1. NBC Focuses on Iraq Vets "Who Tumbled Quickly Into Homelessness" NBC Nightly News on Tuesday night found a direct connection to President Bush in a poster veteran to illustrate the supposed problem of homelessness amongst soldiers returning from Iraq: A woman Bush put his arm around during his Thanksgiving stop in Iraq in 2003. Mike Taibbi asked: "An Iraq war vet with no place to live? Well, it turns out that Varetta Barnes is only one of about one hundred veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who tumbled quickly into homelessness." Her solution, Taibbi relayed, "was to re-enlist... continue reading
1. Army Officers Tell Jennings Media Have Mis-Reported Iraq Efforts Reporting from Iraq on Monday night where he traveled on a patrol with the 1st Cavalry, ABC's Peter Jennings noted that "the U.S. is spending millions of dollars here on sewer pipes, sewage treatment, landfills for garbage, available clean water." Jennings asked: "How does the U.S. get credit for this?" Well not from the news media, as Jennings acknowledged that "every U.S. officer encountered today said the media has missed or under-reported this part of the U.S. mission." 2. Miklaszewski Contrasts Spending on Iraq to 1/13th as Much on EPA... continue reading
1. CBS's Bob Schieffer: Iraq "Sort of a Vietnam in Reverse" Seeing the world through the prism of Vietnam. When on Sunday's Face the Nation Senator John McCain foresaw, after elections in Iraq, "a transition where American troops withdraw into enclaves and are only used in emergency kinds of situations," CBS's Bob Schieffer saw Iraq then as "sort of a Vietnam in reverse where we started out with advisers to South Vietnamese troops, then went to combat troops from America taking over. What you're talking about is Americans sort of withdrawing from the active combat and becoming advisers to the... continue reading
1. ABC Contrasts Inaugural with Funeral for Marine Killed in Iraq The day after the ABC News Web site posted a request for information about military funerals on Inauguration Day for any soldier killed in Iraq, during live Inauguration coverage on Thursday Peter Jennings used the protester prop of flag-draped coffins as a cue to highlight how "some people" see the decision to bar the media from showing coffins arriving at Dover as meant to "isolate the American public from the tragedy of war." Later, on World News Tonight, Jennings contrasted the Inaugural festivities with how "in Rockport, Texas today,... continue reading
1. On Inauguration Eve, CBS Stresses Bush's Approval Below Nixon's On the eve of President George W. Bush's second inauguration, the CBS Evening News brought up Richard Nixon in stressing Bush's comparatively low approval rating of 49 percent in a new CBS News/New York Times poll. John Roberts asked and answered: "What did Presidents Clinton, Reagan, Eisenhower, even Nixon, all have in common? A higher approval rating on the eve of their second inauguration than President George W. Bush." As Roberts spoke, viewers saw a screen with pictures of all five Presidents with their approval rating at the start of... continue reading
1. TEST Skip Greenspan's Approval of SS Plan, Excited Bush May Hike Tax A night after ABC's World News Tonight centered a story around how a couple of GOP back benchers oppose President Bush's Social Security reform plan, the newscast on Wednesday had time for stories on identity theft, car sharing and an interview with Bill Gates, but ignored Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's revelation to a Senate committee that he "approves" of creating private accounts. NBC and CBS briefly noted Greenspan's endorsement, but NBC excitedly hyped President Bush's comment that he would consider raising the income subject to the... continue reading
1. TEST Skip Greenspan's Approval of SS Plan, Excited Bush May Hike Tax A night after ABC's World News Tonight centered a story around how a couple of GOP back benchers oppose President Bush's Social Security reform plan, the newscast on Wednesday had time for stories on identity theft, car sharing and an interview with Bill Gates, but ignored Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's revelation to a Senate committee that he "approves" of creating private accounts. NBC and CBS briefly noted Greenspan's endorsement, but NBC excitedly hyped President Bush's comment that he would consider raising the income subject to the... continue reading
1. ABC Piles on With Rice Critics; Only FNC Notes Biden Admonition ABC's Linda Douglass piled on Secretary of State nominee Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday night, showcasing only those at her Senate confirmation hearing, both Democrat and Republican, who were critical. Douglass highlighted how "one Republican asked skeptically if there really is a plan for the U.S. to get out" of Iraq, how "former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry heaped scorn on Rice's defense of the war," how "in his committee debut, the Democrats' newest star asked if U.S. troops will ever come home" and how "one Republican, just back... continue reading
1. ABC and NBC Press Bush About How He's Damaged U.S. Credibility Four days before his second inauguration, President Bush granted interviews on Monday to the White House correspondents for the three broadcast networks and CBS was actually the least hostile. ABC's Terry Moran demanded: "The next time you have to go to the world and say there's a threat in some country, why, after you were so wrong about the weapons in Iraq, should people believe you?" Moran wouldn't let go: "Don't you and the country now have a credibility problem?" NBC's David Gregory pursued the same line: "Do... continue reading
1. ABC and AP Focus on Those Upset by Bush's "Lavish" Inauguration ABC focused on how "some," and AP on how "many," are upset by a "lavish" inaugural in the midst of a war. ABC anchor Terry Moran teased at the top of Sunday's World News Tonight: "In a time of war and natural disaster, is it time for a lavish celebration?" Geoff Morrell proceeded to relay the complaints of one anti-war activist and a rich sports owner who had voted for Bush. Without mentioning how FDR was near-death at the time, Morrell contrasted Bush with how "during World War... continue reading