Media top headlines September 9
In media news today, The New York Times hasn't updated Biden's 'latest poll numbers' since May, Psaki takes heat for citing security concerns when asked why Americans are still in Afghanistan, and MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace says that Mueller should look into 'collusion' between red states and SCOTUS on abortion
"Full Frontal" host Samantha Bee delivered a profanity-laced monologue blasting the Supreme Court for not striking down Texas's Heartbeat Act last week, a law which bans abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected.
The Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the bill and so it went into effect last week. Proponents of the measure cheered that it would save countless lives. Critics, some of whom were in the media, predicted doomsday for those seeking abortion on-demand.
"But for Texas and the Supreme Court, the end of this summer has meant saying goodbye to people's f---ing reproductive rights," Bee said on her TBS show Wednesday.
The host then called Supreme Court justices the "anti-p--sy posse."
Bee took particular issue with the majority opinion being only one paragraph long and without signatures.
"You f---ing cowards," Bee continued. "If you’re taking away our reproductive rights, at least own that you are gutless monsters."
Bee joined several other media figures who have condemned the law. Ex-CBS anchor Dan Rather compared supporters of the law to the Taliban. The Washington Post's Karen Attiah suggested they needed to pull of a rescue mission in Texas to "liberate" women and girls. And MSNBC's Joy-Ann Reid compared Texas to a scene from "The Handmaid's Tale."
Other critics of the law have argued it will overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion.
"Why this is such a big deal, not just for women in Texas, is because it sends a chill down the spine to every woman in this country who is worried about their state, fearing they may use this as a blueprint for what could be a way to get around Roe v. Wade in ways that didn't work in years past," CNN "Early Start" co-anchor Laura Jarrett, daughter of former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett, reacted last week.
Constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley sounded off on that argument on "Fox & Friends," calling it "loony."
"The Supreme Court has always said that states have a right to legislate in this area," Turley said. "The question is how. But these statements that this order overturned Roe or that it upheld the state of Texas' law are absolutely loony."