BiasAlerts

CNN anchor Randi Kaye finished her Tuesday news hour with a giddy monologue praising the newest smoking ban in New York City. The ban, signed into law by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in February, took effect Tuesday and outlawed smoking in city parks, public plazas, beaches, and boardwalks. "Yes, say what you want about Mayor Bloomberg's smoking ban on, oh, about 1700 parks and 14 miles of beaches around New York City, but I think it is a great idea," Kaye gushed, effectively wagging her finger in front of all members of her audience who disagreed with the ban. [Click here... continue reading

On Monday, less than 24 hours after a devastating tornado ripped through Joplin, Missouri - killing at least 116 people - an MSNBC anchor was busy putting a political spin on the tragedy. Tamron Hall wondered aloud on News Nation whether climate change was to blame for the rash of hurricanes and tornadoes that ravaged several states, including Missouri, over the last few months. "What about climate change?" speculated Hall, interviewing Dr. Howard Bluestein. "You have many people who see these severe storms, and not just the tornadoes, but the strength of hurricanes and even severe storms, we're getting hail... continue reading

For many in the media Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's reaction to Barack Obama insistence that his country return to the 1967 borders was out of bounds. ABC's Christiane Amanpour declared she was "stunned" by his "public lecture" of the President and NBC's Andrea Mitchell hissed, "it was really rude," and charged he treated Obama " like a school boy." Mitchell didn't reserve her criticism to Netanyahu as she even went after Republicans who dared to take his side, accusing them of "piling on the President." The following is a collection of some of the media's most outrageous outbursts over the... continue reading

NBC's Nightly News on Monday and the Today show on Tuesday ignored a controversial, ideologically divided Supreme Court ruling that ordered California to release at least 38,000 prisoners. ABC, over two days, allowed a scant 11 seconds. Only CBS provided a full report. In a blistering dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia warned that "terrible things are sure to happen" if the action is implemented as a result of overcrowding. On the CBS Evening News, Jan Crawford provided the sole full report, observing the controversial nature of the 5-4 split. She described, " Now, this case produced an extraordinarily heated debate between... continue reading

"Did someone or something fail Jared Loughner?" CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta asked recovering alcoholic and former Congressman Patrick Kennedy Sunday. The question came after Kennedy described his alcoholic condition as a mental disease and not a moral failure, and attributed mental illness to Loughner, the Tuscon shooter who killed six and critically injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) in January. When Kennedy was asked about Loughner being "failed," he issued a sweeping indictment of society. "Clearly we all failed," he said, noting that the Giffords assassin was mentally ill and was not treated for his ailments. "We failed... continue reading

ABC's Diane Sawyer on Monday night presumed everyone lives inside her media bubble obsessed with "global warming" as she set out to blame the Joplin, Missouri tornadoes on it - but not even the CEO of a group dedicated to instilling public fear of "climate change" would go along with Sawyer's fear-mongering. From Joplin, Sawyer plugged the upcoming segment: When we come back, what do those experts say? Everyone's saying, is this it, is this global warming? Is this the evidence? Is it in? The answer. Sawyer set up the subsequent World News story: "Is this it, this is the... continue reading

In lockstep with Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg, who scolded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "please don't speak to my president that way," MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell cautioned of the "political pitfalls" for Republican presidential candidates who dared to challenge Barack Obama's speech on the Middle East. On the May 20 edition of Andrea Mitchell Reports, NBC's chief foreign affairs correspondent warned against criticizing the Democratic commander-in-chief and bewailed the "angry reception" he's received over his desire to see Israel surrender territory it acquired in the six-day Middle East war of 1967. "The political pitfalls of wading into the Israeli-Palestinian stalemate... continue reading

On the May 23 edition of Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough accused Mitch Daniels of having "resentment" for his wife and derided the Indiana governor as "unseemly." Moments earlier, the MSNBC host and his panel heaped mounds of praise on the " civil " Jon Huntsman, hailing him as the "'Morning Joe' candidate" whose civility deserved to be admired, before lobbing insults at Daniels. Rebuking the tone of Daniels's announcement that he would not seek the Republican nomination for president in 2012, Scarborough lectured, "Don't throw your wife and daughters under the bus." "He has hung this around his wife and... continue reading

CBS's Lesley Stahl played up how Al Sharpton apparently " has gone through something of a metamorphosis " as she spotlighted the " street-protest agitator ... now trusted White House adviser " on Sunday's 60 Minutes. Despite pressing Sharpton for his refusal to apologize for the Tawana Brawley hoax, Stahl gushed, " Take a look at Reverend Al ... stately in his tailored suits, commanding a national stage ." The journalist front-loaded her superlatives about the liberal flamethrower during her 12-and-a-half minute report in the bottom half of the 8 pm Eastern hour, emphasizing how Sharpton has supposedly become a... continue reading

At the end of Sunday's Meet the Press, NBC chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell scolded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for daring to criticize President Obama's call for Israel to return to 1967 borders: "...he criticized the President, and in such a fashion! He lectured him in the Oval Office....basically treating him like a school boy." Mitchell went on to declare: "People even who work for Netanyahu, some Israeli officials, told him later that he went too far. That it was, it was really rude and that there would be blowback to this." The leading voice of criticism in... continue reading