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Entrapment n. In criminal law, the act of law enforcement officers or government agents inducing or encouraging a person to commit a crime when the potential criminal expresses a desire not to go ahead. The key to entrapment is whether the idea for the commission or encouragement of the criminal act originated with the police or government agents instead of with the "criminal. It's turning into quite the morning for NBCers to defend the left on Morning Joe . . . First, Chuck Todd flatly rejected the notion that the MSM failed to adequately report on Van Jones, suggesting coverage...

Okay, I think most of us have had enough threads on the rantings of the little punk, but this segment on MSNBC left me flabbergasted... on MSNBC (DNC house channel) a report on the disgusting and ridiculous smears by Levi Johnston introduced by no one else but Norah O'Donnell actually defends Palin and exposes Levi as the lying attention-mongering goofball he is and debunks his BS. Norah, not at all a Palin fan, is visibly disgusted with the slimey punk. Watch for yourself: Video Of all places MSNBC... wow.

Instead of performing as an anchor, MSNBC’s Norah O’Donnell became a liberal sparring partner to the Cardinal Newman Society’s Patrick Reilly on the network’s Thursday afternoon programming over President Obama’s upcoming commencement address at the University of Notre Dame. Invoking her Catholic upbringing, she used the common left-wing tactic to equate the Church’s unequivocal teaching against abortion with its skepticism of the death penalty, and asked if former presidents George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan shouldn’t have addressed prior commencements for their support of capital punishment. O’Donnell also inquired as to why Reilly was “advocating a Catholic Church that advocates...

Let's just put this out there right now. If Liz Cheney wants to be president, she's got my vote. She is asked by Norah O'Donnell about the "torture" techniques and Cheney astutely denies the premise that it is torture at all. She points out that the very same techniques, including waterboarding, are done to our own military as training for being captured. Therefore, by definition, it cannot be torture. She also points out that the techniques were very effective in gaining vital intelligence, which prevented future attacks. By the end, O'Donnell is unhinged, foaming at the mouth, and yelling at...

Ouch. Norah O’Donnell never saw it coming. It’s been hours now and she’s probably still woozy after the figurative beating she took from documentary maker John Ziegler. Ziegler’s out promoting “Media Malpractice,” his new documentary, by making the rounds of all the news and talk shows. Today was MSNBC’s turn. Based on the smug smile on O’Donnell’s face when the interview started, she though Ziegler was going to be easy pickings. She was wrong....

Norah O'Donnell just mocked the manhood of the Senate Republicans. The MSNBC host was discussing with Tucker Carlson the way that, while making noises about wanting more financial disclosure about donations to Bill Clinton's foundation, Republicans have announced their intention to vote for Hillary's confirmation as Secretary of State nonetheless. O'Donnell wondered out loud whether the Republicans "have kind of lost their cojones." View video here.

This is just too perfect. Earlier today, noting that none of the network morning shows explicitly identified Rod Blagojevich as a Democrat, I wondered out loud how a Republican would be treated in like circumstances. It's taken less than three hours to get our answer. Let's preface this by saying that Norm Coleman is not, repeat not, the target of an investigation. To mention him anywhere within a million miles of Blago is unfair. I'm citing the MSNBC coverage just for purposes of illustrating the double standard. At about 11:20 AM ET, here's how Contessa Brewer threw it to Norah...

Norah O'Donnell is anchoring in an outdoor studio thing, interviewing Sen. Kay Bailey-Hutchison, and you cannot hear a darn thing with all the yelling & screaming from anarchists in the background holding up posters and other 9/11 conspiracy theorists holding up signs that say that the US government is to blame for 9/11. Nice job, MSNBC. Move it inside!

Between Maureen Dowd's column of this morning and Norah O'Donnell's questioning of an Obama spokesman this afternoon, it looks like Barack's halo is losing its glow in some MSM sectors. Obama spokesman Bill Burton was O'Donnell's guest just after 3 PM EDT, and she read to him from Dowd's column, which he jokingly professed not to have read. NORAH O'DONNELL [reading Dowd]: "Ed Rendell compared Obama to the passive-aggressive Adlai Stevenson and told the Washington Post that Obama gives six-minute answers and "is not exactly the easiest guy in the world to identify with." Boos from the pro-Obama crowd in...

