1. Nets Ignore Gorelick Role, Highlight Bremer Rebuke of Bush Team On Wednesday, the Justice Department released memos showing that in 1995 U.S. Attorneys objected to Clinton Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick's guidelines about barring the CIA from sharing information related to terrorists inside the U.S. But not a syllable aired about the subject Wednesday night on the ABC, CBS, CNN, CNBC or NBC evening newscasts, and all the morning shows avoided the topic on Thursday morning. On Thursday night, in the wake of the White House rebuking Justice for posting the documents, ABC, CNN, CNBC and NBC all ran... continue reading
1. CBS Reports Kerry Ahead of Bush in Poll, Ignored When Bush Led When a CBS News poll puts President George W. Bush ahead in comparison to Senator John Kerry, the CBS Evening News this year has ignored the result, but when it finds Kerry in the lead, the program almost always highlights the outcome, as Dan Rather did on Wednesday night. So far this year, five polls by either CBS News or CBS News/New York Times, have tested Bush versus Kerry head-to-head comparisons. Four times the polling put Kerry ahead and on three of those occasions the CBS Evening... continue reading
1. Nets Spotlight College Chief's Complaint About Cheney Speech Highlighting upset at Cheney. ABC's Peter Jennings on Tuesday night spotlighted how "the President of Westminster College in Missouri has complained that Vice President Cheney used a visit yesterday to attack Senator Kerry." MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann featured an interview with the college chief, Fletcher Lamkin, and NBC's Today in the morning had noted the complaint while CBS's Hannah Storm cited the chiding and then worried to RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie: "Now, is this scorched-earth campaign, is there a point at which it goes too far, where it alienates voters?"... continue reading
1. John Kerry Portrayed as a Victim of Aggressive Bush Team Attacks John Kerry appeared on Monday's Good Morning America on ABC to respond to evidence he's contradicted himself on throwing away his war medals, but instead of making Kerry's credibility the focus of the day's news, ABC and the other networks painted Kerry's post-Vietnam War actions as an unfair burden and/or Kerry as a victim of unfair attacks from pro-Bush political operatives. Peter Jennings framed the story around Kerry's "dilemma: After brave and honorable service in Vietnam, a post-war record that dogs him." CBS's Dan Rather portrayed the Bush... continue reading
1. CBS Discovers Problem of Iraq War Veterans Homeless in America Just in time for the fall campaign, CBS News has rediscovered homelessness in America, pairing it with the plight of veterans returning from Iraq. Saturday CBS Evening News anchor Mika Brzezinski connected the case of Pat Tillman, the NFL star turned Army Ranger killed in Afghanistan, with a woman who couldn't get along with her mother and so had to live elsewhere, as she teased the broadcast, "A tale of two soldiers: One honored in death, the other homeless in life." Reporter Kelly Cobiella relayed, without any doubt, the... continue reading
1. CBS Avoids Kerry's Atrocities Claims, Paint Him as a Victim CBS on Thursday night caught up with the Kerry campaign's release of his Vietnam military service records, but reporter Jim Stewart avoided the very allegation from Kerry's former commander -- that he really didn't suffer a combat wound for which he was awarded his first Purple Heart -- the charge that fueled the document release. Instead, anchor Dan Rather stressed how the records "show glowing evaluations of him during combat in the Vietnam War." Stewart reminded viewers of Kerry's Senate testimony 30 years ago and noted how "a lot... continue reading
1. ABC Defends "Kerry's Distinguished War Record," CBS Skips Topic A lot more skeptical of Bush than Kerry on Vietnam-era service. Back on February 10 when the White House released George W. Bush's National Guard records, the networks stressed how they only "raise more questions." But with Kerry, the networks ignored for a week questions raised last week in the Boston Globe about whether he deserved one of his Purple Hearts, and then prompted by Kerry's release of his records finally got to the story on Wednesday, but were satisfied with the records despite the lack of documentation for his... continue reading
1. Jennings Considers Plight of Guantanamo Detainees the Top Story All the networks on Tuesday ran full stories about the Supreme Court hearing a case asking them to rule that the detainees at Guantanamo Bay should have access to U.S. federal courts, but only ABC's Peter Jennings considered it the most important news of the day as he traveled to Washington, DC to cover the hearing, framed his lead story around how "the lawyers for more than a dozen prisoners say the President is violating the American commitment to the rule of law" and followed up, with a story he... continue reading
1. Woodward Provides Positive Take on Bush, Nets Focus Elsewhere On Monday's Nightline, ABC's Terry Moran related how the White House likes Bob Woodward's new book since "it portrays a President who's deeply engaged, who is challenging his subordinates, who is very concerned about Iraqi civilians" and "who did not distort the pre-war intelligence" about WMD, but those aren't the parts of the book which interested the networks earlier in the day as all focused on the supposedly controversial revelations. "Explosive new allegations against President Bush: Manipulating gas prices and military money," Dan Rather breathlessly announced. ABC's George Stephanopoulos agreed... continue reading
1. CBS's Wallace Mocks Bush's Smarts and Belief in Freeing People During his 60 Minutes sessions aired Sunday night with Bob Woodward, author of the new book, Plan of Attack, CBS's Mike Wallace mocked President's Bush's smarts and belief in freeing people from oppression. Wallace demanded: "Who gave George Bush the duty to free people around the world?" Wallace also jeeringly proposed: "The President of the United States, without a great deal of background in foreign policy, makes up his mind and believes he was sent by somebody to free the people -- not just in Iraq, but around the... continue reading