1. Katie Couric: I'm Not Biased, But My Viewers Are -- and So Is FNC Asked at the Aspen Institute's "Ideas Festival" in early July -- but just broadcast Saturday night on C-SPAN -- about the charge of liberal bias, incoming CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric was condescendingly dismissive. She blamed her viewers, calling it a "Rorschach test" which demonstrated how "oftentimes people put their, they see you from their own individual prisms. And if you're not reflecting their point of view or you're asking an antagonistic question of someone they might agree with in terms of policy, they... continue reading
1. Olbermann Features Three Bush Critics from Left, Blasts Rumsfeld On Thursday's Countdown show, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann continued his attacks on the Bush administration over its current series of speeches defending the Iraq War. Hosting interviews with three Bush critics from the left (Senator Barbara Boxer, the Mayor of Salt Lake City who led a protest against Bush's "lies" and John Dean, who labeled Donald Rumsfeld an "authoritarian"), the Countdown host provided a forum to attack the administration without any Bush supporters for balance. Olbermann also patted himself on the back for his Wednesday night diatribe against Rumsfeld by citing... continue reading
1. Olbermann Blasts Rumsfeld as a 'Quack' Pushing 'Fascism' MSNBC's Keith Olbermann on Wednesday night used his Countdown show to deliver a vitriolic personal attack on Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, "a reality check of Donald Rumsfeld's incendiary speech, a special comment on his attack on your right to disagree." Olbermann concluded his program with a six-minute diatribe against Rumsfeld: "The man who sees absolutes, where all other men see nuances and shades of meaning, is either a prophet, or a quack. Donald H. Rumsfeld is not a prophet." Olbermann equated the Bush administration with "the English government of Neville... continue reading
1. Williams Hits Bush with Dyson's Charge He's Uncaring 'Patrician' A night after NBC anchor Brian Williams featured, as his sole expert of the impact of race in the Katrina disaster, left-wing professor Michael Eric Dyson who charged that Barbara Bush's suggestion -- that many victims were better off in their new cities -- "reinforced the reputation of the Bushes as clueless patricians," Williams confronted President George W. Bush Tuesday with the insult, as if Dyson is some sort of authoritative figure. Williams hit Bush with this indictment: "A lot of Americans are always going to believe that that weekend,... continue reading
1. NBC Features Leftist on Katrina/Race: Bush 'Clueless Patrician' Looking back at Katrina a year later, NBC's Brian Williams decided to raise the issue of race and to showcase as his sole expert, on both Monday's NBC Nightly News and a prime time special, left-wing professor Michael Eric Dyson, author of Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster. Williams, from New Orleans, set up his Nightly News segment by arguing the disaster "destroyed" a lot and "it exposed a lot, too, including, some say, the dicey issues of race and class in our country." Dyson,... continue reading
1. Thomas: Mainstream Journalists Have 'Lurched' Against Iraq War On this weekend's Inside Washington, Newsweek Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas, who maintained that "most...mainstream journalists believed -- close call -- that we had to go to this [Iraq] war," have "now changed their view. You can feel it shift over the summer." Thomas observed: "You can feel this summer that group, of which I am a card-carrying member, lurch in a different direction in kind of with a hand-wringing sadness, but you can feel it, they're starting to head for the exits, looking for some kind of face-covering diplomatic solution... continue reading
1. Sarcastic Williams Worries Over 'Fears Oil Profits Might Plummet' On Tuesday's NBC Nightly News, in a short item about a gas station in Illinois which accidentally sold unleaded fuel for 30 cents per gallon, anchor Brian Williams sarcastically relayed a take that made him sound like a lame left-wing comedian: "The pumps were quickly shut down amid fears that oil company profits might plummet. But for one brief, shining moment, we the consumers won. It was like the old days before you needed to refinance your home to refill your tank." 2. Time's Sometimes-Gooey Cover: 'Hillary's Time to Take... continue reading
1. GMA Highlights Prof: Court Ruling Could Lead to Bush Impeachment Friday's morning shows largely preferred the JonBenet Ramsey case over Thursday's federal district court ruling declaring the National Security Agency's terrorist surveillance program to be unconstitutional. ABC's Good Morning America, however, gave some time to the topic, but Jessica Yellin never acknowledged the liberal background of the Carter-appointed Judge Ann Diggs Taylor who, Yellin pointed out, "accuses the President of acting like a king" and says the NSA program "blatantly disregards" the parameters established in the Bill of Rights. Yellin labeled the court's decision a "stinging setback" for President... continue reading
1. Nets Skip Weaknesses in NSA Surveillance Ruling by Liberal Judge All three broadcast network evening newscasts on Thursday covered the ruling by a federal judge against the Bush administration's controversial NSA spying program that involves warrantless monitoring of international phone calls when one participant is a terrorist suspect. Stemming from a case filed by the ACLU and other plaintiffs, Judge Ann Diggs Taylor, a Detroit-based Carter appointee, found the program to be unconstitutional. Unlike CNN and FNC, which conveyed that the ruling would likely be overturned, none of the network evening newscasts mentioned the liberal credentials of Judge Taylor... continue reading
1. Washington Post Pounds George Allen Over Supposedly Racist Gaffe In early July, Senator Joe Biden joked before a C-SPAN camera that "you cannot go into a Dunkin Donuts or a 7-Eleven unless you have a slight Indian accent." Conservatives had a little fun with it, but said: a harmless slip, yet if a Republican ever did it, the media would have a much different standard. That day is now. Senator George Allen mocked an Indian-American Democratic volunteer as a "macaca," and the Post played it up on Tuesday's front page, along with a very tendentious staff editorial to boot... continue reading