Rachel Maddow mocked Rand Paul for plagiarism, but she’s been accused of it too

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow created headlines this week when she alleged that Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) had plagiarized a recent speech from Wikipedia, but it turns out the liberal cable news host has been accused of plagiarism herself.

In 2010 on his blog “Open Salon,” Michael Rodgers of North Port, Fla., wrote a blog post titled “Rachel Maddow Plagiarized My Blog!”

“Don’t get me wrong, I love Rachel Maddow,” Rodgers wrote. “Truth be told, I’m a huge fan. So, if she wanted something from my blog, all she had to do was ask. I would have given willingly because that’s the kind of guy I am.”

The plagiarism in question involves a comparison Rodgers made between the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 with the often-forgot about 1979 Ixtoc I oil spill in the same area. The liberal blogger noted that “the oil industry hasn’t advanced their methods of plugging holes in the ocean floor or cleaning up their messes.”

Rodgers then became perturbed upon seeing his own unique angle being copied on Maddow’s program: “I’m sitting there Wednesday evening watching MSNBC and there is Rachel Maddow…TELLING THE SAME DAMN STORY!!”

Rodgers complained, “she stole my scoop of a lifetime and now it’s plastered all over MSNBC with Rachel getting all the credit. Granted, the segment she did Wednesday night covered more ground and was more professional than my little feature, but then she has more resources at her disposal than I do.”

- See more at: http://rare.us/story/rachel-maddow-mocked-rand-paul-for-plagiarism-but-shes-been-accused-of-it-too/#sthash.VHuVr27n.dpuf

Via: Rare

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Maddow: Tea party apparently no longer embarrassed to flaunt its racist, neo-Confederate roots

Wednesday night on “The Rachel Maddow Show,” host Rachel Maddow discussed the increasing explicitness with which tea party Republicans are embracing the Confederacy-era South as their cultural touchstone.

Maddow began the segment by discussing the conservative women’s group the National Federation of Republican Women (NFRW) and their 2010 conference in Charleston, SC, in which attendees were promised “A Southern Experience” by the South Carolina branch of the organization.

“And boy did they mean that!” said Maddow. “They meant a very specific kind of ‘Southern Experience.’”

She then showed photos of the event, which featured white attendees dressed in Confederate regalia and African-American people dressed as slaves. The individual dressed as a Confederate officer in the image is South Carolina’s now-Lieutenant Governor Glenn McConnell, who in 2010 was still just a state senator.

In South Carolina, it is apparently good for your political career to be seen doing Civil War reenactments, complete with slaves.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R), shortly after being sworn in, elected to celebrate Confederate History Month. Unlike past governors, however, he did not mention or make any note of the issue of slavery.

“After a while, after a national kerfuffle,” said Maddow, “McConnell did finally get embarrassed and went back to the commemoration statement and added a reference to slavery.”

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (R), she said, hung on in the face of his own neo-Confederate scandal until he was forced to ask one of his advisers to resign. Senate aide Jack Hunter left the Paul office after it came to light that he was a right-wing radio shock jock called “The Southern Avenger.” In his radio persona, Hunter railed against immigrants and people of color and insisted that the South should have won the Civil War.

“Right now we are at a moment in Republican politics of deep turmoil,” Maddow said. “And in one specific part of the Republican Party, the turmoil’s not what it is for the rest of the country.”

Via: The Raw Story

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Rep. Bachmann to Fox News: Obama Got ’100 Percent of What He Wanted’

Earlier in the evening, before the House voted to end the shutdown, Rachel Maddow said Republicans got absolutely none of what they wanted from this fight. After the House vote, Michele Bachmann reacted by telling Sean Hannity that President Obama basically got “100 percent of what he wanted” from the beginning.

Bachmann said that Obama “rolled the dice” and banked on Republicans “willing to be the adults in the room.” She voted no on the House bill, and even though it overwhelmingly passed, she declared, “We aren’t waving the white flag of surrender on Obamacare, we aren’t taking our marbles and going home.”

Hannity then challenged Democrat Henry Cuellar on whether Bachmann’s right that there’s still a good opportunity for Republicans to run on the failures of Obamacare. Cuellar admitted he’s willing to see some changes in the health care law, but Hannity kept grilling him on how Obamacare is costing more than the administration claimed and is “nothing like what the president promised.”

Watch the video below, via Fox News:

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Via: Mediaite.com

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MSNBC Ratings Down Double Digits From a Year Ago

NOW THIS IS NEWS YOU CAN USE.  NOBODY IS LISTENING TO THEM!!!

MSNBC’s ratings tumble continued with a poor August showing, with some programs seeing nearly a 50-percent drop in viewership from a year ago, TV Newser reports.

Among the lowlights were the worst showings yet by its leading program The Rachel Maddow Show, with 43 percent and 47 percent drops in total viewers and the 25-54 demographic, respectively, and 40- and 42-percent drops in the same areas for The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell.

8 p.m.’s All In With Chris Hayes, whose host acknowledged in a New Yorker article that his ratings are “bad right now,” was down 48 percent and 42 percent in total and the 25-54 demo as well:

The ratings for August 2013 (Nielsen Live + Same Day data):

• Primetime (Mon-Sun): 520,000 Total Viewers / 173,000 A25-54

• Total Day (Mon-Sun): 348,000 Total Viewers / 119,000 A25-54

Compared to August 2012, MSNBC was down -28% in total viewers and -32% in the A25-54 demographic in total day and -36% and -32%, respectively, in primetime. MSNBC was the only cable channel to see viewership growth last August, thanks in part to live coverage from the Olympics.

