On Monday's Early Show, CBS's Jan Crawford spotlighted conservative criticism of the broad media coverage of the Herman Cain sexual harassment charges. Crawford stated that Cain's "testy exchange" with reporters " could help ... because a lot of conservatives ... think there's this huge liberal bias against conservatives. You know, the media didn't cover Bill Clinton ... like they're doing Herman Cain ." The correspondent noted the right-leaning argument in response to a statement from anchor Erica Hill about a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll that had Cain just barely behind Mitt Romney at the front of the GOP presidential... continue reading
The New York Times continues to treat toublemakers at Occupy Wall Street as a fringe minority, but the Tea Party was "responsible for the behavior of people" at their rallies. Sunday's Metro section led with an above-the-fold look at the state of Occupy Wall Street as winter approaches from reporters Cara Buckley and Colin Moynihan, ' A Protest Reaches a Crossroads .' They briefly noted the violence and criminal behavior at Zuccotti Park while providing plenty of room for excuse-making on the part of OWS, something reporter Kate Zernike most assuredly did not do for the Tea Party in her... continue reading
From Friday night through Monday morning, the big three networks devoted an additional 21 stories to the Herman Cain sexual harassment story, bringing the networks' grand total to 84 in one week. Even as they continued to pile on, these same networks defensively chided Cain for daring to criticize their coverage. On Sunday's Good Morning America, David Kerley hit Cain for "lashing out" at journalists. On Sunday's Today, David Gregory indignantly suggested Cain has "created this alternate universe" where he says to supporters, "You see, this is- this is what the media does..." On Saturday's Today, journalist Richard Wolffe complained,... continue reading
Appearing on Monday's NBC Today, Newt Gingrich took co-host Ann Curry to task for grilling him on allegations against Herman Cain: "...when the news media goes and finds an anonymous report about an anonymous incident...and you decide that matters more than every other issue in the campaign, that may put your judgment in doubt, as you, being the institutional news media." Curry began the segment by wondering: "...to have a Republican nominee for president, with unanswered questions about sexual harassment, what would it do to your party's chances of defeating Barack Obama?" Gingrich shot back: "What does it mean to... continue reading
On Sunday's World News on ABC, correspondent Nick Schifrin filed a report recounting complaints by Pakistanis that CIA drone attacks that have successfully killed high-profile terrorist figures residing in Pakistan have also resulted in civilian deaths and injuries. With the words "A Young Man's Plea" displayed on screen next to him, anchor David Muir introduced the piece: Overseas tonight, a growing debate over drones. They have been hugely successful in remote, dangerous regions, racking up a long list of terror takedowns. But tonight here, who else have they taken out? Nick Schifrin from Pakistan on a teenager who spoke out... continue reading
ABC's Christiane Amanpour, on Sunday's This Week , hit House Speaker John Boehner repeatedly from the left to raise taxes, a hostile, political agenda-driven approach she failed to apply a month earlier to the House's top Democrat, Nancy Pelosi. Amanpour demanded of Boehner: 'Do you not feel that by opposing' a tax hike on millionaires to pay for Obama's jobs bill 'you're basically out of step with the American people on this issue?' She followed by yearning: 'Do you agree at all that there should be any kind of tax increases?' (video compilation below) She soon lectured him – 'you... continue reading
ABC's World News this week failed to mention the development that former New Jersey Democratic Senator and former Governor Jon Corzine is mired in a scandal involving $600 million in missing funds from the financial firm MF Global which he headed until today. The CBS Evening News and the NBC Nightly News so far have not mentioned Corzine's Democratic Party affiliation as they ran full reports on Tuesday, and on Friday both shows updated viewers after Corzine's resignation. On Friday, Brian Williams related that a "prominent criminal defense lawyer" had been hired by Corzine as the NBC anchor read a... continue reading
The unrelenting network coverage of the Herman Cain sexual harassment story continued on Thursday and Friday with an additional 13 stories. That brings the total number of reports to a staggering 63 stories in just four and a half days. Good Morning America offered up three stories on Friday, including a Brian Ross report tinged with anonymous allegations and rumor-mongering. Ross speculated, "Former employees tell ABC News, Cain was a regular on Washington's after-work bar scene, often with young women who worked with him at the restaurant association." Ross hinted, "Some say it was just Cain being personable and gregarious."... continue reading
In an interview with Michele Bachmann on Friday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer's first four questions pushed Bachmann to comment on the Herman Cain controversy: "As the only woman in this race, I just would like your perspective on all this.... Do you think you are hearing the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth from Herman Cain?" Bachmann repeatedly told Lauer: "I don't have any comment on this particular issue." However, Lauer persisted: "Is a subject like sexual harassment, and if there – especially if there is more than one instance of it, even back in the... continue reading
Thursday's World News on ABC skipped the congressional decision to subpoena White House emails related to the Solyndra solar energy company that went into bankruptcy after receiving tax dollars. The November 3 CBS Evening News gave the story 22 seconds, while the NBC Nightly News gave the story a 31-second news brief. On CBS, anchor Scott Pelley related: One cornerstone of President Obama's plan to jumpstart the economy is green energy, but today a House panel subpoenaed White House documents conerning Solyndra, the failed solar panel maker. The Obama administration gave the company more than half a billion dollars, but... continue reading