And Republican Jason Chaffetz asks the important question: How does CNN find him before the FBI?

The tone of this Reuters piece is somewhat negative, but the host is rescuing babies that were discarded in garbage dumps. That seems like a good thing to me, even if he’s doing it for ratings:

Pakistani television is screening what many call its most controversial content yet in a ruthless quest for ratings: a talk-show host who gives away babies live on air.

Aamir Liaquat Hussain, a bespectacled 41-year-old with a neatly trimmed beard, gave away two abandoned infant girls to childless families last month and plans to give away a baby boy this week.

“If we didn’t find this baby, a cat or a dog would have eaten it,” Hussain proclaimed during one broadcast, before presenting a tiny girl wrapped in pink and red to her new parents. The audience erupted with applause.

Hussain is one of Pakistan’s most popular talk-show hosts. During his marathon broadcasts he cooks, interviews clerics and celebrities, entertains children and hosts game shows.

He usually gives prizes like motorbikes, mobile phones and land deeds to audience members who answer questions about Islam.

But at the beginning of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, when television stations battle fiercely for ratings, Hussain astonished Pakistan when he presented two families with babies.

“We were told that we had passed all the interviews and had been selected to adopt a baby,” said Riaz Uddin, 40, an engineer. “We got our baby on live TV.”

The abandoned babies were rescued by the Chhipa Welfare Association, a Pakistani aid organization.

“In a day or two, the next baby will be given away, God willing,” its head, Ramzan Chhipa, told Reuters on Thursday.

While the Chhipa teams scour the garbage dumps and other sites for discarded newborns, Hussain is also appealing for babies directly.

“If any family cannot afford to bring up their new born baby due to poverty or illness then instead of killing them, they should hand over the baby to Dr Aamir,” a notice on his website reads. The children would be given to deserving couples on air, the notice said.

The rest here.

Hilarious. President Obama said this while commenting on Larry Summers as a possible replacement for Ben Bernanke:

But the president also conveyed the message that Summers, who’s on the short list of candidates, has been mistreated by some liberals and media outlets. The New York Times, for instance, gave Yellen a strong endorsement in a recent editorial.

“He gave a full-throated defense of Larry Summers and his record in helping to save the economy in the dark days of ‘09,” Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said after the meeting. Obama, Connolly added, “felt that Larry had been badly treated by some on the left and in the press.”

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) said Obama told the Democrats “not to believe everything you read in the Huffington Post” – a reference to the liberal website that’s been critical of Summers’ record.

Andrew Beaujon of Poynter writes about the big interview with the president that ran on Sunday:

Jackie Calmes and Michael D. Shear’s interview with President Obama packed in enough news to fill three New York Times articles and one media story: “It was the paper’s first exclusive chat with the president in nearly three years,” The Huffington Post’s Jack Mirkinson writes.

In the interview — full transcript here — Obama discussed income inequality, said he would approve the Keystone XL pipeline “only if it does not ‘significantly exacerbate’ the problem of carbon pollution” and vowed to implement Obamacare. All newsworthy, all wrung from a 40-minute interview.

But Calmes and Shear showed what must have been superhuman forbearance by not asking Obama about his administration’s pursuit of reporters’ phone records, prosecution of leakers, or its insistence that Times reporter James Risen should testify in a leak case.

How do you not ask about the NSA or whistleblowers?

The president gets away with his “phony scandals” line because we have a phony media.

And if that doesn’t work, I hear Melissa Harris-Perry will wear a maxi-pad scarf next. (Look, MSNBC viewers: my scarf has wings!)

I love Tapper’s opening question on hiring a prostitute, “When was the last time you broke that law?”

If only more reporters questioned politicians like Elitot Spitzer with this level of intensity, we’d have a better democracy. Watch the video here:

Colbert to Spitzer: ”Before you had your fall from Grace, or whatever her name was.”

Stevie Wonder recently announced that due to the verdict in the Zimmerman trial, he will no longer be performing in Florida, or any other state, that has a “stand your ground” law.

Really?

Michigan, for example, has a stand your ground law. As does Louisiana. No concerts in Motown or New Orleans? Even California’s self-defense laws fall under stand your ground, as do the laws in Nevada. No concerts in Beverly Hills or Vegas. Does anyone think that will happen?

Here’s the full list of states where Stevie Wonder won’t be singing.

Slate’s Jack Hamilton thinks Wonder’s boycott will make a difference, but his analysis is flawed.

For one, Hamilton only writes about Wonder boycotting Florida, while Wonder specifically said anywhere (including internationally):

On Sunday night, Stevie Wonder—a black American musician who sold some records in his day—declared that he would not perform in Florida until the state’s “Stand Your Ground” law is abolished.

