On Wednesday, an absent George Stephanopoulos prompted ABC's Good Morning America to provide skimpy coverage of the GOP presidential race. While CBS This Morning devoted nine minutes, including an interview, on the Illinois primary, ABC allowed just two minutes and 21 seconds of coverage. In GMA's only full report, Jake Tapper quoted Romney casting the race as law professor vs. conservative businessman (which typically leaves out describing Obama as liberal): " It's very clearly a very stark choice between Barack Obama, who [Romney is] casting as a law professor, versus a conservative businessman ." Despite twice referring to Tuesday's results... continue reading
Desperately trying to keep the issue alive for the general election, Tuesday's NBC Nightly News continued to decry the supposed Republican war on women, with anchor Brian Williams proclaiming: "One issue that's been percolating through this presidential primary season, a push by some in the GOP to limit women's access to contraceptives and abortion." In the report that followed, correspondent Andrea Mitchell promoted left-wing activism against the GOP: "Across the country, protests like this one in Texas, against new state laws restricting access to contraception and other women's health care." One protestor ranted: "It's a war against women's health." Mitchell... continue reading
If you were wondering about CNN's objectivity on liberal issues like gay rights, the lines became a whole lot more blurred recently as anchor Don Lemon received a "Visibility" award from the pro-gay Human Rights Campaign at its North Carolina gala, where Obama's HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius spoke and stumped for the President's re-election. Then on Friday, Sebelius addressed middle school students at an anti-bullying event where Lemon served as the moderator of an anti-bullying panel. His appearances at events with an Obama cabinet member blur the lines of objectivity and his receiving an award from a gay-rights organization makes... continue reading
A seemingly befuddled Chris Matthews on Tuesday interviewed former Senator Arlen Specter, gleefully (and incorrectly) referring to the Democrat as a Republican. Downplaying the fact that Specter switched parties, Matthews bellowed, " Your party has become a right-wing party. " After mentioning the plight of Charlie Crist, who was defeated by Marco Rubio in a Republican senatorial primary, Matthews shrieked, "He lost the Senate race because he contacted [hugged] the President physically once. This is what is going on in your party ." Again, the Republican Party is not Specter's party. Just getting warmed up, Matthews complained, "And so the... continue reading
Once again, CNN's Piers Morgan is pouting that corporations like Apple should bring jobs back to the U.S. simply because they should. Morgan was rebutted by Chris Christie the last time he made that reasoning at the expense of shareholders' profits, but he was at it again on Monday night. He has a "constant nagging problem" with Apple making money overseas. "So they are making squillions of dollars. And yet they still employ massively larger sums of people in China than they do in America," he fretted to guest Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.). According to Morgan, Apple is successful enough... continue reading
Charlie Rose surprised Rep. Paul Ryan on Tuesday's CBS This Morning by promoting the latest smear from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Rose displayed their fake horror-movie poster with Ryan's face beside House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Speaker John Boehner. It included the caption, " Just when you thought Medicare was safe, THEY'RE BACK. This time, they want to finish it for good ." Rose told the Wisconsin Republican, " Democrats have tried ... to portray you as someone who wants to destroy Medicare, and they have a poster in which you are, in a sense, the poster boy... continue reading
In the 7 a.m. et hour of Tuesday's NBC Today, news anchor Natalie Morales fawned over Michelle Obama's appearance on The Late Show With David Letterman: "She...talked about her late-night chats with the President, and joked that he's always upbeat, especially about the notoriously deadlocked Congress. I guess you got to keep your sense of humor about you." Later, in the 8 a.m. et hour, Morales was equally thrilled by a YouTube video mocking Republican front-runner Mitt Romney: "And will the real Mitt Romney please stand up? This video parody of Eminem's famous rap hit is going viral and being... continue reading
Is there a clause in George Stephanopoulos's contract stating that politics must be ignored if he's not there? On Tuesday, for the second straight day, the former Democratic operative turned journalist was absent from Good Morning America . Despite March 20th featuring a critical primary in the Republican race for the White House, a Stephanopoulos-less GMA allowed just 19 seconds on the topic. ( Dancing With the Stars , by contrast, received six minutes.) The hosts who did show up for work on Monday and Tuesday's GMA also skipped a new ABC poll finding that "Two-thirds of Americans say the... continue reading
Leading off an interview with conservative Christian actor Kirk Cameron on Tuesday's NBC Today, co-host Ann Curry immediately attacked him for recent comments he made to CNN's Piers Morgan: "I'm going to ask you about this firestorm that you set off...on the topic of gay marriage.... Many people are suggesting that this is hate speech. Are you encouraging people to feel hate towards gay people?" [ Listen to the audio ] Curry plucked out a single sentence from Cameron's CNN interview : "...you said, quote, 'I think that it's unnatural. I think that it's detrimental and ultimately destructive to so... continue reading
Apparently, Grover Norquist and the Republican Party are to blame for the rising debt, according to CNN's Fareed Zakaria. In his Sunday interview with Norquist, Zakaria argued that the GOP tax-cutting agenda failed to also cut spending, which led to the country's increase in borrowing. Zakaria's sloppy logic also revealed itself later when he posed to Norquist that tax cuts didn't necessarily lead to economic growth. His simplistic analysis was that President Clinton raised taxes and grew the economy, while George W. Bush enacted massive tax cuts and experienced weak growth, and thus tax cuts failed to achieve their intended... continue reading