1. Wallace "Astonished" Wounded Vets Back Iraq War, Finds Contrarian Appearing by phone on Friday's Imus in the Morning radio simulcast on MSNBC, to plug his then-upcoming Sunday night 60 Minutes report on the struggles and achievements of some military members severely wounded in Iraq, Mike Wallace admitted he was "astonished" at how "almost all of them support the war despite the fact that it's taken such a toll on them." He elaborated, "We asked them flat out: What about should we be there? And the ones that are the most severely hit believe yes, we should have been there... continue reading
1. Nets Fret Over Timing of Bush's Details of LA Terror Attack Plan Reporting on President Bush's Thursday speech in which he detailed a foiled al-Qaeda attack on a Los Angeles office tower, the three broadcast network evening newscasts fretted about the timing. ABC's George Stephanopoulos portrayed Democrats as the victims as he relayed how "Republicans hope that this war on terror issue is going to be the key to have them keeping control of the House and the Senate," while Democrats "know" they "can't let Republicans play the fear card." CBS's Jim Axelrod maintained that "the President's speech came... continue reading
1. NBC Uses Attacks on Bush as Chance to Critique "Record on Race" Some speakers at Tuesday's memorial service near Atlanta for Coretta King used the opportunity to blast from the left the racial, budget and foreign policies of President George W. Bush, who was himself amongst the speakers. Yet Wednesday's NBC Nightly News managed to turn the event into an indictment of Bush and imaginary "deep cuts" in social programs, without mentioning the vitriolic hatred directed toward him by the very black organizations and leaders NBC's Andrea Mitchell suggested he has snubbed. Anchor Brian Williams noted how the service... continue reading
1. Nets Cite Imaginary "Cuts" as Federal Budget Continues to Soar Federal spending has soared 33 percent since 2001 and will continue to surge under President Bush's budget proposal released Monday afternoon, yet network reporters referred to imaginary "cuts" in programs and departments. On World News Tonight, ABC's Martha Raddatz outlined Bush's proposal to increase defense and homeland security spending before she asked: "How do pay for all this? There are no tax increases. Instead, there are a host of spending reductions. On top of the list: Slowing spending on Medicare by $36 billion through 2011." While she at least... continue reading
1. ABC & CBS Ignore Fall in Unemployment Rate to Lowest Since 9/11 The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Friday that the unemployment rate for January fell by 0.2 percent from December, down to 4.7 percent, the lowest level since July of 2001. But viewers of ABC's World News Tonight and CBS Evening News on Friday night heard nothing about it, though ABC had time for another full story on the "cartoon outrage" by Muslims and a full piece on an Institute for Highway Safety study on how design changes in SUVs have reduced deaths in smaller vehicles they hit... continue reading
1. CBS Highlights CIA Chief's Rebuke of Harmful Leaks; Not ABC & NBC ABC and NBC, on Thursday night, didn't find CIA Director Peter Goss' lambasting of leakers and the news media, for publicizing secret information, very newsworthy. CBS Evening News anchor Bob Schieffer, however, noted that at a Senate hearing the intelligence officials who testified "seemed at one point as concerned about leaks to the news media as the nuclear threat" from Iran and CBS reporter David Martin pointed out how "the leak that dominated the hearing was the New York Times story about the National Security Agency's warrantless... continue reading
1. ABC & CNN Showcase Complaints Bush Slighted Katrina Victims ABC on Wednesday night, and CNN in the morning, devoted stories to how New Orleans residents are upset that President Bush, in his State of the Union address, did not advocate even more money for those hurt by Hurricane Katrina. ABC reporter Steve Osunsami littered his story with several supposed Bush voters who are angry at him. "The speech was practically over before the President mentioned Hurricane Katrina, one of the worst natural disasters in America's history," World News Tonight anchor Elizabeth Vargas fretted. Osunsami began with a woman who... continue reading
1. ABC Delivers Most Slanted SOTU Coverage, Through a Liberal Prism While CBS News coverage of the State of the Union speech showcased the bombast of New York Times columnist Tom Friedman, the ABC News coverage was the most hostile to Bush and conservative policies with its analysis delivered through a liberal prism. Anchor Elizabeth Vargas resurrected Watergate as she highlighted how Bush's 42 percent approval level "is the worst for a President entering his sixth year in office since Watergate hammered Richard Nixon." Charles Gibson noted that Bush "tries to unite," but then painted Democrats as victims of Bush... continue reading
1. Amanpour: "War in Iraq Has Basically Turned Out to Be a Disaster" "The war in Iraq has basically turned out to be a disaster," Christiane Amanpour, CNN's chief international correspondent, declared from London live on Monday's Larry King Live. In the segment in which journalists discussed the serious injury from a bomb in Iraq to ABC anchor Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt, she lamented how "journalists have paid for it, paid for the privilege of witnessing and reporting that." She added: "For some reason which I can't fathom, the kind of awful thing that's going on there now... continue reading
1. Schieffer: U.S. "Losing Moral High Ground?" & Touts Gas Tax Hike Bob Schieffer mostly posed unobjectionable questions on the news of the day (Hamas, Iran, etc.) to President George W. Bush in an interview conducted Friday and then excerpted on the CBS Evening News and Sunday's Face the Nation. But he did pose three inquiries from the agenda of the left which caught my attention. Schieffer wanted to know, in reference to NSA eavesdropping, if Bush thinks "there is anything that a President cannot do, if he considers it necessary, in an emergency like this?" Raising "horror stories about... continue reading