1. Media Praise for Barack Obama, Less for Teresa Heinz Kerry The networks' enthusiasm for the Democratic convention appeared to have ebbed this morning. Although the anchors and reporters of the broadcast morning shows rewarded the Democrats with uniformly positive reviews, none exhibited the excitement of the morning after the Clintons spoke. The networks focused their praise more on keynote speaker Barack Obama than on the future presidential nominee's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry. 2. CBS's Storm Tosses Softballs to Edwards' Wife and Daughter Elizabeth Edwards made the rounds of the Big Three this morning with oldest daughter Cate to tout... continue reading
1. MSNBC and CNN Lionize "Rock Star" Obama, See a Future President MSNBC's on-air crew on Tuesday night lionized Democratic convention keynote speaker Barack Obama, though CNN's Jeff Greenfield ("one of the really great keynote speeches of the last quarter century") and Time's Joe Klein, on CNN, also praised his performance. "He is the best argument for the American dream that's around in politics," oozed Newsweek's Howard Fineman on MSNBC before Andrea Mitchell celebrated how "Obama is a rock star!" Chris Matthews insisted that he'd "just seen the first black President." 2. Matthews: "Goose-Stepping Through the World," Cleland Canards MSNBC's... continue reading
1. Clinton's "Very Clever" Speech Enthralls Brokaw and Russert Tom Brokaw and Tim Russert were enthralled by former President Bill Clinton's address. Immediately after Clinton concluded, Brokaw enthused on NBC: "He put himself in the speech, obviously, as a newly wealthy man, talking about the Bush tax cuts and what they cost America." A couple of minutes later, Brokaw again favorably raised Clinton's denouncement of the Bush tax cuts and didn't doubt one terrible result of them: "When he talked about the tax cuts he really did refer to the number of uniform police who are going to be cut... continue reading
1. Gushing Over Bill and Hillary, the Democratic "Rock Stars" Gushing about the "rock star" quality of Bill and Hillary Clinton, network reporters declared the first night of the Democratic convention a success. "People were juiced like I don't think I've seen at a convention ever before," enthused ABC's Charles Gibson. CBS's Hannah Storm was even more ecstatic: "It was like the Celtics were playing in a championship game here at the Fleet Center last night. It was absolutely electric." As for Bill Clinton's speech last night, NBC's Katie Couric insisted that "almost everybody, even the opposition, agreed last night... continue reading
1. Delegates on Far-Left, CBS: "Liberals" Will "Take a Back Seat" The vast majority of Democratic delegates, a CBS News/New York Times poll discovered, hold extremely liberal positions, positions to the left of most Democratic voters, but since the majority of delegates described themselves as "moderate," John Roberts inexplicably claimed on Sunday's CBS Evening News that "liberals will again take a back seat here in Boston." Roberts proceeded to show how the delegates are well to the left on abortion, the death penalty and believe government should do more. Plus, nine in ten don't think Bush was elected "legitimately." 2... continue reading
1. Not Much From CBS and NBC on Teresa's "Shove It" Outburst Cameras were rolling last night when Teresa Heinz Kerry falsely claimed she'd never called Republicans "un-American," telling the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review's Colin McNickle to "shove it" when he persisted in asking her to elaborate. All of the networks thought Mrs. Kerry's saying "shove it" was more newsworthy than either her calling opponents "un-American" -- a way she also described the GOP during an interview with MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Sunday -- or her lying about it when caught. Of the three broadcast networks this morning, only ABC's Good Morning... continue reading
1. Rather to Kerry: Angry at Attacks from Vietnam-Avoiding Bush? Dan Rather prompted John Kerry to expound on how he's angry at President Bush for criticizing his Vietnam service while Bush avoided the war. On Thursday's CBS Evening News, in a second installment of his Wednesday interview, Rather asked Kerry: "Have you ever had any anger about President Bush, who spent his time during the Vietnam War in the National Guard, running, in effect, a campaign that does its best to diminish your service in Vietnam?" Kerry replied, "Yup, I have been," and went on to confirm it "grates a... continue reading
1. Rather to Kerry: Angry at Attacks from Vietnam-Avoiding Bush? Dan Rather prompted John Kerry to expound on how he's angry at President Bush for criticizing his Vietnam service while Bush avoided the war. On Thursday's CBS Evening News, in a second installment of his Wednesday interview, Rather asked Kerry: "Have you ever had any anger about President Bush, who spent his time during the Vietnam War in the National Guard, running, in effect, a campaign that does its best to diminish your service in Vietnam?" Kerry replied, "Yup, I have been," and went on to confirm it "grates a... continue reading
1. Rather to Kerry: Angry at Attacks from Vietnam-Avoiding Bush? Dan Rather prompted John Kerry to expound on how he's angry at President Bush for criticizing his Vietnam service while Bush avoided the war. On Thursday's CBS Evening News, in a second installment of his Wednesday interview, Rather asked Kerry: "Have you ever had any anger about President Bush, who spent his time during the Vietnam War in the National Guard, running, in effect, a campaign that does its best to diminish your service in Vietnam?" Kerry replied, "Yup, I have been," and went on to confirm it "grates a... continue reading
1. Move on From Berger, Give Equal Weight to Timing as Substance Sandy Berger a one-day story? A night after running stories on the revelation the FBI is investigating Clinton National Security Adviser Sandy Berger for improperly taking copies of secret memos assessing the Clinton administration's reaction to the millennium terrorist threat, the broadcast networks on Wednesday night largely moved on. And those stories which did air in the morning and evening gave equal weight to complaints about the timing of the leak as to the substance of Berger's actions. The CBS Evening News, which on Tuesday night tried to... continue reading