1. NBC: Conservative Bias and FNC Undermining Trust in the Media In the wake of the New York Times resignations, NBC News looked at declining trust in the media and identified two culprits: Conservative, pro-corporate bias and the Fox News Channel. Not kidding. NBC's Jim Avila noted that "media watchdogs complain almost daily of bias, charging that some stories are deliberately ignored." His sole soundbite for that point: a representative of the far-left group who charged that public cynicism toward the press is fueled by "the whole corporate climate, where people feel they're being sold to rather than informed." Then,... continue reading
1. Networks: Hillary "Candid," She "Unwittingly" Defended Husband Though Hillary Clinton's tale in her new book about not realizing for eight months the truth of her husband's relationship with Monica Lewinsky is ludicrous, the networks bought her line without a scintilla of doubt. Wednesday TV stories were full of statements about how Clinton "reveals how she learned" of the Lewinsky reality and "writes candidly about the moment her husband admitted he'd been unfaithful." No story suggested that she owes an apology for smearing conservatives with her "vast right-wing conspiracy" fantasy. CNN's Jonathan Karl painted her as just naive: "Mrs. Clinton... continue reading
1. "Thelma and Louise" Real Heroic Villains to CNN's Aaron Brown? Does CNN's Aaron Brown realize "Thelma and Louise" were movie characters, not real people? On Monday's NewsNight, Brown claimed that the Eric Rudolph case shows that even in America, just as in the Middle East, bombers who kill the innocent can become heroes. Brown recalled how this has occurred before: "Pretty Boy Floyd was a violent bank robber, became a hero in a wonderful Woody Guthrie song. Bonnie and Clyde were psychotic killers transformed in Arthur Penn's famous movie into American icons. Butch Cassidy and Sundance, Thelma and Louise..."... continue reading
1. Klein, Alter and Clift All Denounce Tax Cut, "Cruel" to Poor The star journalists for the weekly news magazines have weighed in on the tax cut and have uniformly condemned the lack of a hike in the child credit for parents in lower income levels. Time's Joe Klein called it "fairly nauseating to hear spokesman Ari Fleischer argue" that "the money should go to people who actually pay income taxes." Klein charged that Bush "has given us a...domestic policy that is cynical, myopic and cruel." Newsweek's Jonathan Alter regretted how "too many...have acted as if the Bush administration's severe... continue reading
1. Dividend Tax Cut Over 11 Million Kids "Not a Negative Attack" Liberal attacks on the tax cut for not raising the child credit for parents earning $10,500 to about $26,000 a year, a spin aimed at making the plan look unfair, was "not a negative attack," an apparently serious David Broder maintained on Sunday's Meet the Press. The Washington Post reporter adopted the liberal spin as reality: "Something got screwed up in terms of your priorities if you think it's more important to get rid of the dividend tax than it is to take care of 11 million kids."... continue reading
1. All Nets Jump on Distortion That Low Income Left Out of Tax Cut Prompted by a left-wing group's charge that low income parents will not get a child credit payment, ABC, CBS, CNBC, CNN and NBC on Thursday night, with little or no regard for how those parents already pay no income tax, all treated the complaint as an indictment of the supposed unfairness of the income tax cut. Peter Jennings asserted: "One group of taxpayers was cut out of this legislation at the last minute, and that was low-income working families with children." CBS anchor Jane Clayson fretted:... continue reading
1. NBC Greets Tax Cut Signing by Ruing Lack of Money for Cities Tom Brokaw greeted President Bush's signing of the tax cut bill by lamenting how "yesterday there was no ceremony for the President's signature on a bill allowing the government to borrow almost $7.5 trillion." But then Brokaw advocated even more federal spending as he complained that in "cities across America, local officials are asking who's gonna help us?" Reporter Anne Thompson focused on how "in some cities, like Minneapolis...there is little applause because there is no direct federal aid." She failed, however, to point out how over... continue reading
1. Intel "Manipulated by Hawks," So War "Under False Pretenses?" ABC's Charles Gibson on Monday morning asked Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Richard Myers if, since we haven't found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, he's not worried we "might...have gone to war under false pretenses?" The next morning on NBC's Today, Katie Couric cued up Democratic Senator Joe Biden to take a swipe at those in favor of going to war: "How concerning is that to you that somehow information, intelligence information might have been manipulated by hawks within the Bush administration?" 2. Time Champions Robert Byrd as "Overnight... continue reading
1. ABC's Martin Condemns "Yuppie Tax Cut" for "Starving" Government ABC News reporter Michel Martin delivered another sermon on Sunday's This Week against the tax cut. During the roundtable segment, she denounced it as "a yuppie tax cut bill" because it reminded her of yuppies who "deny their children everything and themselves nothing." Though federal spending continues to grow and the tax cut, in static analysis, will reduce federal tax revenue by merely one percent, she preposterously claimed that tax cut supporters are "depriving the government of resources" and "starving the government of money." 2. "Play of the Week" from... continue reading
1. ABC Pushes Liberal Spin: Top 5% Get More Than Half of Tax Cut "The top five percent of taxpayers would get more than half of the benefits from the tax cut," ABC's Linda Douglass complained on Thursday's World News Tonight as an on-screen graphic screamed, "TAX CUT WINNERS: Top 5% taxpayers get more than half of benefits." But in suggesting some kind of unfair skew toward the wealthy, Douglass didn't bother to inform viewers that the top five percent of income earners also pay more than half of the income taxes collected -- 56 percent to be exact. 2... continue reading