Wednesday's CBS Evening News featured a report by correspondent Mark Strassmann playing up the reservations that some are having about the new law to strictly enforce immigration laws in Alabama. After noting that a poll supposedly shows that Latino voters are disatisfied because the Obama administration has deported record numbers of illegal immigrants, substitute anchor Jeff Glor introduced Strassmann's piece by playing up the "second thoughts" that some supporters of the law are having: "Mark Strassmann went to Alabama, where some are having second thoughts now about a tough new law." Strassmann began his report by focusing on a construction... continue reading
On Tuesday's Good Morning America on ABC, during an interview with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, substitute host Elizabeth Vargas singled out GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich as she asked if the former House Speaker is "fit to be President." Vargas: And right now, one of the leaders in the polls is Newt Gingrich. It's no secret that many of the Republican Congressmen who served with Mr. Gingrich do not think that he is fit to be President. Do you think he is fit to be President? As Priebus defended Gingrich's ability to serve as President, he hit President... continue reading
The NBC Nightly News on Tuesday hyped recent Gallup Daily Tracking Poll numbers from Monday showing a slight improvement in President Obama's approval/disapproval numbers after House Republicans agreed to the payroll tax cut extension compromise, even though the more recent numbers from Tuesday suggest that the numbers are now trending back in the opposite direction against Obama. As noted earlier in the day by NBC subsitute anchor Savannah Guthrie on the Today show, Monday's numbers had Obama for the first time in recent memory with an approval rating slightly higher than his disapproval number at 47 percent approval and 45... continue reading
Appearing as a guest on Monday's Today show on NBC, the Huffington Post's Howard Fineman - also of MSNBC and formerly of Newsweek - hyperbolically referred to "megalomania" in GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich in response to Gingrich's over the top comparison of Virginia's restrictive ballot access laws being like a Pearl Harbor attack on his campaign. Fineman: Well, I guess accusing his fellow Republicans of being like Imperial Japan during the war is probably not a great way to endear himselfto his fellow Virginians, and that's part of the problem with Newt Gingrich. He has not only an air... continue reading
The first runners-up quotes in the MRC's ' Best Notable Quotables of 2011: The Twenty-Fourth Annual Awards for the Year's Worst Reporting .' As announced in a CyberAlert Special, the awards issue was posted, with videos, on Monday, December 19, but the last weekdays of the year the MRC.org's BiasAlert and corresponding CyberAlert e-mail newsletter will run the winning quotes followed on succeeding days by the runners-up. Tuesday's BiasAlert/CyberAlert featured the winners. The page linked above also has links for the text of the entire issue in MS Word, OpenOffice Writer or WordPerfect formats. You can also download a colorful... continue reading
New York Times environmental reporter Justin Gillis took the left-wing idea of extreme weather equaling harmful global warming to heart in his front-page Christmas Day 'news analysis' lamenting the Republican block of measures that would document 'climate change' more closely, in ' Harsh Political Reality Slows Climate Studies Despite Extreme Year .' But an environmental scientist eviscerated Gillis's article as 'perhaps the worst piece of reporting I've ever seen in the Times on climate change.' Gillis wrote on Sunday's front page: At the end of one of the most bizarre weather years in American history, climate research stands at a... continue reading
An April 20, 2008 New York Times story by David Barstow, ' MESSAGE MACHINE: Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon's Hidden Hand ,' won a Pulitzer Prize for the explosive claim that the Pentagon had cultivated 'military analysts' in a 'trojan horse' campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the terrorist prison at Guantanamo Bay. On December 1, the Washington Times ' Rowan Scarborough reported that an investigation by the Pentagon's inspector general, spurred by Barstow's reporting, found no wrongdoing, and quoted a spokesman for former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld saying the New York Times... continue reading
The winning quotes in the MRC's ' Best Notable Quotables of 2011: The Twenty-Fourth Annual Awards for the Year's Worst Reporting .' As announced in a CyberAlert Special last Monday, the awards issue was posted, with videos, on Monday, December 19, but following tradition, today, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday - the last weekdays of the year - MRC.org's BiasAlert and corresponding CyberAlert e-mail newsletter will run the winning quotes followed on succeeding days by the runners-up. The page linked above also has links for the text of the entire issue in MS Word , OpenOffice Writer or WordPerfect formats. You... continue reading
During a roundtable discussion on Sunday's Face the Nation on CBS, after asserting that in past years divided government had "produced some really remarkable pieces of legislation," correspondent Nancy Cordes blamed the presence of Tea Party Republicans for less congressional success in enacting legislation this year. Anchor Bob Schieffer raised the difficulty Congress has had in 2011 in making accomplishments, prompting Cordes to observe: I think what we learned this year is that divided government, which in the past has produced some really remarkable pieces of legislation, doesn't produce the same kind of results when you have two parties that... continue reading
On Saturday's NBC Nightly News , during a report recounting the gathering of Christian pilgrims in Bethlehem for Christmas celebrations, correspondent Martin Fletcher relayed Palestinian complaints about Israel, and gave attention to the display of an anti-Israel publicity stunt set to coincide with the occasion taking advantage of a Christmas tree theme. After recounting the celebrations and noting that the overwhelming majority of the city is now Muslim, Fletcher relayed complaints about the Israeli security barrier that was built to thwart terrorist attacks that were commonplace a decade ago. Without giving any details on the prevalence of suicide bombings and... continue reading