims Romney Would Ban Tampons
Liberals unwittingly bolstered the concept that they have no sense of humor on Wednesday, when several people responded angrily to a rumor that if he's elected to the White House, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney would outlaw the sale and use of tampons.
The incident began when a poster named Lexi Johnson stated on the Twitter website that the Republican official would ban the use of the medical device because "it is unnnatural for a woman to insert a foreign object into here body for the sake of stopping the menstrual flow."
Morning Joe’s Debate Recap: Mika Brzezinski Colorfully Pronounces Biden ‘Clear Winner’
In her analysis of the vice presidential debate on the October 12 edition of Morning Joe, co-host Mika Brzezinski showed disdain for Paul Ryan and utter adulation for Joe Biden's performance. She was alone in her wildly pro-Joe assessment.
As far as she was concerned, Biden utterly thrashed Ryan, and the liberal MSNBC co-host loved every minute of it: [ video below, MP3 audio available here ]
TV Columnist Bashes Romney for Declining Interview With Kids on Nickelodeon
Citing time constraints, Mitt Romney has respectfully declined to participate in Nickelodeon's upcoming "Kids Pick the President" special that is scheduled to air on Oct. 15. In her latest column, the Washington Post's Lisa de Moraes attacked the decision, considering it a snub and quoting the reaction from the Obama campaign at length.
"First Big Bird, now Nickelodeon," she began. "What’s up with Mitt Romney and kids?" By contrast, President Obama -- who is known to skip daily intelligence briefings often -- couldn't be praised enough for taking time out of his own busy schedule to take part in the cable TV show.
Late Show Runs Cymbalta Depression Ad Parody of Obama
David Letterman is a Barack Obama sycophant (he once fawned over Obama’s “great courage and great intelligence”), but even he couldn’t deny Obama’s poor debate performance.
Thursday’s Late Show featured a clever parody of Lilly’s ad for their anti-depression drug, Cymbalta, a spoof with scenes of Obama during Wednesday’s presidential debate dropped into the real TV ad.