“Morning Joe” was down -9% in total viewers and -17% in the A25-54 demographic compared to the same month last year, which actually was a better result than many of the programs that came later in the day.

In primetime, “The Rachel Maddow Show” posted all-time low ratings in total and demo viewers, down -43% and -47%, respectively. “The Last Word” posted a low in total viewers, losing -40% of its total viewer audience and -42% of its demo audience. at 8 PM, “All In” was down -48% and -42% in total and demo viewers, respectively, placing behind CNN for the hour.

In dayside, MSNBC was down double digits in pretty much every hour in total and demo viewers, including 6 PM’s “PoliticsNation,” which was down -31% and -37% in total and demo viewers, and 3 PM’s “The Cycle,” which was down -15% and -18% in total and demo viewers. One of the few programs to improve year to year was “The Ed Show” on Saturday and Sunday, which was up both days in total viewers, and in the demo on Saturday. This may help explain why the channel replaced the 5 PM edition of “Hardball” with the former weekend program.

Via: WFB

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Obama Consults with MSNBC Hosts Sharpton, Maddow on Tax Rates

President Barack Obama met with several MSNBC hosts this afternoon at the White House to discuss tax rates, according to Huffington Post reporter Jennifer Bendery. The reporter wondered if an "MSNBC love fest" was going on at the White House.

Here's Bendery's reporting, in a series of tweets:

Just passed Al Sharpton walking into the WH.

— jennifer bendery (@jbendery) December 4, 2012

Also, Al Sharpton is so unbelievably tiny now. I actually gasped when I saw him pass by just now. Hope he's ok.

— jennifer bendery (@jbendery) December 4, 2012

Rachel Maddow is now in the West Wing. How do I know this? I just walked in with her.

— jennifer bendery (@jbendery) December 4, 2012

Never met Maddow until now. We kind of look alike, esp today. My intro: "Are you my long lost sister?" Her: "Glad we both got the memo."

— jennifer bendery (@jbendery) December 4, 2012

Maddow, heading into West Wing, said she was here for a "hippie cabal." Asked if I was coming. NO, DAMN IT, I WASN'T INVITED.

— jennifer bendery (@jbendery) December 4, 2012

So... in the last hour, I watched Rachel Maddow, Al Sharpton and Lawrence O'Donnell all walk into the West Wing. MSNBC love fest?

Via: Weekly Standard

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Tingles Accuses Sarah Palin Of “Dog Whistle” Racism For Saying “Shuck And Jive”…

Liberal cable anchor Chris Matthews, who in 2010 used the phrase "shuck and jive," on Wednesday assailed Sarah Palin as racist for using the phrase "shuck and jive." Referring to a Facebook post the former Alaska governor wrote about Obama and Libya, Matthews ranted, "You know, a dog whistle is a dog whistle...A trumpet call is another."

The MSNBC host insisted that "shuck and jive" has "a particular ethnic connection" and "to throw it at the president as an ethnic shot is pretty blatant." On July 7, 2010, Matthews, while talking to Rachel Maddow and her visit to Afghanistan, wondered, "What has it been like, as you shuck and jive, hang out with the men over there, the women over there, in uniform risking their lives every day?" The late Tim Russert also used the term on July 18, 2003.

In 2008, then-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said of Barack Obama: "You can't shuck and jive at a press conference." Steve McMahon, a Hardball regular, talked to then-MSNBC host Tucker Carlson and demurred, "Well, that's not the way I would have put it."

On September 7, 2011, Jay Carney, a spokesman for Matthews' beloved Obama, told the press corps, "Sorry. I'm going to shuck and jive! Time to shuck and jive."

Palin entitled her Facebook post, "Obama's shuck and jive ends with Benghazi lies."

On Wednesday, Hardball guest Jonathan Alter, a former Newsweek editor, railed against Palin, "...Shuck and jive, that's like talking about watermelon... for Jews, talking about Jews are greedy or the Irish are drunk."

Via: Newsbusters

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Labor Department spends stimulus funds for ads during Olbermann, Maddow shows

The Labor Department paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal stimulus funds to a public relations firm to run more than 100 commercials touting the Obama administration’s “green training” job efforts on two popular MSNBC cable shows, records show.

The commercials ran on MSNBC on shows hosted by Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann in 2009, but the contract didn’t report any jobs created, according to records recently reviewed by The Washington Times.

Spending reports under the federal Recovery Act show $495,000 paid to McNeely Pigott & Fox Public Relations LLC, which the Labor Department hired to raise awareness “among employers and influencers about the [Job Corps] program’s existing and new training initiatives in high growth and environmentally friendly career areas” as well as spreading the word to prospective Job Corps enrollees.

Ultimately, the firm negotiated ad buys for “two approved spots” airing 14 times per week for two months on “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” and “The Rachel Maddow Show,” according to a project report, which listed the number zero under a section of the report asking how many jobs had been created through the stimulus contract.

Via: The Washington Times

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