In a fawning interview with President Obama on Thursday, CBS Early Show co-host Harry Smith spoke of the "enmity" of conservative talk radio and sympathetically wondered: "Does it bother you a little bit?" The President replied: "you end up getting a pretty thick skin in this job....I am concerned about a political climate in which the other side is demonized."[Audio available here ] As NewsBusters' Brent Baker previewed earlier , Smith portrayed talk radio critics of Obama as extreme: "I've been spending time out and about, listening to talk radio. The kindest of terms you're sometimes referred to, out in... continue reading
Liberal MSNBC host Rachel Maddow will anchor an April 19 retrospective on terrorist Timothy McVeigh and whether his murder of 168 people could be linked to "today's anti-government extremists." [Audio available here .] During an ad for the upcoming special, footage of bloody victims from the Oklahoma City bombing appeared onscreen as an announcer wondered, " 15 years later, can McVeigh's words help us understand today's anti-government extremists? " Now, it's possible that the "anti-government extremists" the ad refers to are groups such as the recently arrested militia group in Michigan. But, it's worth remembering that after the original bombing,... continue reading
Looks like - hardly a surprise - CBS's Early Show on Friday morning will deliver a jovial and empathetic session with President Barack Obama just three days after NBC's Today show had a friendly sit-down with the President. Thursday's CBS Evening News previewed Harry Smith's time with Obama on the White House basketball court, a segment which ended with Obama successfully hitting a jump shot, to which Katie Couric reacted: "Impressive!" CBSNews.com features a video excerpt in which Smith despairs over the "enmity" toward Obama from talk radio where he's supposedly called a Nazi: After spending time, out and about,... continue reading
On Thursday's Dylan Ratigan Show on MSNBC, host Dylan Ratigan went after the Vatican for criticizing the slanted New York Times reporting on the priest sex abuse scandal: "Blame the messenger. The Vatican blasting the New York Times for telling the truth about Church - the Church and its harboring of sex abusers. It's the paper's fault." Ratigan spoke with Democratic strategist Steve Hildebrand, an openly gay ex-Catholic, who ranted: "the bottom line is, the Catholic Church for the last couple of decades, has preached hatred, bigotry, discrimination against gay people. But they don't take ownership of their own homosexual... continue reading
NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams appeared on the BBC podcast Americana on Sunday and asserted that "hatred" and "venom" were part of the health care debate. He then hyperbolically claimed, " I would sooner jab my hand into a food processor than take a side. " [MP3 Audio available here .] The NBC journalist seriously trumpeted, "In my line of work I never engage in opinions, anyway." BBC presenter Matt Frei interviewed Williams for the podcast. (H/T to DB from the Biased BBC website.) After Frei asked if the health care battle was for the "soul of America," the... continue reading
Introducing a segment on Thursday's CBS Early Show about President Obama's decision to open up some new areas to offshore oil drilling, fill-in co-host Jeff Glor warned that some of Obama's "closest allies are especially unhappy." In a report that followed, White House correspondent Bill Plante noted "Environmental groups are disappointed." However, Plante also touted the idea that the move could help pass unpopular cap and trade legislation, a long-held liberal goal: "Many in Washington see this as a strategy to win Republican support for a climate bill aimed at slowing global warming." He later concluded: "The conventional political wisdom... continue reading
Bringing his belittling commentary toward conservatives - disguised as comedy - to a wider audience, on Wednesday's Tonight Show on NBC Bill Maher repeated some of the lines he's spewed in recent weeks on his HBO show . Maher used the sexually-derogatory "tea baggers" term as he credited Tea Party activists for getting the health care bill passed: I'm sure they're saying, "What are you talking about, Bill? I was so against the health care bill, I marched on Washington with tea bags hanging from my hat, dressed up in my founding fathers costume with a picture of Hitler, you... continue reading
ABC and NBC on Wednesday night managed to contain to a brief item their enthusiasm for First Lady Michelle Obama planting her garden for the season, but not CBS which dedicated a full story to how the hula-hooping First Lady "is enjoying the kind of popularity her husband would jump through hoops for." Employing some creative puns playing off the gardening theme, CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric plugged the upcoming topic: "The First Lady planting a garden and harvesting a bumper crop of good will." And on CBSNews.com: " Michelle Obama Blooms in the White House ; Back in... continue reading
The Washington Post rendered itself indistinguishable from the White House publicity effort on Wednesday. At top center of its front page was an article by reporter Eli Saslow - the man who hailed Obama's "glistening pectorals" in 2008 - on the letters President Obama reads from, and writes to, average Americans. Under a photo of unemployed Michigan woman (and Obama voter) Jennifer Cline, the gooey headline was " Dear Mr. President... A Michigan woman wrote to Obama about her life. And he responded." In later editions, the top of the front page headline was changed to an even more of... continue reading
Near the end of Wednesday's Dylan Ratigan Show on MSNBC, host Dylan Ratigan led his 'Busted' segment by claiming that The Drudge Report did "not let facts get in the way of a good headline" on Tuesday, by featuring one which read: "CIA: Iran Moving Closer to Nuclear Weapon." Ratigan remarked: "That'll get the ratings up." Despite the fact that most of the world has long operated under the assumption that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, including the Obama administration, Ratigan singled out Matt Drudge's website for scorn, arguing: "Sounds pretty scary, right? Until you find out what the CIA... continue reading