On Wednesday, the results of the St. Louis County autopsy of 18-year-old Michael Brown, who died after being shot by Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson on August 9, were leaked to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper and largely supports Wilson’s claims that he had a physical altercation with Brown inside his police SUV. When it came to the major broadcast networks offering any mention of this big development, CBS and NBC failed to cover the story on both their morning and evening newscasts, respectively. [MP3 audio here ; Video below] Meanwhile, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir covered... continue reading
On Wednesday, Today co-host Matt Lauer began an interview with Bill O'Reilly by citing liberal New York Times columnist Frank Bruni actually criticizing the Obama administration's handling of the Ebola crisis: "One dimension of the disease's toll is clear. It's ravaging Americans' already tenuous faith in the competence of our government and its bureaucracies." O'Reilly agreed with Bruni's "very perceptive" analysis and declared that Americans "should be angry at their government, because they blew it! Blew it, blew it, blew it!" Lauer wondered: "Would you curtail flights from West Africa if you were president?" O'Reilly replied: "Of course I would... continue reading
With the Democrats facing bad news in the coming midterms, the networks have largely been ignoring the possible electoral wave. Yet, NBC and CBS couldn't resist the "cute" story of Barack Obama bantering with a woman and her boyfriend on Monday. As the President was getting ready to do early voting in Chicago, a man walked by and told him, " Don't touch my girlfriend ." Obama shot back, "I really wasn't planning on it." An extended exchange followed. The CBS Evening News on Monday devoted a full report. A clearly impressed Scott Pelley marveled, "Just a little constituent service... continue reading
Senator Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) and her Republican opponent, North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis, are currently locked in a close Senate race, but with less than two weeks until Election Day Senator Hagan declined to participate in debate Tuesday night. Despite Senator Hagan’s absence, all three network morning shows ignored the story on their Wednesday morning broadcasts. While the “big three” (ABC, CBS, NBC) failed to cover the Democrat’s debate absence, last week all three pounced on the supposed “fangate” controversy from the Florida gubernatorial contest between Governor Rick Scott (R-FL) and former Governor Charlie Crist (D-FL) giving it 3... continue reading
At the end of Sunday's NBC Meet the Press , moderator Chuck Todd led his panel of guests in warning Republicans against any effort to oppose ObamaCare if they win the Senate majority in the upcoming midterm election: "...the biggest, I would argue, false promise of the...midterm campaign has been about [repealing] the Affordable Care Act....[Mitch McConnell's] never gonna have the ability to do it." Politico's Manu Raju asserted: "That's right. Even if he gets the majority, it's going to be a 51-49 majority." Todd wondered: "Are Republicans over-promising here? Because their base is gonna expect to see that and... continue reading
On Tuesday, ABC and NBC made no mention of the upcoming midterm elections, which were two weeks away from Tuesday and include numerous Senate races that will decide whether Republicans or Democrats control the U.S. Senate. ABC’s Good Morning America , ABC World News Tonight with David Muir , NBC’s Today , and NBC Nightly News made no mention of the midterm elections in their newscasts while the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley ran not one but two segments on the topic during its Tuesday night broadcast. [MP3 audio here ; Video below] In the first segment, CBS News... continue reading
All three networks on Tuesday hyped the return of Monica Lewinsky in the form of a speech on Monday, but ABC and CBS mostly glossed over the embarrassing details of Bill Clinton's culpability. Good Morning America kept the focus on the former White House intern and it was only at the very end of the segment that Jon Karl allowed: "Lewinsky's campaign against cyber-bullying just happens to be getting under way as we are about to start another presidential campaign featuring, probably, most likely, another Clinton." On CBS This Morning , co-host Charlie Rose zeroed in on "the most famous... continue reading
In a report for Tuesday's CBS This Morning on the political fallout from the Obama administration's mishandling of the Ebola crisis, correspondent Chip Reid touted a Democratic attack line being used against Republicans in the midterm campaign: "Some Democrats are firing back, claiming that Republican spending cuts have made the problem worse....An independent liberal group called The Agenda Project has even released a new ad with the tag line, 'Republican Cuts Kill.'" After playing a clip of the nasty ad , Reid didn't bother to mention that The Washington Post completely dismantled the false accusation. Fact-checker Glenn Kessler reported on... continue reading
With the midterm elections two weeks away from Tuesday, the major broadcast networks on Monday night ignored gaffes from Democratic Senator Mark Udall of Colorado and Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis as both seek to make up deficits against their Republican opponents Cory Gardner and Greg Abbott, respectively. On Friday, Udall was taking part in an interview with Denver’s ABC affiliate when he told the reporter that he was “brain-dead” after being asked to name his favorite books and types of music. Udall also inquired during the segment if “[w]e could play this over, right, I mean re-tape this”... continue reading
On Monday night, ABC and NBC offered segments on Monica Lewinsky’s first public comments in years that came during a conference in Philadelphia for millennials by Forbes and explained how she was the first victim of cyberbullying during her affair with then-President Bill Clinton in the 1990s. During the segment that aired on NBC Nightly News , NBC’s Andrea Mitchell declared that the “timing” of Lewinsky speaking out now (in hopes of becoming an advocate against cyberbullying) “couldn’t be worse for Bill and Hillary Clinton.” [MP3 audio here ; Video below] Mitchell stated that Lewinsky’s first public speech comes “[s]ixteen... continue reading