After fretting that numerous government scandals were becoming a "big problem" for President Obama at the top of Friday's NBC Today , in the 7:30 a.m. ET half hour, correspondent Andrea Mitchell eagerly engaged in reporting that was more enjoyable, the promotion of a new Hollywood biopic of Hillary Clinton ahead of the former Secretary of State's potential 2016 presidential run. Mitchell began the puff peice by proclaiming: "Hillary Clinton has been America's First Lady a Senator from New York, and most recently, Secretary of State. But a new film called Rodham will focus on Hillary Rodham's days fresh out... continue reading
Both NBC and CBS led their Thursday morning shows with news that the Obama administration has secretly obtained the phone records of millions of Americans, but ABC's Good Morning America started its show reporting on Tropical Storm Andrea in Florida instead. Overall, Thursday's two hour-long GMA spent less than three minutes total on the phone tracking story, giving over five times more coverage to the attempted suicide of Michael Jackson's daughter Paris. Back in 2006, however, ABC showed far more scrutiny to a similar story of the Bush administration tracking phone calls. When news broke in May of 2006 of... continue reading
On Wednesday's The Last Word show, MSNBC political analyst Richard Wolffe -- formerly of Newsweek -- suggested that FNC host Bill O'Reilly was motivated by racism when he recently called it "shady" for President Obama to select Susan Rice as national security advisor to avoid Senate confirmation hearings. A bit after host Lawrence O'Donnell played several clips of O'Reilly using the word "shady" to describe the move, Wolffe cracked: I do recall when Fox News was looking at Dick Cheney and his openness and transparency, they didn't call him shady. But, you know, it's totally different with a black President,... continue reading
On Wednesday's NBC Nightly News , chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd cheered President Obama picking Susan Rice to be his new national security advisor and nominating Samantha Power as U.N. ambassador: "They are now among the most powerful women in the American foreign policy community. Behind-the-scenes power players now front and center." Amid soundbites of Obama praising both women, Todd joined in extolling their accomplishments: "Both come with a long list of impressive credentials. Rice, a Harvard graduate and Rhodes scholar with a Ph.D. from Oxford. In 1990's she served as assistant secretary of state in the Clinton administration... continue reading
After President Obama appointed U.N. ambassador Susan Rice to be his national security adviser, ABC's Good Morning America lauded Rice on Wednesday as "hard-nosed" and "no-nonsense." Rice's biggest knock against her nomination for Secretary of State was giving false information on the Benghazi attacks to no less than five different Sunday talk shows just days after the attacks. ABC, though, was sympathetic to her nomination last fall, describing the GOP opposition as a " buzz saw " and glossing over the fact that what she said was, actually, false . Wednesday's GMA still couldn't muster the nerve to call the... continue reading
CNN's Piers Morgan continues to find every way he can to boost his gun control agenda. On Tuesday night's Piers Morgan Live , he compared the Newtown shooting photos to the open casket of Emmett Till in the 1950's and implied that America would need to see the gruesomeness of the shooting in order to change its mind on guns. Till was a black teenager who was brutally murdered in Mississippi in 1955, whose mother insisted on having an open funeral casket to show the country the barbarity of the racism and hatred behind the killing. Newtown parents have objected... continue reading
Reporting the breaking news on Wednesday's NBC Today that President Obama had named U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice to be national security advisor, chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd portrayed Rice as a victim of Republican attacks: "Rice, who had become a Republican punching bag during the whole Benghazi controversy.... this is a bit of a defiant move by the President to his Republican critics." [ Listen to the audio ] Later on his 9 a.m. ET MSNBC show, The Daily Rundown , while discussing GOP opposition to Rice's promotion – and her nominated replacement as U.N. ambassador, Samantha Power –... continue reading
Wednesday's CBS This Morning minimized Susan Rice's refuted claims about the terrorist attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi as they covered her appointment as national security adviser. Charlie Rose and John Dickerson dwelt more on outgoing national security adviser Tom Donilon's term, with Dickerson only vaguely mentioning how Rice was " the focus of so much controversy in the Senate ." The only time that a CBS News personality specifically mentioned Benghazi during the segment was when Gayle King wondered if President Obama's decision to choose the current U.N. ambassador to succeed Donilon was a " message to Republicans... continue reading
Meet your new late-night CNN host George Stroumboulopoulos, who feels the Toronto Mayor's alleged use of a gay slur was worse than if he had a crack addiction, and thinks New York City Mayor Bloomberg is a "right-winger" whose soda ban revealed that his "heart's in the right place" and whose support for "marriage equality" was "fantastic." Stroumboulopoulos, currently a nightly CBC television host, will host a weekly talk show debuting on Sunday night June 9 and airing on Friday nights at 11 p.m. ET. CNN announced his show would focus on a variety of issues from sports to pop... continue reading
On Monday's NBC Nightly News , Brian Williams failed to mention Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan's traditional Islamic orientation as he reported on the "anti-government protests" in the Mediterranean country. Williams merely described the demonstrations as a "display of frustration with the prime minister... who has been trying to impose more conservative values on that mostly secular country ." CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley had no such qualms the same evening as he reported on the same rallies. Pelley asked correspondent Holly Williams, "When the protestors say that Erdogan is trying to impose his Islamic values on the country... continue reading