NBC Found Global Crossing; CBS Buried Preference for Democrats; ABC Rued "Huge" Budget Cuts; Bill Clinton Still "Honest" to Rather -- Extra Edition 1) Global Crossing discovered. On Monday night NBC became the first broadcast network to note the political parallels with Enron as Lisa Myers pointed out how Terry McAuliffe and George H.W. Bush were early investors. But unlike the Washington Times, she failed to report how most of Global Crossing's money went to Democrats and that its founder "was a White House guest at President Clinton's Millennium New Year's Eve party, golfed with Mr. Clinton and pledged $1... continue reading
Ted Turner Called Terrorists "Brave," Blamed 9-11 on Poverty, Denounced Bush as "Julius Caesar," Forecast Environmental Collapse -- Back to today's CyberAlert Update: Turner Clarified Some of His Comments > One item in this CyberAlert Extra: The Providence Journal reported that in a talk Monday night at Brown University AOL Time Warner Vice Chairman Ted Turner called the terrorists who attacked on September 11 "brave," claimed, despite the fact that the terrorists were well-off, "the reason that the World Trade Center got hit is because there are a lot of people living in abject poverty out there who don't have... continue reading
Budget = "Enron Accounting"; Worried About Too Much Nationalism; Bus Money to Canada for Jennings; Van Susteren's Clinton Defense 1) When liberal Senator Kent Conrad denounced President Bush's budget for cutting taxes and not raising spending enough, Al Hunt resounded: "Amen, brother Conrad." Hunt sarcastically declared that "this budget is about as credible as an Enron accounting statement." 2) "A pompous idiot." That's what Newsweek's Evan Thomas thinks of Democratic Senator Robert Byrd who last week lectured Treasury Secretary O'Neill about how he was never poor enough to understand the downtrodden whom Byrd claims to represent. 3) Today's Katie Couric... continue reading
Don't Let Patriotism Mar Olympics; NBC: Women Good, Men Bad; No Snow?: Global Warming; CNN Off Track on Amtrak; Alter's Obsession 1) Don't have much U.S. patriotism at the Olympics. NBC's Matt Lauer pressed the President of the U.S. Olympic Committee to agree: "We have to also be careful and draw a line not to let our patriotism get in the way of the games in general." 2) "New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd hit on a simple truth today," NBC anchor Tom Brokaw trumpeted Wednesday night in devoting a story to her theme that in Enron "the dividing line... continue reading
U.S. War on "Innocent Civilians"; Fawning Over "Clinton at the Waldorf"; Traficant Fired Back; Pearl Abduction: Blame Conservatives 1) NBC's Today on Tuesday devoted air time to an interview with an author who charges the U.S. is just as guilty of terrorism as any nation. Matt Lauer outlined the thesis which he only gently challenged and more often pressed the author to elaborate: "The United States has repeatedly waged war against innocent civilians." 2) A Los Angeles Times poll distorted the facts about Enron officials making calls to Bush administration figures last fall, referring to "bailout meetings." One of the... continue reading
CBS Illustrated Liberal Point; CBS Didn't Correct Enron Tax Story; Van Susteren's Liberal Debut on FNC; Novak's Quiz for Donaldson 1) CBS provided a misleading graphic to illustrate a liberal budget point. A Monday CBS Evening News story featured a gold kettle, labeled "Social Security & Medicare Surpluses," with stacks of dollar bills flowing out of a hole, as John Roberts explained how Bush had proposed "the first deficit budget in five years, one that drains the entire Social Security and Medicare surpluses and still ends up $80 billion in the red." 2) Using a term usually reserved by the... continue reading
Complaining About Budget Cuts; Bush "Conjuring Up an Enemy" to Justify Missile Defense; Refurbished Greta; Prime Time Stem Cells 1) On This Week ABC's Sam Donaldson lamented to Donald Rumsfeld that the proposed Bush budget raises "the old question of guns versus butter" as it cuts domestic programs "all to pay for an expanded defense budget." After Rumsfeld insisted "our soldiers don't go around killing innocent people," Donaldson retorted: "Except you've just launched an investigation to see whether in fact we did." 2) To the Washington press corps "sacrifice" means no tax cut, not slowed spending hikes. Newsweek's Evan Thomas... continue reading
"Right Into Cheney's Office"; Bush's "Assault on Women's Rights"; Gumbel Pushed King Abdullah to Denounce Bush; GMA Fond of Fonda 1) On Thursday night NBC insisted the Enron scandal leads "right into Vice President Cheney's office." Setting up a story on how Enron supposedly influenced reaction to California's power problems, Tom Brokaw referred to charges that Enron kept "energy prices artificially high during the power crisis" by convincing the Bush team to not impose price controls on wholesale electricity prices. The free market is "artificial"? 2) A new study from the far-left U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), documented how... continue reading
Bush Plan: "Enron for Everybody"; Bush's "Threat" to Daschle on Hearings; NPR Retracted Smear; Russert: "The Late Newt Gingrich" 1) Forget any concerns about methods or sources being exposed by public hearings into pre-September 11th failures by intelligence agencies. Noting the administration's suggestion it would not cooperate with such hearings unless they remain closed, ABC's Charles Gibson asked Tom Daschle: "Did you take that as something of a threat?" 2) Good Morning America focused on how Bush failed to mention Enron in his State of the Union address. Claire Shipman suggested "the scandal simply serves to remind the public of... continue reading
State of the Union Edition: Bush Rebuked on Tax Cut, Not Calling for Campaign Finance Reform; Bush Chided for Not Citing Enron; CNN Essayist Found Speech "Unnerving"; NY Times's Poll Result Slant 1) Several network anchors and analysts praised President Bush's speech. Dan Rather: "This was a solid, at times even eloquent address." Tim Russert: "It was sober speech, but a very, very effective one." On MSNBC, Howard Fineman praised its eloquence but he, and CNN's Jeff Greenfield, were especially impressed by Bush's calls for more activist government. 2) Analysts expressed disappointment at how Bush hadn't abandoned his defense of... continue reading