1. Gibson Cues Up Dean to Spout Off About "Extreme Right Wing" Instead of challenging Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean for the basis of his allegation about how "the extreme right wing has shown nothing but contempt for democracy," on ABC's Good Morning America this morning Charles Gibson simply cued Dean up with the quote and asked him to affirm it. Similarly, instead of asking Dean to justify fellow liberal Democrat Ted Kennedy's scurrilous charge against Bush, Gibson simply prompted him to react to it: "Do you agree with Senator Kennedy that the, that the reasons for going to war... continue reading
1. CNN Trumpets How "Bush is Sinking!" & "May Be Beatable in 2004" CNN's Judy Woodruff led Monday's Inside Politics by trumpeting "striking new evidence that President Bush may be beatable in 2004." Bill Schneider gleefully related: "Judy, President Bush is sinking! Last month the President's job approval rating was at 60 percent. Now it's dropped to 50, his lowest rating ever." Making an illogical comparison, the CNN announcer at the top of the half hour had contrasted Bush's plight with the "huge leap forward" for Carol Moseley Braun, the last-place Democrat who had simply made her hopeless presidential campaign... continue reading
1. Rather Admits CBS Stories on Mayhem Don't Match Reality of Iraq The CBS Evening News, where the stories, self-admittedly, don't match reality. On Friday night, Dan Rather introduced a dire story on how "ordinary Iraqis are faced with an extraordinary surge of crime, banditry and thuggery from carjacking and robbery to kidnapping and murder" resulting "in a population fearful, frustrated, angry and heavily armed." But never mind. After the subsequent story on mayhem in Baghdad, Rather conceded that the report he just aired had distorted the situation: "A reminder that television sometimes has trouble with perspective, so you may... continue reading
1. Hell to Freeze Over? Jennings Less Anti-Bush Than CBS and NBC We know the hurricane is approaching the New York City headquarters of ABC News, but is Hell about to freeze over too? On Wednesday night, Peter Jennings was not nearly as condemnatory of President Bush as were CBS and NBC in reporting on how Bush declared that "we've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the September 11th." While CBS and NBC devoted full stories to blaming Bush for having long let stand the mis-impression that Hussein was involved and characterized Bush's comment as contradicting Vice... continue reading
1. Jennings Cites Hussein's "Alleged" Weapons of Mass Destruction Peter Jennings on Saddam Hussein's "alleged" weapons of mass destruction. On Monday's World News Tonight, after recalling how "thousands of Iraqi Kurds" were "reportedly killed in 1988 by Saddam Hussein's use of chemical weapons," Jennings announced how "David Kay is finalizing his report on the search for Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction." But in the subsequent story, Martha Raddatz made clear that while Kay had determined that during the 1990s Hussein destroyed all his WMD, "officials say the Kay report will detail Iraq's efforts to maintain the capability to... continue reading
1. Stephanopoulos: "Striking Similarities" Between LBJ and Bush On the debut of the newly formatted This Week on Sunday, George Stephanopoulos proposed a comparison between George Bush's Iraq and Lyndon Johnson's Vietnam. Stephanopoulos announced: "We begin our morning briefing examining something that's being heard more and more -- that Iraq is starting to look like Vietnam." He insisted, before George Will was allowed to undermine the premise: "There are also some striking similarities between the speeches of Lyndon Johnson and George Bush." 2. Russert: "If You Froze the Tax Cut for the Top One Percent..." Don't cut other spending, rescind... continue reading
1. ABC Frets Over Lack of Civil Rights for Guantanamo Detainees ABC News decided to commemorate the September 11th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of two years ago by sending Claire Shipman to Guantanamo Bay -- not to look at how the detainment of dozens of potential terrorists has successfully prevented additional murderous attacks, but to fret over the lack of U.S. constitutional rights and international law protections afforded to the enemy operatives. Surveying the barbed wire-topped fence surrounding Camp Delta to keep the prisoners inside, Shipman lamented how "the wire is perhaps more significant for what it's keeping out... continue reading
1. Cronkite: "We Were Misled on Iraq," "Impressed" by Democrats Walter Cronkite, appearing on Wednesday's Larry King Live on CNN, declared that he thinks "we were misled" by the Bush administration about the Iraqi threat and contended "it's a question seriously of whether that was deliberately done." The performance at the Tuesday night debate of the field of left-wing presidential candidates pleased Cronkite: "I was impressed with the field. It was perhaps better than some people thought it might be." But he thinks Bush can be beaten since "no matter how the trickle-down theory works with the tax cut finally... continue reading
1. Morning Shows Bait Bush Officials on Policy But Cuddle Hillary Hillary Clinton made the morning show rounds of ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN (but not FNC's Fox & Friends). On ABC, CBS, and NBC, the junior Senator from New York received much gentler questioning than the pounding reserved for Pentagon representatives. ABC's Charles Gibson hammered Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz with the notion that "as far as we know [Iraq] had nothing to do with the 9/11 attack," while CBS's Hannah Storm suggested to Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Richard Myers that the Iraq war "derailed" the war... continue reading
1. Morning Shows Bait Bush Officials on Policy But Cuddle Hillary 2. On 9/11 Anniversary NBC Bashes Bush Team Over Air Quality Report 3. Reuters More Critical of Bush's "War on Terror" Than of al-Qaeda 1) Hillary Clinton made the morning show rounds of ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN (but not FNC's Fox & Friends). On ABC, CBS and NBC, the junior Senator from New York received much gentler questioning than the pounding reserved for Pentagon representatives. ABC's Charles Gibson hammered Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz with the notion that "as far as we know [Iraq] had nothing to do... continue reading