At the top of the 8PM ET hour on Tuesday's CBS Early Show, senior White House correspondent Bill Plante touted President Obama's comments about the midterm elections in a recent interview : "[He] told Rolling Stone magazine that for those people not to come out, those so-called 'surge voters,' would be 'inexcusable and irresponsible'....'people need to shake off this lethargy and buck up.'" News reader Erica Hill then brought up another part of the interview: "Also in that Rolling Stone article, on a little bit lighter note, I understand the President is perhaps expanding his musical library a little bit?"... continue reading
Are "Mama Grizzlies" who oppose state children's health insurance programs (S-CHIP) and teachers' unions unfaithful to their maternal name? CNN anchor Kiran Chetry joined Newsweek's Lisa Miller Monday in wondering if that is so. Miller appeared on CNN's "American Morning" to feature her most recent piec e on "Mama Grizzlies," prominent female conservatives in the vein of Sarah Palin. "All the candidates that we - whose records we looked at, are against the Obama health plan in general, and yes, the CHIP program in specific," reported Miller, a senior editor for Newsweek. "There are rising numbers of poor children in... continue reading
On Monday's Rick's List, CNN's Jessica Yellin leaned against California Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina as she compared one of her ads against that of her opponent, Senator Barbara Boxer. While Yellin acknowledged that Boxer's ad was "negative," she also complimented it as " very effective ." The correspondent went on to label Fiorina's commercial " mean " [audio clips available here ]. Substitute anchor Brooke Baldwin discussed the California Senate race with Yellin 17 minutes into the 3 pm Eastern hour. Baldwin first noted that the San Francisco Chronicle declined to endorse either candidate in the race, for in... continue reading
According to Bob Woodward, Barack Obama is an "intellectual" who has agonized over Afghanistan. The Washington Post author appeared on Good Morning America on Tuesday and touted his new book, Obama's Wars, as a way of getting inside the President's "internal struggle" over military action in that country. During the segment, it was co-host George Stephanopoulos, who actually pressed Woodward on what Obama really believes about Afghanistan. Speaking of the surge, he quizzed, "And it appears in many, many scenes throughout this book that the President is approving of a compromise that he doesn't fully believe in." Stephanopoulos quoted Woodward's... continue reading
Monday brings the debut of CNN's new "Parker Spitzer," an 8pm ET political discussion program hosted by columnist Kathleen Parker and the ex-Democratic Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer, who resigned two years ago in the midst of a prostitution scandal. The new show was championed by then-CNN President Jonathan Klein, who was fired by the network on Friday. "Eliot Spitzer still has a lot of ideas to contribute and a lot of things to say. And I think our viewers are going to find him a very interesting person to tune into every night," Klein enthused back on June... continue reading
Acting as if President Barack Obama is uniquely burdened by the responsibility of protecting the nation from a terrorist attack or overseeing a war, Diane Sawyer and Bob Woodward marveled at how he's taken on the job despite the terrible world George W. Bush left for him, in awe of his recognition that terrorists setting off a nuclear device in U.S. city would be a "game changer" and how he dictated "a six-page document" outlining Afghan war strategy - a level of presidential engagement never before seen in "American history." Setting up an eight-minute segment on Monday's World News pegged... continue reading
On CBS's Sunday Morning, correspondent Martha Teichner promoted left-wing class warfare talking points from former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich: "[He] in a new book points out another ominous parallel between the Great Depression and the 'Great Recession,' its cause." Reich proclaimed: "More and more of the income that was generated by the economy went to people at the top." [Audio available here ] Teichner worked to bolster Reich's argument: "In the last century, there were only two years, in 1928 just before the great crash, and then again in 2007, during which the richest 1% were taking home nearly... continue reading
Prior to the Monday night debut of Lawrence O'Donnell's new show, The Last Word, MSNBC has been running promos where O'Donnell proclaims how much "political pressure there is on everyone involved" in governing decisions and that it leaves him "respecting every one who steps into that room to do that," adding he's "gonna disagree with some of those people" but will always "respect the strength it takes to go on in there." Well "respect" was the last thing O'Donnell displayed to a couple of guests that appeared with him on various MSNBC programs. Back on the February 12 edition of... continue reading
With just five weeks to go before the midterms NBC-Universal devoted a full half hour of commercial free air time, across its many properties including MSNBC, USA, Bravo and even Syfy, so that President Obama could offer his views on the state of public education and yes even lash out against Republicans, something Matt Lauer, on Monday's Today show, pushed him to do. Initially invited on to discuss education, the President was, essentially urged by Lauer to take a swipe at the GOP as he asked "Do you intend to change your tone or your emotion in terms of your... continue reading
As part of a sweeping NBC-Universal channel wide broadcast that included NBC outlets like MSNBC, USA, Bravo, Syfy and the Oxygen network, Barack Obama was interviewed by Matt Lauer, on Monday's Today, about the state of public education but in a commercial-free half-hour of interview time, Lauer never once asked the President about his opposition to school vouchers, including a very popular program in Washington D.C. In fact Lauer missed couple of opportunities to press Obama on the issue, when he made reference to the documentary Waiting For Superman, and when an audience member actually pressed Obama if he thought... continue reading