1. New Today Co-Host an Anti-War Protester: "War Built on Lies" Meredith Vieira, the replacement for Katie Couric as co-host of NBC's Today this fall -- Wednesday's New York Times reported that "NBC has nearly concluded an agreement with Meredith Vieira of ABC to replace Ms. Couric as co-host of the Today morning show" -- marched in an anti-Iraq war protest back in August of 2004. On the Monday, August 30, 2004 edition of the ABC daytime show she quad-hosts, The View, the former CBS 60 Minutes reporter told viewers that she attended the anti-Bush protest held in New York... continue reading
1. Chris Matthews Calls Cheney a "Chowderhead" for Believing Chalabi Well it happened, Chris Matthews has finally descended into name-calling. On Monday's Hardball, during a segment with retired General Anthony Zinni, Matthews resorted to calling supporters of the Iraqi invasion, such as Vice President Dick Cheney, "fools" and "chowderheads." 2. Olbermann Denies Pushing Ideological Agenda, Kurtz Doesn't Buy It Howard Kurtz profiled Keith Olbermann for his Monday "Media Notes" column in the Washington Post, with the headline: "A Gadfly With Buzz: MSNBC's Olbermann Exercising The Right." For his part, Olbermann showed his membership in the liberal media elite by beginning... continue reading
1. A Summary of the MRC's "DisHonors Awards" Held Thursday Night A rundown of the MRC's "2006 DisHonors Awards: Roasting the Most Outrageously Biased Liberal Reporters of 2005," as presented on Thursday night before an audience of more than 900 at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Washington, DC. Cal Thomas served as Master of Ceremonies with Larry Kudlow, Tony Blankley and Mark Levin pitching in as presenters of five award categories with conservatives, including Major General Jack Singlaub (Retired) and Stan Evans, accepting the awards in jest. The audience also saw a "Tribute to the American Military" video. It was... continue reading
1. Williams' Euphemism for Liberals: "Care Chiefly About Our Planet" NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams on Wednesday night employed a nice euphemism for left-wing environmental groups (those "who care chiefly about our planet"), thus without conveying any sense of their ideological agenda, he passed along their ridiculing of the Bush administration for not going far enough in hiking the miles per gallon (mpg) standards for SUVs. In leading with the announcement from the Transportation Department, Williams noted that SUVs "have been considered trucks" and thus "been able to duck the mileage rules for American cars." Williams, who anchored from... continue reading
1. CBS's Logan Calls Ingraham's Iraq Coverage Criticism "Outrageous" Appearing live from Baghdad on Sunday's Reliable Sources on CNN, CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan lashed back at critics who say Iraq war coverage is not giving enough prominence to positive developments and Newsweek's Richard Wolffe ominously warned of a "bias witch hunt." When host Howard Kurtz suggested "critics would say, 'well, no wonder people back home think things are falling apart in Iraq because we get this steady drumbeat of negativity from the correspondents there,'" Logan retorted: "Well, who says things aren't falling apart in Iraq?" She proceeded... continue reading
1. Olbermann: WH Gave Drudge "Bush Makes Me Sick" ABC News E-Mail MSNBC's Keith Olbermann charged on Thursday night's Countdown that the e-mail, in which ABC News producer John Green complained that "Bush makes me sick," was "leaked to the infamous, deplorable Matt Drudge" by a desperate White House. His evidence? "I'm not even going to put the 'if that came from the White House somehow' thing in there because the timing's too good." Olbermann proposed to Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank: "Does this not smack of desperation on the part of the White House, to let something like that... continue reading
1. NBC Showcases Anti-War West Virginian Over One Critical of Media At a forum with President George W. Bush Wednesday at the Capitol Music Hall in Wheeling, West Virginia, Gayle Taylor, the wife of a member of the military recently returned from Iraq, was drowned out by a standing ovation when she told Bush: "It seems that our major media networks don't want to portray the good. They just want to focus-" Neither the CBS Evening News or NBC Nightly News found the criticism of the news media to be newsworthy. NBC's David Gregory instead decided to assert that "in... continue reading
1. CBS Showcases Thomas: "Why Did You Really Want to Go to War?" Unlike ABC's George Stephanopoulos and NBC's Kelly O'Donnell, on the CBS Evening News Jim Axelrod featured the far-left question from Hearst Newspapers columnist Helen Thomas at Tuesday morning's presidential press conference. Thomas blamed Bush for deaths and charged that he employed subterfuge to launch a war: "Your decision to invade Iraq has caused the deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqis. Every reason given, publicly at least, has turned out not to be true. My question is: Why did you really want to go to war?" Axelrod... continue reading
1. NBC's "Random" Views: U.S. Warmongering or Committing Terrorism Monday's Today delivered what co-host Katie Couric described as "a random sampling" of public views on Iraq, but NBC's "random sampling" featured just three people, with two of those characterizing the U.S. as warmongering or as guilty of committing terrorism. A woman holding a protest sign, "We Are for Peace from the USA," declared: "There were no weapons of mass destruction. Too many people are dying daily around the world because of this lie!" In a second soundbite, she complained: "I'm so disappointed in our country at this time." A man... continue reading
1. Feingold's Censure Motion Earns CNN's "Political Play of Week" On Friday afternoon's The Situation Room, CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider touted Senator Russ Feingold's motion to censure President Bush as his choice for this week's "political play of the week," heaping this praise upon him: "Spines, backbones, they help you stand up for what you believe. Of course it's risky, that's what a play of the week is all about. Senator Feingold did not choose an easy issue to confront the President on, like allowing an Arab government-owned company to operate U.S. ports. He chose wiretapping conversations with... continue reading