1. Stephanopoulos Hits Bush on 'Surrender,' Questioning Patriotism In an interview with President George W. Bush conducted in North Carolina and excerpted on Wednesday's World News on ABC, George Stephanopoulos quoted to Bush how he once declared that the upcoming election is "a choice between Republicans and Democrats who want to wave the white flag of surrender in the war on terror." Stephanopoulos then demanded: "Can you name a Democrat who wants to 'wave the white flag of surrender'?" Referring to Senator John Kerry, Bush replied: "I can name a Democrat who said there ought to be a date certain... continue reading
1. ABC Frames Look at Military Commissions Around Left-Wing Concerns Of the broadcast network evening newscasts on Tuesday, ABC aired coverage the most hostile to the "Military Commissions Act of 2006," which President Bush signed earlier in the day. World News anchor Charles Gibson noted how Republican objections had been addressed, but "civil liberties groups," a nice euphemism for liberals, "are calling the new law a violation of American values and have already gone to court to overturn it." The story from Martha Raddatz concentrated on those concerns as she asserted that "the language is so vague, say some lawyers,... continue reading
1. CBS Takes Seriously Conspiracy About Bush Manipulating Gas Price Although a Monday CBS Evening News story included a soundbite from an expert dismissing the idea as "preposterous," the newscast treated a far-left conspiracy theory -- about how the Bush administration is somehow manipulating the pump price for gas to help in the election -- as credible and worthy enough to deserve a broadcast network story. Citing how the price of a gallon of gas has fallen to the lowest all year, anchor Katie Couric wondered: "Is this an election year present from President Bush to fellow Republicans?" Over a... continue reading
1. Studds Had to Die to Get NBC to Recall His Sex with a Teen Page Gerry Studds had to die for NBC Nightly News to inform viewers of how the former Democratic Congressman had a sexual relationship with 17-year-old male congressional page, misconduct for which the House in 1983 censured him, but did not prompt Democratic House Speaker Tip O'Neill and other leaders to force his resignation -- nor raise calls for O'Neill's resignation. Despite the Democratic hypocrisy given their current calls for Speaker Hastert's resignation and investigations of who knew what and when about Mark Foley, Saturday night... continue reading
1. ABC & NBC Run Stories on Foley, But at Least NBC Squeezes in Reid The ABC and NBC evening newscasts on Thursday ran full stories on the testimony, before the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, from Kirk Fordham, former Congressman Mark Foley's Chief of Staff. But ABC had no time for anything about a late Wednesday AP disclosure of how "Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid collected a $1.1 million windfall on a Las Vegas land sale even though he hadn't personally owned the property for three years." The NBC Nightly News at least, after two minutes on... continue reading
1. CBS and Couric Treat 655,000 Iraqi Death Guestimate as Credible Despite how the estimate of 665,000 Iraqi deaths caused by violence since the war began -- a number forwarded in a new report from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health -- represents quadruple the highest monthly rate as tracked by the UN and is 13 times larger than the total compiled by the Iraq Body Count group, CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric set up a Wednesday story on the guesstimate by declaring as fact: "Now we're learning that the war has been a lot more deadly... continue reading
1. ABC: North Korea's 'Historic Fear' of U.S. Worsened by Bush ABC's Mark Litke, checking in from Seoul on Monday's World News, seemed to rationalize North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il's pursuit of a nuclear weapon as he treated as credible the contention the regime has had, for decades, a reasonable fear of U.S. invasion, a fear exacerbated by President George W. Bush. Litke proposed: "It's difficult to imagine Kim Jong Il as a clever and calculating leader who knows exactly what he wants, but, in fact, he may be much smarter than most people realize." Litke soon outlined, leading... continue reading
1. Couric Makes Sure Page Scandal 'Is Not Going Away'; Jobs Buried Friday's CBS Evening News led again with the Foley/page scandal, even though the two stories aired offered virtually no fresh information, as anchor Katie Couric justified the news judgment by declaring the issue is "still the talk of the town," "is not going away" and "is overshadowing every other election issue for the moment" -- all self-fulfilling assessments sustained by the decisions of Couric and her media colleagues. Couric then moved on to Republican Senator John Warner's warning that Iraq is drifting "side-wise," a comment trumpeted by Brian... continue reading
1. Olbermann: Bush a 'Compulsive Liar' Who Is Helping al-Qaeda MSNBC's Keith Olbermann delivered another of his "Special Comment" rants on Thursday night -- this one his longest yet, clocking in at just over 11 minutes. Olbermann began the diatribe, which concluded the October 5 Countdown, by saying his topic was "lying," specifically how President Bush is making false claims about Democrats. Olbermann asserted: "A President who comes across as a compulsive liar is nothing less than terrifying." He alleged that Bush "has savaged the very freedoms he claims to be protecting from attack" through his "terrifying attempt to hamstring... continue reading
1. In Midst of Bad News for Repubs, NBC Highlights Falling Polls In the midst of a period when the news media have been aggressively delivering bad news for Republicans and conservatives, NBC News decided to take a poll which found the news agenda has had an impact. On Tuesday's NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams indirectly acknowledged the media's role, asking Tim Russert: "On the big issue of Iraq, since we last polled on it, we had that Defense intelligence report come out and now this Woodward book. It's all over the media. What are the findings in the... continue reading