Good Morning America's George Stephanopoulos on Wednesday Defended the building of a mosque near Ground Zero as a monument to tolerance. Talking to conservative radio host Laura Ingraham, he proclaimed, " This is a country founded on the notion of religious freedom. What better way to say they [the terrorists] haven't won ?" Ingraham decried the plan for being so close to the site of 9/11 terrorist attack: "And I say the terrorists have won with the way this has gone down. 600 feet from where thousands of our fellow Americans were incinerated in the name of political Islam?" This... continue reading
Playing Stevie Wonder's version of 'Happy Birthday' at the end of Wednesday's CBS Early Show, co-host Erica Hill reported: "The Obamas, of course, big Stevie Wonder fans. And President Obama, 49 years old today." After she observed that Obama looked a little grayer, co-host Harry Smith, who interviewed the President on Friday, chimed in: "He came bounding into the interview area full of energy." Smith went on to note how "in terms of energy and sort of lines on the face or any of that other kind of stuff....looks like [Obama's] still got it together." Hill wondered: "He doesn't look... continue reading
Opening Tuesday's World News with the workplace shooting in Manchester, Connecticut, anchor Diane Sawyer saw it as one in a long line of incidents involving a "worker with a gun and grudge" as she described the nine killed as "the worst rampage since 13 were killed last November at Fort Hood, Texas." Army Major Nidal Hasan's business cards identified him as a "Soldier of Allah" and his actions at Fort Hood, clearly motivated by Islamic jihadism, hardly fits in the same category as an aggrieved worker with a gun who has gone on a rampage. Nonetheless, Sawyer's led the August... continue reading
On the July 30th edition of Bloomberg's "Political Capital," former Time magazine reporter Margaret Carlson made every rationalization for the federal government to continue to not enforce federal immigration law. First, Carlson asserted that Americans are only upset with illegal immigration because, "there is an economic downturn and during that period you find somebody to blame, they are blaming immigrants." Carlson seems to disregard history and the fact that former President George W. Bush was faced with this same problem in 2006, before the recession. Second, Carlson alludes to unsubstantiated statistical evidence citing that, "Crime has dropped," "Illegal immigration has... continue reading
Good Morning America's Jon Karl on Tuesday highlighted a new report by two Republican senators on extreme examples of waste in the stimulus bill. Karl rattled off some eye catching data: "$71,000 for researchers at Wake Forest University to see how monkeys react under the influence of cocaine." The ABC journalist informed viewers that Senators John McCain and Tom Coburn released their new report "exclusively to Good Morning America." Now that the information is public, will CBS and NBC follow up on the story? Karl shined a spotlight on other examples of stimulus waste, such as "nearly $1 million for... continue reading
All three broadcast evening newscasts on Monday ran full reports on President Obama's declaration that all combat troops would leave Iraq by the end of this month, leaving behind 50,000 troops designated for training and support. But only ABC's World News bothered to point out how the end of American combat involvement in Iraq can be credited " in large part, because of the final actions of the last administration ." Correspondent Yunji de Nies uniquely pointed out: " Just before leaving office, President Bush sent an additional 20,000 troops to Iraq and extended the tours of many more -... continue reading
The AP's Larry Margasak ran with the Democrats' latest talking point in a Tuesday article which carried the headline, " Democrats Declare Swamp of Corruption Drained ." The writer, referring to a line by Nancy Pelosi, explained that the remark " might seem odd, but it's an emerging strategy: Separate Democratic-initiated ethics from the cases of Reps. Charles Rangel...and Maxine Waters ." Despite naming Rangel and Waters in his article, Margasak completely omitted other Democratic ethics scandals since they took control of Congress in 2007, such as the case against former Louisiana Representative William Jefferson and the three members of... continue reading
Liberal filmmaker Michael Moore, in a July 27 interview with CNN's Larry King, compared the suspected WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning with witnesses of Nazi atrocities testifying at Nuremberg. "He essentially followed the Nuremberg principles," Moore claimed, "which is when you see something going on like this, when you see war crimes being committed, when you see lies being told in order to bring a country to war, you have to speak out against it." Moore thought that Manning "is exactly who we want in our armed forces," and deserves the Profile in Courage award for helping to make the WikiLeaks... continue reading
NBC's Today show invited on Washington Post columnists Jonathan Capehart and Michael Gerson to debate whether the current Democratic midterm strategy of blaming George W. Bush would work this November. Capehart, citing an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, claimed it was an "effective" strategy because "Sixty-two percent of the American people polled said that they would be uncomfortable with a candidate who's identified with President Bush." However that strategy, according to Democrats' own polling numbers, may not be working. According to the Hotline's Reid Wilson: "Dems have tried repeatedly to tie the GOP to Bush's economic policies, which remain highly... continue reading
CNN's Rick Sanchez again hinted that Fox News wasn't a legitimate news organization during his Rick's List program on Monday. When colleague Ed Henry mentioned that several news outlets were petitioning for a front-row seat at White House press briefings, Sanchez replied, "I understand the Associated Press. I even understand Bloomberg, but don't have you to be a news organization to get that seat? " [audio clips available here ] The anchor discussed the fight over the front-row seat with Henry and correspondent Brooke Baldwin during a segment 42 minutes into the 4 pm Eastern hour. Baldwin brought on the... continue reading