Sounding remarkably like American liberals and journalists at the time – not to be redundant – last week’s episode of FX’s The Americans set in the early 1980s (a new episode runs Wednesday night), included a scene in which a KGB operative, working in the United States, sputtered in disgust at President Ronald Reagan on her TV: “Look at him. He’ll do anything. He doesn’t care. Kids, nuns, journalists -- he doesn’t care.” That came from “Elizabeth Jennings,” played by Keri Russell, as she watched Reagan speak on TV, a speech I figured out was delivered at the Conservative Political... continue reading
With only weeks left before she retires, View co-host Barbara Walters on Wednesday found time to fawn over another liberal Democrat. The veteran journalist repeatedly hyped Senator Elizabeth Warren as a possible president. As though she were the politician's publicist, Walters enthused, "A small town, Oklahoma girl grows up, handles the challenges of being a young, single mother, practically a teenager. She becomes a Harvard law professor, a congressional advisor, and then the first female senator in the history of Massachusetts." The host blurbed, "...Could her next move be the White House?" This was a topic Walter kept coming back... continue reading
MSNBC's Ari Melber seemed downright gleeful at the news that vulnerable Senate Democrats have started running campaign ads touting their support for ObamaCare. Filling in for host Lawrence O'Donnell on The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell on Monday, April 21, Melber hyped how "there are signs that President Obama's new call to run on the Affordable Care Act has gotten through to Democrats." The regular host of MSNBC's daytime program The Cycle proceeded to hype a campaign ad by Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC) that edited comments made by Thom Tillis, her potential opponent in the November general election, making it... continue reading
The journalists at CBS This Morning, Wednesday, highlighted the "impassioned dissent" of liberal Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor on affirmative action. All three networks covered the 6-2 ruling upholding a state's right to ban race as a factor in public universities. But it was CBS's Jan Crawford who focused on the liberal anger, noting that Sotomayor "took the unusual step of reading [her dissent] aloud." [MP3 audio here .] Crawford dramatically recounted, "She spent about 12 minutes really saying that the six justices in the majority just don't get it, that race still matters. It felt almost personal at times."... continue reading
President Obama began a week-long trip of Asia on Wednesday with a stop in Japan, and NBC's Today dutifully heaped praise on the trip and the American Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy. On April 23, Co-host Matt Lauer gushed at the "Historic trip. President Obama greeted by Ambassador Caroline Kennedy as he arrives in Japan this morning. The first state visit by a president there in nearly two decades and Ambassador Kennedy's first major summit in her new role." The 2 and a half minute segment began with reporter Peter Alexander glowing at " A large crowd, including his ambassador,... continue reading
On Tuesday's Hardball , fill-in host Joy Reid compared the Supreme Court upholding Michigan's ban on affirmative action to upholding white supremacy. "If this court has a central narrative, it could be that those who have held the advantage for most of this country's history deserve to have it back if they can find the legislative or political means to take it back. If they do, the Court won't stand in the way," Reid ranted at the end of the show. [Audio here .] The regular host of MSNBC's The Reid Report also compared the state bans on affirmative action... continue reading
Reporting on Tuesday's Supreme Court decision that enabled states' voters to ban affirmative action, the NBC and ABC evening newscasts featured a soundbite from the same teenage activist who called the ruling "disgusting" and charged it is "creating a new Jim Crow." Both networks simply labeled Markeith Jones a high school student without disclosing he is an activist who recently marched protesting Michigan's ban on affirmative action. ABC quoted Jones and other supporters of affirmative action four times in its report while giving opponents just two soundbites. NBC's Pete Williams highlighted how, "in Detroit, high school sophomore Markeith Jones says... continue reading
Jill Abramson of the New York Times denied that her newspaper has a liberal bias during a Mondays with Marlo interview with actress Marlo Thomas posted on the Huffington Post site. Abramson asserted that the Times " reflects a very cosmopolitan, inclusive outlook, which can strike some readers as liberal ," and later claimed that " the news pages are not ideological ." The executive editor zeroed in on the issue of gun control as her example of how the New York Times is supposedly balanced: [MP3 audio available here ; video below ] ...[W]hat I do to guard against... continue reading
Forty four people were shot over the weekend in a bloody epidemic sweeping Rahm Emanuel's Chicago. Yet, CBS has, thus far, ignored the ignored the crime wave. In contrast, ABC's Good Morning America and CBS This Morning on Tuesday both briefly covered the violence in the city run by Barack Obama's former chief of staff. GMA news reader Dan Abrams explained, "Special authorities are creating a special crime-fighting unit in Chicago after a shocking spike in street violence." [MP3 audio here . ] He noted that among the victims were "six children and two more teenagers overnight." On Today ,... continue reading
Since Monday, April 14, ABC's Claire Shipman has been touring the network and cable news networks to promote her new book that she co-wrote with Katty Kay entitled "The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self Assurance-What Women Should Know." Despite the eight television appearances Shipman has made since April 14, only two interviews openly acknowledged her marriage to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney. While five of the eight programs in which Shipman appeared on to promote her book ignored her marriage to Jay Carney, all eight of them ignored the recent profile of her and her family... continue reading