1. Russert Targets Private Accounts as "Stumbling Block" to SS Deal On Sunday's Meet the Press, Tim Russert targeted personal accounts as the impediment preventing a "deal" in Congress on Social Security. Identifying his two guests, Democratic Senator Ben Nelson and Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee, as "independent" on the Social Security reform topic, Russert pressed both about dropping the idea. To Nelson: "Should the Democrats refuse to negotiate until the President takes personal accounts off the table?" To Chafee: "Should the President take private, personal accounts off the table and focus on solvency?" Russert soon decided that in addition to... continue reading
1. Under Schieffer CBS Maintains Hostility to Bush's SS Reform Plan Bob Schieffer's assumption of the anchor chair on the CBS Evening News didn't alter the program's hostility to President Bush's Social Security reform proposal. John Roberts joined Bush in a visit to Alabama where Roberts highlighted how the chief of the state's retirement system dismissed private accounts as "a dumb idea" and how a woman who voted for Bush doesn't think much of the concept. Without citing a single poll number beyond his two anecdotes, Roberts asserted: "The level of skepticism about the President's proposal in Alabama would seem... continue reading
1. Rather Draws Line from Being Called "N-Lover" to a "Liberal" In his Wednesday night prime time special reviewing his career, Dan Rather: A Reporter Remembers, Rather, dismissing bias charges as a just the latest in a series of efforts to "intimidate" him, drew a line from being called "an 'N-lover'" during the civil rights movement to the Vietnam war years when critics tagged him with a "bad name: 'anti-military, anti-American, anti-war,'" and "then, when Watergate came into being was the first time I began to hear this word 'liberal' as an epithet thrown my way." Viewers then saw a... continue reading
1. TEST 1 Totenberg Eats Shoe, Admits Misjudgment on Iraq Election's Power NPR's Nina Totenberg eats her shoe. Asked on Inside Washington over the weekend if President Bush deserves credit for the democratic movements rising in the Middle East, Totenberg, a critic of Bush's Iraq policy, replied that "if I had a hat I would have to eat it." Then, as she briefly brought a shoe to her month, she noted that "I've got my shoe here" and conceded that "I really did not think that this election in Iraq would make that much difference and I was wrong." She... continue reading
1. Nets Avoid How "Italian Journalist" Works for Communist Paper Though Giuliana Sgrena is hurling accusations that her car did not ignore commands to stop and was fired upon at a checkpoint because she was targeted by U.S. troops in Iraq, with rare exception the networks have not considered relevant to her credibility how she's a vociferous critic of U.S. policy in Iraq and works for a communist newspaper in Rome. Stories over the weekend and on Monday about the wounding of her and the killing of the Italian agent, Nicola Calipari, who rescued her from her kidnappers, repeatedly described... continue reading
1. Totenberg Eats Shoe, Admits Misjudgment on Iraq Election's Power NPR's Nina Totenberg eats her shoe. Asked on Inside Washington over the weekend if President Bush deserves credit for the democratic movements rising in the Middle East, Totenberg, a critic of Bush's Iraq policy, replied that "if I had a hat I would have to eat it." Then, as she briefly brought a shoe to her month, she noted that "I've got my shoe here" and conceded that "I really did not think that this election in Iraq would make that much difference and I was wrong." She quickly added,... continue reading
1. ABC Considers Leading with Good News, But Goes with Bad, in Iraq ABC's Peter Jennings revealed Thursday night that "this is one of those days in the newsroom where the discussion focused, ever so briefly, on whether to begin with the good news or the bad" -- Steve Fossett's flight around the world without re-fueling or the military death count in Iraq reaching 1,500. "It was a short conversation," Jennings admitted as the background image behind him switched to a row of rifles in boots with helmets atop them, the designation for a fallen soldier, and ABC went with... continue reading
1. CBS Charges Conservative Group with "Slime" Tactics Against AARP Dan Rather led Wednesday's CBS Evening News by touting how a new poll found most opposed to President Bush's Social Security reform plan and how a majority "say they would support raising the amount of wages subject to Social Security payroll taxes." CBS ignored Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan's latest comments in favor of private accounts, but denigrated a small conservative group with a little-seen anti-AARP ad. Rather asked John Roberts: "Are there or are there not signs that this fight is going down the slime, smear, nasty road?" Without citing... continue reading
1. Nets: Juvenile Execution Ruling Brings U.S. Into Line with World In reporting the Supreme Court's decision to bar the death penalty for those under 18, the networks on Tuesday night stressed how out of step the U.S. had become with the rest of the world and ABC and CBS gave equal time to relatives of murderers as to victim's families. NBC anchor Brian Williams heralded how the ruling "ends a practice that drew ridicule for years from some of America's closest friends around the world." Peter Jennings trumpeted how "this brings the U.S. into line with much of the... continue reading
1. NBC Uses Car Bombing to Resurrect "Mission Accomplished" Marker Will they ever let it go? Some in the media can't resist using any and all setbacks in Iraq as an opportunity to mock President Bush's May 1, 2003 speech on an aircraft carrier with a "mission accomplished" sign hung behind him. Though Bush never uttered the phrase, in reporting on a car bomb which killed at least 115 in Hillah, on Monday's NBC Nightly News Peter Alexander asserted that it was "the single deadliest attack since President Bush declared 'mission accomplished' in Iraq." In fact, it was the deadliest... continue reading