1. ABC's Sawyer Frets Ridge Departure "Makes Us More Vulnerable" If Diane Sawyer were to quit would that mean the end to the reliability of ABC News? On Wednesday's Good Morning America, Sawyer wanted to know if the resignation of Tom Ridge as Secretary of Homeland Security "makes everybody more vulnerable?" She also fretted that the departure of "seven high-level officials," which would include the Commerce Secretary, as if he were key to national security, "has to mean that something, some kind of memory knowledge is departing. Doesn't this make us more vulnerable?" Former counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke pointed out... continue reading
1. Focus on Anti-Bush Marchers, CBS Features Pirate & "Bush=Hitler" CBS and ABC on Tuesday night focused on anti-Bush protesters who greeted the President's visit to Ottawa. "Tonight, the angry folks next door," Dan Rather teased, "President Bush gets a cool reception from Canadians at odds over trade, the war, and more." John Roberts, Rather's likely successor, zeroed in on how "thousands of protestors marched through the streets of the Canadian capital, still angry over the war in Iraq." Roberts showed protest signs which declared: "Bush = Hitler" and "Bush the War-Criminal Not Welcome in Canada." He marched alongside a... continue reading
1. Brokaw Disrespect for '94 GOP Win, Insists Reagan Short on AIDS Tom Brokaw, who in 1994 dismissed the Contract with America as "long on promises and short on sound premises," in his two-hour Friday night Dateline special, Tom Brokaw: Eyewitness to History, gave a mere ten seconds to the 1994 GOP congressional takeover as he focused the entirety of the brief segment on showing himself asking Newt Gingrich: "Do you regret saying that the Clinton administration is the enemy of normal people?" Brokaw gave just as much time to touting Clinton's booming economy, though he didn't mention anything about... continue reading
1. Bozell Statement on Rather, Wash Post and NY Times Quote MRC A statement from Media Research Center President Brent Bozell upon the announcement by Dan Rather that he is stepping down as the anchor of the CBS Evening News, though he will remain with 60 Minutes, plus how major newspapers on Wednesday featured quotes on Rather from Bozell and the MRC's Brent Baker. 2. Rather's Denials and Lashing Out at Critics Over Forged Memos "Dan Rather in Crisis," a compilation section for the MRC's Web site of CyberAlert coverage of Dan Rather's denials and lashing out at critics over... continue reading
1. CNN's New Chief Defended CBS on Forgery Charge, Aided Gumbel Jonathan Klein, named President of CNN/U.S. on Monday, in September on FNC praised Mary Mapes, the producer of the CBS story which used forged documents in a political hit against President Bush, as "absolutely peerless, I'd say, in the profession. She is a crack journalist," insisted that 60 Minutes, which it turned out got the forgeries from a well-known Bush-hater, is "probably the most careful news organization, certainly on television when it comes to the vetting sources" and denigrated bloggers who uncovered CBS's misdeed as he ludicrously defended CBS's... continue reading
1. Clift & Moyers Denounce Rice's Lies, Shredding U.S. Credibility Newsweek's Eleanor Clift and PBS's Bill Moyers launched angry attacks over the weekend at President Bush's wish to elevate Condoleezza Rice to Secretary of State. Clift charged on the McLaughlin Group: "Rice didn't see terrorism coming, she went out and really lied about what at she knew." Moyers, on Friday night's Now on PBS, denounced how "we are to have a new Secretary of State who dreadfully misjudged the terrorist threat leading up to 9/11 and then misled America and the world about the case for invading Iraq." Adding Bush's... continue reading
1. Jennings Praises Clinton Who Rants About ABC Helping Ken Starr During ABC's hour-long Primetime Special Edition promotion of the opening of the Clinton Library, titled, "Bill Clinton: A Place in History," Peter Jennings trumpeted his record as "full of accomplishment" and touted how he's "hugely popular in other parts of the world." But Clinton lectured Jennings on ABC's bias against him. Jennings had told the former President how a survey of historians had ranked him highly in some areas, but that "they gave you a 41st on moral authority." That prompted Clinton to launch into a rant against Ken... continue reading
1. FNC Takes on NY Times 's Spin CIA Chief Orders Staff "Back Bush" FNC on Wednesday took on a front page New York Times story headlined, "Chief of CIA Tells His Staff to Back Bush." Jim Angle reported how CIA Director Porter Goss, in the wake of CIA employees trashing the administration, "wrote a memo to CIA staff to remind everyone in the intelligence community to stay out of politics. But a newspaper headline suggested the exact opposite, saying Porter Goss had told his staff to back Bush." Angle, who featured two Senators who supported Goss's efforts, proceeded to... continue reading
1. Worry Rice Represents "Hard Right Turn," Urge Reliance on UN Network journalists on Tuesday showed they will miss Colin Powell's "moderation" and fear Condoleezza Rice is a "hard right" ideologue, but she'll ease fears if she relies on the UN. Concluding a CBS Evening News story on how President Bush has nominated Rice for Secretary of State, John Roberts asserted that "senior diplomats" maintain that "the jury is still out on whether Rice will be a moderate realist, as Colin Powell was, or a hard-line ideologue." In the morning, NBC's Matt Lauer asked at the top of Today: "Does... continue reading
1. Fret Over Powell Exit, How "Hardliners" Have "Emasculated" Him In reaction to Secretary of State Colin Powell's resignation, NBC's Andrea Mitchell fretted on MSNBC about how "this really is a regretful moment and a passing of a great potential leader." Later, on the NBC Nightly News, she thrice employed the term "hardliner" to describe what Powell was up against or the views of President Bush. On ABC's Nightline, John McWethy blamed conservatives for obliterating any chance Powell had to be a "great" Secretary of State since "he was emasculated by a team of very senior people who surrounded the... continue reading