On Tuesday's NBC Nightly News, chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd promoted the President's speech in Osawatomie, Kansas calling for an extension of payroll tax cuts as "the Obama version of prairie populism" and touted how the commander in chief, "cast himself and the Democratic Party as the protectors of a middle class under Republican assault." Throughout the report, Todd alternated between reciting White House talking points and playing sound bites of the President. Todd explained: "And in case folks missed the references to the middle class, the President used the phrase 20 times....Using phrases like 'fair shot' and 'fair... continue reading
In an interview with Obama campaign advisor Robert Gibbs on Wednesday's NBC Today, co-host Ann Curry teed up the President's former press secretary with this softball: "In 2008, the President campaigned on this idea of hope and change.... Can you give us one example of what the President has done that has inspired hope or created change in this country?" [ Audio available here ] Gibbs proclaimed: "Ann, we'd have to – you'd have to give me about an hour to go through them all." He then argued: "There's thousands of examples of what this president's done to make this... continue reading
On NBC's Rock Center on Monday, correspondent Harry Smith did a glowing profile of New York City Traffic Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, praising her as a "bold bureaucrat....on a mission to tame New York's mean streets. Her goal, untangle the gridlock and make it safer, greener and cleaner." As Smith explained in his report, a big part of that plan involved shutting down streets throughout the city, making them only accessible to pedestrians and bicycles: "In Times Square, business improved almost overnight, with half the cars and trucks gone, the 356,000 daily visitors could breathe a little easier, and Sadik-Khan became... continue reading
NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams on Tuesday evening promised a look 'back at some of the hits, runs and errors' of Newt Gingrich's years as Speaker of the House, but other than a sentence from Lisa Myers about how 'working with President Clinton, Gingrich piled up real achievements: a balanced budget, an historic welfare reform,' she focused her entire piece on how 'his speakership also was marked by chaos, polarization, and incendiary remarks.' Her first witness: NBC's own Joe Scarborough, who feigned concern that Gingrich 'hurt the Republican Party and more importantly, to a lot of us, the conservative... continue reading
New York Times media reporter Brian Stelter may have let his personal views color his enthusiastic reception of the popularity of Occupy Wall Street's '99 percent' motif, but he was right that it is cropping up in a lot of places these days, especially among liberal activists. It has certainly sunken into the collective consciousness of New York Times journalists. One prominent example: The front page of Monday's Times featured a story by William Broad on affluent tourists taking trips on a mini submarine for a view of the Titanic, ' Plunging Deep (in Pockets) to See Titanic at 100... continue reading
On Tuesday's Early Show, CBS's Cynthia Bowers let abortion advocates decry new pro-life legislation at the state level, barely letting supporters speak in her report. Bowers slanted by a three to one margin in the number of soundbites that she played from "abortion rights" supporters versus those from pro-lifers. She labeled Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback a " staunch abortion opponent ," while giving no equivalent label to a pro-choicer. The correspondent led the segment with a clip from an unidentified woman who aborted her unborn child who had been diagnosed with anencephaly, a disorder where most of the baby's brain... continue reading
Obama's re-election campaign received a huge boost Monday night from CNN's Piers Morgan. The host groveled before Obama's campaign strategist David Axelrod, gushing that "a lot of things are just perfect about Barack Obama." The interview could have been served on a silver platter for the Obama campaign. Morgan's first question went thus: "I would imagine that you guys are feeling fairly chipper, aren't you? I mean you had an extraordinarily successful week in many ways." Morgan also fawned over the President himself, touting "I always feel he's got so many pluses, doesn't he? In a sense, he's personable, he's... continue reading
On Tuesday's CBS Early Show, White House correspondent Bill Plante hyped an upcoming speech by President Obama: "The President is going to Osawatomie, Kansas....where former President Teddy Roosevelt made a famous speech more than a century ago...it was a call for economic fairness, not unlike the President's own argument for taxing millionaires to extend the payroll tax cuts." [ Audio available here ] As Plante quoted Roosevelt's call for a "square deal" in 1910, the headline on screen read: "Channeling Teddy: Obama To Echo Historic Roosevelt Speech." A sound bite was included from liberal historian Douglas Brinkley declaring: "[Obama's] trying... continue reading
In its Monday afternoon coverage of the Congressional battle over extending the payroll tax cut, CNN repeatedly emphasized a Democratic advantage and claimed that the Democrats are acting like "conservative Republicans." Political analyst Gloria Borger even gave the Democratic talking point that the party roles on tax cuts have been switched. "You know, if you're a true believer, and you're a Republican who believes that the tax cuts will pay for themselves, the question really is not how do you pay for it, but why do you pay for it, right? I mean, why pay for it at all?" CNN's... continue reading
CNN's Don Lemon attacked the "classic GOP move" of claiming liberal media bias, on Sunday's 10 p.m. edition of Newsroom. The liberal CNN host lampooned Sarah Palin's "lamestream" media line and – rather sloppily – faulted the GOP candidates for their own travails. "Long story short – maybe it's time for politicians who get caught in unflattering situations or who might have a bit of trouble with the truth to take responsibility for their own actions and stop blaming the media," lectured Lemon, who as a member of the liberal media didn't exactly "take responsibility" in deflecting blame back at... continue reading