My late father, who worked with the toughest kids in a Brooklyn high school, used to say that when a person's reaction is disproportionate to the stimulus, something else is causing it. So when Obama campaign co-chair Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) dramatically reserved the "hottest ring in hell" for those who would go after Michelle Obama, my antennae went up. Interviewing him, MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell also seemed a bit taken aback by the forcefulness of Durbin's response. O'Donnell broached the subject by quoting from Maureen Dowd's NY Times column of this morning: It’s good news for Obama that Hillary’s out of...

Hillary's odds of overtaking Obama among elected delegates is not much better than those of the milk-wagon nag's winning the Preakness. But is it "mathematically impossible" for Clinton to win the nomination? No way. Many superdelegates remain undeclared. And even those who have come out for Obama are not bound. If another shoe of the Rev. Wright variety were to drop, it's far from inconceivable that the supers would move to Hillary. But perhaps in a sign of how much the MSM wants Hillary out and their guy in, Norah O'Donnell has had the chutzpah to proclaim to Hillary honcho...

The last time I wrote about Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, I described her as "ever-smiling." Scratch that. The Dem congresswoman from Ohio and Hillary co-chair just snapped at MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell during a discussion of who is responsible for circulating the story about Rezko trial: the media or the Clinton campaign. The conversation was proceeding swimmingly until Norah broached the Rezko matter. And then . . . NORAH O'DONNELL: What about, congresswoman, that many--and Barack Obama--essentially charged today that the reason he failed to win in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island last night is because Hillary Clinton went negative on...

Slip of the tongue, or was the man who gets a thrill up his leg from Barack Obama's rhetoric voicing his innermost apprehension at the prospect of Hillary Clinton regaining the upper hand? On this afternoon's Hardball, host Chris Matthews was discussing the March 4th Texas primary with Wayne Slater of the Dallas Morning News, John Heilemann of New York magazine, and Norah O'Donnell. The MSNBCer made the point that under the arcane Texas rules in which the race is a hybrid of caucus and primary, it's possible for one candidate to win the popular vote and the other to...

This one could leave a mark. As MSMers go, A.B. Stoddard has been one of my favorites during this campaign season for her grown-up, no-nonsense style. The Associate Editor of The Hill is not someone given to overblown flights of rhetoric. That's why I was so struck by the brutal assessment of Hillary's predicament Stoddard just offered on MSNBC. The topic was Clinton's 11th-hour openness, reflected in her granting an interview to Access Hollywood to discuss her personal side, and epitomized during a campaign stop today when she got a bit misty while discussing the campaign and her hopes for...

What's a good-looking young girl like you doing with a weird old guy like him? And what's up with the tongue-ring? Norah O'Donnell all but asked the first question of Elizabeth Kucinich this afternoon, and did ask the second one. View video here.

Notice Norah O'Donnell glancing down? Although the screen graphic refers to the Lewinsky scandal, the MSNBC anchor was at that moment discussing the Democrats's $1 trillion tax proposal with Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY). As Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rangel is the key mover behind the tax plan. O'Donnell, obviously reading from a document, described the proposal as a plan "to eliminate the alternative minimum tax and ease the tax burdens of most Americans by asking the rich and some corporations to pay more.

Was it just a slip of the tongue, or did Josephine "Josie" Hearn of Politico just let her liberal slip show? On this evening's "Tucker," she sure seemed to wax enthusiastic over a positive poll result for Hillary. Norah O'Donnell subbed for Tucker Carlson on his MSNBC show this evening, and talk turned to the latest LA Times|Bloomberg poll, which put Hillary at 48%, with Obama at 17% and Edwards trailing with 13%. Norah invited Hearn to comment. NORAH O'DONNELL: Josie, it just shows she's continuing her wide margin on just about every demographic, right?

