1. CBS Presses Fulfillment of Its Wish: Demise of Personal Accounts Is the CBS Evening News, which has been the broadcast network evening newscast most hostile to President Bush's idea of personal accounts in Social Security, pressing to get its wish fulfilled with the demise of the concept? Anchor Bob Schieffer teased Tuesday night: "The President makes his final push on Social Security reform. Congress says it's ready to get serious about it. But is the whole idea already dead?" Bill Plante reported that "polls show that despite campaigning in 23 states, Mr. Bush has made little progress -- even... continue reading
1. ABC/WPost Word Poll Question to Get Desired Result on Filibuster ABC and the Washington Post touted how a new poll found two-thirds opposed to a rule change to end Democratic filibusters of judicial nominees, but the language of the question led to the media's desired answer. "An ABC News poll has found little support for changing the Senate's rules to help the President's judicial nominees win confirmation," World News Tonight anchor Charles Gibson trumpeted Monday night. The Washington Post's lead front page headline, over a Tuesday story on the poll, declared: "Filibuster Rule Change Opposed." But the questions in... continue reading
1. Reporter Believes Democrats "Good-Hearted," Republicans "Evil" Reacting to Bush White House counselor Karl Rove's contention that the Washington press corps is "less liberal than it is oppositional," Wall Street Journal political editor John Harwood, on Inside Washington over the weekend, conceded that ideology is what really drives how journalists see politicians: "I believe it is true that a significant chunk of the press believes that Democrats are incompetent but good-hearted, and Republicans are very efficient but evil." 2. CBS's Schieffer Twice Touts How Greenspan Predicts Tax Hikes CBS's Bob Schieffer, who suggested last year that the next President would... continue reading
1. Winners at the MRC's "DisHonors Awards" Held Thursday Night A rundown of the MRC's "2005 DisHonors Awards: Roasting the Most Outrageously Biased Liberal Reporters of 2004," as presented on Thursday night before an audience of more than 950 at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Washington, DC. Cal Thomas was the Master of Ceremonies with Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter and Neal Boortz pitching in as presenters of five award categories with conservatives, including T. Boone Pickens and Zell Miller, accepting them in jest. Also, John O'Neill of Swift Boat Veterans and POWs for Truth received the MRC's first Conservative of... continue reading
1. CBS's Early Show : "Many Catholics" Disappointed by Pope Pick CBS picked up on Wednesday morning right where they left off Tuesday night, with The Early Show aggressively pounding on the pontiff as a disappointment to "many Catholics." John Roberts called him "the man who was seen as far too controversial to head up the Church," adding: "Many Catholics...found nothing to celebrate." From Germany, Sheila MacVicar maintained that "this Pope's rigorous fundamentalism worries many here." Sharyn Alfonsi insisted "many American Catholics have a strong opinion of the new Pope," which isn't what the latest Gallup poll found. Co-host Harry... continue reading
1. CBS Most Egregious in Applying Ideological Labels to New Pope No honeymoon on CBS for the new Pope. All of the networks, broadcast and cable, on Tuesday afternoon and evening, focused at least some coverage on the conservative theological views of the new Pope, Joseph Ratzinger, and the disappointment by some Catholics, particularly women, in his selection. But none were more egregious in applying labels than the CBS Evening News which led with Mark Phillips asking: "He has taken the name of a healer, but where will this arch-conservative lead the Catholic Church?" Anchor Bob Schieffer tagged Ratzinger as... continue reading
1. Nets Zero in on "Ultraconservative" Ratzinger, "God's Rottweiler" Just as Germany's Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has emerged in the media as a leading papal candidate, the U.S. media have decided to do their best to discredit him by applying extreme and pejorative labels to him and portraying him as the enemy of progress. On Sunday, NBC's Jim Maceda referred to "the ultraconservative Ratzinger" and reported that "he was briefly a member of Hitler's youth group in Nazi Germany." On Monday morning, Katie Couric asserted that Ratzinger is "known to be quite conservative. He's been called 'God's rottweiler' because of his... continue reading
1. Nets Fret Over Women in Catholic Church, Give Platform to Liberal The night before the Catholic Cardinals were to begin their conclave to choose a new Pope, the U.S. broadcast network evening newscasts painted the role of women as the most important issue and gave a platform to left-wing church activist Joan Chittister. "The future of the church is now in the hands of 115 men. Some Catholic women find that offensive," ABC's David Wright asserted Sunday night in leading into a Chittister soundbite. Wright proceeded to showcase a woman upset that her unborn daughter cannot become a priest,... continue reading
1. Matthews & Stahl Recall When Democrats & Mainstream Media Ruled All was well with the world when the mainstream media controlled the information flow and Democrats controlled the Congress, CBS's Lesley Stahl and MSNBC's Chris Matthews seemed to contend Wednesday night on Hardball. Matthews, who hosts a show of unedited opinions, rued how news is "coming out of blog sites and stuff that is unedited in a lot of cases, which is my big problem with it. There's no editors around." Stahl complained "it's contributing to the public's continuing dislike of us and mistrust of us. And we're all... continue reading
1. CBS News Treats Gingrich as a Wise Sage After He Criticizes DeLay Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich criticized House Majority Leader Tom DeLay on Tuesday and, surely by coincidence, CBS News suddenly treated Gingrich -- whose views critical of liberals haven't interested CBS -- as a wise sage with incisive comments worthy of touting on the CBS Evening News. Anchor Bob Schieffer noted that DeLay, "who's been under fire on ethical questions," got "some criticism today from a new quarter." Schieffer then trumpeted how, "in an exclusive interview with our Gloria Borger, Gingrich said it's time for DeLay to... continue reading