BiasAlerts

Filling in for Alex Wagner on her MSNBC show Wednesday, Luke Russert had a segment on NFL player and defensive end Michael Sam, who was signed earlier in the day to the Dallas Cowboys after being released by the St. Louis Rams on Saturday. Russert opined that the reason there was a delay before Sam was signed by another team was not because of any media “distractions" or that he was not a good enough player, but it was “probably because he’s gay.” In the first portion of the over five-minute-long segment, Russert cited reports from anonymous NFL general managers... continue reading

On Wednesday night’s NBC Nightly News , anchor Brian Williams ignored President Obama’s mixed signals regarding how his administration intends to deal with the threat of the Islamic terrorist group ISIS as he highlighted how Obama declared he would “degrade and destroy” ISIS, but omitted remarks from Obama that ISIS can be contained to the point of being “a manageable problem.” At the top of the broadcast, Williams delivered spin favorable to the White House's wish to make Obama seem consistent with a definite strategy: “[F]or all those who may be wondering if the U.S. is going to rise up,... continue reading

On Tuesday's CNN Tonight , Don Lemon spotlighted the scoop that President Obama received briefings on ISIS "for at least a year" before the extreme Islamist group's blitzkrieg across northern Iraq – something the Big Three networks failed to do the same evening. During a segment with Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times, Lemon pointed out that the President was " briefed on this a year ago, and then ... looked the other way – didn't take it seriously enough ." Kristof did his best to brush this reporting aside: " I don't think it's quite right to say... continue reading

Appearing on MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports on Wednesday, NBC chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel ripped into President Obama having no strategy to combat ISIS terrorists: "This has been going on for over three years. The buildup of ISIS has not been rapid, it has been quite slow. It has been quite well-documented....I met an ISIS fighter and I broadcast it on Nightly News .... So that we have no strategy to deal with ISIS is quite – is quite ridiculous at this stage." That followed Engel revealing on Sunday's Meet the Press that military officials "are apoplectic" over the President's... continue reading

On Tuesday night Mark Halperin and John Heilemann stopped by Charlie Rose’s PBS show to throw cold water on GOP hopes of re-taking the Senate as the co-authors of Game Change and current Bloomberg Politics editors spouted the typical inside-the-beltway view of the Republican Party’s 2014 chances. Halperin claimed the GOP was hampered by having “no real message” whereas the Democrats could run on “keeping Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security” - basically the same ideas they have run on since the 1930s. Heilemann also told Republicans to cool their jets: “Six months ago, Republicans thought this would be a big wave... continue reading

After President Obama admitted on Thursday that he had "no strategy" for dealing with the ISIS terrorist network, on Wednesday, the network morning shows rushed to portray the aimless commander-in-chief as a tough-talking leader ready to "destroy" the radical killers. At the top of ABC's Good Morning America , co-host George Stephanopoulos hyped: "President Obama's tough words to the ISIS terrorists who executed American journalist Steven Sotloff." In the report that followed, correspondent Brian Ross proclaimed: "President Obama vowed that ISIS will pay the price for the murder of a second American journalist. The President delivered fighting words this morning..."... continue reading

For the second day in a row, the “big three” networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) all ignored a new report from a former Pentagon official which claims that President Obama received briefings on the terrorist group ISIS “for at least a year before the group seized large swaths of territory over the summer.” Following the “big three” ignoring the report on their Tuesday night broadcasts, on Wednesday, September 3, all three network morning shows continued to omit the revelation during their coverage of ISIS following the beheading of a second American journalist, Steven Sotloff. While the networks continue to ignore... continue reading

On Tuesday night, the three major broadcast networks omitted from their coverage on the Islamic group ISIS a report that President Barack Obama has received briefings on the terrorist organization “for at least a year before the group seized large swaths of territory over the summer.” ABC, CBS, and NBC all led their evening newscasts with multiple segments on the gruesome murder of American journalist Stephen Sotloff at the hands of ISIS in a propaganda video released on Tuesday afternoon. Over on the Fox News Channel (FNC), Special Report with Bret Baier aired three segments on the story, including a... continue reading

After appearing on Tuesday’s CBS This Morning , CBS News political director John Dickerson joined substitute anchor Charlie Rose on Tuesday night’s CBS Evening News to discuss the upcoming midterm elections. While Dickerson told Rose that voters are citing domestic issues as what they care about most, he also said that “overlaying this entire election is disappointment with the President” which “motivates Republicans and discourages Democrats.” Along with highlighting a CBS News projection that Republicans will take the Senate by a 51-49 margin, Dickerson mentioned the latest CBS News poll which shows only 36 percent of Americans approving of President... continue reading

On Tuesday's Morning Joe , MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski felt sorry for President Obama and all the crises overseas that he is currently facing: " You look at just the President, and the incoming on foreign policy crises, I think it's possibly unprecedented, except for extreme times of war ." Moments earlier, the morning newscast played a montage of video clips looking back at all the tumultuous events from the summer. Joe Scarborough expressed his disbelief at the amount of chaos, while Brzezinski replied to the mash-up by setting up her lament for the chief executive: [MP3 audio available here ;... continue reading