Thursday's lead New York Times editorial defended the paper's left-wing ideological ground against conservative arguments that the killing of Osama bin Laden is a vindication of harsh interrogation methods used on terrorist detainees in Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere: " The Torture Apologists - Efforts to justify torture after the Bin Laden killing are cynical and destructive ." As the headline proves, the Times has made itself quite comfortable with using the loaded word "torture" to describe broad interrogation methods like water-boarding and sleep deprivation that inflict temporary physical panic. The killing of Osama bin Laden provoked a host of reactions... continue reading
President Bush received a short-term boost in New York Times polling when Saddam Hussein was captured in December 2003, his job approval rating rising to 58% from 50%, while the assassination of Osama bin Laden similarly benefitted President Obama in yesterday's NYT/CBS News poll, 57% to 46%. Yet it was Obama who got the warmer initial greeting on the Times' front page. The first three paragraphs from Thursday's Page One story by James Dao and Dalia Sussman, " Bin Laden Gives President Big Lift in Poll ." Support for President Obama rose sharply after the killing of Osama bin Laden,... continue reading
Chris Matthews on Wednesday mocked Rush Limbaugh's response to the killing of Osama bin Laden, deriding the conservative as a "walrus underwater." Matthews also made an odd grunting noise to back up this description . After playing a clip of Limbaugh asserting that the media have played up Barack Obama's role in the action, the Hardball anchor berated, " You know, I don't even know what that is except just bitterness. I mean- [makes noise] Walrus underwater talking and what is he actually saying? " Matthews introduced the segment by hitting Limbaugh as a "caricature" and a "cartoon." [ MP3... continue reading
Incoming CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley was asked by the Politico's Keach Hagey for his reaction to the MRC's Profile in Bias on him and the longtime 60 Minutes correspondent, who once compared global warming skeptics to Holocaust deniers , seemed to deny the charge of liberal bias as he huffed: "CBS has been called liberal for a lot of years," adding, "It probably harkens all the way back to Edward Murrow." The following is the relevant excerpt from the May 4, Politico.com story: Projecting fairness has been an issue for the network in some quarters. CBS News, under... continue reading
On NBC's Today on Wednesday, co-host Matt Lauer worried about Americans celebrating the death of Osama bin Laden: "...your children are going to see, and have already seen, people in the streets celebrating about the death of someone and that's a contradictory image for them." Today contributor and psychiatrist Gail Saltz replied: "Absolutely, very disturbing for them." The segment was on how to talk to children about the killing of bin Laden and Saltz speculated that kids may ask: "Why are people partying, being happy that anybody was killed?" She suggested those who celebrated may now regret their actions: "I... continue reading
On Wednesday's The View, ABC's Barbara Walters slobbered over the "courage, and the guts, and the coolness" of President Obama in ordering the assassination of terrorist Osama bin Laden. "It was enormously, enormously courageous," she said of the president's decision to commence the mission to kill or capture the al Qaeda leader. "President Bush tried, President Clinton tried, but Barack Obama was the one who had the courage and the guts and the coolness," Walters said of the mission before being drowned out in applause from the audience. Two days after she successfully politicized Osama bin Laden's death , Walters... continue reading
If any American with a patriotic pulse listened to the Mike Malloy radio show, they would have been shocked on Monday night when Malloy outrageously suggested that Navy SEALs should have shot former president George W. Bush, and not Osama bin Laden. (MP3 audio clip here .) MIKE MALLOY: I have heard some commentators talk about the fact that, all the lives that have been lost in this war on terror, and now the summary execution of the person responsible. But as soon as I heard that, I thought, well, bin Laden really didn't have anything to do - did... continue reading
According to the man ABC News relies on for religious analysis, it's impossible to say whether Osama bin Laden was "evil." Father Edward Beck , the network's religion correspondent, appeared with Bill O'Reilly on Tuesday and offered moral equivalence on the subject of the terrorist's death. When the O'Reilly Factor anchor pressed Beck on whether bin Laden truly represented malevolence, Beck replied, " That's not for me to judge. His actions were certainly were evil. " O'Reilly pressed Beck on this point, prompting the ABC News analyst to assert, "No, I think that's up to God to ultimately decide who's... continue reading
ABC's World News on Tuesday continued to demonstrate the network's lack of interest in whether enhanced interrogation methods such as waterboarding played a part in the killing of Osama bin laden. The Diane Sawyer-anchored program was the only newscast to avoid the topic. In contrast, Nightly News host Brian Williams interviewed CIA director Leon Panetta, grilling, " Can you confirm that it was as a result of waterboarding that we learned what we needed to learn to go after bin Laden? " He hammered the question three times, adding, "...Are you denying that waterboarding was in part among the tactics... continue reading
On Monday and Tuesday, NPR played up how Osama Bin Laden's death might translate into a political win for President Obama. Mara Liasson trumpeted the " huge victory " for the President and spotlighted a scholar who gushed how Obama now looked " strong and competent and decisive ." Cokie Roberts boasted how the military operation was a " score " for the Democrat and that it was a " game changer politically ." At the beginning of her report which lead Tuesday's Morning Edition, Liasson gushed that "every president benefits from moments of national unity, but none so much... continue reading