George Will

Hiatt: George Will's Critics Are "Trying To Shut Him Down"

Zachary Roth | April 29, 2009, 4:30PM

Fred Hiatt has waded back into the debate over George Will's global warming distortions -- a debate that only makes Hiatt look more out of touch than ever.

During an online chat with readers that was supposed to be about President Obama's first 100 days, Hiatt, the editor of the Washington Post's editorial page, had the following exchange with a reader:

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Media

Buchanan: Nicaraguan Leader Is "Scrub Stock"

Zachary Roth | April 24, 2009, 2:50PM

For the last decade or so, Washington has indulged Pat Buchanan as a sort of crazy political uncle. Everyone, it seems, has agreed to forget about his long track record of racially questionable commentary and writing, and to look kindly on his continued nativist leanings, because he's an entertaining and surprisingly insightful TV performer, and it's fun to watch him argue with Rachel Maddow.

But every now and then, the centrality to Buchanan's worldview of racial difference rises to the surface. In addition to his frequent MSNBC appearances, where he plays a mostly well-mannered, if hardline, conservative, Buchanan also writes a column for the far-right web magazine, Human Events. And that's where he gets himself into trouble.

His most recent effort, "The Rooted and The Rootless," takes as its premise the notion that there's a "blood-and-soil, family-and-faith, God-and-country kind of nation" that's competing with a minority represented by the "rootless" Obama and his "aides with advanced degrees from elite colleges who react just like him."

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Media

Maddow Cites TPMmuckraker On Sleep Expert

Zachary Roth | April 23, 2009, 1:05PM

Last night, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow cited our interview with James Horne, the sleep expert who says his work was distorted by Steven Bradbury in one of the OLC torture memos, to justify keeping people awake for 11 days.

Thanks for the shout out, Rachel!

Jane Harman

Blitzer v. Harman

Zachary Roth | April 22, 2009, 9:00AM

We didn't get to this yesterday, but as part of her media blitz to beat back CQ's report, Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) went on CNN to again deny that she intervened with anyone on the AIPAC case.

And Wolf Blitzer actually did a pretty good job of pressing her...

Watch:

Media

White House Press Corps Badgers Gibbs On Torture Stance

Zachary Roth | April 21, 2009, 4:45PM

The White House press corps gave Robert Gibbs a hard time today about President Obama's comments this morning that left the door open to prosecutions of Bush officials for torture.

It's true that the president's comments go further than anything he'd said before, and could suggest that the White House is tacking this way and that on a crucial subject. That impression is strengthened by the fact that the White House has now had to walk back Rahm Emanuel's comments from Sunday that the Bushies wouldn't be prosecuted.

Late Update: Looks like The Huffington Post's Sam Stein had the same response to the briefing that we did.

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Jane Harman

NYT: Harman Said She'd Have More Pull With White House

Zachary Roth | April 21, 2009, 9:20AM

The New York Times adds some details to yesterday's blockbuster CQ report about Rep. Jane Harman and AIPAC.

Here are the key nuggets from the Times story:

* The report confirms that the call on which Harman agreed to take action in the AIPAC case in return for helping her get the House intel chair job was indeed picked up by the NSA, as Stein reported, rather than the FBI or other agencies, as some reports yesterday had suggested.

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Justice Department

The Harman-AIPAC Story: A Timeline

Zachary Roth | April 20, 2009, 5:29PM

CQ's blockbuster story, about a wiretap that picked up Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) discussing the AIPAC spying case with a "suspected Israeli agent", picks up on a sequence of complex events from several years ago, and involves several moving pieces.

So we thought it would be worthwhile to put together a timeline of events laying out the major reported developments in this sprawling story.

Without further ado:

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Media

Scarborough: Torture Opponents Want "Washington DC And Los Angeles To Be Obliterated By A Nuclear Blitz"

Zachary Roth | April 17, 2009, 12:36PM

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough went on quite a rant this morning, attacking President Obama's decision to release the torture memos.

He ended up by calling for an honest (kind of) debate: "If you'd like Washington DC and Los Angeles to be obliterated by a nuclear blitz [rather than permitting the use of waterboarding], I respect your opinion."

Watch:

Good old liberal MSNBC.

Bob Ney

Ney's New Role? Right-Wing Radio Talk Show Host

Zachary Roth | April 13, 2009, 5:25PM

A second act for our old friend Bob Ney.

Starting today, the former Ohio GOP congressman will be hosting a midday chat show on a right-wing West Virginia radio station, WVLY AM 1370, according to the station's web site.

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Bernard Madoff

WaPo's Kurtz Takes No Position On NYT's Merkin/Madoff Op-Ed

Zachary Roth | April 13, 2009, 1:30PM

One final note on the great New York Times Merkin/Madoff op-ed disclosure brouhaha, which we've written about here and here.

