On Monday's CBS Evening News and Tuesday's Early Show, CBS failed to cover an Iowa Tea Party activist's confrontation with President Obama. Both ABC's GMA and NBC's Today mentioned the encounter. Just days earlier, CBS and ABC spotlighted how left-wing protesters heckled Mitt Romney at an Iowa appearance and how the Republican apparently made a "gaffe" in reply. NBC correspondent Chuck Todd noted the "heated exchange" between Tea Partier Ryan Rhodes and the President midway through his report just after the top of the 7 am Eastern hour of Today: TODD: In one heated exchange- PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I know... continue reading
World News' Diane Sawyer on Monday hyped a disaster at a rock concert in Indianapolis as an example of "weather gone wild" and linked it to global warming. Hyperbolically connecting the tragedy to other weather events, she proclaimed, " Something strange going on around the globe ." The anchor teased the segment by warning, "And tonight, the weather gone wild. Winds that come out of nowhere. Floods swelling streets. Heat breaking records in all 50 states. Snow where it hasn't fallen in decades." The program also hid the identity of a global warming activist. [MP3 audio here .] Reporter Jim... continue reading
During an interview with former Obama Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on Tuesday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer wondered: "How does the President get this excitement going again surrounding his re-election bid so that he can keep this office?" Throughout the segment, the headline on screen read: "Beyond Hope and Change; How Can President Regain Magic of 2008?" In response to Lauer, Gibbs claimed: "First and foremost, the President is not focused on keeping his job. Most of all, he's focused on creating jobs for the American people." Gibbs also used the opportunity to bash the GOP: "The Republicans are going... continue reading
'Billionaires on notice,' ABC anchor Diane Sawyer teased Monday's World News in trumpeting, as did CBS and NBC, a New York Times op-ed by liberal billionaire Warren Buffett. Sawyer heralded Buffett's quest: 'Is it time for the mega-rich to pay at least the same tax rate as their secretaries? And if they did pay their fair share, would it fix America's schools or roads?' Sawyer soon ludicrously asserted 'working men and women,' meaning the non-wealthy, 'pay the most taxes.' In fact, as detailed by the Tax Foundation, 'America's wealthiest taxpayers are paying a disproportionate share of the income tax burden'... continue reading
ESPN's LZ Granderson labeled Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) as "crazy" Monday, and CNN anchor Kyra Phillips seemed to credit his judgment. Granderson, a CNN contributor, said of a Bachmann candidacy that "the people aren't going to vote for crazy. And she [Bachmann] still registers as crazy with a lot of independents." Phillips immediately responded that "If you could go back decades, there's a lot of people who vote for crazy, guys." [Video below.] It seems that the running commentary on CNN is that conservative candidates like Bachmann or Texas governor Rick Perry are not only weak candidates but are repellent... continue reading
Ravi Somaiya, reporter for the New York Times London bureau, suggested ' deep cuts in social services ' on the part of the Conservative-led coalition government and " social deprivation " (whatever that means) may bear some blame for the riots and looting that wrecked neighborhoods in London. Shops and flats were stormed and burned in the wake of a police shooting of a gang suspect in the London neighborhood of Tottentham. An online headline over his August 8 story found a familiar left-wing villain: ' Budget Cuts and Scorn for Police Seen Fueling London Riot .' (Photo from Luke... continue reading
On Monday's NBC Today, chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd described liberal wishful thinking as "conventional wisdom" as he explained how: "The Obama team has been taking comfort in the fact that they believe this Republican race is moving to the Right, that it's a race to the Right. And they take comfort in that and they think that's going to help them long term." At the same time, Todd seemed perplexed that the President's poll numbers had fallen despite the conservative values of the Republican 2012 contenders: "But as that happened – and it was a lot of attention... continue reading
Good Morning America's George Stephanopoulos on Monday touted White House plans to tie Texas Governor Rick Perry to George W. Bush. The former Democratic operative turned morning show host seemed to endorse this strategy, spinning that the Bush equals Perry concept is "already in the popular culture." Interviewing Jake Tapper, Stephanopoulos explained, "I was talking to a White House official." He added that "their strategy will be to lash whoever gets the Republican nomination" to the Republican Congress and "former President Bush." A few seconds later, Stephanopoulos asserted, " Already in the popular culture, the idea taking hold that he... continue reading
'I think there's a lot of time on radio and television and on the Web that actually is conservative points of view. There's not a lot of time for the left,' long-time CNN executive David Bohrman, the new President of Current TV, the channel co-founded by Al Gore which is Keith Olbermann's new home, laughably claimed late Sunday morning in a live interview on CNN's Reliable Sources. Bohrman, who worked at ABC News and NBC News before joining CNN in the mid-1990s, admitted he 'outed' himself as a liberal by jumping to Current TV, proclaimed 'I also think that the... continue reading
Asked how Iowans view President Barack Obama, Michael Gartner, the President of NBC News from 1988 to 1993, insisted on this weekend's Bloomberg TV's Political Capital : 'I think people have a fondness for him and I don't think people blame him for anything that's wrong in this country,' except, that is, 'the far-right of the Republican Party.' For the Bloomberg TV show which first runs on Friday nights, Al Hunt interviewed Gartner, an Iowa native, at a game of the Iowa Cubs, the Triple-A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs which Gartner co-owns. From the end of the August 12... continue reading