BiasAlerts

Teasing an upcoming story in the 7:30AM ET half hour on Tuesday's CBS Early Show, co-host Harry Smith cheerfully promoted Levi Johnston's pitch for a reality show in Alaska: "He's going to star in a new reality show and it's all about him running for mayor of Wasilla. That's right, he's gunning for his would-have-been mother-in-law's old job." Later, Smith further teased: "Johnston's quest to follow in Sarah Palin's foot steps and hold political office." Introducing the report, fill-in co-host Erica Hill remarked how Johnston would "be chasing Sarah Palin's legacy." Correspondent Priya David-Clemens discussed the show as if it... continue reading

At the top of his eponymous program on Sunday, CNN's Fareed Zakaria took drastic action to protest the Anti-Defamation League's opposition to the proposed Ground Zero mosque. Zakaria, who was honored by the ADL in 2005 with the Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize, gave back his award because he was "deeply saddened" by the group's respect for the families of 9/11 victims who oppose the construction of a mosque just two blocks from Ground Zero. "Given the position that they have taken on a core issue of religious freedom in America, I cannot in good conscience keep that... continue reading

In a report on Arizona's immigration law for CBS's Sunday Morning, correspondent John Blackstone declared: "In the heat of the Arizona summer, America's long-simmering immigration debate is boiling over." He portrayed it as the latest wave of anti-immigrant sentiment: "The often-angry debate....whether yet another influx of outsiders can be accepted into a nation of immigrants." At the top of the program, the Early Show's Harry Smith, filling in for host Charles Osgood, teased Blackstone's report this way: "'The New Colossus' is the name of the Emma Lazarus poem about the Statue of Liberty, the poem that speaks of a 'golden... continue reading

ABC on Monday night delivered an even shoddier than usual piece of advocacy for President Barack Obama in the guise of a news story, duplicity which started with fill-in anchor George Stephnopoulos, trying to make Obama's comments seem well-timed and topical, falsely describing statistics, released more than two weeks ago, as "new numbers today show..." Stephanopoulos intoned: Now to a stunning example of the U.S. falling behind where we shouldn't. New numbers today show eleven countries, including Canada, South Korea, and Russia, now lead the U.S. in the rate of young adults getting college degrees. That spells trouble, and President... continue reading

NBC's Chuck Todd, substitute hosting for Chris Matthews on Monday's Hardball, invited on Vanity Fair's Todd Purdum and the Politico's Jonathan Martin to navel gaze about what ailed the political structure as Todd questioned "Is Washington broke and beyond repair?" Pivoting off a Purdum article, that in part, blamed lobbyists, Martin offered his own explanation as he brought up the typical mainstream media boogeymen of the Drudge Report, Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. After Todd noted that it's not just the "lobbying community" causing distress in D.C., that the "media is playing a role here" and "it's not clear which... continue reading

New Times political columnist Matt Bai is the political version of economics writer David Leonhardt : Both are neoliberal commentators (slightly to the right of the paper's reporters) who serve as the paper's conscience on their chosen issues. The front of the Sunday Week in Review featured Bai's latest "Political Times" column, " I'm American. And You? " where Bai attacked as "nativist impulse" two conservative proposals: A push by some Republican lawmakers to repeal the 14th amendment, giving citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil; and conservative opposition to building a mosque near Ground Zero. It's apparently gotten bad... continue reading

During a discussion of California's Proposition 8 being overturned on CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday, fill-in host John Dickerson questioned Family Research Council President Tony Perkins's assertion that the federal judge who made the ruling was openly gay: "You mention this claim that he's openly homosexual. I'm not sure if that's, in fact, the case." Perkins replied by citing his source on Judge Vaughn Walker's sexual orientation: "Well, that, according to The San Francisco Chronicle, that he is openly homosexual, one of two federal judges." Thursday's Good Morning America on ABC reported that fact as well, even while NBC's... continue reading

Good Morning America's George Stephanopoulos and Cokie Roberts on Monday downplayed the potential bad PR Michelle Obama might suffer for taking a Spanish vacation costing $250,000 Roberts justified, " But in the grand scheme of things, what real difference does it make? I would guess that Sasha is probably learning some Spanish. " Continuing to spin the First Lady's vacation, she argued, "And we need Spain to be stronger economically than it is in the Euro zone. I mean, you can make the case if you- if you really need to . " Roberts did allow that the decision to... continue reading

Christiane Amanpour elevated a liberal British journalist, with little U.S. television experience, to the This Week roundtable where she presumed the government must run the economy and distribute the economic pie while she took pot shots at how the efforts to control illegal immigration proves America's descent into a "culture of hate." Gillian Tett , U.S. Managing Editor of the London-based Financial Times newspaper, began by insisting, that to respond to stagnant employment numbers: "The big question now is can the economy keep growing if the government doesn't keep pumping in money?" Applying a European economic model, Tett fretted "that... continue reading

USA Today founder Al Neuharth used his weekly column on Friday to ridicule Rush Limbaugh, marking the 22nd anniversary of Limbaugh's national radio show by denouncing the conservative talk titan for "ludicrous" assertions and deriding him for having "the best comedy show on radio." In the column titled " Limbaugh anniversary is a laughing matter ," Neuharth condescendingly maintained: "I'm not a regular Limbaugh listener because on most days when he peddles his diatribe, I'm busy doing something worthwhile." But on a recent "long auto trip" he tuned in and heard "laughables," scolding Limbaugh for making anti-Barack Obama and Hillary... continue reading