Throughout her MSNBC show on Thursday from Panama at the Summit of the Americas, host Andrea Mitchell wrung her hands over the Obama administration actually trying to stand up to a Latin American dictator: "...there are other issues here, including recent sanctions by the U.S. against Venezuela, which have really upset the Cubans and a lot of America's close allies here, Costa Rica and Colombia and others, who are not happy about the wording of that sanctioning of Venezuela, Cuba's closest ally."
Chris Jansing
By Curtis Houck | April 7, 2015 | 9:44 PM EDT
On the heels of a power outage that struck key government buildings in Washington D.C. and surrounding areas in the Maryland suburbs on Tuesday, NBC Nightly News seized on the story to advocate for the increased infrastructure funding and the need to defend against “cyber attacks.” Anchor Lester Holt told viewers that the incident has raised “questions about our nation’s power grids.” Chris Jansing warned: “Experts put the price tag anywhere from several billion to hundreds of billions of dollars to update a system so old, some of it is based on technology dating back to Thomas Edison.”
By Curtis Houck | April 6, 2015 | 9:49 PM EDT
During its coverage of the Iran framework on Monday, NBC Nightly News touted the hopes of proponents and the Obama administration that the “details of a deal may be changing” the minds of “some” critics as President Obama and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz began selling the agreement in press conferences, interviews, and calls with world leaders. Lester Holt began by promoting Obama’s recent interview with NPR in which he said forcing Iran to recognize Israel’s existence as part of a final nuclear deal (as Israel has insisted) would be a “fundamental misjudgement.”
By Curtis Houck | March 3, 2015 | 10:32 PM EST
All three broadcast networks reported on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before Congress with segments in their Tuesday night broadcasts, but it was CBS and NBC that led the way in hitting Netanyahu for making a “controversial speech” and touted President Obama for “firing back,” “point by point for 11 minutes.” CBS Evening News substitute anchor Charlie Rose told viewers “Netanyahu did an end run around President Obama today” in his speech with the caption “controversial speech” appearing beside him.
By Curtis Houck | February 23, 2015 | 11:32 PM EST
NBC Nightly News offered up a segment on the continued debate in Congress over funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that is set to expire on February 27 in what was the only network coverage of the topic on the three Monday night newscasts. Anchor Lester Holt and senior White House correspondent Chris Jansing left out the underlying issue of the entire debate, which is whether or not to fund President Obama’s executive amnesty for illegal immigrants.
By Matthew Balan | February 20, 2015 | 11:12 PM EST
Julianna Goldman spotlighted the latest ObamaCare glitch on Friday's CBS Evening News. The same evening, ABC's World News Tonight aired a ten-second news brief on the "outrage over another glitch to the ObamaCare website – nearly 800,000 people received inaccurate forms from the site." However, Friday's NBC Nightly News ignored this story completely. Instead, the evening newscast hyped Rudy Giuliani "doubling down" over his recent remark that "the President of the United States doesn't love America."
By Curtis Houck | February 18, 2015 | 11:22 PM EST
In their Wednesday night coverage of President Obama’s speech on “violent extremism,” CBS and NBC did the best they could to ignore the criticism surrounding the President’s speech in addition to his conscious and repeated inability to refer to the beliefs of terrorist groups such as ISIS and al-Qaeda as Islamic extremism.
By Jeffrey Meyer | February 18, 2015 | 11:59 AM EST
On Wednesday’s Today, NBC offered up yet another sympathetic report for the Obama administration following Federal Judge Andrew Hanen’s decision to block implementation of President Obama’s controversial executive action on immigration.
By Curtis Houck | February 17, 2015 | 10:06 PM EST
Just shy of 24 hours after a federal judge halted President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty, the major broadcast networks displayed their palpable opposition to the ruling during their Tuesday night broadcasts, lamenting that it “dashes American dreams for millions of families under the threat of deportation” after Wednesday was set “to be a historic day for millions of illegal immigrants” when they could apply for legal status.
By Joseph Rossell | February 9, 2015 | 3:53 PM EST
It has been nearly three months since President Barack Obama spoke out in favor of Internet regulation, calling for “net neutrality” and a “free and open Internet.” In spite of the massive impact such regulations could have on Americans, the broadcast networks have given the issue short shrift.
Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Tom Wheeler said on February 4 that he backed Obama’s plan to reclassify the Internet as a public utility under the government agency’s Title II authority. FCC commissioner Ajit Pai said in a press release on February 6 that the plan "marks a monumental shift toward government control of the Internet." Even a liberal think tank predicted that these regulations could cost American households $156 in new fees.
NBC’s Chris Jansing Gushes Over ‘an Energized, Combative President’; Scolds Boehner for Inviting Netanyahu
By Curtis Houck | January 22, 2015 | 7:28 AM EST NBC News senior White House correspondent Chris Jansing did her best to provide some White House spin during Wednesday’s NBC Nightly News, hailing President Obama as “an energized, combative President” whose policies made for a “carefully choreographed, populist message with the details generally panned by Republicans.”
Also within her report, Jansing found time to chide House Speaker John Boehner for “an unprecedented breach in protocol” in inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak before Congress without White House consultation.
ABC, NBC Cheer Obama’s Liberal Proposals in SOTU Previews; ‘Going to Play a Little Robin Hood’ With Tax Hikes
By Curtis Houck | January 19, 2015 | 9:58 PM EST Ahead of President Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, the networks offered previews of his speech during their Monday evening newscasts with ABC and NBC working particularly hard to paint a rosy picture for Obama with rising poll numbers and having “redefined” the “model of how to sell the State of the Union.”