Tavis Smiley of PBS: 'We're All Working For Barack Obama

January 9th, 2009 10:38 AM
Chris Matthews won't be working alone.  Back in November, the Hardball host said it was his job to make Barack Obama's presidency a success.  Today, another TV journalist expressed a similar sentiment. Tavis Smiley has declared that "we're all working for Barack Obama" and that "we have to help make Obama a great president." [H/t reader dronetek.]The host of Tavis Smiley on PBS was a guest on…

CBS’s Kelly Wallace Issues Press Release On Obama Stimulus Plan

January 8th, 2009 4:10 PM
In a news report that sounded like an Obama campaign commercial, CBS Early Show correspondent Kelly Wallace declared: "Facing the most serious economic crisis since the Great Depression, the Obama Administration is asking for the biggest stimulus plan in history. An estimated $775 billion to prop up a very sick economy." In the report, Wallace cited Nariman Behravesh, chief economist for Global…

Even Comic Books Crawling with Pro-Obama Bias

January 8th, 2009 12:59 PM
Updated below: In late 2001, "Punisher" storyline had threat against President Bush's life. Spider-Man will swing to the rescue at the Obama inauguration in the Marvel comics universe, USA Today's David Colton reported in a January 8 story for the newspaper's Life section. Colton's story sought to portray the move not merely as a money-maker for Marvel but part of a storied tradition of graphic…

CNN Frets Over No 'Room at the Inn' at Blair House For the Obamas

January 8th, 2009 12:57 PM
On Thursday’s Newsroom program, CNN correspondent Jim Acosta indirectly compared the Obama family to the pregnant Virgin Mary and St. Joseph looking for a place to stay in Bethlehem during a report about the unavailability of the Blair House: “...[I]t’s still not clear why there wasn’t enough room at the inn for the Obamas. The 70,000 square foot complex is actually bigger than the White House.…

NBC Commiserates with 'Hard Realities' Obama 'Up Against

January 7th, 2009 9:23 PM
Prompted by the CBO's forecast of a $1.2 trillion annual federal budget deficit, the NBC Nightly News on Wednesday commiserated with the challenge ahead for the incoming President. “On our broadcast tonight, facing facts,” Brian Williams teased, “President-elect Obama confronts the hard realities he's up against, deficits as far as the eye can see.” A dire Williams proceeded to lead with how…

The Passion of the Obama?! 'CNN Newsroom' Showcases Obama Iconography

January 7th, 2009 5:26 PM
Shortly before noon today, CNN anchor Tony Harris turned to producer Tyson Wheatley for a look at the latest from CNN's "iReport" desk. Wheatley proceeded to show Harris and the viewers at home some of the art work done by CNN's "iReporters," including one item that evoked an image from a promotional poster for 2004's Mel Gibson film, "The Passion of the Christ." [audio excerpt here]Here's the…

CBS’s Smith on Leon Panetta for CIA: ‘Somebody Who Can Connect the

January 7th, 2009 2:50 PM
On Wednesday’s CBS Early Show, co-host Harry Smith talked to Michael Crowley, editor of the liberal magazine The New Republic, about some of Obama’s recent appointments, including former Clinton chief of staff, Leon Panetta, for CIA director: "Dianne Feinstein, had her, you know, was -- her feathers were ruffled to say the least. Is this just the way of the Senate saying you've got to go through…

Brewing Controversy? ChiTrib Leaves Out Duncan Mention in Espressos-fo

January 7th, 2009 1:58 PM
A bureaucrat serving under Obama Education Secretary-designate Arne Duncan spent $70,000 on espresso machines for Chicago's school system, according to a January 7 report in the Chicago Tribune. Of course, Duncan's name was not mentioned and his ties to the incoming presidential administration were left out of the 13-paragraph story:One Chicago Public Schools manager must have really been…

Black Congressman Accuses Senate of Racism, Media Mostly Mum

January 7th, 2009 1:56 PM
If the Senate was currently controlled by Republicans, and a black Congressman, in response to Roland Burris not being seated as president-elect Barack Obama's replacement Tuesday, accused that body of racism, do you think media would have reported it?Probably every hour on the hour, right?Well, on Tuesday, Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) said: "I believe sincerely that if Roland Burris had not been an…

Chris Matthews Proudly Touts Poll Showing Obama, Clinton & Carter More

January 7th, 2009 12:33 PM
While he was anchoring live coverage of the Roland Burris Senate drama on MSNBC this morning, anchor Chris Matthews interrupted his discussion with Newsweek's Jonathan Alter to narrate pictures of Barack Obama being driven to the White House for a luncheon with all of the living U.S. presidents.Matthews celebrated the moment by proudly announcing poll numbers that showed Obama and the ex-…

Obama's Inauguration Sold to Highest Bidder, TV Not This Excited Since

January 7th, 2009 11:21 AM

Media Pumping Obama: Best Dresser, Breakthrough Election, Tough on Ter

January 7th, 2009 4:52 AM
In a like vein as the story I posted a few days ago showing Reuters helping cover for Obama by lowering expectations, a trio of stories -- two from McClatchy and one from the AP -- prove to be little more than empty Obama boostering with little worth as news, though the AP piece at least comes close to being newsworthy. Unfortunately, this is the sort of empty reporting that has become du jour…

Flashback: Gupta Raises McCain's 'Substance Abuse,' Scolds Reagan on A

January 7th, 2009 1:45 AM
CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, whom President-elect Barack Obama has reportedly asked to take an administration post as Surgeon General and top health policy adviser, last year thought it noteworthy that the release of John McCain's medical records ignored the Senator's “mental health,” any “mention of post-traumatic stress disorder” or of “substance abuse.” Back in 2004, upon Ronald…

Ann Coulter Calls Out CBS’s Smith On Fearing Obama Assassination

January 6th, 2009 12:40 PM
Appearing on Tuesday’s CBS Early Show, author Ann Coulter promoted her new book, ‘Guilty: Liberal Victims and Their Assault on America’ by demonstrating how co-host Harry Smith contributed to liberal victimhood when he asked Ted Kennedy about the possibility of an Obama assassination in a January 29, 2008 interview: "...everyone talking about as if Obama is at some unique risk for assassination…