1. ABC Blames Rove for Swift Boat Ads, All Scold Him for Plame Leak Reporting on the resignation of presidential political adviser Karl Rove, ABC's World News on Monday night absurdly blamed Karl Rove for the ads from Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and featured John Kerry's condemnation of Rove as all three broadcast network evening shows castigated Rove for his criticism of how Democrats want to coddle terrorists and highlighted his "leaking" of Valerie Plame's name. ABC's David Wright cited Rove's "political ju-jitzu" in "turning opponents' strengths against them." With a Swift Boat ad clip on screen, Wright described... continue reading
1. Carlson: 'Democratic Base Is Really the Middle American Base' The left-wing AFL-CIO union labor and Human Rights Campaign gay rights forums with Democratic presidential candidates held last week "suggest to me that the Democratic base is really the middle American base now," former Time magazine Deputy Washington Bureau Chief Margaret Carlson declared on Sunday's Meet the Press . During the roundtable, Carlson, now a columnist for Bloomberg News and Washington Editor of The Week magazine, asserted that an "amendment to discriminate against gays" is not politically viable and "as the middle class feels in trouble, the labor position becomes... continue reading
1. At Presidential Press Conf, Reporters Push Bush to Raise Taxes At President Bush's Thursday morning press conference, an Associated Press reporter pressed Bush about raising the gas tax to pay for bridge repairs, an ABC News correspondent described Bush's refusal to hike taxes, while paying for the Iraq war, as in conflict with doing "justice" for "government needs" for bridges and housing and, afterward, CBS's Katie Couric rued how Bush "seemed to dismiss the notion of raising the federal gas tax." CBS reporter Jim Axelrod observed that Bush sees his "strong record as a tax cutter" as part of... continue reading
1. Universal Health Care Backer's 'Moment of Truth' Trumpeted by CBS Tremendously exaggerating the number of Americans who lack access to health insurance, CBS on Wednesday night trumpeted the cause of an AFL-CIO member who denounced the United States for not providing health insurance coverage for his wife and endorsed the John Edwards plan for universal health care. Anchor Katie Couric previewed the upcoming story: "Presidential candidates hear a dramatic plea for help from one of the millions of Americans with no health insurance and no way to pay for it." Michelle Miller began her CBS Evening News piece by... continue reading
1. Another Hot Summer, Another Chance to Blame 'Man-Made Warming' NBC has apparently abandoned any doubt about the formulation that bad or hot weather in the summer proves man-made global warming since just two years after NBC Nightly News pointed out how "three of the five warmest summers on record were in the 1930s," Tuesday's newscast showcased a UN report to contend "extreme weather" and an August heat wave demonstrate man-made global warming. Fill-in NBC anchor Ann Curry segued from a summer heat wave story to how "a new report out from the UN says we are in an extreme... continue reading
1. Dow Down 281 Points Big News, Dow Up 287 Points Not So Newsworthy A pronounced example of how bad news is news and good news is much less newsworthy: On Friday night, ABC and NBC teased full stories on the 281 point plunge that day in the Dow Jones average, but on Monday, after the Dow rebounded by five points greater than Friday's loss in the biggest one-day gain in five years, the networks limited coverage to a few seconds. "The stock market stumbles again today exposing fault lines in the nation's housing market," ABC's Charles Gibson teased a... continue reading
1. At Debate, GOP 'Dogma Against Taxes' Obstacle to Fixing Bridges As a questioner, along with George Stephanopoulos, of Republican presidential candidates at the Sunday debate in Iowa carried on ABC's This Week, veteran Des Moines Register political reporter and current columnist David Yepsen pressed the candidates to raise taxes. For the last question in the first hour of the 90 minute session from Drake University, Yepsen urged Mike Huckabee: "Is it time we raise the federal gas tax to start fixing up our nation's bridges and roads?" After Huckabee answered it was a matter of budget priorities, Yepsen turned... continue reading
1. CNN's Cafferty Exploits Bridge Collapse to Stigmatize Iraq War CNN's Jack Cafferty on Thursday exploited the Minneapolis bridge collapse tragedy to take a shot at the Iraq war as he proposed the money "pouring into Iraq" could be better spent "at home," and featured an e-mailer who complained spending on infrastructure is "a drop in the bucket compared to $450 billion wasted in Iraq." Cafferty's question during the 7pm EDT hour of The Situation Room: "In light of the Minnesota bridge collapse, how could the U.S. better spend the $2 billion a week that we're pouring into Iraq here... continue reading
1. CBS Hails 'Landmark' and 'Historic' Federal Control of Health Wednesday's CBS Evening News trumpeted two liberal efforts to expand government power, leading by heralding "landmark legislation" to have the FDA regulate cigarettes followed by a story slanted in favor of, as reporter Thalia Assuras described it, an "historic expansion of health care coverage for children" of the "working poor." Assuras, however, ignored such inconvenient facts as how a family of four with an income as high as $82,600 could get on the taxpayers' dole. Katie Couric introduced a look at "getting medical coverage for the millions of American children... continue reading
1. Nets Fret Over What Murdoch Will 'Impose' on Wall Street Journal Though many journalists impose their views regularly in biased political coverage, on Tuesday night the broadcast networks framed Rupert Murdoch's acquisition of the Wall Street Journal around what agenda the "controversial" Murdoch will "impose." Leading into pro and con soundbites, CBS's Kelly Wallace described Murdoch as "a conservative who put his imprint on the New York Post and brought topless women to the Sun in London. His critics say he may not impose tabloid on the Journal, but will impose his point of view." NBC's Andrea Mitchell declared... continue reading