On Thursday's New Day , CNN's Kate Bolduan hounded Senator John McCain to back President Obama's new strategy to combat the Islamist terrorist group ISIS and help him gain congressional support: "We talk about how you are a critic of the administration. But now that there is a strategy , Senator – now that there is going to be action... how are you going to help the administration succeed now in implementing this? " Earlier, Bolduan pressed the Arizona Republican to push for a vote in Congress for authorization of force against ISIS in Syria: [MP3 audio available here ;... continue reading
In 2012, gaffes and scandals by Republican candidates, such as Todd Akin , prompted a wave of coverage by the three networks. Yet, ill-conceived comments by Democrats in the 2014 midterms have created no such attention. Incumbent Colorado Senator Mark Udall made this cringe-inducing comment during last week's debate in Colorado. Speaking of two beheaded Americans, he insisted , "Steve Sotloff and James Foley would tell us, don't be impulsive. Horrible and barbarous as those executions were, don't be impulsive." ABC, CBS and NBC didn't bother to report on this gaffe. Only Fox News anchor Bret Baier covered the story... continue reading
On Thursday's NBC Today , several hours after NBC chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel ripped President Obama's strategy to combat ISIS as being "wildly off-base," correspondent Peter Alexander promoted the commander-in-chief's Wednesday primetime address: "President Obama announced that he would lead a broad coalition to destroy ISIS....The war will be more like those in Yemen and Somalia, Mr. Obama stressed..." [ Listen to the audio ] At the core of Engel's criticism of the President was the notion that the same strategy used to combat Al Qaeda forces in places like Yemen and Somalia could also be used to fight... continue reading
All three network morning shows on Thursday highlighted Barack Obama's primetime speech from the night before, promoting his talk of a "broad coalition." Yet, Germany and Britain have announced that they won't take part in the President's planned air strikes. In 2003, ABC, NBC and CBS hit George W. Bush for "going it alone" with a coalition of 18 countries. On CBS This Morning , Bill Plante hyped, "[Obama] insisted that the U.S. will not go it alone." He then played a clip of the President trumpeting, "America will lead a broad coalition to roll back this terrorist threat. Already... continue reading
After President Obama’s speech to the nation on Wednesday night, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow asked NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel what he thought of President Obama’s analogy that the U.S. strategy in fighting terrorism in Yemen and Somalia would carry over to dealing with the Islamic terrorist group ISIS in both Iraq and Syria. Needless to say, Engel was not at all pleased with the comparison the President made, telling Maddow immediately that “I think it is wildly off base, frankly” and “[i]t's an oversimplification of the problem. ” He went on to describe the situation in both... continue reading
After President Obama’s speech to the nation on Wednesday night, CNN brought on its newly-minted senior political commenator and former Obama White House press secretary Jay Carney and Republican Senator John McCain (Ariz.) to comment on the President’s speech regarding U.S policy in dealing withy the Islamic terrorist group ISIS. However, the next eight minutes instantly evolved into a heated debate between the two over the President’s actions of withdrawing troops from Iraq early in his administration and whether that allowed a threat like ISIS to proliferate. With CNN’s Anderson Cooper only stepping in during a few occasions, the two... continue reading
After President Obama’s speech on confronting the Islamic terrorist group ISIS on Wednesday night, each of the major broadcast networks offered some brief analysis before returning to regularly scheduled programming. Over on CBS, Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer anchored that network’s coverage and had nothing but good things to say in the few minutes before CBS’s coverage concluded. Schieffer told the audience that Obama’s speech “shows us a real evolution in where the President was just in the last week of August” when he told reporters at a press conference that “we don’t have a strategy yet” in how... continue reading
HBO's Bill Maher clashed with Charlie Rose on the veteran host's PBS show on Tuesday over the atheist's outspoken views on Islam . Maher underlined the " illiberal beliefs that are held by vast numbers of Muslim people ." Rose interjected with a left-wing talking point: " Vast number of Christians, too ." The comedian shot back, " No, no. That's not true – not true. Vast numbers of Christians do not believe that if you leave the Christian religion, you should be killed for it ." Rose later cited another regularly-used, politically-correct claim in defense of Islam: " What... continue reading
Wednesday's NBC Today was the only network morning show to cover President Obama being refused tee times at several top golf courses during his Labor Day weekend trip to New York, with co-host Matt Lauer declaring: "...the President has faced some criticism recently over the time he spends playing golf....[now] more problems tied to his favorite hobby." [ Listen to the audio ] Fellow co-host Willie Geist explained: "Club managers saying they didn't want to inconvenience their high-profile and dues-paying members by shutting down their courses to accommodate the President during the busy holiday weekend." Moments later, Geist seemed to... continue reading
At the end of a report on Wednesday's NBC Today about President Obama's upcoming speech on combating ISIS terrorists, correspondent Peter Alexander sympathetically observed: "The primetime nature of this speech really underscores its stakes, but also a significant shift for this President, who wanted to leave the White House as a peacetime president. But now...is likely to commit the country to what some say could be another potentially costly military campaign." [ Listen to the audio ] In the segment that followed, co-host Matt Lauer led off a discussion with Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd on that sentiment: "Peter... continue reading