Appearing on Wednesday’s NBC Today, new Daily Show host Trevor Noah described his eagerness to mock the Republican 2016 field: “Yeah, a great gift, the campaign. Great gift, Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, these are all gifts, these are beautiful – I couldn't ask for more.”
During live MSNBC coverage prior to the arrival of Pope Francis on Tuesday, ex-NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams returned to television and asked Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd: “We try not to make everything political. What is the political angle in your shop of this visit by the leader of Catholics worldwide?” Todd replied: “Democratic Catholics who are elected officials, have never been more excited about this Pope coming....Republicans, it’s just the opposite. They're a little nervous. Is he going to put them in a box on climate change?
All three broadcast networks Tuesday morning seized on a pharmaceutical company hiking the price of a prescription drug in order to promote Hillary Clinton’s call for new government regulation of the industry. At the top of NBC’s Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie proclaimed: “5,000% hike?! The young drug company CEO under fire for raising the cost of a life-saving pill overnight....The controversial decision making it all the way to the campaign trail.”
On Sunday’s NBC Meet the Press, moderator Chuck Todd hyped Pope Francis taking on liberal agenda items: “The incredibly popular pope has been outspoken on his views about inequality and climate change....[in the] Shriver Report snapshot poll of American Catholics, a full 86% think it's a good thing that this pope has emphasized income inequality and environmental issues over things like abortion and same-sex marriage. It’s remarkable.”
On Friday’s NBC Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie proclaimed: “Hillary Clinton hitting back at another Republican candidate, Carly Fiorina. She went after Clinton several times during the debate.” In the report that followed, correspondent Andrea Mitchell noted how Fiorina “lit up the debate stage by partly targeting Hillary Clinton, the most famous woman in American politics.”
In an interview with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on Friday’s NBC Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie pressed the Republican presidential candidate on whether Donald Trump was hurting the GOP: “Is Trump doing long-term damage to the Republican brand if he's insulting Muslims, Latinos, women, veterans, prisoners of war? I mean, do you worry about the effect this is having for the long-term prospects of the Republican Party?”
Eager to provide supposed “fact-checking” of the Republican presidential debate, on Thursday, MSNBC NewsNation host Tamron Hall declared: “But to Carly Fiorina's moment regarding Planned Parenthood. While that comment was applauded by conservatives, a lot of that Twitter traffic was also...people fact-checking her on that statement.”
At the top of the 9 a.m. ET hour on NBC’s Today, co-host Tamron Hall slammed the Republican presidential debate as being like a bad reality show: “...a friend of mine said it was like The Real Housewives with Andy Cohen, because they were just pitted against each other.”
In an interview with actress Emily Blunt on Thursday’s NBC Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie downplayed the celebrity’s recent swipe at Republicans with an anti-American joke: “You recently became an American citizen....You made a joke the other day, saying you watched the Republican debate and you joked, ‘What was I thinking?’ And some people took that the wrong way.”
Despite a strong debate performance Wednesday night, on Thursday’s NBC Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie lectured Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina on her business record: “I know you have gotten into the reasons for your dismissal from Hewlett-Packard....in politics, and you know this well, if you're explaining, you’re losing.”
In a report for MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Wednesday, political correspondent Kasie Hunt used the upcoming Republican debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California to proclaim the GOP to be “all but extinct” in the Golden State.
In what was an otherwise softball interview with Chelsea Clinton on Tuesday’s NBC Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie did briefly press the former first daughter (and former NBC correspondent) on Hillary Clinton’s struggling presidential campaign: “You are one of her most trusted advisers as well as her daughter....And there was a recent poll that was really striking because it asked voters what is a word you associate with Hillary Clinton... ‘dishonest,’ ‘untrustworthy,’ ‘liar.’ Why do you think that is? What's not getting through, in your mind?”
In a fawning “interview” with Hillary Clinton aired on Thursday that amounted to a campaign rally, liberal talk show host Ellen DeGeneres assured the Democrat she doesn't need to address her e-mail scandal: “I actually don't think you need to. It's just that people keep bringing it up. They have not found a thing.” She soon endorsed Clinton for president: “You are the smartest, most qualified person for this job. If I'm looking for someone who’s qualified – if I want to hire a plumber, I want someone who has snaked the drain before, you know what I’m saying.”
Two weeks after offering a mere 21-second news brief on allegations that the Pentagon altered intelligence data on ISIS “to provide a more optimistic account of progress” against the terror group, Thursday’s CBS This Morning was the only network morning show to report on 50 intelligence officials confirming that their analyses were changed.
As reported by the Washington Examiner’s Eddie Scarry on Wednesday, NBC News has apparently abandoned any pretense of objectivity by partnering with Democratic political research firm TargetSmart for its 2016 campaign coverage. According to Scarry, “The partnership between NBC News and TargetSmart is intended to ‘enhance election coverage and study the voting process in America in depth,’ according to a Tuesday press release from NBC.”
Appearing on Wednesday’s CBS This Morning, former Meet the Press moderator David Gregory shared the inside story of his 2014 ouster from NBC: “Things happen in television news, we know that. It's a tough business....it’s just that it was handled in way that was unnecessary. NBC made a business decision which you can agree with or disagree with and it just didn't need to be handled that way....I don't miss NBC, I don't miss being there. It was just the wrong atmosphere for me.”
Despite the bipartisan opposition to the Iran nuclear deal, on Tuesday, MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell and Wall Street Journal political editor Jeanne Cummings accused critics of the plan of being “partisan.” Mitchell began by touting a video of former Vice President Dick Cheney being shouted down by a left-wing protester: “Dick Cheney today speaking about Iran with a very tough attack on the President, but interrupted by a protester.”
In a report for Tuesday’s CBS This Morning promoting liberal comedian Stephen Colbert’s debut as host of The Late Show, correspondent Vladimir Duthiers proclaimed: “Colbert had that distinctive voice. His character on The Colbert Report, also named Stephen Colbert, was, in his words, ‘a poorly formed high-status idiot’....It was a parody of a right-wing political pundit, funny to many, but not what he can or will bring to CBS.”
In an exclusive interview with Hillary Clinton on Friday, NBC chief foreign affairs correspondent and MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell began by gently wondering if the former Secretary of State was “sorry” about the e-mail scandal: “You said recently that using your personal e-mail while you were secretary of state was not the best choice and that you take responsibility. Are you sorry?”
In an interview with author Salman Rushdie on Friday’s CBS This Morning, co-host Gayle King teed him up to bash Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, imprisoned for refusing to issue gay marriage licenses: “What do you think about what's going on in Kentucky with Kim Davis, who’s standing up for her religious beliefs, when you were really the victim of religious beliefs, where they were trying to get you?"


