1. CBS: Bush's Actions "Raising New Questions About" His Leadership Dan Rather opened Tuesday's CBS Evening News by dramatically intoning that President Bush's request for foreign troops in Iraq and decision to extend the tours for reservists in Iraq, is "raising new questions about the leadership of Mr. Bush and his team among reservists and their families and the people's elected representatives in both parties." 2. John "Even Republican" McCain, Nets Trumpet His Iraq Criticisms John "Even Republican" McCain. The media's favorite Republican is back, allowing the networks to fill in their favorite sentence, in which a Republican joins with... continue reading
1. CBS Worries Money for Iraq Will "Jeopardize" Other Spending CBS News on Monday night suddenly became concerned about the level of federal spending -- because President Bush's request for $87 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan, which Dan Rather described as "$300 for every man, woman and child in the United States," threatens more spending in other areas. The request, CBS's John Roberts warned, "could jeopardize the President's other spending priorities." For expert analysis, CBS turned to Robert Greenstein, whom CBS labeled simply as a "budget analyst." But he really runs a left-wing group. 2. ABC Sees "Doubts" Across U.S.,... continue reading
1. Brokaw and Blitzer Raise Obey's Demand That Rumsfeld Resign Channeling David Obey, Tom Brokaw indirectly and Wolf Blitzer directly. Sunday night, after President Bush's address to the nation, NBC's Tom Brokaw twice asked whether someone in the administration should be "held accountable" for the mess in Iraq, a theme which matched the demand made last week by a single Member of Congress, liberal Democrat David Obey, that Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz resign. CNN's Wolf Blitzer, on Late Edition, asked Condoleezza Rice about Obey's demand and then Blitzer brought Obey himself aboard the 10pm EDT CNN Sunday where he... continue reading
1. Networks Ignore Unprecedented Use of Filibuster to Block Estrada Democrats employed the unprecedented tactic of using a filibuster threat in order to block President Bush's nomination of Miguel Estrada to a DC federal appeals court slot, but you wouldn't know that from the ABC, CBS and NBC stories on Thursday night after Estrada withdrew his nomination which also failed to point out how he had the support of the majority of Senators -- just not the 60 votes required for cloture. CNN's Aaron Brown and Jonathan Karl, however, made both points. 2. Rather Asks Sanchez to Name Media Inaccuracies... continue reading
1. Peter's Back from Vacation, Liberal as Ever, Attacking on Iraq Peter's back. After taking most of the summer off, Peter Jennings returned Tuesday night to his World News Tonight anchor chair and delivered a liberal line-up as only he could. He teased the September 2 broadcast: "On World News Tonight, an influential voice in Iraq says the U.S. must leave, and there's been another car bombing. We'll take 'A Closer Look' tonight at how Iraq is going to dominate business in the Congress this fall: So may priorities and too little money. The Democratic presidential race: John Kerry attacks... continue reading
1. The Best of CyberAlert from Over the Summer "The Best of CyberAlert." With people going on vacations throughout the summer, for the Labor Day weekend a list of CyberAlert items some may have missed -- and others can now re-live -- the 24 articles that stand the test of a few weeks and remain interesting or relevant to ongoing topics. The Best of CyberAlert from Over the Summer Starting in early July and moving forward, below are the table of contents summaries for the best CyberAlert items from over the summer, each followed by links to them as posted... continue reading
1. NBC's Today Promotes Al Franken's Book About Lying Conservatives NBC's Today on Monday brought aboard left-wing "satirist" Al Franken for the second time in a week. Today's Matt Lauer read from Franken's book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right: "'I wish with all my heart the President wasn't a liar or if he were that he was more like President Clinton.'" NBC posted a book excerpt in which Franken wrote that God urged him to take on "those sh***y books by Ann Coulter and Bernie Goldberg" which make "total... continue reading
1. ABC News on Hamas: "A Political and Social Welfare Organization" ABC News reporter Mike Lee on Thursday night described Hamas, which claimed responsibility for the bus bombing in Jerusalem which killed 20 earlier this week, including six children, as "a political and social welfare organization with a military wing that has launched terror attacks against Israel." 2. NBC's Today Gives Platform to Albright to Denounce Bush Policy NBC's Today on Thursday morning provided a platform for former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to promote a new article she wrote in Foreign Affairs magazine denouncing Bush administration policy and claiming... continue reading
1. Battle Against Terrorism a Failure, Leads to "Chaos and Blood" ABC and CBS on Wednesday night used the terrorist attack on the UN hotel as an opportunity to air broadsides about the overall failures of the Bush policy in Iraq and war on terrorism. CBS anchor John Roberts declared: "Iraqis' deepening resentment toward the U.S. military occupation, terrorist-style bombings in Baghdad, and a surge of attacks by suspected Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. This is not at all the way the Bush administration had it figured." Reporter Mark Phillips decreed: "Where the U.S. has violently unseated hostile regimes, chaos and... continue reading
1. Pointing Out Schwarzenegger's Buffett Tie "Down & Dirty" to CBS Apparently, even pointing out a candidate's policy position on taxes is somehow "nasty" and suggests "down and dirty" campaigning. On Monday's Early Show, quad-host Rene Syler posed this question about the California campaign: "How nasty is this going to get? We hear now that Bill Simon is running radio ads that criticize Schwarzenegger for taking economic advice from Warren Buffett. Is this going to get just really down and dirty?" Meanwhile, on Today, NBC's Mat Lauer actually suggested that the ACLU, which is trying to delay the recall election,... continue reading