CBS Attaches "When Did He Know It?" Verbiage to Bush; CNN Compares Bush to Foolish Cartoon Figure; NBC's Pro-Ho Chi Minh Reporter; Jennings Highlighted Liberal Professors; NY Times Reporter Blasts SUV Owners 1) CBS's Bob Schieffer attached the scandal-implying "what did he know and when did he know it" language to President Bush in examining the congressional report about pre-9/11 intelligence failures, a politicization avoided by ABC and NBC. Dan Rather tied Bush to a cover up: "Congressional investigators revealed there were more warning signs than the Bush administration and the government in general has acknowledged." 2) Saddam Hussein sure... continue reading
Jennings: Iraq Allowing Inspectors "Without Conditions"; NBC Focuses on Anti-U.S. Iraqi Opinion; Tying Constitution's Birthday to Iraq Vote; NBC Condemns Campaign Finance "Broken Promise"; More Attention for "John Walker's Blues"; Fresh Shots at Liberals by James Woods 1) Iraq put conditions on the access of weapons inspectors, but despite that ABC's Peter Jennings declared that Iraq had decided "to allow the weapons inspectors in without conditions." Both NBC and FNC noted the inaccuracy of that claim while all three broadcast evening shows recalled Iraq's duplicity in frustrating weapons inspectors in the past. 2) Tuesday's NBC Nightly News featured a story... continue reading
Cronkite Wants to Set the News "Agenda"; Star Jones Effuses Over Gore; Hillary a "Moderate" or "Keeper of the Liberal Flame"?; NY Times Baffled How "Hard-Line" Domenici Has Compassion; MSNBC Tune-Out; Gumbel to Be Replaced With a Liberal? 1) Walter Cronkite last week said he would "like to be in the newsroom helping set the agenda" for CBS News. What kind of agenda would Cronkite advance? Back in 1997 he proclaimed: "I don't believe the public has rejected liberalism; it simply has not heard a candidate persuasively advocate its humane and deeply democratic principles." In 1988, before denouncing Reagan's policies,... continue reading
ABC's This Week Finds New Way to Pose Liberal Question; "Afford" a War & "Bush Tax Cut?"; Reporters Whine About Tough Job Since 9/11; "Sock" Jeb Bush; Jennings Denies Bias; Shriver Hits Campaign Trail; Walters Tired of Ragging on Clinton 1) The new gimmick on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos: Having someone outside of Washington, DC pose a liberal question. On Sunday's inaugural broadcast that opportunity went to a Lexington, Kentucky newspaper editor who told Condoleezza Rice that "four ordinary" readers came to her office and asked: "How we can stop the President from forcing us into Iraq?" The... continue reading
Jennings: Bush's "War Drums" & Iraq "Preoccupation"; "No Anti-War Constituency in Congress?"; Bush Speech "Argument" Not "Evidence"; Moyers' Bias Awarded; NBC Uses 9/11 to Promote The West Wing 1) Just before President Bush addressed the United Nations on Thursday morning about Iraq, ABC's Peter Jennings referred to how "the sound of war drums being beaten in Washington has become unmistakable" and described the administration's concern about Saddam Hussein's weapons as a "preoccupation," as if there were something misplaced about the worry. 2) Peter Jennings disappointed by the lack of Democratic opposition to Bush's Iraq policy? On World News Tonight he... continue reading
Jennings' Anti-Bush Comments Re-Run; ABC Prods War Criticism; Time for Healing Not Gettysburg; "Civil Rights Collapsed Along with... Twin Towers"; Rather Scolds Reporter; Clinton Boasts to Letterman 1) Peter Jennings on Wednesday highlighted the very comments he made a year earlier which enraged some viewers, including: "Where is the President?...Pretty soon the country needs to know where he is." And: "The country looks to the President on occasions like this to be reassuring to the nation. Some Presidents do it well, some Presidents don't." After the montage, Jennings acknowledged the criticism: "Some people thought afterward we were criticizing the President... continue reading
NBC Trumpets Scott Ritter; ABC's "Magical" Iraq Solution; Cronkite: Terrorism a "Revolution of the Poor Against the Rich"; Liberal Environmentalism Will Appease Enemies; Reuters Blames U.S. 1) On Monday's NBC Nightly News, Ron Allen in Iraq trumpeted Scott Ritter's credentials: "Today Iraq got more ammunition from an unlikely American ally -- former U.N. weapons inspector and U.S. marine Scott Ritter, leading his own tour to an Iraqi military camp, a base where the U.S. believes Iraq has trained terrorists. But Ritter...claims it's a base for hostage rescue training." FNC's Brit Hume showed how Ritter has done a 180 since 1998... continue reading
Jennings "Raised with Anti-Americanism in My Blood"; Founder's "One Great Failure Was Race"; Hypocrisy on Iraq Ignored; Lauer Hostile to Arming Pilots; Germond: Liberals Are "Politically Correct Jerks" 1) Admitting his mother "was pretty anti-American," on Friday's Late Show ABC News anchor Peter Jennings, who grew up in Canada, conceded that he was "raised with anti-Americanism in my blood, or in my mother's milk at least." 2) During his Letterman appearance, Jennings also denounced the Founding Fathers for how they "blew it" on race. Matching that theme, he opened the final installment of his ABC series, In Search of America,... continue reading
Only FNC Notes Unprecedented Rejection of ABA "Well-Qualified" Nominee; Washington Post Misconstrues Baker as Anti-Invasion; On FNC Kissinger Confirms NY Times Distortion; Lauer Scolds Heston 1) FNC's Brit Hume pointed out how the Senate Judiciary Committee's rejection on Thursday of Priscilla Owen represented the first time ever the committee had turned down a nominee rated as "well-qualified" by the ABA. CNN's Inside Politics skipped over the unprecedented decision while CNN's Wolf Blitzer instead relayed how those committee Democrats "contend Owen was not qualified for the position." 2) A bit of a snide tone from CNN's Aaron Brown. On Tuesday night's... continue reading
Bush Iraq Predicament Own Fault; Iraq No Different Than Israel; NY Times Compounds Its Kissinger Distortion; Raines: Critics Biased; Ashcroft = Gestapo; Reuters: Anti-Human Rights War on Terror 1) Peter Jennings blamed the Bush administration's advocacy of war for its predicament: "This business of attacking Iraq has been promoted so vigorously by some members of his administration, and running into such opposition, the President is now obliged to work harder at convincing people at what he wants is the right thing." NBC's Lisa Myers highlighted how both GOP "moderate" Senator Susan Collins and "conservative" Senator Thad Cochran oppose Bush's policy... continue reading