When CNN's Piers Morgan accused the NRA of fighting the American people on his Thursday show, GOP strategist Kelly Conway retorted that public favor for gun control has waned despite the best efforts of President Obama (and Piers Morgan). " You're making this about the NRA versus the people ," Conway told Morgan, who affirmed "That's what it is." She then slapped down his claim that the NRA is defying the wishes of the American people on guns: "President Obama has made this his cause d'être for three and a half months now, and the trend lines and the polling,... continue reading
Call it the tale of two gaffes. CNN only briefly covered President Obama's blunder that the gun used in the Sandy Hook shooting was an automatic weapon. Meanwhile, the network gave almost 40 minutes on Friday to outrage over Obama calling California's Attorney General "the best-looking attorney general in the country." CNN's Jake Tapper was the only CNN anchor or reporter who caught Obama's "automatic" gun error. He reported it twice on Thursday, once during his 4 p.m. ET show The Lead and later on while filling in for host Erin Burnett on OutFront . Automatic weapons are already strictly... continue reading
ABC, CBS, and NBC's Friday morning shows all devoted air time to President Obama labeling California Attorney General Kamala Harris " the best-looking attorney general in the country " at a fundraiser on Thursday. Unsurprisingly, a panel on NBC's Today tried to explain away the remark. Willie Geist asserted, " I think he [Obama] was making a joke ." CBS This Morning 's Norah O'Donnell was tougher on the President: "Maybe, [it] was not the right thing to say ." However, the Big Three newscasts didn't report that Mrs. Obama also got caught in a verbal misstep on Thursday. ABCNews.com's... continue reading
Oops. Good Morning America on Friday preemptively announced "expected" job creation for the month of March totaling 190,000. In reality, 88,000 jobs were created. The ABC morning show was only off by 102,000 jobs. At 7:10am, about 75 minutes before the release of the actual numbers, reporter Linzie Janis insited, " The government's jobs report is out this morning. It's expected to show that 190,000 jobs were created last month ." The accompanying graphic included the number and a tiny asterisk, presumably representing the tentative nature of the numbers. [MP3 audio here .] This is a monthly practice on the... continue reading
On Thursday, MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell celebrated five years of her 1 p.m. ET hour show, Andrea Mitchell Reports , with highlight reels and congratulatory messages from her NBC colleagues. The accolades for Mitchell followed five years of her using the program to routinely praise liberals and bash conservatives. Here is a sampling of how Mitchell's supposed news show often devolved into left-wing commentary: "Michelle Obama says she does not want to distract from her husband's campaign. She instead wants to be part of the solution. This in an exclusive interview with USA Today. Barack Obama's wife says that one... continue reading
In an exclusive Wednesday interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, CNN founder Ted Turner expressed his hopes for President Obama and advised him to "get this global climate change under control." During the 6 p.m. ET hour of The Situation Room , Blitzer teed up Turner to give Obama advice and promoted his new biography Last Stand . He added that "Turner's politics clearly lean left" and noted "his admiration for former President Jimmy Carter." [Video below. Audio here .] "I think he's got an opportunity to really get us out of trouble," Turner said of President Obama. He argued for... continue reading
CNN's Piers Morgan put Michael Reagan through the wringer on Wednesday over a small portion of his op-ed on churches and same-sex marriage. Morgan barely discussed the overall point of the article, focusing instead on "very controversial comments" near the end of the op-ed. Within his call for churches to openly oppose same-sex marriage, Reagan had noted a "slippery slope" that would occur if same-sex marriage is legalized, possibly leading to legalization of "bestiality, and perhaps even murder." Morgan found this "at worst really very bigoted and offensive" and attacked Reagan for comparing gay marriage to bestiality and murder, even... continue reading
CNN joined the New York Times in hyping Ronald Reagan's liberal activist daughter saying her father would have approved of same-sex marriage. Thursday's Starting Point devoted a whole segment to Patti Davis' claims and hosted her openly-gay friend who gave credence to her argument. "Patti said she never spoke to her father about gay marriage," reported anchor John Berman. Nevertheless, CNN deemed the post-mortem claims of Regan's liberal activist daughter, who dropped her last name while in college and carved her own liberal path, newsworthy. [Video below. Audio here .] "[Y]ou look at that video, she seems pretty certain that... continue reading
All three networks on Wednesday and Thursday parroted the exact same talking points from the White House, touting Barack Obama for expressing "solidarity" with struggling workers by taking a five percent pay cut. The President made the move, which amounts to a minuscule $1700 a month, in the wake of sequestration. On Good Morning America , Josh Elliott trumpeted, "[Obama] says he wants to show solidarity with government workers who face a furlough because of budget cuts." [MP3 audio here .] Over on NBC's Today , Natalie Morales touted, " In an attempt at solidarity with federal workers feeling the... continue reading
On Thursday's NBC Today , co-host Savannah Guthrie heralded that Connecticut had "approved some of the tightest gun control legislation in the country as President Obama is pushing for tougher laws nationwide." The headline on screen proclaimed: "Tough New State Gun Laws; Connecticut Governor to Sign Sweeping Gun Control Bill." In the report that followed, White House correspondent Kristen Welker touted President Obama's cross-country trip "aimed at campaigning for stiffer gun laws," but lamented that such legislation was "virtually stalled in Congress." She then optimistically declared: "It's a different story in the states in the wake of the Newtown tragedy... continue reading