And two, Hamilton needs other stars to follow Wonder’s lead:

While Stevie Wonder’s boycott of an entire state might have exerted real pressure in, say, 1976, in 2013 it’s almost entirely a symbolic act. But symbolic acts are often the first step toward kicking off concrete ones, and we should imagine what would happen if likeminded artists followed suit. Beyoncé in 2013 might not be Stevie Wonder in ’76 but she’s not far behind, and her husband is said to be a figure of some renown. Rihanna’s 8.4 million Instagram followers felt her outrage on Sunday, and some of them must live in Florida; Miley Cyrus, who tweeted a memorial late Saturday night, has been recently embroiled in her own racial controversy and might want to put her money where her mouth is, so to speak. Questlove, who wrote about the Zimmerman verdict with characteristic eloquence, is one of the most ubiquitous and respected figures in contemporary music, and would surely make some phone calls. If these artists were to join in Wonder’s boycott, the bottom lines of club promoters and festival organizers and concert arenas would start to look different in a hurry.

Will other stars embrace Wonder’s boycott? Who knows. Maybe Hamilton can give superstar J-Lo a call and ask of her plans, that is, if he can reach her between million-dollar gigs for crooks and dictators. 

Hamilton continues:

And good luck finding a decent hip-hop show in Florida. Young Jeezy, Rick Ross, Ghostface Killah, Big Boi, Q-Tip, Ace Hood, Mac Miller, Nicki Minaj, Flo Rida, and Chuck D are just a few names who’ve expressed sorrow and consternation at the Zimmerman verdict. 

It just so happens there’s a gigantic hip-hop festival in Miami every Memorial Day called “Urban Beach Week” that draws 200,000 to 300,000 African-Americans from around the country. Plans are well underway for the 2014 event.

If people want to talk of boycotts, let’s get serious and hear somebody call for a boycott of this. I’ll eagerly await a response. 

Temar Boggs and Chris Garcia are heroes. And here’s the must-watch interview with Temar on how the high-school freshman chased down the kidnapper on his bike:

For the “can’t make this up” file:

As much of the nation continues to debate the verdict in the recently concluded George Zimmerman trial, on Tuesday evening “Piers Morgan Live” welcomed a pair of gentleman able to offer a very specific blend of perspective and insight.

Having served as jurors on the infamous O.J. Simpson murder case nearly two decades ago, Lionel Cryer and David Aldana are all too familiar with the pressure and scrutiny faced by the six Florida women who acquitted George Zimmerman.

In the eyes of Aldana, in both instances the right conclusion was reached:

“You have no doubt to this day that you think O.J. Simpson was not guilty?” Morgan asked.

“I don’t have any doubt whatsoever,” he declared, before continuing with his assessment of the more recent case.

“I would have found him innocent on what they had,” said the guest of Zimmerman. “It seemed like every time they would put on a witness … they were on the … defensive side. A lot of things were just not, some of the witnesses they put on, and a lot of things just didn’t make sense to me on that.”

Well, then, case closed. If an O.J. juror says Zimmerman is not guilty, that should be enough for Al Sharpton, no?

Via the New York Times:

ESPN is expected to announce on Wednesday that the former network mainstay Keith Olbermann, who contentiously departed in 1997, will return to host a one-hour, nightly show for ESPN2 later this year, according to three executives with knowledge of the deal but not authorized to speak about it publicly.

Olbermann, 54, became renowned for co-anchoring ESPN’s “SportsCenter” with Dan Patrick — arguably the most auspicious pairing in the history of the show or the network. He left the show briefly to help launch ESPN2 in October 1993.

The move to bring Olbermann back after a 16-year absence was the result of 14 months of intense discussion within ESPN and its parent, the Walt Disney Company.

Merriam-Webster defines a riot as, “a violent public disorder; specifically: a tumultuous disturbance of the public peace by three or more persons assembled together and acting with a common intent.”

But if you’re the Los Angeles Times writing about the riot in its fair city, it was just a bunch of “unruly protesters”:

Shoppers at a Wal-Mart on Crenshaw Boulevard described a scene of chaos and mayhem Monday night as unruly protesters stormed the store, tossing merchandise and trying to loot jewelry cases.

Here’s a good piece on the Marissa Alexander case from Mediatrackers and why it’s not — as liberals claim again and again and again — evidence that African Americans are judged differently than non-African Americans in Florida with respect to “stand your ground.”

No, George Zimmerman was not “instructed” to stay in his car as the editors of the Tribune write today:

The first tragedy of the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin case is that it was a case at all.

If Zimmerman had done as police instructed, there probably would have been no media circus and we would never have heard of either man. More important, the teenager would still be alive and Zimmerman would not have been charged with second-degree murder.

Unfortunately, Zimmerman, an armed neighborhood watch volunteer in a Florida gated community, did not stay in his vehicle and, for whatever reason, chose to engage the African-American teen whom he had been following.

Here’s ABC’s Dan Abrams with what actually happened:

@DianeSawyer If Zimmerman was told 2 stay in car, why did he get out & pursue Tray?

[. . .]

Dan’s answer: He wasn’t told to stay in his car. When he told the non-emergency operator that he was following Martin, he was told “you don’t need to do that” and he responded, “Ok”. He was already out of his car at that point. The question is did he keep following Martin as prosecutors allege or was he just walking back to his car as Zimmerman claims.

