1. ABC Uniquely Lists 'Crucial' New Laws Passed by Iraq's Parliament Unlike the Wednesday CBS and NBC evening newscasts, ABC's World News highlighted a favorable development in Iraqi political progress as anchor Charles Gibson gave 20 seconds to: "Overseas, in Iraq, a breakthrough for the country's government that has been so often criticized. Iraq's parliament approved three contentious, but crucial, new laws long sought by Washington. The laws set a budget for 2008, grant amnesty to thousands of detainees and define the relationship between the central government and the provinces." The CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News on Wednesday... continue reading
1. Blitzer Raises Specter of GOP Going 'Willie Horton' Against Obama The Democratic presidential nomination process isn't even over, yet on Tuesday CNN's Wolf Blitzer raised the media's favorite shorthand for vicious Republicans never forgotten from 1988, a name journalists can be counted on to resurrect every election season in order to discredit criticism of a liberal candidate, as he asked a guest how "worried" he was about Republicans energizing "elements of racism" by producing "Willie Horton kind of commercials... potentially against Barack Obama?" This, just a week after possible racism by Democratic voters was suggested by Obama's ten-point loss... continue reading
1. Couric Injects Silly Girl Talk in Clinton Interview on 60 Minutes 60 Minutes on Sunday night ran back-to-back interview segments with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and while Steve Kroft's session with Obama provided a friendly forum in which Kroft admired how "through twelve long months of mind-numbing, muscle-aching, adrenaline-fueled monotony and exhaustion, there has been barely a misstep" by Obama, it was devoid of anything approaching the giddy girl talk about mainlining coffee and high school boys Katie Couric put into her segment with Clinton. Couric set up the story by trumpeting how Clinton "remains focused, energized and... continue reading
1. McCain Opposed by 'Hard-Line GOP Conservatives' and 'Far Right' Implying those on the right opposed to John McCain's Republican presidential bid are extremists beyond the politically acceptable, fill-in CBS Evening News anchor Harry Smith on Thursday night warned that McCain "still faces a tough battle to win the support of hard-line GOP conservatives." Smith's characterization came a day after Time magazine's Web site headlined a Wednesday posting by Washington Bureau Chief Jay Carney, "McCain: Frail with the Far Right." In the Thursday night CBS story in which Jeff Greenfield avoided pejorative labeling, Nicole Wallace, a CBS News political analyst... continue reading
1. NBC and CBS Honor Marine Posthumously Awarded Silver Star Wednesday's NBC and CBS evening newscasts paid tribute to only the third Marine private ever, and the first since Vietnam, to be awarded the Silver Star, for heroism in the battle for Fallujah, who was killed in July during his third tour in Iraq. "At Camp Pendleton today," NBC's Brian Williams reported at the end of his newscast, "a ceremony to honor a fallen U.S. Marine." Williams outlined how "Corporal Sean Stokes was posthumously awarded the Silver Star, accepted by his dad for his heroism during the battle for Fallujah... continue reading
1. CBS Incessantly Applies 'Conservative' Label: 44 in Two Hours Opposition to John McCain from conservatives is clearly a proper topic of news analysis on an election night, but during its two hours of EST/CST prime time coverage of Super Tuesday, the CBS News team managed to apply the "conservative" label at least 44 times -- in several instances beyond anything about the conservative split with McCain -- yet never once uttered the term "liberal" during a night when two liberals faced off on the Democratic side. Jeff Greenfield and Bob Schieffer each tagged the same Senator, 25 minutes apart,... continue reading
1. Couric Pushes GOP Candidates, Not Dems, to Denounce Each Other On the eve of the Super Tuesday primaries, CBS anchor Katie Couric displayed remarkably different approaches to Democratic versus Republican presidential candidates, simply asking Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton about their poll standings while demanding that Mitt Romney, and John McCain himself, address whether McCain has the "temperament" to be President. She also pressed McCain to say something negative about Romney and Mike Huckabee: "What do you perceive as the biggest weakness of your opponents?" And: "What about Mike Huckabee? What do you think is his biggest weakness?" Monday's... continue reading
1. ABC Champions Clinton/Obama or Obama/Clinton 'Dream Ticket' ABC on Friday night decided to devote an entire story to speculating about what is supposedly "the talk of the town" -- a potential Democratic "Dream Ticket" of Clinton and Obama or Obama and Clinton. With "Dream Ticket?" on screen, anchor Charles Gibson set up the piece by pointing out how, during the debate on CNN the night before, Clinton and Obama "were asked if they might run together -- one for President, the other for Vice President." Gibson insisted: "It has been on many people's minds." In the subsequent story, Jake... continue reading
1. CNN Questioner Omits Clinton's Flip-Flop on Licenses for Illegals Doyle McManus, Washington Bureau Chief for the Los Angeles Times, and one of the three members of the mainstream media who posed questions at Thursday night's Democratic presidential debate on CNN, neglected to mention Hillary Clinton's previous waffling on the subject of driver's licenses for illegal immigrants when he presumed she opposed them for illegal immigrants. His formulation of a question to the former First Lady: "Senator Clinton, Senator Obama has said that he favors allowing illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses, and you opposed that idea. Why?" 2. Olbermann... continue reading
1. ABC: Limbaugh Anti-McCain Because McCain Won't 'Answer to' Him An ABC story Wednesday night attributed conservative opposition to John McCain not to McCain's more liberal positions on many issues, but to how McCain "basically is not going to answer to anybody, especially the conservative pundits or the conservagentsia. And they don't like that." That claim that resistance to embracing McCain is a petty personal matter came from former Bush-Cheney campaign strategist Matthew Dowd, now an ABC News political contributor. ABC reporter Ron Claiborne buttressed Dowd's explanation, asserting: "And that has drawn attacks from the likes of radio talk show... continue reading