1. ABC Distorts Bush's Admonition on "Lying/War for Oil" Rhetoric In Louisville on Wednesday afternoon, President Bush welcomed criticisms of going to war in Iraq and of the conduct of the war, but he castigated those who say "'he lied.' Or, 'they're in there for oil.' Or 'they're doing it because of Israel.'" But on Wednesday's World News Tonight, Martha Raddatz centered an entire story around, in response to the question of "How can people help on the war on terror?", this soundbite from Bush: "One way people can help as we're coming down the pike in the 2006 elections,... continue reading
1. ABC Touts "Exclusive" with "Whistleblower" Behind NYT's "Spying" ABC led Tuesday's World News Tonight by trumpeting an "exclusive" story from Brian Ross -- an interview with one of the sources for the New York Times story which disclosed an ongoing secret operation to monitor communication by people inside the U.S. with terror suspect abroad. "Tonight, the whistleblower who spent decades spying for the U.S.," co-anchor Bob Woodruff teased before co-anchor Elizabeth Vargas joined in with an ominous-sounding warning: "He says millions of American may have been monitored illegally. An ABC News 'Exclusive.'" Three times ABC championed Russ Tice as... continue reading
1. Lauer Gives Extremist Tag to Alito: "He Is an Ultra-Conservative" On Tuesday's Today, co-host Matt Lauer applied an extreme ideological tag to Supreme Court nominee Sam Alito, telling former Senator Fred Thompson: "Let's face it, he is an ultra-conservative and his track record on the bench is that he, he, [talking over Thompson] he goes to the right on key issues." Thompson rejected the label. Lauer also fretted that if Alito is confirmed, "eight of the nine Supreme Court justices will be men, eight of the nine will be white, eight of the nine will have law degrees from... continue reading
1. Russert: Alito's Job in Hearings: Don't "Come Across as a Zealot" Suggesting Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito could be seen as an unqualified extremist, on Monday's Today show NBC's Tim Russert twice proposed that his job in the hearings, which started a few hours later, was to not come across as a "zealot." Russert contended: "If he has a good, strong, solid performance where he comes across as a conservative judge with good temperament he's confirmed. If he comes across as a conservative, political zealot he's in trouble." Russert soon repeated his point: "The question is, is this a... continue reading
1. Relaying NYT's Snide Take, ABC's Woodruff Derides Bush's Outreach Journalists have eagerly passed along, and themselves formulated, complaints that President Bush is too isolated (ie Newsweek's "Bush in a bubble"). But after, at his invitation, 13 former Secretaries of State and Defense came to the White House Thursday for a briefing on Iraq and a chance to give Bush and his top foreign policy officials their feedback, ABC anchor Bob Woodruff copied from a snide New York Times posting as he sneeringly stressed how "the dialogue was limited" since "the entire affair lasted just 40 minutes." He added, as... continue reading
1. Nightline Coddles Wise Sage Murtha, But Had Chastised Cheney Two weeks after ABC's Terry Moran, on the December 19 Nightline, pounded away at Vice President Dick Cheney, an interview in which Moran condescendingly proposed to Cheney that the VP's refusal to refute prisoner-abuse allegations and "surveilling Americans," left Moran ashamed of a country he would not want to "pass on" to his daughters, the Monday night broadcast delivered an obsequious session with Democratic Congressman John Murtha. Jon Donvan never challenged Murtha as he touted Murtha's "remarkable" comments and how his criticism of the Iraq war came "like a thunder... continue reading
1. Dan Rather Touts "First Husband" Opportunity for Bill Clinton Dan Rather fawned over former President Bill Clinton, and giddily promoted Hillary Clinton's presidential bid, in a new story for the New Year's Day 60 Minutes ostensibly focused on Clinton's effort to get low-priced AIDS medicines into China. Rather pointed out how Clinton couldn't take Air Force One on a trip to China, and wondered: "Do you miss it?" Clinton said he misses the workplace on it. Rather, looking bemused, followed up: "Do you, in some quiet moment, look forward to the time when maybe you fly on it in... continue reading
1. Third Runners-Up Quotes in MRC's Awards for the Worst Reporting The third runners-up quotes in the MRC's "Best Notable Quotables of 2005: The Eighteenth Annual Awards for the Year's Worst Reporting." 2. List of the 52 Judges Who Selected the Winning Quotes A list of the 52 judges who gave generously of their time to evaluate the quotes in 16 award categories. Third Runners-Up Quotes in MRC's Awards for the Worst Reporting Tuesday's CyberAlert listed the winners, Wednesday's the first runners-up and Thursday's the second runners-up, so today the third runners-up quotes in the MRC's "Best Notable Quotables of... continue reading
1. NewsBusters.org Blog Postings on Brokaw, Koppel and Olbermann While I'm away, the blog boys (and girls) continue to play. Some links to postings over the past few days, on the MRC's NewsBusters.org blog, which caught my eye: More bad Reuters math, the Tom Brokaw-Ted Koppel liberal gabfest on Meet the Press, Olbermann compares Janet Parshall to "Al-Qaeda show on al-Jazeera," CNN calls Cindy Sheehan a bigger 2005 news story than the passing of Pope John Paul and Olbermann pushes impeachment. 2. Second Runners-Up Quotes in MRC's Awards for the Worst Reporting The second runners-up quotes in the MRC's "Best... continue reading
1. First Runners-Up Quotes in MRC's Awards for the Worst Reporting The first runners-up quotes in the MRC's "Best Notable Quotables of 2005: The Eighteenth Annual Awards for the Year's Worst Reporting." First Runners-Up Quotes in MRC's Awards for the Worst Reporting Tuesday's CyberAlert listed the winners, and so today the first runners-up quotes in the MRC's "Best Notable Quotables of 2005: The Eighteenth Annual Awards for the Year's Worst Reporting." The Media Research Center's annual awards issue provides a compilation of the most outrageous and/or humorous news media quotes from 2005 (December 2004 through November 2005). To determine this... continue reading