According to Good Morning America's Jake Tapper on Friday, Mitt Romney is "Elmer Fudd" to Newt Gingrich's "Bugs Bunny." [MP3 audio here .] This remark came one day after the reporter made a vulgar joke that " Mitt happens ." Tapper made sure to note that Barack Obama is "incredibly vulnerable," but offered this gratuitous shot: " ...But will Republican voters pick a nominee who can beat him? It's the latest sign [that] Mitt Romney is Elmer Fudd to Newt Gingrich's Bugs Bunny and it's wabbit season ." On Thursday, Tapper highlighted how Romney's 2012 run has (until now) been... continue reading
On Friday's NBC Today, following a sound bite of President Obama attacking Republicans for using the word "appeasement" to describe his foreign policy, chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd proclaimed: "I think [Obama] would love to have a foreign policy conversation. That's why you're not going to hear this much." Substitute co-host and Meet the Press moderator David Gregory raised the issue, noting that the President has, "been attacked this week by Republicans for practicing a policy, in their words, of 'appeasement' in foreign affairs." After playing Obama's response, he prompted Todd by observing: "That sounded like a president who... continue reading
'In the presidential campaign,' CBS anchor Scott Pelley announced Thursday night, 'President Obama fired back today at Republican opponents who criticized his foreign policy using words like 'timid,' 'weak' and 'appeasement.'' Over on ABC, fill-in anchor David Muir trumpeted 'a very pointed response from President Obama' to the charge he's had a weak foreign policy as an admiring Muir maintained 'you can almost see him choosing his words as the question is asked.' Both then played Obama's response from a late morning news conference: Ask Osama bin Laden and the 22 out of 30 top al Qaeda leaders who've been... continue reading
As the three broadcast network evening newscasts on Thursday reported former New Jersey Democratic Senator Jon Corzine's testimony before Congress on the billion dollars in investor money that went missing from the financial firm he once headed, only the NBC Nightly News took the time to label him as a Democrat. After anchor Brian Williams set up the report, correspondent Kelly O'Donnell included Corzine's party affiliation as she began her report: A fallen Wall Street CEO, personally rich and politically well-connected. New Jersey's former Democratic Governor and U.S. Senator Jon Corzine under oath. On the CBS Evening News , as... continue reading
ABC, NBC, and CBS all reported on former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich receiving a 14-year prison sentence for corruption on their evening news programs on Wednesday and their morning shows on Thursday, but only CBS's Early Show gave his Democratic affiliation. ABC devoted only 3 news briefs total to the conviction, while NBC Nightly News and The Early Show aired full reports. News anchor Jeff Glor introduced correspondent Michelle Miller's report on the CBS morning program at the bottom of the 7 am Eastern hour by stating that " Rod Blagojevich is paying a very high price for corruption. Is... continue reading
At the top of Wednesday's NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams fretted: "The Obama administration blocks a plan to make the 'morning-after' pill more easily available to young girls. Is this about medicine, politics or something else?" Moments later, he proclaimed: "We begin tonight with this surprise decision that takes us right to the intersection of medicine, science and politics." The CBS Evening News also lead with the decision as anchor Scott Pelley hyped: "No White House has ever overruled a safety recommendation by the Food and Drug Administration, but it happened today." In the report that followed, correspondent Wyatt... continue reading
In an interview with former Vice President Dan Quayle on Thursday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer pushed Quayle to admit that Mitt Romney was wrong to oppose Obama's auto bailout: "[He] said, 'You know what? Let Chrysler fail.'... There would have been thousands of jobs lost. Did he get it wrong? Did President Obama get it right by bailing out the auto industry?" Quayle endorsed Romney on Tuesday, prompting Lauer to ask: "You've seen the polls, he's always between 20 and 25%. Conservatives have tried to find anybody to pass him....why is he the Rodney Dangerfield of the race, Mitt... continue reading
Former Newsweek editor Howard Fineman on Wednesday trashed Newt Gingrich as a mad bomber, smearing, "... Newt's main appeal and his main skill is as a guy who knows exactly where to put the explosive device to blow up the bridge ." Fineman was appearing on Chris Matthews' Hardball. Matthews has previously decried so-called incendiary rhetoric on the right, but the host just chuckled at Fineman's comments. In an November 30 column, Fineman, now with the Huffington Post, used similar incendiary language against Gingrich: "...He's the cold-blooded conservative revolutionary and demolition expert who knew - and still knows - precisely... continue reading
The Big Three network morning shows on Wednesday highlighted the upcoming sentencing of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, but only CBS's Early Show identified the disgraced politician as a Democrat and devoted a full segment to him. ABC's Good Morning America and NBC's Today omitted his party ID, and just gave news briefs on the convict's possible sentence. CBS correspondent Cynthia Bowers wasted little time before noting that " the former Democratic governor was convicted on 18 counts of corruption , after being caught on a profanity-laced federal wiretap offering political favors in return for financial gain." Bowers played two... continue reading
Former Associated Press writer Ron Fournier on Tuesday praised Barack Obama's call for higher taxes as " one of his best, a searing and historically poignant account of the greatest challenge of the American experiment : How do we give every citizen, rich or poor, a path to the good life?" Fournier, now with National Journal, only seemed to lament that the President didn't go far enough: "Borrowed or not, Obama's rhetoric was worthy of [Theodore Roosevelt], who declared in his 1910 'square deal' address that the 'right to regulate the use of wealth in the public interest is universally... continue reading