BiasAlerts

Kate Zernike, who works the Tea Party beat for the New York Times, de-emphasized the meaning of the Tea Party victories in her Wednesday front-page post-election look ahead, " Newcomers Ride to Power With an Unclear Mandate ." Zernike harped on fears of Tea Party "extremism" that supposedly blew at least two Senate seats for the Republicans (never mind that it was that new energy that helped enable the GOP to make such an impressive showing on Tuesday in the first place). The online headline is clearer: "Tea Party Comes to Power on an Unclear Mandate." The Tea Party movement... continue reading

On Wednesday's Today show, NBC special correspondent Tom Brokaw predicted that the incoming Republican majority in Congress, especially the Tea Party-backed winners, would ultimately fail at fulfilling their promise to cutting spending. Brokaw only conceded that the new majority would "begin to make the government much more frugal and much more efficient." Host Matt Lauer first asked the former Nightly News anchor about President Obama's post-election news conference, which was scheduled for later in the day: "He's just had this stinging defeat. What does he need to say at that news conference? How does he communicate to the American people... continue reading

On Wednesday's CBS Early Show, co-host Maggie Rodriguez painted a grim picture of the future of the tea party: "... they could either stay in the Republican Party and the more moderate Republicans will either have to adjust or maybe do what Charlie Crist did down in Florida and become independents or the tea party could become its own political party or the tea party could just fade away." She made the assessment while discussing the midterm election results with political analyst John Dickerson, who responded: "Well, I think that we can agree the latter is not going to happen,... continue reading

Nightly News host Brian Williams on Wednesday oddly obsessed over a portrait of Bill Clinton that could barely be seen in the background as Barack Obama finished his first post-election press conference. During live coverage, as Obama walked away from the podium, Williams apparently spotted the Clinton portrait and pontificated, "Interesting bit there at the end, with Bill Clinton literally looking on between the pillars, his Presidential portrait overlooking the front entrance hallway there in the White House." The journalist didn't expand on the significance he found in the painting. On CBS, Evening News anchor Katie Couric introduced Obama's address... continue reading

During live MSNBC coverage leading up to President Obama's Wednesday 1PM ET press conference, former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather urged the President to aggressively take on Republicans in the wake of the midterm elections: "[Obama] has to realize that Mitch McConnell has virtually said so that politically he wants to cut out his heart and throw his liver to the dogs." [ Audio available here ] Rather declared that the President should "take the Harry Truman, who lost big in1946 and said 'I'm going to fight them. I'm going to fight them.'...He has to be a fighter." He... continue reading

[ UPDATE, 7 PM EDT: NewsBusters is back online. We'll be monitoring it closely over the next several hours, but please consider it back up and running. We'll be posting articles tonight and tomorrow morning on post-election coverage - already-written posts we were unable to put online today.] [UPDATE, 4:45 PM EDT: Not much specific to report, but our tech contractor just stated: "We have brought the NB site back up several times over the last two hours but the site can simply not hold up to the amount of traffic it is receiving." There is a team continuing to... continue reading

Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank attacked Fox News in Wednesday's paper for having a Republican "victory party" on air on Election Night. Nowhere in this piece did he acknowledge his routine appearances on MSNBC, and whether it had a partisan sound on Election Night (and every other weeknight). He also avoided the idea that NBC-Universal was helpfully doling out large chunks of air time for Barack Obama this fall to stave off Democrat losses. His column began: At Rupert Murdoch's cable network, the entity that birthed and nurtured the Tea Party movement, Election Day was the culmination of two years... continue reading

Good Morning America's George Stephanopoulos on Wednesday used a post-election interview to harangue Rand Paul as to whether the newly elected senator was willing to be a one-termer in pursuit of spending cuts. Stephanopoulos pressed, "So, even if it means you're going to be a one-term senator, you're willing to say, we're going to cut Medicare. We are going to cut Social Security in order to balance the budget?" The GMA host tried to stir up trouble, questioning, "If that means taking on your party's own leaders, are you going to do it?" At one point, Paul attempted to point... continue reading

NBC's Matt Lauer characterized Kentucky Senator-Elect Rand Paul's victory as a " wave of anger and energy " on Wednesday's Today show. Lauer asked the Tea Party candidate, " We know you can win an election with anger- can you govern in Washington with anger? " The anchor conducted a short interview of the Kentucky Republican nine minutes into the 7 am Eastern hour. Lauer led with his stereotype of Tea Party/conservative voters: " You rode a wave of anger and energy to Washington ." He then asked his question about winning and governing with "anger." After Paul gave his... continue reading

Shortly after ABC News projected the Republican takeover of the House of Representative, co-anchors George Stephanopoulos and Diane Sawyer, plus Democratic contributor Donna Brazile, waxed effusive of Nancy Pelosi, the object of so many voters' ire. "President Obama called her a rock, the rock for the White House," Sawyer enthused. Sawyer also twice admired how Pelosi once said she took the job "to be in the arena," exclaiming: "She will not be a footnote in history, no matter what happens." Stephanopoulos quickly agreed: "That is absolutely right." He invited Brazile to offer her testimonial: She has been a phenomenal Speaker,... continue reading