The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz covered the controversy in today's column. Here's the entirety of what he wrote:

When the New York Times published a March 21 op-ed column sympathetic to a "quintessential nice guy" -- stock swindler Bernie Madoff -- contributing writer Daphne Merkin noted that she had "a sibling who did business with him."

That turned out to be J. Ezra Merkin, former chairman of GMAC, now accused by New York authorities of defrauding clients by funneling more than $2 billion of their money to Madoff. Was the vague "sibling" reference really enough?

Ombudsman Clark Hoyt wrote yesterday that many readers thought "the disclosure was so limited as to be disingenuous," but Op-Ed Editor David Shipley defended it, saying that paper approached Merkin "in some respect because of her brother."

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George Will

Robinson: Will "Cross[ed] the Line" With Climate Change Distortions

Zachary Roth | April 9, 2009, 11:11AM

Add Eugene Robinson to the rapidly growing list of Washington Posties who are sick of George Will's efforts to mislead readers about global warming science.

Via Mathew Yglesias, Asked by MSNBC's Rachel Maddow about the increase in "made up stuff" in the news lately, Robinson brought up his fellow Post columnist's string of distortions on climate change.

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George Will

WaPo's Anti-Will Uprising

Zachary Roth | April 8, 2009, 11:36AM

Is there an anti-George-Will critical mass building at the Washington Post?

Just in the last few days, we've seen three separate efforts, from three separate sections of the paper, to push back against the bow-tied columnist's well-chronicled deceptions on global warming.

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Global Warming

Will's Global Warming Distortions Called Out ... By Washington Post

Zachary Roth | April 7, 2009, 4:22PM

It looks like some members of the Washington Post's news section are fighting back against George Will's efforts -- aided by the paper's editorial page -- to mislead readers about global warming.

Via Grist's Dave Roberts: Deep down in a story about the alarming thinning of Arctic sea ice, triggered by global warming, Washington Post reporters Juliet Eilperin and Mary Beth Sheridan write:

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Bernard Madoff

Times Editor: Lack Of Disclosure On Merkin Op-Ed Is No Big Deal

Zachary Roth | April 7, 2009, 12:25PM

Here's another one to add to the growing list of "newspapers acting badly"...

Late last month, the New York Times published an op-ed by Daphne Merkin, a contributing writer to the Times Magazine, on the Bernie Madoff mess. The curious premise of the piece seemed to be that Madoff's "victims" (the quote marks are Merkin's) aren't really blameless, since "no one was holding a gun to anyone's head, saying sign up with Mr. Madoff or else."

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AIG

AIG's PR Blitz

Zachary Roth | April 3, 2009, 1:53PM

So as we reported yesterday, longtime AIG CEO Hank Greenberg went before Congress and placed the blame for the firm's collapse squarely on the execs who took over after he left in 2005 -- including on the crew currently at the helm, who Greeenberg said should be replaced.

But we've been struck by the ferocity of AIG's response to Greenberg, who's been skirmishing with the firm pretty much since he stepped down. Despite its awkward position as a ward of the state -- not to mention as the prime corporate face of the greed and recklessness that caused the financial crisis -- AIG has mounted an aggressive public-relations counter-offensive.

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George Will

Thank You Sir, May I Have Another? Will Distorts Global Warming Data Again

Zachary Roth | April 2, 2009, 5:50PM

We kind of figured George Will would leave the issue of global warming well enough alone after what happened the last time he tried to tackle it.

Guess we were wrong. Today, Will waded back into the mire, with a Washington Post column about the folly of requiring flourescent lightbulbs as an energy saver. In setting up his argument, Will wrote:

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Justice Department

Beltway Establishment's Misplaced Orgy Of Stevens Sympathy

Zachary Roth | April 2, 2009, 1:02PM

We told you yesterday about Chris Matthews' flub on the Ted Stevens news -- telling viewers that the decision by Justice to drop the charges, thanks to prosecutorial misconduct, means that "the charges should never have been brought."

But it looks like Matthews was just the tip of the iceberg. Since yesterday morning, the self-appointed guardians of the Beltway discourse, in Congress and the press, have been lining up to express their sympathy for Stevens and lament the way the case has unfairly "besmirched" his sterling reputation.

Please.

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Alaska

MSNBC's Matthews Goofs On Stevens Decision

Zachary Roth | April 1, 2009, 6:03PM

Chris Matthews says a lot of things. So it's to be expected that sometimes they're smart and insightful, and sometimes they're embarrassingly wrong.

Just now, the MSNBC anchor, opining on the news that DOJ is dropping the charges in the Ted Stevens case, declared that the decision means "the charges should never have been brought, there should never have been a prosecution."

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