1. Walter Cronkite: Karl Rove "Probably Set Up bin Laden" Video Walter Cronkite charged that Karl Rove "probably" arranged for a videotaped message from Osama bin Laden to show up just before the election. Friday night, during a live 9pm EDT appearance on CNN's Larry King Live barely five hours after the networks aired an excerpt from the bin Laden tape, Cronkite asserted: "I'm a little inclined to think that Karl Rove, the political manager at the White House, who is a very clever man, that he probably set up bin Laden to this thing." Cronkite's demeanor was quite serious,... continue reading
1. Jennings Decides It's Wrong to Call Osama Message "Disgusting" Osama bin Laden's videotaped message "fascinating" but not "disgusting." ABC's Peter Jennings on Friday night described bin Laden's message as "quite fascinating and disgusting to read." But a minute or so later on World News Tonight, Jennings backtracked from one of his characterizations: "Probably not appropriate of me to characterize the tape as I did -- calling it 'disgusting.'" 2. CBS Upbeat on Kerry, Downbeat on Bush & Harps on Confetti Miscue On Friday, for the second night in a row, the CBS Evening News provided downbeat coverage for George... continue reading
1. Fresh CBS Hit on Bush, Imply "Criminal Probe" of White House CBS on Thursday night launched another effort to torpedo President Bush's re-election as their reporters gloated over how their earlier hit on "missing explosives," combined with their lead story about the FBI probing one person's claim about a no-bid contract awarded to Halliburton, had meant "a bad week for Mr. Bush has gotten only worse" while John Kerry is "on a roll" now that he's "buoyed by the momentum that the weapons controversy has given him." The other networks noted the Halliburton development, but only CBS made it... continue reading
1. All But CBS Relay Info Which Casts Doubt Explosives Lost by U.S. ABC, NBC, FNC and CNN, but not CBS, on Wednesday night provided new details, about what is known to have happened at the al-Qaqaa compound in January to May of 2003, such as how satellite imagery shows trucks at the facility, which cast more doubts upon the charge that the 377 tons of explosives disappeared after U.S. troops arrived. Jim Axelrod noted on the CBS Evenings News that "the President today finally broke his silence over the missing explosives in Iraq," but it was CBS which remained... continue reading
1. Like with Forged Memos, CBS Plows Forward with Explosives Story Following the same strategy employed when CBS News came under fire for the forged memos, on Tuesday night, while other news outlet backtracked from their initial Monday night reporting on how 377 tons of explosives went missing in Iraq under the watch of the U.S. Army, CBS plowed forward. With "Where Are They?" on screen, Dan Rather teased: "Senator Kerry blasts the President over those tons of missing explosives. And where are they?" Later, Rather declared: "Those missing explosives in Iraq are much more than a headline or a... continue reading
1. Nets Follow NY Times and Kerry, Hype Missing Explosives Cache Prompted by a top of the front page New York Times story on Monday headlined, "Huge Cache of Explosives Vanished from Site in Iraq," the three broadcast network evening newscasts, as well as CNN's NewsNight, led by hyping the story picked up by John Kerry on the campaign trail, but only NBC Nightly News revealed the missing cache wasn't there when U.S. troops arrived and suggested a political motivation in the timing of the disclosure about something which occurred at least 18 months ago. Dan Rather trumpeted at the... continue reading
1. "Brazen Attack Ad," Using Wolves, "Approved by the President" Bush's scary new "wolves" attack ad. With "Attack Ad" on screen below a shot of President Bush, delivering a campaign speech, and an elephant graphic representative of the GOP, ABC anchor Peter Jennings on Friday night made it seem as if he'd caught Bush committing a misdeed: "The Republican television ad, approved by the President, that uses the wolves to attack the Democrats." Jennings soon maintained that "the presidential campaign out there got positively primal today." ABC reporter Terry Moran noted that "some advertising experts were impressed" with the ad... continue reading
1. "Brazen Attack Ad," Using Wolves, "Approved by the President" Bush's scary new "wolves" attack ad. With "Attack Ad" on screen below a shot of President Bush, delivering a campaign speech, and an elephant graphic representative of the GOP, ABC anchor Peter Jennings on Friday night made it seem as if he'd caught Bush committing a misdeed: "The Republican television ad, approved by the President, that uses the wolves to attack the Democrats." Jennings soon maintained that "the presidential campaign out there got positively primal today." ABC reporter Terry Moran noted that "some advertising experts were impressed" with the ad... continue reading
1. CBS's Pitts Paints Breitweiser as Random Voter Swayed by Kerry Kristen Breitweiser has been an active, publicity-seeking Bush-bashing 9/11 widow who has spent time on the campaign trail for Kerry-Edwards and is featured in a new Kerry-Edwards TV ad in which she declared that since "I want to look in my daughter's eyes and know that she is safe...I am voting for John Kerry." But on Thursday's Early Show, CBS News reporter Byron Pitts mentioned none of that as he portrayed her as some sort of random Bush voter who was so impressed by a Kerry speech line making... continue reading
1. Jennings Focuses on "Black Leaders Angry" at Ohio's Blackwell ABC's Peter Jennings on Wednesday night focused on how "Ohio's Republican Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, a leading black conservative," has "made a number of decisions regarding election law which have made other black leaders angry." Viewers then heard this shot from Jesse Jackson: "This is a national pattern of voter suppression." While Jennings gave Blackwell one soundbite to respond, Jennings ran four soundbites from those denouncing Blackwell and, in relaying how a federal judge had overruled Blackwell's decision to have those casting provisional ballots do so only at the... continue reading