The Atlantic points out what I've always noticed about conservative media (but doesn't really explain it.)

Conor Friedersdorf of The Atlantic has a great piece on why so many conservative "news outlets" got the election wrong:

"It is easy to close oneself off inside a conservative echo chamber. And right-leaning outlets like Fox News and Rush Limbaugh's show are far more intellectually closed than CNN or public radio. If you're a rank-and-file conservative, you're probably ready to acknowledge that ideologically friendly media didn't accurately inform you about Election 2012. Some pundits engaged in wishful thinking; others feigned confidence in hopes that it would be a self-fulfilling prophecy; still others decided it was smart to keep telling right-leaning audiences what they wanted to hear."

This brings me to something I noticed a few years ago and never could find an answer for it. Where are the liberals in conservative media? Conservative Media always blames the mainstream media as having a liberal bias. Think of the "liberal media" for a second:
- MSNBC? A former Republican Congressman hosts a three-hour morning news show (which, in case you're wondering, is three hours more than any liberal hosts a show on Fox News).
- New York Times? David Brooks and Ross Douthat have regular columns in the Op-Ed pages.
- Washington Post? Same with Michael Gerson, Charles Krauthammer, Kathleen Parker, George Will...

I ask again, where are the liberals in conservative media? Alan Colmes? Sure, he makes a token appearance from time-to-time on Fox News but it's not like he hosts his own TV show anymore (and even then, it was Hannity & Colmes). Thomas Frank? Nope, not with the Wall Street Journal anymore, and even when he was, his column printed less frequently than Brooks or Douthat do with the New York Times.

I'm not saying conservative media should swing to the ideological middle. There is a need for both, objective and partisan media. However, if you only offer your viewers partisanship without an intellectually honest counterpoint, you're likely to end up in the exact same place the Republican Party is sitting in today. And in the long term that's not good for the party or for the country.

8 beers Americans no longer drink - MSNBC

Interesting list. Not surprisingly it consists entirely of American beers since imports aren't such a novelty anymore.

Whose Lie Is It Anyway?

Whose lies were more outrageous than the others? Go to FactCheck.org's recap and PolitiFact's recap of the MSNBC/Politico Republican Debate to find out.

What Americans support (and don't support) in cutting the deficit

Check out the entire list. Here are the top five:

-- Placing a surtax on federal income taxes for people earning over $1 million a year: 81% acceptable
-- Eliminating spending on so-called earmarks for special projects and specific areas of the country: 78% acceptable
-- Eliminating funding for weapons systems the Defense Department says are not necessary: 76% acceptable
-- Eliminating tax credits for the oil and gas industries: 74% acceptable
-- Phasing out the Bush tax cuts for families earning $250,000 or more per year: 68% acceptable

President {insert name here} wants to destroy the Constitution!

Interesting op-ed by Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’S “Morning Joe” in Politico last Monday. This is remarkably, and sadly, a very accurate passage:

“For eight grim years, Democrats worked to delegitimize Bush. Opinion leaders on the left relentlessly bashed the 43rd president on national TV and online, accusing him of being a fascist and war criminal who worked in tandem with Vice President Dick Cheney to destroy the Constitution.

Eight years before Bush entered the White House, Republicans (like myself) glared at Bill Clinton as he was being sworn in as president, immediately declaring him unfit for office. Soon after he was sworn in, extremists began claiming that the 42nd president was a Marxist and fascist who sought to destroy the Constitution.

The ugliness that followed set a dangerous precedent that fed into the shrillness of the Bush era. And as the Age of Bush mercifully came to a close, a cacophony of enraged right-wing voices welcomed Obama to the White House by accusing him of being a Marxist, a fascist, a Nazi and a racist who hated America and was — stop me if you’ve heard this one before — trying to destroy the Constitution.”

Dr. Mehmet Oz on MSNBC's Morning Joe Today

It's been a while since I blogged or posted anything but I had to put the clip from Dr. Oz's appearance on Morning Joe this morning. He very succinctly sums up the non-political reasons why healthcare reform is so urgently needed in this country. He also doesn't get upset or annoyed when Andy Serwer asks him a question that he already answered! Enjoy the clip!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

I need to get this off my chest...

I've been watching MSNBC today and I have only one question:

WHAT IN THE WORLD IS CONTESSA BREWER WEARING TODAY? If you haven't seen it, it's a red dress that looks like the face of any non-human "Star Trek: The Next Generation" character.