1. Couric: Deadly Storms 'Have Anything to Do with Global Warming?' After leading with the terrible toll of deadly "super-cell" storms with tornadoes which struck Missouri and Alabama on Thursday, CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric's mind turned to global warming as the potential cause. She asked "CBS News weather analyst" Bryan Norcross, working out of the network's Washington bureau: "Bryan, I understand people have been asking you this all day" -- probably CBS News staffers in the DC bureau -- "Does this have anything to do with global warming?" Norcross, a "hurricane specialist" for the CBS-owned Miami station WFOR-TV... continue reading
1. CBS Hypes Homeless Report, Focus on Kids as 'Faces of Despair' On Wednesday's CBS Evening News, anchor Katie Couric highlighted how "according to a new government report out today" the problem of homelessness "is worse than we knew. On any given day, as many as 754,000 people in this country are homeless. As Cynthia Bowers tells us, one-third of the homeless are families with children." As viewers saw a mother with two kids, and with "Faces of Despair" on screen, Bowers framed the story in the most empathetic way, "This may be the most heartbreaking face of today's findings:... continue reading
1. Bad Timing: NY Times Asks Why Is Cheney's Trip So Secretive? Everyone woke up to the news Tuesday that a likely attempt to assassinate Vice President Dick Cheney had occurred via suicide bombing in Afghanistan. But New York Times readers also awoke to a story focused on why is Dick Cheney so secretive? The bomber who blew himself up outside the gate of the U.S. military base where Cheney made an unscheduled overnight stay due to weather conditions delaying his flight, seemed to answer the question. Yet in Tuesday morning's paper, in a story written before the bombing, intelligence... continue reading
1. Nets Champion Gore's Oscar as 'Springboard' to Presidential Bid CBS and ABC on Monday night celebrated the Academy Award for the documentary narrated by Al Gore and promoted the cause of those who hope he uses it as a "springboard" for a presidential run. For her lead, CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric paired how the "Oscar win puts Al Gore's global warming message on center stage" with how "environmentalism may be reaching critical mass" as evidenced by how "the largest private equity buyout in corporate history" -- of the TXU utility -- shows that the "Wall Street mantra... continue reading
1. CBS Trumpets 'New' & 'Large' Opposition to War, But It's Neither In introducing and promoting a Sunday night 60 Minutes story, CBS reporters trumpeted "dissension in the ranks" showing "new opposition" to the Iraq war from "a large group of soldiers." But it is neither new or large. Steve Kroft set up the Sunday piece by touting how "tonight you'll hear dissension in the ranks from a large group of soldiers and Marines who are fed up and have decided to go public." He explained that "they're not going AWOL, they're not disobeying orders or even refusing to fight... continue reading
1. Gibson: 'Will Congress Finally Expand Sick Pay to Everyone?' Picking up on the cause of an advocacy group chaired by Ellen Malcolm, the President of the EMILY's List group dedicated to supporting liberal candidates, ABC's World News on Thursday night devoted its "A Closer Look" segment to profiling a victim of the lack of a U.S. government mandate on private employers to provide paid sick leave. "The surprising number of workers who have no paid sick days," Gibson plugged before an ad break, "Will Congress finally expand sick pay to everyone?" With a matching graphic on screen, he fretted... continue reading
1. Schieffer Again Raises Vietnam Specter: 'Declare Victory & Leave' CBS's Bob Schieffer just can't resist making analogies to Vietnam, especially when it comes to a setback in Iraq. In the wake of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's decision to start withdrawing his nation's troops from Iraq, which CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric paired with Denmark's decision to withdraw its 400 soldiers to form her lead story Wednesday night about "the shrinking U.S.-led coalition in Iraq," Bob Schieffer came aboard via satellite from Washington, DC to compare the Iraq situation to Vietnam: "I think what we're seeing here, Katie,... continue reading
1. ABC: 21-Week Preemie 'May Change What People Think About Life' ABC's World News led Tuesday night with an unusual spin, one favorable to conservatives: the survival of a baby born in Florida last October just 21 weeks and six days after conception, the least time ever spent in the womb by an infant who has survived. Anchor Charles Gibson teased: "A tiny miracle that raises big questions in the debate over abortion." Setting up his top story, Gibson acknowledged the impact on the abortion debate: "The fact that she has survived and grown to more than four pounds, and... continue reading
1. Weir and Lauer Scold Democrats for Feckless Efforts to End War ABC's Bill Weir on Saturday, and NBC's Matt Lauer on Monday, expressed disappointment at inadequate efforts by Democrats to end the war in Iraq. On Saturday's Good Morning America, Weir pressed left-wing Senator Russ Feingold: "Do you hold your Party responsible, not only for the authorization, but for the seeming inability to muster a unified front to, to fight the President on this, to get what you want, what apparently the American people wanted with the midterm elections and end the war?" Weir followed up by using Feingold... continue reading
1. In Protest of NBC Expert's Insult of Troops, Allard Resigns In protest of NBC's lack of action after NBC News military analyst William Arkin used his WashingtonPost.com blog to describe U.S. soldiers as "mercenaries" enjoying "obscene amenities" for ungratefully daring to criticize Americans for not supporting the war effort, retired Colonel Ken Allard last week resigned his position as a military analyst for NBC News. In a February 16 op-ed for the San Antonio Express-News, "NBC sinks too low for this talking head," Allard, an "executive-in residence" at the University of Texas at San Antonio, regretted that "sometimes the... continue reading