Q. How can embrace of a given policy "stall" a candidate's campaign if it helps him with the voters? A. If the policy in question is the Bush administration's Iraq war plan, and the MSM finds it difficult to admit that support for it can be an electoral plus.As NewsBuster Geoffrey Dickens and I have noted here and here, NBC reporters, notably including Andrea Mitchell and David Gregory, have repeatedly explained McCain's weak standing in the GOP primary polls by his support of the Iraq war. The truth, of course, is just the opposite. Republicans are less than enthusiastic about...

Nancy Pelosi has decided to play the gender card. For good measure, she's thrown in a soupcon of Rumsfeld-phobia. MSNBC just aired a clip of Pelosi making the following remarks on the issue of her demand to the Pentagon for a large plane: "I don't even know the numbers of the planes. So this is something that is really very strange. That the Department of Defense, the Pentagon, which I have been a constant critic of the war in Iraq, and where I understand Mr. Rumsfeld still has a desk, even though he's no longer the Secretary, has decided that...

While there's never been much doubt as to where Norah O'Donnell stands politically, I've never heard her express a political position in such unmistakably personal terms as she did this afternoon on Tucker Carlson's MSNBC show. Said Norah, discussing the President's imminent announcement of a surge: "The President has chosen a military solution to the sectarian violence. As Brownback said today, and an increasing number of Democrats, it should be a political solution." When Tucker countered that the military is traditionally used for the express purpose of ultimately achieving a political solution, Norah again expressed her own view: "Perhaps when...

It wasn’t the barnburner it could have been, but there was a wonderful mini-flyweight boxing match Friday night on MSNBC’s “Hardball.” In the left corner, weighing 105 pounds, Norah O’Donnell. In the right corner, weighing 100 pounds, Ann Coulter (video to follow). The crowd got a sense before the opening bell that O’Donnell was ready for a donnybrook when prior to Coulter even stepping foot out of her dressing room, O’Donnell referred to her opponent as a “conservative provocateur.” The first actual fisticuffs though came early in round one with O’Donnell jabbing at Coulter over the recent hostilities in Israel...

by Mark Finkelstein July 7, 2006 Does Norah O'Donnell read NewsBusters? Could it be pure coincidence that on this evening's 'What'd You Say?' Hardball segment featuring the audio highlights of the week Norah just happened to select two items we had featured here and here? Who knows? In any case, Joe Scarborough took the occasion to apologize for being too mean to Democrats earlier in the show. For the record, the two soundbites featured were Joe Biden's Indian/7/11 slur, and Cindy Sheehan's pronouncement that she would rather live under Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez than George Bush. Panelist Tucker Carlson had...

by Mark Finkelstein July 5, 2006 As James Taranto suggested Monday in his WSJ 'Best of the Web' column, at some point you *can* question a person's patriotism. Cindy Sheehan surely passed that point long ago. But just in case there was any doubt, Sheehan made things clear this evening, flatly stating that she'd rather live under Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez than George Bush. Sheehan made her comments during a Hardball appearance, during which guest host Norah O'Donnell, sitting in for Chris Matthews, gave her a surprisingly rough ride. At one point, O'Donnell asked: "Why go stand by side by...

by Mark Finkelstein July 5, 2006 Ouch! Norah O'Donnell knows how to get a guy where it hurts. And Kim Jong Il might be feeling 'ronrier' than ever. On this evening's Hardball, Norah, guest-hosting for Chris Matthews, discussed the failed North Korean missile tests with three separate panels. In each case, she used the same metaphor to describe the failure: To her first panel, composed of congressmen Dan Burton [R-IN] and Bill Pascrell [D-NJ], Norah noted: "We saw the Taepodong missile essentially exploded and went limp into the sea of Japan after 45 seconds." Next, with guests Michael Scheuer and...

by Mark Finkelstein June 23, 2006 Even before the evidence on Haditha is in, Jack Murtha was ready to accuse American Marines of 'cold-blooded' killings. But let terrorists plan to kill Americans, and - what do you know? - liberals are quick to ascribe their acts to everything from poverty to insanity. Norah O'Donnell was the guest host on this evening's Hardball. Discussing the arrest of seven alleged domestic terrorists charged with plotting to blow up the Sears Tower among other targets, O'Donnell asked her panel of 'Hardball Hotshots': "where is this hatred coming from?" Mike Barnicle was first to...

