New York Times bans reporters from CNN's Don Lemon, MSNBC's Maddow shows for being 'too partisan:' report

The New York Times is said to be cracking down on its reporters appearing on cable news shows it considers to be "too partisan," according to a new report.  (REUTERS/Lucas Jackson)

The New York Times is cracking down on its own reporters, stopping them from appearing on certain primetime cable news shows seen as being "too partisan," according to a new report.
Vanity Fair published the explosive report, which alleged MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O'Donnell, as well as CNN anchor Don Lemon, made the newspaper's no-go list.
The magazine began its report by alleging the Times' financial editor David Enrich had initially accepted an invitation to appear on "The Rachel Maddow Show" May 20 to discuss a report involving President Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner's transactions with Deutsche Bank, but had to ultimately turn down the appearance after he informed the communications department.
Vanity Fair's report is based on information from sources inside the "Gray Lady," according to the magazine.
"The Times was wary of how viewers might perceive a down-the-middle journalist like Enrich talking politics with a mega-ideological host like Maddow," Vanity Fair's media correspondent Joe Pompeo wrote.
Sources told the magazine the Times' executive editor Dean Baquet Baquet expressed concerns certain primetime shows are becoming more opinionated and that reporters who appear on their shows would be "perceived as being aligned" with the show's politics.
“He thinks it’s a real issue,” one source said, another adding “Their view is that, intentionally or not, it affiliates the Times reporter with a bias.”
Both MSNBC and CNN have hired several prominent New York Times reporters as contributors in recent years, but it is unclear from the Vanity Fair report if they would be discouraged from appearing on shows deemed "too partisan."

Dr. Drew says LA public health in 'complete breakdown': 'No city on Earth tolerates this'

The public health situation in the nation's second-largest city is in "a complete breakdown," Dr. Drew Pinsky said Thursday night on "The Ingraham Angle."
“We have a complete breakdown of the basic needs of civilization in Los Angeles right now,” Pinsky told host Laura Ingraham. “We have the three prongs of airborne disease, tuberculosis is exploding, (and) rodent-borne. We are one of the only cities in the country that doesn’t have a rodent control program, and sanitation has broken down.”

“We have a complete breakdown of the basic needs of civilization in Los Angeles right now.”
— Dr. Drew Pinsky

Pinsky’s comments followed news that Los Angeles police officer had contracted typhoid fever, a rare and life-threatening illness that fewer than 350 Americans contract each year.
Los Angeles had a typhus outbreak last summer and will likely have another this summer, Pinsky said. Meanwhile, bubonic plague – a pandemic that killed tens of millions of people during the 14th century – is “likely” already present in Los Angeles, Pinsky added.

Dr. Drew Pinsky (Getty Images)

“This is unbelievable. I can’t believe I live in a city where this is not Third World. This is medieval,” Pinsky said. “Third World countries are insulted if they are accused of being like this. No city on Earth tolerates this. The entire population is at risk.”

“Third World countries are insulted if they are accused of being like this. No city on Earth tolerates this. The entire population is at risk.”
— Dr. Drew Pinsky, referring to a public health crisis in Los Angeles

California can’t handle the current situation, let alone allow tens of thousands of illegal immigrants with no health records to flood its major cities, Pinsky added.

“[T]he government is somehow insisting that housing is the problem when in fact we have chronic mental illness, we have addiction, we have people who don’t want to leave the streets,” Pinsky said. “They literally won’t take the housing if we give it to them. And that’s the population that’s vulnerable, and is going to get so ill this summer. It scares me for their well-being.”
Asked why the liberal politicians aren’t doing more to alleviate these conditions, Pinsky said they are “disgustingly negligent.”

Hannity calls out the media for their coverage of Mueller's 'clarification'

Fox News' Sean Hannity took the media to task for not reporting on the 'clarifying remarks' Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office released following his news conference Wednesday.
"Ask yourself this, why didn't the media mob report with the same intensity, the release of the clarifying remarks of Robert Mueller after he botched it yesterday morning? Why didn't they put the same passion in it as the nine-and-a-half minutes of Robert Mueller? Here's another question. Why are they so lazy, so predictable, so partisan?" Hannity said on his "Hannity" television show Thursday.
The clarifying remarks addressed Mueller's comments that indicting President Trump was "not an option," which many in the media concluded was due to a policy that a sitting president cannot be indicted, even though Mueller did not directly say that.
“The Attorney General has previously stated that the Special Counsel repeatedly affirmed that he was not saying that, but for the [Office of Legal Counsel] opinion, he would have found the President obstructed justice,” said Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec and special counsel spokesman Peter Carr in a statement.
“The Special Counsel’s report and his statement today made clear that the office concluded it would not reach a determination – one way or the other – about whether the President committed a crime. There is no conflict between these statements,” they said.
Hannity believed Mueller contradicted himself.
"Mueller needed to walk back everything he said yesterday in a dramatic fashion because he totally contradicted everything that he had been saying," Hannity said.
The Fox News host continued to hammer the media.
"They say they are objective. They are anything but. But why are they choosing to put fake news narratives over the facts that after two-plus years of lying and choosing to relentlessly smear, slander, besmirch anybody who dares to question their lack of ethics and not objectivity," Hannity said.
Hannity also noted a report by Vanity Fair that the New York Times was steering its reporters and editors away from MSNBC and CNN appearances.
"They are now scared, taking notice, and they are realizing, uh oh, they've been duped by the conspiracy TV media mob. Look at this new report," Hannity said.

North Korea executes 5 officials over failed Kim-Trump summit: South Korean media

North Korea has executed five officials for their part in the failed second summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to a South Korean newspaper.
Citing the newspaper, Bloomberg News reported that Kim Hyok Chol, North Korea's special envoy to the U.S., was executed by firing squad in March for being "won over by the American imperialists to betray the supreme leader."
The paper also claimed that four other North Korean Foreign Ministry officials were executed that same month because of the breakdown of the February summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, but did not provide details.

