1. PBS's Ifill Preposterously Pegs 6% Unemployment as "Record High" PBS's Gwen Ifill on Friday night preposterously claimed that "the unemployment rate is at record highs" as she mocked how President Bush "somehow...says this is Congress' fault." The April unemployment figure stood at 6 percent, but as Gloria Borger noted seconds later, it was higher just nine years ago. Exactly 20 years ago, in April 1983, it was at 10 percent. So 6 percent is hardly any kind of "record high." 2. Newsweek 's Fareed Zakaria Takes on Bush Tax Cuts from the Left Fareed Zakaria, Editor of Newsweek International... continue reading
1. SC Primary Arranged to Boost "Conservative" Candidate? Which of the nine Democratic presidential candidates is "conservative"? On Sunday's ABC This Week, host George Stephanopoulos, in Columbia, South Carolina for the debate he moderated the night before, suggested that Democrats arranged an early Southern primary in the state because "they wanted to encourage the idea that you would get a conservative, strong on national defense, candidate through the primaries." 2. George Stephanopoulos: Raising Taxes Helps the Economy Minutes after insisting that "I keep my politics to myself these days," on C-SPAN's Washington Journal on Friday morning ABC's George Stephanopoulos declared... continue reading
1. Stephanopoulos: Removing Helmet Saves Bush from Dukakis Moment In the midst of assigning President Bush's aircraft carrier photo-op an A++ grade, ABC's George Stephanopoulos, on Friday's Good Morning America, suggested that after Bush's jet landed he "was very careful to take that helmet off before he got out on the flight deck" where cameras could see him. Stephanopoulos argued that "nobody wants a picture in a helmet looking like, remember back in 1988, Michael Dukakis in the tank." But Dukakis would have looked out of place on the aircraft carrier -- with or without a helmet. 2. NBC Misleads... continue reading
1. Networks Mischaracterize Greenspan as Opposed to Bush Tax Cuts Though Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan backed elimination of taxes on dividends and supported President Bush's income tax cut so long as budget cuts ensure the deficit does not grow, the networks hyped how he had supposedly come out against Bush's plan. Greenspan "threw another splash of cold water on the President's tax cut plan today," declared CNN's Judy Woodruff. CBS's Dan Rather insisted that Greenspan "repeated his opposition to President Bush's plan for big tax cuts." Reuters and AP split. "Greenspan Hopeful on Economy, Ducks Taxes," read the headline over... continue reading
1. British MP Who ABC's Sawyer Commended Was on Hussein's Payroll Diane Sawyer's trusted guidepost to European disgust with President Bush, whose advice she urged Bush and Blair to follow, it turns out, was on Saddam Hussein's payroll to the tune of $3 million a year. On the February 27 Good Morning America, Sawyer showcased Labor Member of Parliament George Galloway's swipe at how "this born again, right-wing, Bible-belting, fundamentalist, Republican administration in the United States wants war," a screeching she called "a wake-up call for me." She contended that such widespread disgust with President Bush and America "really raises... continue reading
1. Maher Admits Naivete, Thought "Right to Privacy" in Constitution The controversy last week over Senator Rick Santorum's remarks about the slippery slope of the Supreme Court finding a right to any kind of consensual sex based on a "right to privacy" in the penumbra of the Constitution, has had one benefit: A well-known liberal commentator has conceded his naivete about which rights are in the Constitution. Friday night on HBO, Bill Maher admitted: "This has been a learning experience for me. I also thought that privacy was something we were granted in the Constitution." 2. On State Spending, USA... continue reading
1. NBC Worries Hussein's Ouster Could Be "Setback" for Women On the one hand, Saddam Hussein's "regime brutalized women" with "rape, torture, even beheadings," but on the up side, reporter Mike Taibbi contended on Tuesday's NBC Nightly News, Hussein was a feminist pioneer in the Middle East since "his secular government also gave women more rights than their counterparts in many other Islamic countries." 2. Jennings Stresses Greenspan's Doubts About Bush's "Huge Tax Cut" In briefly noting how President Bush has decided to nominate Alan Greenspan for another term as Fed Chairman, ABC's Peter Jennings managed on Tuesday night to... continue reading
1. Koppel Expresses "Cynicism About Reasons that Took Us to War" Despite being "enormously impressed" with how the "young men and women" of the Army, with whom he was embedded, "carried out the orders of their civilian masters...in a brilliant fashion," ABC's Ted Koppel remains unconvinced that attacking Iraq was the correct policy. At a Monday night forum, he maintained: "My level of cynicism about the reasons that took us to war against Iraq remain just as well-developed as they were before I went." 2. Fox's Snow Mocks NYT 's Apple for Saying "Nobody" Got War Right On Fox News... continue reading
1. Moyers: Cheney "Poster Boy" for "Military-Industrial Complex" Vice President Cheney, Bill Moyers argued on his PBS show on Friday night, is the "poster boy" for the "military-industrial complex" made up of those who "call for war with all the ferocity of non-combatants and then turn around and feed on the corpse of war." Moyers lectured: "America's corporate and political elites now form a regime of their own and they're privatizing democracy. All the benefits -- the tax cuts, policies and rewards flow in one direction: up." 2. Carlson, Hunt and Russert Return to Tax Cut Bashing Mantra Back to... continue reading
1. Jennings Blames U.S. for Leaving Deadly Germs "Unguarded" Blame America not the culprits, example 1: Peter Jennings opened Thursday's World News Tonight by citing "the deadly germs gone missing. The laboratory in Baghdad that the U.S. left unguarded." Brian Ross relayed how "lab scientists are angry at the U.S. for failing to protect the facility" and warned that Marines arrived "only after Iraqi scientists reported the dangerous materials -- including black fever, cholera, AIDS, and polio -- had been removed by looters, a serious public health concern." But on CNN, Christiane Amanpour pointed out that the inaccuracy of the... continue reading