ABC on Wednesday and Thursday continued to ignore the developing prostitution scandal surrounding Democratic Senator Robert Menendez. NBC highlighted the story on the Today show. CBS covered the story, but reporter Jan Crawford suggested the allegations have "all the earmarks of an orchestrated smear campaign." ABC's World News on Wednesday and Good Morning America on Thursday skipped the news that federal agents are removing evidence from the office of Solomon Melgen, a Florida doctor who flew Menendez on trips to the Dominican Republic. There, the New Jersey senator allegedly engaged prostitutes. On CB S This Morning , Crawford charitably explained,... continue reading
Last month, when the Republican Governor of South Carolina named GOP U.S. Representative Tim Scott to the U.S. Senate, the “first African American U.S. Senator from the South since Blanche Bruce of Mississippi in 1881” according to The State newspaper , thus becoming the only black -- Democrat or Republican -- in the Senate, ABC’s World News didn’t mention it. Fast-forward to Wednesday night, and ABC anchor Diane Sawyer suddenly found it newsworthy that the Democratic Governor of Massachusetts appointed an African-American to replace new Secretary of State John Kerry, trumpeting: “Look closely at this picture. That is William ‘Mo’... continue reading
During a panel discussion on Wednesday's NBC Today , the morning show's regular liberal pundits had a panic attack over Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke putting out a radio ad calling on local citizens to "Consider taking a certified safety course in handling a firearm so you can defend yourself." Chief medical editor Nancy Snyderman was aghast: "This is so irresponsible it's dangerous." [ Listen to the audio ] Attorney Star Jones chimed in: "I think it's so irresponsible." Snyderman accused the Sheriff of advocating "vigilantism" and ranted: "I don't hear anything in there about safety. It's, 'Arm yourself, the cops... continue reading
As if comparing Hillary Clinton to Thomas Jefferson wasn't hyperbolic enough, ABC's Cynthia McFadden on Wednesday practically begged the Secretary of State to run for president. The Nightline co-anchor lobbied Clinton, lecturing her about the "obligation" she has to "break through that glass ceiling." Yet, the reporter could only manage the most gentle probing into the issue of the terrorist attack in Libya. McFadden pressed the Democrat to run in 2016, asking the question no less than four times. If it appeared, the journalist wondered, " that you might be the person who could actually break through that glass ceiling... continue reading
On Wednesday's CBS This Morning , Nancy Cordes falsely characterized the weapon used in the 2011 mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona. Cordes noted that former astronaut Mark Kelly, "whose wife...Gabrielle Giffords was badly injured in the Tucson shooting," would call for a ban on " assault weapons like the one that was used to wound his wife and kill six others ." However, Jared Loughner, the perpetrator of the massacre, used a Glock 19 handgun with a 33-round magazine, not the military-style, semi-automatic rifles that are often labeled "assault weapons" by gun control supporters. The journalist even showed a photo... continue reading
Over three programs and two days, ABC devoted 15 minutes to a fawning profile of Hillary Clinton. On Wednesday's Nightline , Cynthia McFadden even compared the outgoing Secretary of State to Thomas Jefferson, hinting that Clinton could follow his footsteps to the White House. McFadden lauded, "There was a time not so very long ago when Hillary Clinton was seen as one of the most divisive figures in American politics." Noting Clinton's high approval rating, she announced this view was "changing." In an interview that, just coincidentally occurred in front of a statue of Jefferson , the reporter embarrassingly hyped,... continue reading
The headline NBC chose promote from chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell's Tuesday interview with outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was that Clinton really couldn't accomplish much given the situation she "inherited" from the Bush administration, with Nightly News anchor Brian Williams proclaiming: "...[Clinton] said, among other things, it's tougher these days to pull off the sweeping diplomatic achievements of the old days." [ Listen to the audio ] On Wednesday's Today , Mitchell parroted Clinton's talking points: "Clinton told me that it is hard for her to imagine waking up next week with no place to go, after... continue reading
CBS's Steve Kroft conformed his journalistic benevolence to President Obama and Secretary Clinton when he told CNN's Piers Morgan on Monday that Obama "likes 60 Minutes " because they won't "play gotcha with him." Morgan asked Kroft why Obama "keeps coming to you?" Kroft answered, "I think it's a question of fairness. I, we have not, I think he knows that we're not going to play gotcha with him , that we're not going to go out of our way to make him look bad or stupid, and we'll let him answer the questions." NewsBusters' Tim Graham excoriated 60 Minutes... continue reading
On Tuesday's Starting Point , CNN's David Gergen smiled on Hillary Clinton's "wonderful farewell" at the State Department and touted her "very powerful position" for a 2016 presidential run. As CNN noted, Gergen once worked as an adviser to President Clinton. When asked if anything from Clinton's term as Secretary of State would come back to haunt her as a presidential candidate, Gergen replied "I don't think so. The Benghazi affair, I think, will long be forgotten unless there's some smoking gun we have no idea about. " [Video below. Audio here .] Gergen echoed fellow Clinton admirers in the... continue reading
CNN's Soledad O'Brien, well known for her documentaries on race "Latino In America" and "Black In America," questioned the GOP's credibility among minority voters on Friday's Starting Point . Quoting an RNC committeeman who said minority voters and the youth vote "simply don't know" the GOP, O'Brien asked former RNC chair Mel Martinez " is it that they don't know you? Meaning you as the GOP. Or is that they know you and they decided they don't like you? " [Video below. Audio here. ] Martinez acknowledged a "communication gap," but O'Brien tried to get him to admit the GOP... continue reading