1. Nets Use 4 Year Mark of Statue Toppling to Relay Iraqi's Regret Both ABC and CBS on Monday night used the fourth anniversary of the toppling of the Saddam Hussein statue in Baghdad as a chance to highlight the regret of a man who used a sledgehammer to destroy the pedestal. After starting her story with anti-U.S. protests inspired by Moqtada al-Sadr, ABC's Hilary Brown, presumably referring to ABC's March poll of Iraqis, asserted that "the appalling bloodshed has turned most Iraqis -- 78 percent -- against the occupation. Thirty-six percent now say that life is worse than it... continue reading
1. Freezing Temps & Snow Falls, Yet Nets Hype 'Dire' Global Warming The ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts on Friday all hyped the "dire" warning on global warming from the UN's "prestigious" Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), with the CBS Evening News leading with two full stories. But ABC's Charles Gibson acknowledged "a bit of irony on the day global warming report was released," given "parts of the Northeast are digging out from April snow" as "temperatures could be 20 to 40 degrees below normal," making it "colder on Easter day than on Christmas day." NBC anchor Brian... continue reading
1. Mitchell: Doonesbury Critique Bad News for Romney with GOP Voters The flip-flops on issues by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney have been a topic of discussion for months amongst GOP and conservative opinion leaders and pundits, but on Thursday's NBC Nightly News reporter Andrea Mitchell contended a critique in the Doonesbury comic strip is really what's the "worse" development for Romney this week. As if Republican primary voters care about the left-wing cartoonist's take. Providing a rundown of the significant events this week in the presidential campaigns, Mitchell started with "a new Republican front-runner in the money race now... continue reading
1. ABC Exposes 'Secret War' to Avert Iran's Imminent Nuclear Threat A night after leading with an "exclusive" about the more imminent than thought horrific threat posed by Iran's nuclear weapons capability, ABC's World News began Tuesday with another Brian Ross "exclusive" in which he exposed a clandestine "secret war" inside Iran, a revelation that seemingly could undermine U.S. efforts to prevent Iran's extremist leaders from using those weapons of mass destruction. "Tonight," anchor Charles Gibson announced at the top of Monday's World News, "an alarming acceleration of Iran's nuclear program. Iran could have material for a bomb in two... continue reading
1. CBS on Ruling: 5 Non-Ideologues v 4 'Most Conservative' Justices Reporting on the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision that the EPA has a "statutory obligation" to regulate carbon-dioxide emissions from motor vehicles, CBS's Wyatt Andrews on Monday night avoided labeling those in the majority while describing those in dissent as "the Court's most conservative justices." CBS and NBC led by championing the narrow ruling, but NBC's Pete Williams, as well as ABC's Jan Crawford Greenburg in a story a few minutes into World News, managed to avoided ideological tagging. Andrews began his CBS Evening News story by stressing how, "in... continue reading
1. MRC's 'DisHonors Awards' Held Thursday Night; Limbaugh Honored Cal Thomas, Neal Boortz, Herman Cain, Mary Matalin, Michael Steele, G. Gordon Liddy, Pat Sajak, Ward Connerly and "Osama bin Laden" highlighted the presentations and acceptances of the MRC's "2007 DisHonors Awards: Roasting the Most Outrageously Biased Liberal Reporters of 2006" -- the showcase of the MRC's 20th Anniversary Gala -- presented on Thursday night, March 29, before an audience of more than 1,000 packed into the Independence Ballroom of the Grand Hyatt hotel in Washington, D.C. Following the presentation of the DisHonors Awards videos in five categories, a look at... continue reading
1. GMA's Roberts to Hillary: Health Care Plan 'Ahead of Its Time' On Monday's Good Morning America, co-anchor Robin Roberts hosted a fawning town hall meeting live from Des Moines with presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. During the opening segment, which encompassed much of the program's first half hour, Roberts didn't bother challenging the New York Senator and, instead, asked her softball questions. She even told the former Fist Lady that "many people" felt her 1993 universal health care proposal was "ahead of its time." This led to a question by an audience member who, in '93, just happened to have... continue reading
1. Nets Trumpet Global Warming Warnings from 'Movie Star Named Gore' ABC anchor Charles Gibson teased his lead Wednesday night story by touting how "Al Gore goes back to Capitol Hill for the first time since the year 2000 and finds a heated debate on global warming." But the broadcast network evening newscasts didn't get to the debate. They were too busy trumpeting Gore's cause. ABC's Kate Snow gave a doubter ten words before running a much longer laudatory clip from former Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill) which ended with Hastert calling Gore "a movie star." When Gore demurred that "I... continue reading
1. DeLay Hits Vieira: 'I Didn't Know You Spoke for American People' When Today co-host Meredith Vieira on Tuesday hit former House Majority Leader Tom "The Hammer" DeLay over public opposition to the Iraq war, The Hammer hit back: "I didn't know you spoke for the American people." Appearing on the Today show to promote his new book, DeLay didn't receive the kid glove treatment NBC's Meredith Vieira usually reserves for Hillary Clinton, as Vieira repeatedly questioned DeLay on his ethics and, picking up on his comment that demanding a set date for withdrawal from Iraq will aid the enemy,... continue reading
1. Stress Dire Views of Iraqis, Skip How They Don't See Civil War ABC anchor Charles Gibson led on Monday night, the fourth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war, with the results of a door-to-door survey of more than 2,000 Iraqis conducted for ABC News. Gibson started the "sobering report" with how "fewer than half the Iraqis, just 42 percent, said life was better now than it was under Saddam Hussein." Gibson, however, failed to explain that when asked, "compared to the time before the war in spring 2003, are things overall in your life much better now,... continue reading