Kim Hyok Chol, North Korea's special envoy to the U.S., and four other North Korean foreign ministry officials, were executed because of the breakdown of the February North Korea-U.S. summit in Hanoi, Vietnam. (REUTERS, File)

Trump’s much-anticipated summit with Kim ended abruptly and without the two leaders signing any agreements over nuclear disarmament.

Kim aide Kim Yong Chol is reportedly undergoing hard labor for his role in the breakdown. (REUTERS, File)

Top Kim aide Kim Yong Chol is reportedly undergoing hard labor for his role in the breakdown.
He had been Kim’s most trusted policy adviser and was removed from one of his posts.

President Trump meeting with Kim Yong Chol this past January 18 in the Oval Office. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead, File)

He even was seen in photos with President Trump at the White House over the past year, delivering letters from the North Korean dictator.
Kim Yong Chol has been North Korea’s top nuclear negotiator and the counterpart of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo since Kim entered nuclear talks with the U.S. early last year.
Fox News' Bradford Betz contributed to this story.

Bernie & Robert Cartoons

Sanders supporters fearful DNC now backing Biden like it backed Clinton

Some supporters of 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders say they are seeing a repeat of the Democratic National Committee’s 2016 treatment of their candidate, according to a report.
These Sanders supporters claim the DNC leadership is giving preferential treatment to 2020 frontrunner Joe Biden, after the former vice president's surge in the polls, just as they did Hillary Clinton three years ago, the Washington Times reported.
The supporters of Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, say they mistrust polls showing Biden holding a commanding lead over the 23-candidate Democratic field, and some say they may stage another revolt at the party's 2020 national convention in Milwaukee, just as they did in Philadelphia in 2016, if Biden gets the nomination.
Laurie Cestnick, a Sanders supporter who founded Occupy DNC, told the Washington Times they’re frustrated that the mainstream media doesn’t cover many of their candidate's events.
“The mainstream media and the DNC are colluding against the American people," she said. "That’s what it feels like. It’s the same thing all over again."

“The mainstream media and the DNC are colluding against the American people. That’s what it feels like. It’s the same thing all over again."
— Laurie Cestnick, Sanders supporter who founded Occupy DNC

After the fracturing of the Sanders wing of the party in 2016, many Democratic candidates, including Sanders, signed a unity pledge saying they’ll support the eventual nominee. The DNC chairman has also adopted new rules to make the process fairer, including denying superdelegates a vote in the first ballot at the convention, the Times reported.

New Mexico mayor issues cease-and-desist order to private company building border fence

FILE: A construction worker watches a section of fencing be moved for a privately-funded border fence on private land in Sunland Park, New Mexico.  (AP)

Sunland Park’s Mayor Javier Perea

A legal dispute unfolded this week between private contractors who have built a half-mile fence between a New Mexico city and Mexico, and the mayor of that city who is arguing that the fence didn’t get proper authorization.
“We Build the Wall,” began construction of the border fence on private land in Sunland Park, N.M., last Friday using money raised through crowdfunding, the Dallas Morning News reported. The city shares a border with El Paso, Texas and Mexico.
The company had planned to finish construction by Friday, but Sunland Park’s Mayor Javier Perea said Tuesday that the 18-foot fence surpasses the city’s maximum height of 6 feet. On Wednesday, he issued a cease-and-desist order.
Dustin Stockton, vice president and co-founder of We Build the Wall, said the company was undeterred by Perea and felt that the company was in compliance with city regulations.
“Sunland Park sent out a building inspector out to inspect the site before we started building,” Stockton said. “There was an inspector on site when we did the first concrete pour, and each time along the way we were given permission to continue to build while our application was processed.”
Perea told KOAT 7 that the cease-and-desist has been turned over to a municipal court. We Build the Wall said they will hold a rally Thursday in support of finishing the project.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Robert Mueller comments on Russia probe leave Nancy Pelosi holding 'a pair of deuces:' Geraldo Rivera

While some Democrats are desperate to go all in with impeaching President Trump, Special Counsel Robert Mueller has just dealt House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a "pair of deuces," according to Fox News' Geraldo Rivera.
Rivera, speaking on "The Five" Wednesday, said Pelosi might be forced to convince those in her party to fold their impeachment hand in the wake of Special Counsel Mueller's rare public statements.
"If this was cards, Mueller dealt Pelosi a pair of deuces," Rivera opined. "She's holding a pair of deuces now, do you go forward with impeachment with a pair of deuces?"
Rivera was reacting to Mueller's comment Wednesday his team did not have the “option” to charge Trump, that there “was not sufficient evidence to charge a conspiracy” with regard to whether members of the Trump campaign coordinated with the Russian government during the 2016 presidential election
But Mueller also addressed the president's possible obstruction of justice which has lead to renewed interest in impeachment proceedings among Democrats.
“If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said that,” Mueller said Wednesday. “We did not determine whether the president did commit a crime.”
On "The Five," co-host Greg Gutfeld was critical of Mueller for yet again fueling the belief that Trump may have committed a crime.
"If you're not going to resolve this you just can't throw that out there," Gutfeld said.
Gutfeld also blamed the Democrats and the media for forcing Mueller to indulge them and noted in the end they will be disappointed with the results.
"I think the media and the Democrats forced his hand and he had to do this. This is now the fourth bite of a rotten apple, right. The first was the summary that came out, the media spit it out.  Then the second was the release, they spit it out.  The third was having Barr come on, they spit that out," Gutfeld said.
"Now he's got this presser. They're not going to be happy with this. Why do we keep indulging this?"