BiasAlerts

All three networks on Tuesday absolutely gushed over Barack Obama kissing his wife at a men's Olympic basketball game on Monday night. CBS This Morning guest anchor Norah O'Donnell thrilled, " Whoo-hoo-hoo! Hot in here! " Good Morning America news reader Josh Elliott cheered on the President's ability to kiss his wife in public: "[Obama] is showing the world he's got a little game off the court as well!" [MP3 audio here .] Today's Natalie Morales recounted how the President, after being spotted by the Kiss Cam, at first refused to kiss Mrs. Obama. Morales hyped, "...They got a second... continue reading

Offering some pro-Obama fluff on Tuesday's NBC Today , news read er Natalie Morales gushed over the President and First Lady getting caught on the "Kiss Cam" at a basketball game during a "date night." After the First Couple initially just waved to the camera, Morales excitedly told viewers: "Not to worry, they got a second chance when the 'Kiss Cam' found them again. So this time he delivered, planting a very presidential pucker on the First Lady and the crowd went wild." Co-host Matt Lauer followed up: "That's a good moment....If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."... continue reading

CNN's Erin Burnett, injecting her own opinion into her newscast, lectured Mitt Romney on why he should release more tax returns and pay more taxes, on Monday's OutFront. "Release the returns," she told Romney. "If there's a lot of tax shelters and some frankly incredibly low tax rates, significantly lower say than your 13.9 percent rate in 2010, Mitt, then say this: My tax rates were too low. I don't believe that passively invested money should be taxed lower than income other people earn by working. I benefitted from low rates on investment. That's not great policy and I'm going... continue reading

ABC on Sunday aggressively pushed liberal talking points, hyping Barack Obama's call for Mitt Romney to release more tax documents. Over a span of just three minutes and 32 seconds, the anchor and reporters of World News played nine clips of people lobbying Mitt Romney to "show the American people" what's going on . Only one person, the candidate, appeared in a snippet to argue for the other side. David Kerley played a montage of Democratic operatives Stephanie Cutter, Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod. They berated Romney: "Show us. Show the American people....[Romney] can clear this up. Just make it... continue reading

In an otherwise tough interview with Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter on Tuesday's NBC Today about the negative tone of the President's re-election bid, co-host M att Lauer failed to challenge her on the nastiest attack hurled by Democrats so far, Cutter's own charge that Mitt Romney may have committed a felony. Lauer repeatedly grilled Cutter on President Obama abandoning the rhetoric of hope and change from the 2008 campaign: "If you think about what your candidate is out there on the campaign trail saying and compare it to what he was saying as a candidate four years ago....are... continue reading

In an interview with Republican strategist Steve Schmidt on Monday's NBC Today , co-host Savannah Guthrie portrayed Mitt Romney's decision not to release more tax returns as a sign of guilt: "Mitt Romney is within the letter of the law, but he's on the low end of the norm. Do you think that he's left the impression with voters that perhaps he does have something to hide?" A list appeared on screen of the amount of tax returns released by other presidential candidates in past years as Schmidt provided a bland response that only reinforced Guthrie's assertion: "...when you don't... continue reading

Appearing as a panel member on Sunday's Melissa Harris-Perry show, syndicated columnist and former CNN correspondent Al Franken obnoxiously accused Mitt Romney of trying to portray the NAACP audience he spoke to as "Willie Hortons" whom he could use to motivate his Republican base. He went on to claim that Rush Limbaugh, whom he called the "grand dragon of radio," represents people who wish to return to Jim Crow segregation in America. After fellow panel member and MSNBC contributor Joy Reid charged that Romney attended the NAACP convention to impress moderate white voters and also to motivate his conservative base,... continue reading

On the Sunday, July 15, Melissa Harris-Perry show, MSNBC host Harris-Perry went on a rant about Mitt Romney's speech to the NAACP as she accused the GOP presidential candidate of only attending the convention for the purpose using negative audience reaction as "red meat to feed to his base," making African-Americans as "props." She began: This was the moment Mitt Romney got what he really came for, the soundbite of the black audience booing his line about cutting government spending and the Affordable Care Act, in particular. You see, Mitt Romney didn't come to the NAACP to break bread or... continue reading

Charlie Rose did his best to avoid asking any tough questions during an interview of President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle that aired on Sunday's CBS Sunday Morning and Monday's CBS This Morning . Rose devoted over four straight minutes to the couple's summer vacation, family life, and marriage. He also touted the Democrat's ObamaCare law as " enormously successful ," and wondered if it was his " proudest achievement in the first four years ." Rose, who hounded House Speaker John Boehner over Rep. Paul Ryan's budget plan during a April 2012 interview, harkened back to the 2008... continue reading

Former Newsweek editor Howard Fineman on Monday lashed out at Rush Limbaugh as a "nasty" "werewolf" who is making the national discourse extreme. Hardball anchor Chris Matthews played a clip of the conservative radio star asserting that Barack Obama " hates " America. Fineman spewed, " So, if you have an establishment Republican [Mitt Romney] behaving like an attack dog, you're going to have the Rush Limbaughs of the world behaving like werewolves ." [MP3 audio here .] According to Fineman, Romney "dragged the center of the gravity of the discussion over to the nasty realm which...brings what happens in... continue reading