On Friday's CBS This Morning , co-host Gayle King promoted protests in Colorado designed to silence local school board members who were considering whether to have a discussion about possibly changing the history education curriculum to reflect a more positive view of the United States: "High school students outside Denver promise more protests today against the Jefferson County School Board. The panel refuses to drop a controversial plan reassessing how the district teaches American history." In the report that followed, correspondent Anna Werner hyped "an incredibly contentious meeting" of the school board where "Audience members called for the board's three... continue reading
On Monday, Dr. David Agus injected the media's regular hype about climate change into CBS This Morning 's coverage of the outbreak of Enterovirus D68 in the U.S. and the Ebola crisis in Africa. The morning show brought on Dr. Agus to discuss the polio-like virus that has afflicted children across the country. Near the end of the segment, anchor Charlie Rose wondered, "So we have Ebola virus in Africa, and we now have this virus [Enterovirus D68]. What's going on?" The CBS medical contributor admitted that science didn't have any answers at this point, but that didn't stop him... continue reading
In a contentious interview with Benjamin Netanyahu aired on her 12 p.m. ET hour MSNBC show on Thursday, host Andrea Mitchell badgered the Israeli Prime Minister by repeatedly parroting a nasty attack line from the Obama administration: "...the White House and the State Department say that the new settlements in Arab East Jerusalem undercut your commitment to peace. That it could poison the atmosphere, it could turn the world against you. What is your response to that, when the President says that to you?" [ Listen to the audio ] After Netanyahu explained that the supposed "new settlements" were already... continue reading
Liberal MSNBC anchor Ed Schultz could barely contain himself on Thursday as he gushed over Germany's "socialism." The country officially scrapped tuition fees and this sent Schultz into a fit of envy: "We need to take a page out of the country Germany. Here's some good socialism for you!" [MP3 audio here .] After discussing bailouts of Wall Street, Schultz enthused, "This week, Germany abolished all tuition fees, not some. All! A college education is now free in this country. Free." (Because if a government deems something "free," that means nobody has to pay, right?) The host concluded, "In this... continue reading
Following President Obama’s speech on the economy on Thursday, the PBS NewsHour offered a 48-second news brief on the subject, in which co-anchor Gwen Ifill offered no opposing viewpoint to the President’s claim in his speech that “by every measure, the country is better off than when he took office.” The show then played a soundbite of the President, in which he lamented that “millions of Americans don't yet feel enough of the benefits of a growing economy where it matters most, and that’s in their own lives and these truths aren't incompatible. Our broader economy, in the aggregate, has... continue reading
NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams conducted a question and answer session on Facebook following Wednesday night’s program and defended his over 4-minute-long interview with actor and activist Ben Affleck that aired on Tuesday night after a woman asked him why such an interview would air “promoting his new movie on a hard news show.” Williams responded by equating his show to a newspaper in that “newspapers have sections, and life’s too short.” He said that he “could EASILY [emphasis his] fill the entire 30 minute slot with nothing but hard news, especially in our post 9-11 era. But there’s... continue reading
Appearing on MSNBC's Jose Diaz-Balart on Thursday, former talk show host and retired Marine Montel Williams scolded the Obama administration for not taking action to free Marine Sergeant Andrew Tahmooressi, held in a Mexican prison for six months on a trumped up weapons charge: "...what I found out was extremely disturbing....Jill Tahmooressi has had a son in prison for six months who is ill. No one from the White House has reached out to her to say, 'We're going to do something.' The State Department hasn't even called her directly to say, 'We're going to do something.'" Williams, who testified... continue reading
Kasie Hunt, MSNBC’s Political Correspondent, appeared on Thursday’s Morning Joe to promote her recent trip to Colorado, where she covered the highly contentious Senate contest between incumbent Democrat Mark Udall and his Republican challenger Congressman Cory Gardner. Hunt began her prepackaged report by playing up how “Washington Republicans were thrilled when Gardner decided to run against Udall. His easy manner and moderate tone seemed like a good match for Colorado. It’s a purple state that rejected more inflammatory conservatives in 2010.” Oddly enough, the MSNBC reporter’s decision to call 2010 Republicans “inflammatory” seems remarkably similar to a series of ads... continue reading
Why would PBS d evote over six minutes to a midterm election that appears headed towards a blowout? Perhaps it's because examining the Mississippi Senate race on the PBS NewsHour allows the network to rehash a bitter Republican primary battle. Although journalist Jeffrey Hess on Tuesday noted the lopsided Republican advantage for incumbent Thad Cochran, he also highlighted, "Time is running out. The party and the Cochran campaign need to shift into general election mode to remind their voters that there is still a race to be run in November." [MP3 audio here. ] To underline, Cochran leads by 15... continue reading
Following a Wednesday morning report in which the hosts of CBS This Morning celebrated California’s ban on plastic bags, on Thursday morning the hosts promoted a Seattle law that fines citizens for failing to compost properly. While co-host Norah O’Donnell skeptically argued that “garbage trucks may start to feel more like police cars” reporter Ben Tracy began his report by suggesting the fine for not composting didn’t go far enough and wondered “if you're really trying to incentivize people to do this, why is the fine only a buck?” The CBS reporter began by playing up how “these days almost... continue reading