BiasAlerts

CNN's Suzanne Malveaux led Friday's Situation Room by labeling the social conservative Value Voters Summit a "traditional showcase for hardcore conservatives ." Later in the same segment, senior political analyst Gloria Borger stated that the Tea Party movement was " anti-health care " and bizarrely referred to Ronald Reagan as " the most secular president we've known in our lifetime ." Malveaux used her "hardcore conservatives" line as she introduced a segment on Republican Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell's speech to the Summit. Just before this, she stated how "some are calling her [O'Donnell] the new poster girl for the Tea... continue reading

Reporting on Pope Benedict's visit to the UK on Friday's CBS Early Show, correspondent Mark Phillips noted how 65,000 people attended a Thursday outdoor mass in Scotland, but observed: "...it was only about a quarter of the size of the crowd Pope John Paul drew to the same park on his visit 28 years ago. And this crowd had a much better warm-up act...TV talent show star...Susan Boyle." On Thursday , correspondent Richard Roth touted low turnout predictions during the Papal visit: "Some Church officials this morning were already lowering expectations, saying seats were still unsold for several outdoor events."... continue reading

New York Times political reporter Kate Zernike's thin new book " Boiling Mad - Inside Tea Party America ," is among the first of what will surely be a flood of related books by journalists.Like her reporting for the Times, "Boiling Mad" covers the movement from a mostly hostile perspective that only intermittently becomes something like empathy when she's talking to one of the invariably pleasant Tea Party citizens themselves. Behind the (of course) red-as-a-Red State-cover lies a mere 194 pages of text, not including a 33-page reprint of an old, biased Times poll on the Tea Party. While not... continue reading

Appearing on Friday's CBS Early Show, Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer continued to compare the rise of the tea party and possible candidacy of Sarah Palin in 2012 to the 1964 campaign of Barry Goldwater. In response, co-host Harry Smith remarked that Palin could take Republicans "to the edge of the abyss, as it were." On Wednesday's CBS Evening News , Schieffer argued: "...it is very much like 1964....they threw out all the establishment candidates...they nominated Barry Goldwater who - fine man - but he was far to the right of most of the people in his party, and... continue reading

Following a story on how "big primary victories by fringe candidates open a rift in the GOP," in which Jeff Greenfield warned "moderate Republicans worry that if the Tea Party movement drives the GOP too far to the right, it could jeopardize their prospects in November and in 2012," CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric fretted: "Does this mean moderate Republicans are becoming an endangered species?" Hardly an original thought, however, from Couric. From a quick perusal of the MRC's archive, I discovered that on NBC's Today show back in 2005 she worried about whether "the religious right has too... continue reading

This Week anchor Christiane Amanpour appeared on Thursday's Good Morning America and offered a softball question to Hillary Clinton about her daughter's wedding. After discussing Middle East peace, Amanpour gushed, "And of all of the things you have undertaken over the last several months, was your daughter's wedding- where does that fit in there? And hard? Difficult?" The ABC host was previewing a longer interview scheduled for Sunday's edition of This Week. GMA co-host Robin Roberts cheered, "From the politicians hoping to make history in November, to one politician trying to make history right now." Amanpour speculated as to whether... continue reading

At the top of Thursday's CBS Early Show, fill-in co-host Erica Hill teased a report on Pope Benedict's visit to Scotland: "...it's a rather controversial visit for a number of reasons." Later, correspondent Richard Roth proclaimed the state visit "has more pomp and potentially more problems" and would "bound to be shadowed by controversy along with ceremony." Roth went on to tout a gaffe made by a Papal aide prior to the trip and noted how the Pope "courts criticism on a range of issues , from the visit's cost - figured at around $20 million - to the cover-up... continue reading

Matt Bai's "Political Times" column for Thursday's New York Times, " Obama the Other, Deployed as Election Tactic ," deplored what Bai saw as an emerging G.O.P. strategy against Barack Obama in 2010 and 2012. Bai predictably brought up former House speaker Newt Gingrich accusing Obama of "Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior," based on a Forbes cover story by conservative Dinesh D'Souza. This cultural critique of Mr. Obama - a general portrayal of otherness based on his age and ideology, his upbringing and, inescapably, his race - is reminiscent of similar attacks on Bill Clinton, whom 1990s-era conservatives reveled in depicting as... continue reading

At certain schools across the country, parents possessed the authority to pull their children from class on Tuesday so as not to witness President Obama's address to students nationwide - something MSNBC's Ed Schultz, as he railed about on Monday and Tuesday editions of The Ed Show, constituted an "opt-out for Right-wing whackos." Schultz seemed to be not in favor of academic freedom - in this case. Decrying opposition to the speech as "perverse conservative hatred" for Obama and "motivated by race," Schultz was apparently doubly-mad about this, as he hit the issue for two consecutive nights on his self-titled... continue reading