1. ABC Blames Wild Fires on Global Warming, See Vindication for Gore The ABC News Web site is soliciting examples of warm weather in the summer in order to demonstrate the impact of global warming and on Wednesday's Good Morning America the network illustrated how their reporters and producers assume any disaster proves global warming and vindicates Al Gore. Charlie Gibson teased at the top of the June 21 show: "The hot zone. Wildfires ravage the West and threaten homes. Is global warming to blame?" Reporter Bill Blakemore soon affirmed: "Well, Charlie, many scientists say that it fits exactly into... continue reading
1. Schieffer Calls Rather a 'Great Reporter,' Williams Salutes Him The CBS and NBC anchors signed off Tuesday night by delivering glowing tributes to Dan Rather, who officially departed from CBS News earlier in the day, with CBS's Bob Schieffer calling him a "great reporter" and Brian Williams offering him "a tip of the Stetson." Schieffer touted Rather's journalistic skills: "When a story broke, he wanted to be there....That is the mark of all great reporters, that is what I most admired and will always remember about him. Dan Rather was one of the great reporters of his time." Williams... continue reading
1. Karl Rove's 'Cut and Run' Accusation Enrages CBS's Bob Schieffer Karl Rove's accusation that Democrats, particularly Senator John Kerry and Congressman John Murtha, want to "cut and run" from Iraq enraged and baffled CBS's Bob Schieffer, as evidenced by how he repeatedly raised the quote on Sunday's Face the Nation. With his first guest, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, Schieffer read to him how Rove charged that "Democrats 'are ready to give the green light to go to war, but when it gets tough, when it gets difficult, they fall back on that party's old pattern of cutting... continue reading
1. 2500 Deaths & Bill Gates Before al-Qaeda's Admission U.S. Winning All three broadcast network evening newscasts on Thursday night put the 2,500 deaths of U.S. servicemen in Iraq mark ahead of the Iraqi government's release of an al-Qaeda memo which admitted they are losing as it characterized their situation in Iraq as "bleak" and conceded that "time is now beginning to be of service to the American forces and harmful to the resistance." The CBS Evening News, however, at least incorporated both developments in their lead story run before the news that Bill Gates plans to step down from... continue reading
1. Barnes and Kondracke Castigate Press Corps for Questions to Bush During the panel segment on Wednesday's Special Report with Brit Hume on FNC, Fred Barnes and Morton Kondracke criticized and ridiculed the questions posed by the White House press corps during the morning's presidential press conference in the Rose Garden. Kondracke pointed out how "there was hardly any question, critical question from the right," such as about how Bush was following a misguided Clintonite path on Iran or how not enough troops are being allocated to securing Baghdad. Barnes mockingly recited what upset him: "The President just went on... continue reading
1. Shuster Predicted Rove Would Be Indicted, Suggests Really Guilty MSNBC Countdown fill-in host Brian Unger on Tuesday night asked reporter David Shuster about how "your sources seemed to indicate that Karl Rove would be indicted. What happened?" In fact on the same program, back on May 8, Shuster had gone beyond just citing sources and declared: "I am convinced that Karl Rove will, in fact, be indicted." Responding to Unger, Shuster first blamed his sources: "The defense lawyers who have witnesses in front of that grand jury, sometimes they get it wrong, and that seemed to be the case... continue reading
1. Hyped Haditha 'Massacre,' But Little Interest in Marine's Version The networks have been eager over the last few weeks to highlight every new charge or claim related to the alleged massacre by U.S. Marines of 24 civilians in Haditha, Iraq last November (a new study from the MRC counted 99 stories or interviews about it over just three weeks on the ABC, CBS and NBC morning and evening shows), but when a front page Washington Post article on Sunday recounted Marine Sergeant Frank Wuterich's contention that he and his squad followed the rules of engagement and were justified in... continue reading
1. NBC Condemns Coulter, But ABC Finds Offenders Beyond Just Coulter At a time when left-wing Bush-haters regularly call the President a "liar" and a killer, ABC and NBC on Wednesday night pegged stories to the controversy over Ann Coulter's criticism of the very political 9/11 widows, with NBC anchor Brian Williams adding a nice touch by harkening back to Joe McCarthy as he promised a look at "why some are now asking, 'Have you no shame?'" But while the NBC Nightly News focused solely on Coulter, on ABC's World News Tonight Jake Tapper suggested "our democracy has always been... continue reading
1. ABC & NBC Celebrate Princeton Salutatorian Who's an Illegal The Tuesday ABC and NBC evening newscasts ran tributes to Princeton University's salutatorian, illegal immigrant Dan-el Padilla Peralta, and NBC also hailed the efforts of illegals in Queens to defy efforts to crack down on them. At the top of World News Tonight, Charles Gibson fretted, "American dream: A Princeton graduate who rose from homelessness to the top of his class, but could now be banned from the country because he is an illegal alien." Gibson soon touted how "we have an extraordinary story tonight of one illegal immigrant" who... continue reading
1. Most Want Ban on Same-Sex Marriage, Gibson: Public "Evenly Split" A new ABC News poll found that by a 22-point margin -- 58 to 36 percent -- a solid majority of Americans believe "same-sex marriage should be illegal," yet, on Monday's World News Tonight, ABC anchor Charles Gibson declared that "the polls show Americans are fairly evenly split on this issue." ABCNews.com headlined its story, "Most Oppose Gay Marriage; Fewer Back an Amendment," and reporter Jake Tapper pointed out how "forty-five of fifty states have passed either constitutional amendments or laws banning same-sex marriage, including in Democratic-leaning states Oregon... continue reading