1. FNC Cites MRC Quotes, Matthews Has 'Man Crush' on Bill Clinton FNC's Fox & Friends on Monday morning discussed some winning quotes in the MRC's "Best Notable Quotables of 2007: The Twentieth Annual Awards for the Year's Worst Reporting," with Alisyn Camerota joking that a quote from MSNBC's Chris Matthews oozing praise for Bill Clinton shows that he has a "man crush" on the former President. Monday's New York Post also devoted the entire daily editorial space to highlighting some of the quotes while Friday's Rocky Mountain News in Denver carried a column by Mike Rosen on his favorite... continue reading
1. NBC Nightly News Presumes Global Warming to Blame for Wild Fires ABC and CBS stuck Tuesday night with news stories on the impact of the roaring California wild fires, but as houses were still burning NBC Nightly News found it an opportune time to make the case that global warming caused the fires. NBC's sole expert, however, delivered a circular argument in which the lack of scientific proof did not detract at all from his media-shared presumption that anything bad which occurs in the environment can be tied to global warming. After reporter Anne Thompson cautioned scientists say you... continue reading
1. Cafferty Denounces More Money for Wars But None for Poor Families CNN's Jack Cafferty used one of his Monday "Cafferty File" segments to denounce the Bush administration for opposing the expansion of the S-CHIP program, and now threatening to veto spending for home energy assistance, while pushing more money for Iraq. An exasperated Cafferty: "No money for kids' health insurance, no money to help poor families pay their heating bills, but President Bush wants $190 billion additional for 2008 for his wars in Iraq and Afghanistan." Cafferty contended "thirty million of the poorest Americans will be left in the... continue reading
1. Couric Portrays Plame as Heroic Victim of White House 'Smear' Katie Couric's Sunday 60 Minutes interview, to promote Valerie Plame's new book, Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House, framed the story just as the media have all along -- Painting Plame as a heroic victim of an orchestrated "smear" with little consideration to who actually gave her name to Bob Novak or the responsibility and motivation of her husband who picked a high-profile political fight with the White House. Couric went so far as to suggest President Bush's personal involvement in the... continue reading
1. CBS Champions S-CHIP Expansion, But When People Know Facts... A day after a USA Today/Gallup Poll discovered the majority of Americans, when provided with basic facts about the scope and impact of the plan to expand the S-CHIP program, agree with President Bush's concerns which led to his veto, on Wednesday's CBS Evening News Katie Couric trumpeted how a new CBS News poll found 81 percent favor "expanding this health insurance program for poor children." Couric also highlighted how "four out of five say it should be expanded to cover children in middle income families" and "of those who... continue reading
1. NBC First to Praise Medal of Honor Recipient Lt. Michael Murphy The NBC Nightly News on Tuesday night became the first broadcast network evening newscast to highlight the first Medal of Honor award since Vietnam for a member of the Navy, announced last week, to Lieutenant Michael Murphy, a SEAL killed in combat in Afghanistan in June of 2005. "His story is already the stuff of legend," anchor Brian Williams related before Jim Miklaszewski recounted Murphy's heroism: How during a battle with Taliban fighters "Murphy stepped out into the line of fire to make a satellite call for help."... continue reading
1. CBS's Lara Logan on Iraq: 'We're Doing Extremely Badly' Asked by Jay Leno on Monday's Tonight Show "how are we doing" in Iraq?, CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan asserted that "we're doing extremely badly" and proceeded to fret, that since images of dead American soldiers are "hidden," the public does not realize the situation is "much worse than the picture, the image we even have of Iraq." As for the impact of the "surge," Logan, who reports regularly from Iraq, allowed that it is "working in certain places," but only "temporarily" because "if you haven't altered the... continue reading
1. ABC, CBS and NBC Hail 'Sweet Vindication' for Al Gore All three broadcast network evening newscasts led Friday night by celebrating Al Gore's receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize, portraying it as "sweet vindication" for him while presuming his global warming views are beyond dispute and speculating about the "tantalizing prospect" of a presidential run. ABC anchor Charles Gibson teased: "Tonight, the man who almost won the White House did win the most-coveted award on the planet. So might Al Gore go back to politics?" Reporter David Wright trumpeted Gore's efforts "to call the world's attention to a problem... continue reading
1. NBC Champions 'Global Force' Gore as Nation's 'Potential Savior' Three months after NBC promoted Al Gore's agenda by broadcasting more than 75 hours of his "Live Earth" concerts, Thursday's NBC Nightly News got the jump on the inevitable media excitement -- if Gore wins (as he did) the Nobel Peace Prize to be announced Friday -- by championing how that could launch a Gore presidential bid. Anchor Brian Williams cited "rumors today surrounding" Gore about the Nobel and pronounced "that an effort to draft him to run for President just might work." David Gregory trumpeted how Gore has supposedly... continue reading
1. Jimmy Carter Derides Dick Cheney and NBC's Brian Williams Jumps "Jimmy Carter is back in the news tonight," NBC anchor Brian Williams declared Wednesday night in making true what he, but not the ABC or CBS evening newscasts found newsworthy, "this time because of harsh words for the current Vice President." Williams proceeded to highlight how "in an interview with the BBC, former President Carter calls Vice President Cheney quote, 'a disaster for America' and 'a militant,' who has been in Carter's words, 'overly persuasive' on President Bush." A few hours later, MSNBC's Live with Dan Abrams led with... continue reading