1. "David Duke Effect....Voters Didn't Want to Admit" Vote for Bush On Friday, for the fifth straight night, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann devoted a portion of his Countdown program to Internet-fueled rumors about massive vote fraud which benefitted President Bush and a guest compared Bush voters to embarrassed David Duke supporters. Olbermann highlighted one professor's claim that "the exit polls are usually so precise...that it was virtually statistically impossible for them to have been so wrong." Olbermann relayed the professor's insistence that the chance all the exit polls, which found Kerry won, would be wrong, was 250 million to one. Dismissing... continue reading
1. On Arafat: "One Man's Terrorist is Another's Freedom Fighter" Many network journalists on Thursday refused to condemn Yasser Arafat as a "terrorist," treating that view of him as nothing more than how his enemies and Israelis saw him as they gave equal weight to those who saw him as a hero. ABC's Diane Sawyer best encapsulated the media myopia: "There may not be any other man in history who better embodies the saying that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." In the evening, World News Tonight anchor Charles Gibson referred to how "some view his passing as... continue reading
1. Olbermann Rues "News Blackout" of "Cascade" of Voting Problems For the third straight night on Wednesday, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann devoted a major portion of his show to exaggerating the importance of a few voting glitches and to complaining about the lack of media attention to the subject: "Why has the cascade of irregularities around this country occurred virtually in a news blackout?" He noted how CNN had picked up on the subject and Newsweek's Jonathan Alter bucked up Olbermann: "Don't give up on it, Keith." Olbermann highlighted how Ralph Nader "said the national vote had made this country, quote,... continue reading
1. Olbermann Pursues Contesting Vote: "Did Kerry Concede Too Soon?" For the second straight night on Tuesday, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann devoted more than a fourth of his 8pm EST Countdown show to indulging his fantasies about how a few supposed voting glitches, none of which would alter the results, justify contesting the presidential vote outcome. He complained about "the deafening silence from the mainstream media on this story" and denounced his journalistic colleagues as "wimps" for not joining his cause. Olbermann trumpeted how he received 7,500 e-mails about his Monday show with "the ratio of positive to negative holding at... continue reading
1. MSNBC's Olbermann Indulges in Paranoia About Pro-Bush Vote Fraud With "Did Your Vote Count? The Plot Thickens" as his on-screen header, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann on Monday night led his Countdown program with more than 15 straight minutes of paranoid and meaningless claims about voting irregularities in states won by President Bush. Olbermann contended: "There is a small but blood curdling group of reports of voting irregularities and possible fraud -- principally in Ohio and Florida." He began with how, citing "homeland security," one of Ohio's 88 counties blocked media observers from watching the vote-counting, a county whose importance he... continue reading
1. Al Franken and Susan Sarandon Having Trouble Accepting Bush Win? A few celebrities showed on Friday night that they're having trouble accepting the reality that George W. Bush beat John Kerry. Though Bush was the first President since 1988 to win a majority of the vote, on CBS's Late Show, Al Franken downgraded the Bush victory by emphasizing how "Bush won this election by a smaller percentage than any incumbent President who was re-elected, I believe, in history." Franken, attempting some humor, dismissed the swath of red on the U.S. state map by insisting that "a lot of the... continue reading
1. Fret Over Plight of GOP "Moderates" in Face of Conservative Wins Two days after several conservatives won Senate races, ABC's World News Tonight focused on the plight of a few Republican "moderates" in the Senate, starting with how Arlen Specter was forced to retreat from his warning that as the new Chairman of the Judiciary Committee he would oppose any Supreme Court nominee who would overturn Roe v Wade. Peter Jennings touted how four "moderate" Senators "put President Bush on notice that they want a say in his agenda," before Linda Douglass empathized with how Senators Specter, Olympia Snowe,... continue reading
1. "Surprise" at How "Moral Values" Top Issue, Admit Out of Touch Out of touch media. Many in the media admitted their "surprise" at how the exit poll discovered that, at 22 percent, more called "moral values" the "most important issue" than any other in determining their vote. On Wednesday's Good Morning America, ABC's Diane Sawyer asserted that the exit poll had "some surprises" and Robin Roberts began with the "moral values" answer. Over on CBS's Early Show, Julie Chen asked: "What was the surprise of the day?" John Roberts replied that the "moral values" finding was "the real surprise... continue reading
1. Bush Aides in Kerry-Mocking Halloween Costumes Not Amusing to CNN "The Bush campaign team had a little fun at Halloween," ABC's Charlie Gibson noted Monday morning over video of top Bush aides dressed for Halloween in hunting outfits which matched what John Kerry donned when he had his goose-hunting phot-op. But CNN anchor Carol Lin was not amused. On CNN Sunday Night, she demanded of a Bush campaign spokesman: "Was this a cheap shot at the Kerry campaign?" She then lectured him that if "you're a technologist who has seen your job outsourced to India, or you're a father... continue reading
1. 60 Minutes : Bush Tax Cuts Culpable for Lack of Armor on Humvees The New York Times last Monday beat 60 Minutes to the "missing" explosives story, so CBS couldn't air that last-minute hit on President Bush 36 hours before the election. On Sunday it replaced that planned story with another, "In Harm's Way," about problems in Iraq: Deaths and injuries caused to servicemen by the lack of armor on Humvees, as well as issues such as the lack of radios for troops. The story was not explicitly pegged to deriding Bush's conduct of the war, but Steve Kroft... continue reading