by Mark Finkelstein June 22, 2006 Norah loves Larry. At least, she loves the way Larry Eagleburger phrased things about North Korea. At the same time, Larry made it fairly clear that there's no love lost between himself and Dick Cheney. The former Bush, Sr. Secretary of State appeared on this evening's Hardball. Guest host Norah O'Donnell interviewed him along with former Clinton defense official Ashton Carter. Carter had in turn written an op-ed in today's Washington Post, which as indicated by its title, If Necessary, Strike and Destroy, advocates blowing the North Korean ICBM off its launch pad if...

by Mark Finkelstein June 22, 2006 Maybe it was just 'tough love,' but the Today show gave the Democrats a rather rough going-over this morning. And cast in the role of flip-flopping heavy was none other than John Kerry. The subject matter was Democrat disunity over plans for Iraq, and co-host Campbell Brown set the tone by suggesting that the internal debate could be evidence of "a Democratic party at war with itself." Norah O'Donnell began the segment she narrated by observing that "Republicans are working to exploit Democratic divisions in November elections." After noting that Kerry has a proposal...

by Mark Finkelstein June 2, 2006 The host might be different, but the partisan bias is the same. Norah O'Donnell sat in for Chris Matthews on this evening's Hardball. The first half hour was devoted to a discussion of Haditha, with Norah making frequent allusion to a "failure of leadership" and wondering why President Bush didn't know the facts and disclose them to the press sooner. But speaking of disclosure . . . Norah didn't find it necessary to disclose to viewers that two of her three guests are partisan Democrats. Paul Hackett, shown in the first photo, was the...

by Mark Finkelstein April 21, 2006 Advice to any Republican loyalists planning to watch a replay of this evening's Hardball: hide the sharp objects, put the firearms under lock and key, flush any potentially poisonous potions. With beautiful-but-deadly Norah O'Donnell sitting in for Chris Matthews, this might have been the most unrelenting gloom-a-thon since Watergate. Riffing off the latest polls showing W at 33%, it was one guest after another - from Bob Shrum to Kate O'Beirne to a panel of "hotshots" - painting a decidedly unrosy scenario. And just when things couldn't get any more dread, a former Clinton...

April 17, 2006 SNL Lampoons Press Corps, Especially Norah O’Donnell (VIDEO) On Saturday Night Live, Lindsay Lohan played White House Press Secretary Brittany Doyle, a 16 year old girl who has replaced Scott McClellan. Here is an exchange she shared with the actress who played Norah O’Donnell, MSNBC’s chief Washington correspondent: PRESS CORPS: Ms. Doyle, Ms. Doyle, Ms. Doyle. MS. DOYLE: [Points] What? NORAH O’DONNELL: Norah O’Donnell, Ms. Doyle, NBC News, General Zinni and Batiste have both called for Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation and yet yesterday the President said he that he backs Mr. Rumsfeld 100%, is there any chance...

by Mark Finkelstein December 26, 2005 - 19:37 Anyone who thought Hardball with Chris Matthews couldn't get any more antagonistic to the Bush administration should have checked out the show with Norah O'Donnell substituting tonight. Not that Matthews is exactly Mr. Fair & Balanced, but Norah didn't even bother to nod in the direction of even-handedness. Her first panel, comprised of two lawyers, were in to discuss the Plame matter. Both fell over each other in agreeing that it was absolutely inescapable that Karl Rove would be indicted. Even that wasn't quite enough to satisfy Norah, as she avidly inquired...

by Mark Finkelstein November 23, 2005 - 07:27. ESPN loves to run the clip of NFL coaching legend Vince Lombardi stomping down the sideline, demanding to know "what the hell is going on around here?" Watching the Today show the last two mornings, one is tempted to ask the same question. As reported here http://newsbusters.org/node/2923, Matt Lauer yesterday criticized the Democrats for their lack of a plan for Iraq. This morning, Matt & Co. were, mirabile dictu, back at it again. Lauer introduced the segment in this surprisingly W-friendly way: "President Bush has taken a beating on Capitol Hill from...

MSNBC's White Ho Reporter A tipster passes along an embarrassing gaffe on MSNBC recently.