CBS This Morning reporter Ben Tracy offered a one-sided take on liberal outrage against an internet browser's CEO and his support for traditional marriage. Brendan Eich is the new head of Mozilla, the company behind Firefox. Eich's crime? Tracy informed, "Six years ago, he personally donated a thousand dollars to support Proposition 8, the California initiative banning same-sex marriage." [MP3 audio here .] The journalist brought on Peter LaMotte, a business executive to lecture that "any public statement by a corporation needs to factor in how it represents the firm as a whole and how it's going to affect the... continue reading
It helps to be in the White House when a CNN host professes himself to be "card-carrying member" of the administration's health care law, or when the enrollment numbers are cast as a "major victory." New CNN host Michael Smerconish touted the benefits of ObamaCare on Tuesday night, confessing he was a "card-carrying member of ObamaCare" and calling the enrollment numbers "quite an achievement." OutFront host Erin Burnett went even further, saying the enrollment claims was a "major victory." [Audio here .] This despite Burnett admitting that major questions have yet to be answered: "What we still don't know about... continue reading
As the networks reported on President Obama's Tuesday "victory lap" over ObamaCare's new enrollment numbers, CBS played right into the administration's hands by highlighting the "peace of mind" of a young adult who signed up for health care. In what could have passed for a White House commercial, CBS's Ben Tracy interviewed an uninsured 33 year-old who "felt like a ticking time bomb" before he signed up for ObamaCare at the deadline. He told CBS "now I have it, so it's – it's sort of a peace of mind thing for me." [Audio here .] ABC's Jonathan Karl hailed Tuesday... continue reading
Jim Acosta emulated a P.R. flack for the Obama administration on the 9 AM EDT edition of CNN Newsroom on Tuesday, as he hyped how the White House is "on track to hit seven million signing up" for ObamaCare. Acosta gushed that " if ObamaCare were a patient, this would be a pretty miraculous recovery, when you consider ... that disastrous rollout in October and November." The correspondent later touted the development as " pretty big news over here at the White House. They're reacting with a lot of glee and happiness, I can tell you ." Acosta and anchor... continue reading
Charlie Rose, during a panel discussion about the new UN report on climate change, had the audacity to insult global warming skeptics as “climate deniers” even as he brought on a so-called expert who once predicted the “greenhouse effect” would cause “food riots” all across North America...in 1995. Everyone remembers the great North American Food Riots of ‘95? Right? Well that crazy scenario was dreamed up by one of the UN report co-authors Princeton University professor Michael Oppenheimer. On PBS's Charlie Rose show Oppenheimer dismissed climate change skeptics as people who “just like to stand away from the crowd.” Well... continue reading
Teasing an upcoming story Tuesday on a left-wing smear campaign against conservative donors Charles and David Koch, CBS This Morning co-host Norah O'Donnell proclaimed: "Battling the Koch brothers, Democrats are fighting back against the family that spent more than $150 million trying to shake up Congress." Introducing the segment, fellow co-host Charlie Rose announced that "one of the best-known families in big-money politics is once again in the spotlight." [ Listen to the audio ] In the report that followed, correspondent Nancy Cordes told viewers: "They are the Koch brothers, both in their 70s and two of the wealthiest men... continue reading
All three morning shows on Tuesday hyped an "eye-popping" surge on the final day of ObamaCare sign-ups, but NBC's Today minimized the latest problems for those attempting to meet the deadline. Despite two segments on the topics, the four-hour program covered this angle for a scant 22 seconds. In contrast, Jon Karl on ABC's Good Morning America threw cold water on the celebration. Ignoring George Stephanopoulos's claim that "all signs point to an eye-popping surge in sign-ups for health insurance," Karl warned of "big, unanswered questions." He explained, " One of the biggest is how many of those have signed... continue reading
Wrapping up an interview with President Obama's former White House chief of staff Bill Daley on Tuesday's CBS This Morning , co-host Charlie Rose wondered if it was "fair to say" that ObamaCare was "badly conceived." After a long pause, Daley replied: "I didn't hear you, Charlie." Rose was suddenly out of time: "I was asking whether it was badly conceived but I don't really have much time to consider that question. But thank you so much, Bill." Daley responded: "Good, Charlie." [ Listen to the audio ] Rose began the exchange by lobbing this softball to Daley: "Do you... continue reading
The networks all hyped the new United Nations report on climate change on Monday evening, touting it as a dire call for action and an "urgent new warning." NBC's Brian Williams gave by far the most dramatic take on the report, even starting the Nightly News with the story. "Good evening, the world has never been spoken to quite this way," he soberly began. "We've never been warned like this before, all of us, about climate change, nor have so many countries agreed quite this much on the clear and present danger it represents," he added. NBC littered its report... continue reading
After 20 years of activist journalism at ABC, it was announced on Thursday that Cynthia McFadden is leaving the network for NBC . The Nightline co-anchor fawned over many Democratic politicians, but shows a particular affinity for Hillary Clinton. Over the decades, McFadden has compared Clinton to Thomas Jefferson and praised her as a "rock star." On another occasion, she worried about the toll the 2008 campaign took on the Democrat: "There's never a night, when you go back to whatever hotel room, whatever city you're in that night, and crawl in a ball and say...this just hurts too much?'"... continue reading