1. ABC's Robin Roberts Tosses Softballs to Obama While Bashing Bush Interviewing Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in New Orleans on Monday's Good Morning America, co-host Robin Roberts tossed softballs to Obama as she asserted that politicians from "both parties" would be coming to the formerly hurricane ravaged region to "point out the Bush administration's shortcomings in fixing many problems that still exist, like those being forced to still live in trailers." While the ABC co-host didn't explain who was forcing the residents to live in trailers, she did offer the 2008 Democratic candidate a comfortable interview where the only... continue reading
1. Shields: 'Overkill' by 'Right-Wing Radio' Will Help Hillary "Overkill" from "right-wing radio," in criticizing Senator Hillary Clinton, is her "secret weapon" that will "transform her into a figure of sympathy by a majority of people" -- and presumably help elect her President -- syndicated columnist and PBS NewsHour political analyst Mark Shields contended Friday night. On Inside Washington, a weekly panel show produced by ABC's Washington, DC affiliate which airs it on Sunday mornings after it first runs Friday night at 8:30pm on DC's PBS affiliate, WETA-TV channel 26, Shields argued: "I think the secret weapon for Senator Clinton,... continue reading
1. NBC Again Hails Iraq 'Turning Point,' CBS: 'Major Blow' to Bush Republican Senator John Warner's call for the withdrawal of 5,000 troops from Iraq by Christmas was trumpeted by the broadcast network evening shows Thursday night: CBS's Katie Couric touted a "major blow tonight to President Bush's Iraq policy" and ABC's Martha Raddatz saw a "stunning announcement that could have a powerful effect on the war" as the NBC Nightly News, for the fifth time in two years, heralded a "turning point" against the war. NBC anchor Brian Williams introduced "another major story we're covering this evening that could... continue reading
1. Networks Declare Bush's Vietnam Lesson Hypocritical and Invalid The broadcast network evening news shows on Wednesday night pounced on President Bush's reminder that the U.S. pullout from Vietnam led to millions being killed, as all three shows featured historians to discredit Bush's parallel to what may happen if the U.S. withdraws from Iraq, and NBC portrayed Bush as hypocritical for raising Vietnam after earlier rejecting comparisons to Iraq as a Vietnam-like quagmire. Only ABC, leading into Bush recalling "killing fields," showed a picture of stacks of skulls and ABC also uniquely featured two Vietnam vets who backed Bush's case... continue reading
1. ABC Addresses Outcry Against Crimes Committed by Illegals "We're going to take 'A Closer Look' now at how a brutal triple murder in New Jersey is fueling the outcry across the country against illegal immigrants," fill-in ABC anchor Elizabeth Vargas announced Tuesday night in setting up a look at a problem largely avoided by the mainstream media. Reminding viewers of "the senseless shootings of three college students in the city of Newark," Vargas related how "two of the suspects were in this country illegally. And some are saying it's a crime that would never have occurred if immigration laws... continue reading
1. NBC's Today Show Champions Global Warming Alarmist On Monday's Today show, NBC's Bob Dotson profiled Will Steger, a polar explorer who is indoctrinating America's youth about "collapsing" ice shelves and global warming. Dotson never doubted the explorer's theories, instead he chose to portray Steger's crusade as nothing short of much needed charity work: "Pitching back in between and forth between the Poles, Will began to notice our warming world, wrote one of the first books about it. Now the old explorer has set himself a new challenge. Here in his home of the great northern Minnesota woods he's teaching... continue reading
1. Schieffer Forwards Canard Iraq Made McCain Go from 1st to 4th CBS's Bob Schieffer, on Sunday's Face the Nation, resurrected the media canard that John McCain's support of the Iraq war is what cost him the frontrunner status in the Republican presidential contest. Unlike Schieffer and other members of the press corps, McCain himself recognized that it was his lax stand on what to do about illegal immigration which plummeted him amongst GOP primary voters, a position where he is well to the left of the rest of the Republican field that, just like McCain, has backed the decision... continue reading
1. Joe Scarborough Reveals MSNBC Newsroom Booed Bush Speech MSNBC's Joe Scarborough revealed Thursday morning that on his first day at MSNBC, on the night of President Bush's 2003 State of the Union address, "people in the newsroom...were booing the President basically from the beginning to the end." A couple of minutes into his Morning Joe show, Scarborough praised the Executive Editor of the Seattle Times for scolding his staff for applauding Karl Rove's resignation. Scarborough then recalled: "My first night here at MSNBC was the President's State of the Union address in 2003, and I was shocked because there... continue reading
1. NBC News Joins Newsweek in Smearing Global Warming 'Deniers' Only days after Newsweek was embarrassed when its own columnist, Robert Samuelson, excoriated the magazine for a "fundamentally misleading" and "highly contrived" cover story meant to defame the global warming "denial machine," Wednesday's NBC Nightly News aired an equally distorted story which smeared "deniers," a term no doubt meant to conjure a similarity to dishonorable Holocaust deniers. Reporter Anne Thompson began her crusading piece with "In Denial" on screen over video of the Cato Institute's Patrick Michaels. She fretted about "interest groups fueled by powerful companies, including oil giant ExxonMobil."... continue reading
1. ABC Again Ties Rove to Swift Ads, Depicts Hillary as Cure to Rove Opening Monday's Nightline, ABC's Terry Moran derided Karl Rove's brand of politics as a mixture of "divisiveness, anger" as well as "ruthlessness" and the subtext of Moran's piece became very clear with the help of some visuals as he pictured Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as the salvation from Rove's "bitterly polarizing politics." At the close of the segment, he wondered if the country has "had enough of [Rove's] bitterly polarizing politics? Or will the era of Karl Rove continue?" During the "had enough" portion of... continue reading