ABC broadcasted two completely one-sided reports on Thursday's World News and Nightline on the supposed " huge spike in the number of Americans operating in the shadows, trying to take down the U.S. government even with violence ," as anchor Diane Sawyer put it. Correspondent Dan Harris's main external source for his reports was a media favorite, the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center [audio clips available here ]. As she introduced Harris's first report on World News, Sawyer trumpeted that " a new study finds there are now nearly 1,300 militias and other extremist groups in this country, an increase... continue reading
Filling in for co-host Matt Lauer on Friday's NBC Today, CNBC's Carl Quintanilla seemed to suggest the media was helping the Obama administration shape public perception of the economy: "...we're in a situation where we're sort of managing expectations, especially for the White House." Quintanilla followed that admission by asking CNBC Mad Money host Jim Cramer about the upcoming jobs report: "Data's been pretty good. If it's not so good today, does that mean we're suddenly once again going in the wrong direction?" Cramer replied: "I don't want to think that. I think that there are many good forces at... continue reading
CNN's Kyra Phillips asked a Catholic bishop on Thursday "why not get on board" with dissenting Catholics who favor gay marriage. Given CNN's past support for LGBT causes, they clearly would not question the motives of a religious minister favoring gay marriage. In fact, in 2010 Phillips fawned over a Christian pastor who publicly began accepting the lifestyle of gays and lesbians. Phillips had cited a statistic saying 43 percent of American Catholics favor gay marriage. "So, Bishop, times are changing. Views are changing. You're changing your tactics even," Phillips said. "So, why not get on board with the 43... continue reading
When Breitbart.com's Joel Pollak went on CNN and connected then-law student Barack Obama to radical Harvard professor Derrick Bell, CNN guest Jay Thomas of Sirius radio began creepily asking Pollak if he was afraid of violence from black people, on Thursday morning's Starting Point. During the chippy segment, host Soledad O'Brien fiercely defended Bell and insisted that Obama's previous support of him was a non-story. She accused Pollak of "misreading" Bell's critical race theory, even though the professor has clearly espoused radical views in his past, including writing a fictional account of how blacks would be sold to aliens as... continue reading
On Thursday's NBC Today , correspondent Peter Alexander excitedly promoted an upcoming Obama campaign ad disguised as a documentary: "Next week the Obama campaign will release this 17-min ute documentary about the President's first term in office. And Today was given an exclusive first look." In the first clip, actor Tom Hanks narrates: "How do we understand this president and his time in office?" The next clip is of Vice President Joe Biden praising the President's decision to kill Osama Bin Laden: "As he walked out of the room, it dawned on me. He's all alone. This is his decision... continue reading
Beginning an interview with MSNBC Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough on Thursday's NBC Today, co-host Ann Curry wondered: "If you were head of the Republican Party trying to defeat Barack Obama in Novem ber-" Scarborough promptly interrupted her: "I'd quit." That defeatist attitude set the tone for the rest of the Obama-campaign-approved segment. Giving a supposedly "serious" response to Curry's question, Scarborough declared: "I would be asking others to get into the race." Curry teed up Scarborough to make dire predictions of GOP chances in 2012: "But how much longer can this party go without a nominee and still beat... continue reading
NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams has a long-standing infatuation with the 1995 film, The American President , in which actor Michael Douglas plays Democratic commander in chief Andrew Shepherd. That infatuation was clearly on display on Tuesday, as Williams praised President Obama for taking on Republicans over Iran. On Tuesday's Nightly News , Williams cheered Obama's afternoon press conference on the matter: "President Obama chose this Super Tuesday, of all days, to take on his Republican rivals who've been criticizing him on the campaign trail on the topic of Iran... you can call it an 'Andrew Shepherd moment.' Film... continue reading
When FNC's Bill O'Reilly brought up "ABC News's coverage of this Rush Limbaugh/Fluke situation" on Wednesday's The O'Reilly Factor , guest George Stephanopoulos not only misled FNC viewers about ABC coverage by focusing only on how much time his weekday edition of Good Morning America devoted to the story while ignoring other ABC shows like World News and the weekend edition of GMA , but he even substantially understated the amount of time his own weekday GMA show spent on the controversy. He also failed to mention that he repeatedly brought up the story as he hosted Sunday's This Week... continue reading
In the wake of Rush Limbaugh calling a Georgetown law student a "slut," CNN hosted the president of the liberal National Organization for Women who called for Limbaugh to be fired, on Monday morning's 10 a.m. hour of Newsroom. They did not give such a voice to supporters of conservative women last year when those women were under attack from liberals. When liberal radio host Ed Schultz called Laura Ingraham a slut last May, CNN did not host the president of NOW to call for his termination at MSNBC. In fact, the network covered the outrage over Limbaugh's smear of... continue reading
Railing against radio hosts demeaning women, CNN's Ashleigh Banfield called liberal radio host Ed Schultz a "conservative," implying that conservative talking heads are the ones acting sexist and degrading women. Banfield, on CNN Monday morning, directed her ire at conservatives while not once hitting liberals for vile verbiage. "I was called a slut by Michael Savage, a conservative radio talk show host. Laura Ingraham has been called a slut by another conservative, Ed Schultz, on MSNBC," Banfield ranted. "Cut it out! It's not appropriate. It's disgusting," she railed against conservative radio hosts in light of Rush Limbaugh calling Georgetown Law... continue reading