Progressive News Feeds

On the April 5 th edition of Real Time with Bill Maher , science education activist Zack Kopplin confronted The Wall Street Journal ‘s Stephen Moore over myths about science funding, pointing out that Moore, who questioned the need for funding research on “snail mating habits,” is “not a scientist”: As it turns out, the reason actual scientists are conducting this type of research is because snails carry parasitic worms that kill children :

Tags: articles, economy, education, elections, environment, feeds, health, media, politico, security, social-sciences

Zev Chafets wants you to know that some of Roger Ailes’s best friends are black. He makes that point repeatedly throughout his latest tome, Roger Ailes: Off Camera, the product of a year of unprecedented access to Roger Ailes, his employees at Fox News, and his friends and family. The result is largely an amalgamation of anecdotes that lets its subject off the hook for the most controversial aspects of his 40-year career, either by whitewashing them from the record entirely or by deflecting the reader with misdirection.

Tags: america, articles, author, economy, harry reid, media, media matters, network

Secretary of State John Kerry delivered another set of powerful remarks on climate change last night. But all his poignant words will come to nought — indeed, they’ll come back to haunt him — if he makes the wrong decision on the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

Tags: congress, democratic, global-warming, government, green, iraq, keystone-xl, media, progressive news, white house

Matt Drudge is comparing the firestorm over whether  Washington Post  reporter Bob Woodward was threatened in an email by a White House aide to what happened in the Nixon White House, an absurd and ahistorical claim. Right-wing media  frequently   compare  President Obama to Nixon,  highlighting   instances  in which they believe Obama White House activities rise to the level of the Nixon White House’s “Enemies List.” But while many conservatives  have abandoned  Woodward’s  dubious intimidation claim , late in the afternoon on February 28 The Drudge Report  featured the following : Such a claim displays a staggering ignorance of what Nixon’s “Enemies List” entailed. It was an effort directed from the highest levels of the White House to use the power of the federal government to financially damage political opponents, including journalists.

Tags: director, economy, elections, feeds, foreign policy, media matters, politics, progressive news, security, war, white house

The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward appeared on Fox News’ Hannity on Thursday evening to complain about National Economic Council director Gene Sperling’s email disputing his characterization of the White House’s role in shaping the mechanism known as the sequester — the automatic across-the-board budget cuts that will go into effect on Friday. Over the weekend Woodward claimed that the White House was trying “to move the goalposts” by replacing sequestration with a deficit reduction package that includes new revenues, a notion Sperling disputed in emails with the famed Watergate journalist. “I do truly believe you should rethink your comment about saying saying that Potus asking for revenues is moving the goal post,” Sperling wrote to Woodward

Tags: action, democratic, director, economy, election, facebook, guns, health, media, thinkprogress, violence

Perpetually fuming about President Obama, Sean Hannity widened his rant Wednesday night on Fox News and condemned the “lapdog, kiss ass media” that allegedly lets Obama have his way. Echoing the same attack, Karl Rove  wrote  in the Wall Street Journal this week that  ” Mr

Tags: author, democratic, education, environment, foreign-policy, government, iraq, media matters, the nation

Previewing her upcoming special, CNN reporter Deb Feyerick praised NRA board member Ted Nugent for his “deep connection with the facts” on gun violence. But Nugent’s radical views on gun ownership and outrageous and offensive comments about President Obama and prominent Democrats demonstrate that he is not a credible source for information on guns.  On Erin Burnett OutFront, Feyerick previewed a CNN special recorded at Nugent’s home that featured a conversation about strengthening gun laws

Tags: attorney, civil-rights, cnn, democratic, democratic party, foreign-policy, government, guns, hillary-clinton, video

Politico executive editor Jim VandeHei misrepresented a poll to claim that progressive Democrats are out of step with most people who voted for President Obama over how to deal with Social Security and Medicare. VandeHei stated on the November 20 edition of MSNBC’s Morning Joe that Obama voters are “at odds with the liberal base” of the Democratic Party on Social Security and Medicare: VANDEHEI: [T]here’s a lot of divisions inside the Democratic Party over what to do on entitlement reform. You’re not going to get any Republican votes for an increase in taxes unless you have some changes to Medicare and to Social Security.

Tags: democratic party, democrats, feeds, foreign policy, government, health, jobs, media matters, politico, president, united-states, video

During a Fox News panel discussion on how women helped reelect President Obama, host Jenna Lee wondered what obstacles the Republican Party needed to overcome to win a sizeable share of the female vote. Yet apart from saying that “we heard a lot about” the “alleged war on women,” Lee did not touch on the party’s attacks on women’s rights, including the GOP’s expansive legislative efforts to restrict those rights, or the party’s dismissal of wage equality. On Happening Now , Lee hosted three women to talk about the Republican Party’s gender gap and how Republicans can “do a better job of winning the female vote.” Lee noted that Obama beat Republican Mitt Romney by 11 points among women and went on to ask guest Sabrina Schaeffer how Republicans can “fight the battle of the alleged war on women” if they avoid talking about gender politics.

Tags: author, director, discrimination, environment, feeds, jobs, politico, politics

In a November 6  post  titled “Vote,” ex-militia blogger and Fox News guest Mike Vanderboegh wrote, “At least later on you can say you tried everything else before you were forced to shoot people in righteous self-defense of life and liberty.”  Vanderboegh, one of the self-proclaimed ” midwives “ covering the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Operation Fast and Furious ”because nobody else would touch it,” has repeatedly appeared on Fox News over the past two years to discuss the failed gun trafficking sting. Setting aside his use of violent rhetoric and threats of armed insurrection against the United States government, Fox News  promoted  Vanderboegh as an “authority” on the topic

Tags: deficit, democratic, education, elections, environment, progressive news, video, violence, windows