After citing numerous Republicans on the campaign trail criticizing the Obama administration's handling of the ebola crisis, on Thursday, MSNBC Daily Rundown host Craig Melvin condemned such criticism as "the politics of fear" and "irresponsible." NBC's senior political editor Mark Murray agreed with Melvin's accusation: You know, Craig, we've seen the politics of fear work in the past. In 2002, right after the 9/11 attacks, that was a dominant story. Republicans were able to capitalize right after 9/11. The 2004 presidential election was largely fought on the politics of fear. And this honestly is terrain where the Republican Party's a... continue reading
On Thursday morning, all three network morning shows hyped Florida Republican Governor Rick Scott’s refusal to appear on stage for a scheduled debate with his Democratic opponent, former Governor Charlie Crist, due to the appearance of an unapproved fan. Despite the “big three” enthusiastically covering the Republican governor’s “Fangate” episode, the networks have repeatedly refused to cover political controversies from Democrats running for office this year. The Florida Republican eventually came on stage and the debate began as scheduled, but that didn’t stop the “big three” (ABC, CBS, and NBC) from jumping on the incident with NBC’s Matt Lauer playing... continue reading
Wednesday’s USA Today featured a laudatory front page profile of Tom Steyer, the far-left billionaire donor to efforts to elect liberals and un-seat Republicans of all stripes – especially if he can denigrate them as climate change “deniers.” Yet , in 1,832 words, the piece by Fredreka Schouten failed to identify Steyer -- or anyone in the article -- as a “liberal,” but Schouten applied the “conservative” tag twice. “Meet the billionaire behind the Democrats,” read the October 15 front page headline. The sub-head: “Tom Steyer a crusader against global warming.” Online: “ Tom Steyer: Midterms mark the start of... continue reading
On Wednesday night, Bill O’Reilly blasted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Thomas Frieden and the federal government’s response to the Ebola epidemic during his Talking Points Memo at the top of his Fox News Channel (FNC) program. He reiterated his call for Frieden to resign in the wake of the CDC’s response and called him out for “spouting nonsense” and being “almost incohent” during an interview on FNC’s The Kelly File on Tuesday night. [MP3 audio here ; Video below] Before summarizing the basic facts of “the Ebola situation” as it stood early Wednesday night, he... continue reading
The CBS This Morning anchors stayed true to their reputation of playing softball with liberal guests , while badgering conservative/traditional ones with their Wednesday interview of Cardinal Timothy Dolan. Norah O'Donnell raised the much-hyped midterm report from the bishops' synod underway at the Vatican, and wondered, " How groundbreaking is it for the Catholic Church to raise even that question about whether the Catholic Church should welcome gay people? " [MP3 audio available here ; video below ] When Cardinal Dolan asserted that homosexuals are welcome in the Catholic Church, O'Donnell shot back, "So, then why has...Cardinal [Raymond] Burke said... continue reading
The latest ABC News/ Washington Post poll is out and it has some sobering news for Democrats with less than three weeks to go until the midterm election. The poll found that President Obama’s approval rating has dropped to a new low of just 40 percent and the Democratic Party’s popularity is at its weakest point in the last 30 years. Despite ABC News' own daily political newsletter "The Note" declaring that the network's poll to be such bad news that it “ has Democrats sweating ," ABC’s Good Morning America gave it a mere 17 seconds on its Wednesday... continue reading
Major broadcast networks ABC and NBC both refused to cover the news on Tuesday night that the lone individual the United States has in custody relating to the 2012 terror attacks in Benghazi, Libya has been charged with murder on multiple counts with 17 total charges that could bring the death penalty if convicted. As for those that did cover it on their Tuesday evening newscasts, both CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley and the Fox News Channel’s Special Report with Bret Baier offered news briefs on the subject. [MP3 audio here ; Video below] CBS’s Scott Pelley said this... continue reading
Following a segment that aired during Sunday night’s NBC Nightly News on President Obama’s unpopularity ahead of the midterm elections, the evening news program ran two more midterm election segments on Tuesday. Both segments, however, were not without liberal bias, as one segment promoted the “close” Kentucky Senate race and the other discussed three Senate races to watch that present “big hurdles” for a Republican Senate majority. [MP3 audio here ; Video below] The first segment, which was done by NBC News senior White House correspondent Chris Jansing, profiled the Senate race in Kentucky between the Republican leader in the... continue reading
On Friday afternoon, Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis and her campaign released a new ad that took aim at her Republican opponent Greg Abbott as a “hypocrite” for supposedly not caring about the disabled after becoming a paraplegic in 1984. Since the despicable ad aired, only one story has been offered on the morning or evening newscasts of the major broadcast networks through Monday night. That single story came on Tuesday morning during the 7:30 a.m. half-hour of NBC’s Today by NBC News national correspondent Peter Alexander and lasted just over two minutes. [MP3 audio here ; Video below]... continue reading
On Tuesday, the Big Three networks' morning newscasts carried water for the left-wing Human Rights Campaign by adopting their "seismic shift" label about the midterm report from the Catholic bishops' Extraordinary Synod on the Family. On Good Morning America , ABC's Amy Robach trumpeted that "the Catholic Church appears to be making a seismic shift towards gays and divorcees ." Norah O'Donnell also used the "seismic" term on CBS This Morning . NBC's Tamron Hall pointed out on Today that " gay rights groups are hailing what they call a 'seismic shift' by the Catholic Church towards gays," but like... continue reading