Liberal historian Douglas Brinkley gushed over President Obama on Thursday's CBS This Morning and Friday's CNN Newsroom , and tried to put the incumbent in the best possible light: " He's [Obama] a very natural person .... He's a really warm and genial person. What he has going for him is he exudes family values ." Brinkley later asserted to CNN's Suzanne Malveaux that Obama is an " intellectual ...he reads all these books about Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, FDR.. .he's wonkish, in a sense of detail in history ." Both times, the Rice University professor downplayed the President's... continue reading
ABC News has mostly ignored the blockbuster revelation that the Obama White House knew, within hours, about the terrorist connection to the September 11, 2012 attack in Libya. Instead, shows such as World News and Good Morning America have focused their attention on more pressing subjects, such as yawning dogs, "mystery monkeys" and a woman who only eats three different foods. On Wednesday Night, World News allowed a scant 20 seconds to e-mails showing that the strike on the Benghazi embassy was, indeed, a pre-planned assault. Yet, on Thursday, Diane Sawyer devoted a minute and 47 seconds to answering this... continue reading
On Friday's NBC Today , political director Chuck Todd described how "both sides are dealing with some unexpected political speed bumps on the trail" and began by detailing the supposed obstacles for the Romney campaign: ...it's Indiana's Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, who made controversial comments about abortion and rape on Tuesday... another unforced error for Team Romney and Republicans , national campaign co-chair John Sununu made these eyebrow-raising comments in response to Colin Powell's endorsement of President Obama. A clip played of Sununu telling CNN's Piers Morgan : "Well, I think when you have somebody of your own race... continue reading
During a 20-minute interview with President Obama aired on Thursday's NBC Rock Center , host Brian Williams devoted a total of 1 minute 36 seconds to the subject of the terrorist attack in Libya. At the same time, four segments of soft coverage of the President's re-election campaign received a combined total of 2 minutes 19 seconds. The promotional fluff included the President stopping by a pizza shop in Iowa (1 min 3 sec), appearing on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno (30 sec), having singer Katy Perry perform at a rally in Las Vegas (31 sec), and him picking... continue reading
Even after all the e-mails and information has come out over the past few weeks proving dissembling by President Obama himself and other administration officials on what they knew about the Benghazi attack and how their public pronouncements did not match reality, NBC’s Brian Williams, on Thursday’s Rock Center, treated President Obama as a victim of bad intelligence who is struggling to find the truth. Incredible. The perfect definition of “in the tank.” Williams spent a couple of days with Obama for campaign travelogue pieces which consumed the first 25 minutes of the prime time hour. In Colorado with Obama... continue reading
CBS This Morning brought on liberal Colin Powell on Thursday so he could break his endorsement of President Obama and boost the Democratic candidate that he supported in 2008. Norah O'Donnell spotlighted Powell's service with "several Republican presidents" and wondered if he was " still Republican ." When the former secretary of state claimed that he's a " Republican of a more moderate mold ," Rose pressed him if he " may have to leave the Republican Party, if it continues in the direction that it's going ." Despite noting Powell's past service as secretary of state and national security... continue reading
Reporting on the Massachusetts Senate race on Thursday, CNN's Brooke Baldwin played a Democratic card by noting the amount of Wall Street money Republican incumbent Scott Brown's campaign receives compared with his Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren, who has campaigned as a populist opponent of Wall Street. "The Center for Responsive Politics was reporting nearly 9 out of every 10 Wall Street dollars spent in the Massachusetts campaign here going to Brown. How is that playing, how will that play with voters there?" Baldwin asked her guest, after noting the "huge sea change" causing Warren's lead in the polls. She didn't... continue reading
On the October 19 edition of Piers Morgan Tonight , Ted Turner said it was "good" that more American soldiers are dying from suicide than in combat. "I think it's good, because it's so clear that we're programmed and we're born to love and help each other, not to kill each other, to destroy each other," Turner contended. Host Piers Morgan had brought up the rise in suicides among U.S. soldiers and asked Turner "That's shocking, isn't it?" He had to have been shocked by Turner's response, "I think it's good." [Video below. Audio here .] Turner also said he'd... continue reading
A shrieking Chris Matthews on Thursday smeared the Republican Party, comparing the abortion stances of candidates such as Paul Ryan and Richard Mourdock to those found under Sharia law. The hyperbolic Hardball anchor snarled, " I don't like to comparing anything to Sharia, but there's something about this theocratic notion that we're going to apply all our philosophical beliefs, our metaphysics, our religious training and turn it into law and turn it into criminalization." [MP3 audio here .] Matthews continued, "And it's not quite like stoning, but it has that same sort of impulse which is we're going to punish... continue reading
World News on Wednesday night continued to try and link Mitt Romney to the comments of a Republican Senate candidate in Indiana. Anchor Diane Sawyer began the program by hyping, " The Romney campaign wrestles today with a landmine on a big issue for women ." On Tuesday, Richard Mourdock said that life is a "gift from God" and that "even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape that it is something that God intended to happen." Reporter David Muir insisted the words "have caused a firestorm." On Wednesday's Good Morning America , George Stephanopoulos warned that "Romney... continue reading