The "Liberal Media" on MSNBC [View All]

[Bob Geiger]

While it's sometimes hard to decide which nonsensical Republican mantra has gotten the oldest, the constant whining from their side about the mythical "liberal media" certainly tops my list. We all know that FOX News is nothing more than a public-relations outlet for the GOP, but CNN and MSNBC also do their best to show that the corporate media will almost always stay true to its conservative masters.

I present as exhibit 2,938, the "Hot Shots" segment on MSNBC's Hardball tonight. Who were the "hot shots" to present coherent analysis of the situation with North Korea and the Lieberman-Lamont race in Connecticut? The moderator was lovely, but dim, Norah O'Donnell or, as our friends at Crooks and Liars call her, "Noron."

The panel consisted of former Republican Congressman and right-wing MSNBC host Joe Scarborough. He was joined by fellow conservative Tucker Carlson and, to round out the group, Rita Cosby who's simply, well, an idiot.

Nice balance, huh? They could have at least borrowed Alan Colmes from Fox to make it look good.

Cosby, who used to work at Fox News and should stick to her element -- covering Michael Jackson and missing blond girls in Caribbean countries -- was like a giggly schoolgirl making fun of a dorky classmate in discussing Kim Jung Il.

"I call him, like, the Liberace of Asia. I mean, this guy with his bouffant hairdo, with his 20,000 foreign films," rasped Cosby, as O'Donnell laughed heartily and Scarborough and Carlson sat stone-faced. "I think this guy's living in a whole other country other than North Korea. In a whole other world."

Noron then asked Scarborough if Bush's policy on North Korea was a failure.

"Of course not," said Joe. "You've had nimrod bloggers for three years now, four years saying that George Bush attacked the wrong 'Axis of Evil' and he should have gone after North Korea."

They then looked at a clip of the Lamont-Lieberman debate from last night and Scarborough ripped Lamont, restating Lieberman's "who's Ned Lamont?" talking points and calling Lamont a "one-trick pony."

Cosby, whose main function seemed to be to laugh at Scarborough's quips, jumped in saying "I will defend Ned Lamont for one reason, guys. He's from Greenwich, Connecticut, my hometown so I've gotta put that in there. Other than that, I do think he's in trouble. I agree with Joe. I agree with Tucker. I think Lieberman's going to be OK."

So Lamont got a trashing on national television, without a progressive in sight to speak up on his behalf -- with no mention of the fact that, as of the time the show aired, 68 percent of the 24,000 respondents to MSNBC's online poll thought Lamont won the debate.

And on it went, including their own version of analysis on Osama bin Laden in which Carlson opined that "every American will rejoice when that guy suffers and goes to hell" only to have Scarborough sneer "except for the Democratic party." (Scarborough later gave a weak apology for that remark.) Oh, they took time to bash Cindy Sheehan too.

So where's that liberal media that seems to be so hard to actually find?

The next "Hot Shots" panel? I'm guessing David Duke, Alan Keyes, Pat Robertson and Jim Dobson.

You can reach Bob Geiger at [e-mail] and read more from him at Democrats.com.