CNN gave over eight times more coverage to Beyonce lip synching the national anthem than it did to President Obama's falsehood on the sequester last Friday. After the President claimed in last Friday's presser that Capitol Hill janitors and police would receive a pay cut because of the sequester, CNN correspondent Dana Bash fact-checked it and found it not to be the case. Her report aired twice that day and two more times over last weekend. She covered the matter for 45 seconds in each report, so CNN's coverage totaled three minutes. In contrast, CNN spent over 26 minutes investigating... continue reading
ABC's Wor ld News on Wednesday and Good Morning America on Thursday offered confusing, incomplete and brief explanations for why Rand Paul filibustered John Brennan, Barack Obama's Central Intelligence Agency nominee. According to GMA news reader Josh Elliott, " Paul was protesting the Obama administration's use of drone strikes against Americans." [Video of the terse explanations can be found below.] World News anchor Diane Sawyer insisted the "Tea party firebrand" was opposing "the use of drones against U.S. citizens." This is hardly a full explanation for ABC's viewers. On the Today show, Chuck Todd produced a more accurate description: "[Paul]... continue reading
Actress Olivia Munn stars in HBO's drama The Newsroom , but she knocked the real-life CNN newsroom on Sunday. At a panel moderated by CNN host Piers Morgan, Munn made clear her distaste for newspeople "trying to make themselves a celebrity." "I like seeing my news anchors just be my news anchors. And now you turn on CNN and now people are putting themselves into a story ," she said, calling out Morgan and CNN anchor Don Lemon by name. "Have your opinion on news stories, on situations, but to make yourself newsworthy is so egotistical and it's so self-absorbed... continue reading
At the same time that rising Republican Senate stars Rand Paul and Ted Cruz were making history with a filibuster , Chris Matthews, on Wednesday's Hardball , insisted Paul and Cruz must be heroes to hate groups. During a segment on the liberal Southern Poverty Law Center's new study about an increase of anti-government hate groups, Matthews demanded which politicians they supported: "Who do they root for?! They don't root for Rand Paul? Pat Buchanan? I mean who? They must like this new guy Ted Cruz. They must love Ted Cruz, c'mon!" The following are the relevant exchanges as aired... continue reading
In an interview on Monday's Today with former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and his co-author Clint Bolick about their new book, Immigration Wars , co-host Matt Lauer seized Bush's critical words for fellow Republicans: "...this is an alarm to your party. You called Republicans 'tone deaf and hostile to immigrants and Hispanics,' you fault the party for being unwilling to expand the base, and you warn that Republicans face, your word, 'extinction' if they continue to alienate Hispanics. Is this damage that was caused and has been inflicted, whether self or not, something that can be repaired in time for... continue reading
ABCNews.com on Wednesday greeted the death of Hugo Chavez by avoiding the word “socialist.” Instead, reporter Brandi Hitt touted the repressive leader as someone who “appeared to never back down from a challenge.” The reporter never mentioned Chavez’s crackdown on free speech or democracy. Instead, she featured a woman in the streets of Venezuela gushing, “ He’s a man that cared about us…He did not give anything to me, but he gave it to my people.” [Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Good Morning America as airing the Brandi Hitt story. Her piece was posted on GMA's... continue reading
During a panel discussion on Tuesday's NBC Today about an elderly woman being denied CPR at an assisted living facility and later dying, pundit Donny Deutsch immediately worried about the health care expense that may have been incurred if the woman had lived: "It's obviously a very sad story, but it really brings up, I think, a larger issue that we've got to get our arms around, that 25% of the health care costs are against people in their last year of their life, the 4 or 5% of people, keeping people alive." Deutsch suggested it was time to shift... continue reading
This is CNN, where environmental activists can launch their blistering attacks on man-made global warming skeptics without much of a challenge. On Tuesday's Starting Point , actress and activist Daryl Hannah promoted her new documentary "Greedy, Lying Bastards" that hits the funding and supposed falsehoods behind global warming skepticism. Hannah was able to slam "false information" by the Koch brothers, compare herself to Martin Luther King, and call for the "eradication" of Citizens United during the interview. CNN completely ignored that the director and writer of her film, Craig Rosebraugh, was a fomer spokesman for eco-terrorist groups for years before... continue reading
The way CNN sees the Vatican hierarchy, one would think it's a repressive male-dominated cabal that women are morally obligated to challenge. CNN's Ben Wedeman aired another broadside against the church from the streets of Rome on Tuesday. Wedeman stretched one comparison between Vatican City and Saudi Arabia – neither allow women's suffrage: "Vatican City joined Saudi Arabia as one of the few states left on earth where women have no vote." [Video below. Audio here .] And he connected St. Catherine of Siena's condemnation of clerical corruption with today's Catholic women struggling for a greater role in the church:... continue reading
Twelve minutes after reporting the news of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez's death, CNN hosted Chavez's close friend and former adviser who lavished praise on his legacy. For over two minutes, CNN let attorney Eva Golinger strew rose petals on the dictator's record. She gushed that Chavez "has changed the lives dramatically of the majority of Venezuelans. He's altered the country forever." She added that " he's done extraordinary, extraordinary, absolutely extraordinary things for the country. " [Video below. Audio here .] "His policies have reduced poverty by more than half, have brought people out of dire circumstances that today enjoy... continue reading