Abrams also covered self-defense law:

@DianeSawyer @ABC my #1 question; why wasn’t #TrayvonMartin allowed to defend himself from an apparent stalker?

[. . .]

Dan’s answer: He is allowed to defend himself. Let’s assume that Zimmerman stalked Martin as you suggest (the defense would dispute that). The moment that Zimmerman threatens Martin or lays a hand on him or otherwise places Martin in reasonable fear for his safety, then Martin is allowed to use force to defend himself. But if Martin then gets on top of Zimmerman and starts beating his head into the ground as Zimmerman claims and he can’t escape, then the right to self defense shifts to Zimmerman. So if the jurors even had reasonable doubt about whether at the moment Zimmerman fired his weapon he reasonably feared Martin was about to beat him again (“great bodily harm”), it’s a not guilty verdict.

The entire Q-and-A with Diane Sawyer and Abrams here.

Details here.

Last week, KTVU in San Francisco was pranked by an intern at the FAA resulting in the station broadcasting fake names of the pilots involved in the crash of the 777. Somehow the news anchor didn’t realize that “Sum Tin Wong” was a fake name — the others were worse — and the station has since apologized.

But that’s not the end of it. The AP reports:

Asiana announced Monday that it will sue a San Francisco TV station that it said damaged the airline’s reputation by using bogus and racially offensive names for four pilots on a plane that crashed earlier this month in San Francisco.

I think Asiana should be slighlty more concerned with the damage to its reputation from the crash, not some moron on TV.

Details here.

CNN’s Morgan tweeted last night:

Chicago’s supposedly ‘tough’ gun laws are utterly pointless when states around it have weak gun laws. America needs to take federal action.

A few things . . .

One, his statement is false. Most of the guns used in Chicago gun crimes are bought in Illinois. From the Sun-Times last year, “Chicago gangs don’t have to go far to buy guns“:

From 2008 to March 2012, the police successfully traced the ownership of 1,375 guns recovered in crimes in Chicago within a year of their purchase.

Of those guns, 268 were bought at Chuck’s — nearly one in five.

That statistic comes from a groundbreaking study by University of Chicago Crime Lab researchers, done at the request of the Chicago Police Department, which is grappling with an extra-violent 2012 that has seen a 28 percent spike in the city’s homicide total compared to this time last year.

In their study, U. of C. researchers combed through gun-trace data to determine the weapons most likely bought by straw purchasers.

Those are people without criminal records who buy guns for felons — often at a hefty markup.

Fifty-eight percent of those recovered guns were bought in Illinois. About 19 percent were purchased in Indiana, 3 percent in Wisconsin — and less than 2 percent in Mississippi.

Cook County was the source of 45 percent of the guns over that period, according to the crime lab’s study.

And two, if “weak” gun laws cause problems in Chicago, why don’t these same “weak” gun laws cause problems in, say, New York City? 

It’s not the laws that need changing, Piers. It’s the leadership of failed cities like Chicago that refuse to implement policing and prosecutorial reforms that will make a difference.

Via the Hollywood Reporter:

MSNBC delivered its worst quarterly primetime showing among total viewers and adults 25-54 since 2007. The cable network suffered dips as other networks benefited from the quarter’s bigger news stories. MSNBC’s primetime returns in total viewers (576,000) and the key demo (191,000) were at lows not seen since the fourth and second quarters of 2007, respectively. The network did manage to improve month-to-month from it lows in May, when it fell below perennial fourth-place newser HLN.

And . . .

[O]ne CNN primetime broadcast that hasn’t been particularly fortunate is Piers Morgan Live. The Larry King heir, who kicked off the second quarter with a slight rebrand from Piers Morgan Tonight, saw his second-lowest-rated month since premiering in January 2011 despite the quarter tying his highest. June brought the series an average 121,000 viewers in the targeted demo, 42,000 shy of HLN’s Dr. Drew On Call – though the two broadcasts tied in total viewers.

And in other news, Fox’s Megyn Kelly is moving to prime time when she returns from maternity leave. Still no news, however, on whether she replaces Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, or Greta Van Susteren.

She tweeted last night:

Final Alec Baldwin pt: I know his heart, he’s not a homophobe. But he sure has created a mess with his big bad mouth.

And Jake Tapper answered with:

.@hilaryr have you ever heard a non-homophobe talk like that?

Exactly. Just because Alec Baldwin lends his support to gay causes, as GLAAD was quick to point out yesterday, his tweets to the Daily Mail reporter were homophobic.

And as an added bonus, Andrew the Placenta Hunter Sullivan thinks Baldwin committed a crime:

This is not just hate speech; it’s a specific call for other people to physically attack a gay man. It’s a call to violence against a specific person, which, last time I checked, was a crime. He’s a pro-gay liberal, so he may get a pass for this. He shouldn’t.

It’s reported that Paula Deen has lost an estimated $12.5 million so far from her use of the n-word; let’s see if anything at all happens to liberal-darling Baldwin.