Ed Henry

Media Hail Sebelius Confirmation, Downplay Her Late-Term Abortion Support
By Iris Somberg | April 29, 2009 | 2:56 PM EDT

As Kathleen Sebelius was sworn in as Secretary of Health and Human Services on April 28, the media continued its biased coverage of her controversial appointment. News outlets ignored the reason GOP senators had delayed her confirmation - her pro-abortion extremism - and focused instead on the importance of having the Secretary in place to combat swine flu.

But the media failed to note that since the creation of The Department of Homeland Security epidemic-fighting efforts are no longer headed up by HHS. Homeland Security is supposed to work with the Center for Disease Control. The CDC is led by Acting Secretary Richard E. Besser since the Obama Administration has yet to nominate anyone for the top job, something the media, with exception of CNN's Ed Henry, haven't reported.

An interview with Former Secretary of HHS Donna Shalala on "Fox and Friends" April 29 asks if having no director at the department had an impact on the swine flu crisis.  Shalala said, "If you remember we transferred the emergency powers for this kind of outbreak to the Department of Homeland Security when it was created. So that power is no longer in HHS. There is no question though that the CDC plays a lead role here and it's very important to get a CDC director as well as the Secretary sworn in."

Dear Barack, Don't Get Mad, I Was Just Doing My Job -- Love, Ed Henry, CNN
By Warner Todd Huston | March 26, 2009 | 2:39 AM EDT

There is a somewhat amusing article on CNN.com right now. It's not amusing for its wit but for the fact that CNN and Senior White House Correspondent Ed Henry think they need to explain away the "tough exchange" that Henry and Obama engaged in during Tuesday's press conference. Also amusing is the fact that Henry seems to be apologizing to The One for simply doing his job. Finally, it's amusing for the fact that CNN and Henry think they are the news along with the president. It's narcissistic and revealing all at once. On top of all that it is amusing for whom CNN obviously felt the need to explain themselves to because for the last day the left has been outraged over Henry's gall at asking the president a simple question.

If you'll recall, on Tuesday (March 24) Henry asked Obama why he waited days to react to the outrage over the AIG bonuses that Treasury Secretary Geithner wrote into the bailout plan. Avoiding the question, Obama replied with a surly "Because I like to know what I'm talking about before I speak." This exchange had the extremists at DailyKos and the profane folks at Wonkette as well as the rest of the left-O-sphere worked up into a frothy lather over Henry's low down, hornswoggling ways. How DARE he ask the Obammessiah a pointed question! Why it's sacrilege, surely!

So CNN has dutifully whimpered no mas and tried to smooth the waters with this odd article explaining away why that darned ol' Ed Henry had the temerity to ask The One a question. It's an obvious effort to appease the gods of the left-O-sphere and other zealots of the Obamanation. Henry must want a talisman to warn off the lefty heebie-jeebies awfully bad to go this far.

Bill Bennett: Press Losing Their Loving Feeling For Obama
By Noel Sheppard | March 25, 2009 | 10:33 AM EDT

Are the press starting to lose their loving feeling for Barack Obama?

According to CNN contributor Bill Bennett, given how the President was treated during his press conference, the news media weren't showing him much love Tuesday evening:

There is a conservative strain of thinking that says the press is in love with Barack Obama. Not tonight.

That was just the beginning. Bennett's complete comment can be seen at minute six of the following embedded video (partial transcript included):

WaPo 'Critic' Tom Shales Hails Obama Presser: 'Still Every Inch, President Wonderful'
By Tim Graham | March 25, 2009 | 8:41 AM EDT

Washington Post TV critic Tom Shales basked in the glow of President Obama in what you cannot call a "critique" of the president's second prime-time press conference. Headlined "The Very Face of Victory," Shales began with a gush:

Pile of National Media Stars Turn Up for Ted Kennedy's D.C. Birthday Tribute
By Tim Graham | March 9, 2009 | 4:45 PM EDT

Many liberal media outlets have reported the Kennedy Center birthday party Sunday night for Sen. Ted Kennedy. Few have mentioned the media turnout. Al Hunt of Bloomberg News, the former Executive Washington Editor of the Wall Street Journal, joined Caroline Kennedy in awarding Sen. Kennedy the Kennedy Library’s "Profile in Courage" Award. Frank Mankiewicz, the former president of National Public Radio and Robert F.

Weekend Captionfest: Visit to Obamada Edition
By NB Staff | February 20, 2009 | 4:29 PM EST

 

White House Press Briefing Live-blog [5 Feb. 2009]
By Ken Shepherd | February 5, 2009 | 2:16 PM EST

Update: The highlight thus far is the testy exchange between Gibbs and Tapper. Checking the tape again it appears he did answer Tapper's second question, albeit tersely muttering the response, before turning to Chuck Todd of NBC.

Gibbs starting press conference about 10 minutes late, at 2:10. Says was late getting started due to news about Associate Justice Ginsburg's pancreatic cancer surgery.

[N.B.: I'm watching via Fox News ]

14:10, Jennifer Loven, AP: question about stimulus size.

14:13, Loven question about potential conflict of interest for Obama's Labor Sec. designee, Rep. Solis.

14:14, female reporter notes more "combative" tone to Obama's talk on stimulus, asks if he's "given up on bipartisanship"

sorry for the gap, had Internet connection problems for a few minutes.

14:19, Ed Henry: President talked about the trillion dollar deficit, why then if that's a failure does he want to add $8 or $9 billion on top of that?

14:20, Henry: Paid for with a cigarette tax but we're not sure how many are going to buy cigarettes

14:22,Henry: Notes Labor Secretary-designate Hilda Solis's husband's reported tax liens, asks if White House knew about it.

14:24, Jake Tapper, ABC News: Can we get copy of the waivers for former lobbyists given by the OMB. It's not available by email or the Web, can we get them. 

White House Press Briefing Live Blog [Feb. 4, 2009]
By Ken Shepherd | February 4, 2009 | 2:42 PM EST

Live-blogging the press briefing. Was scheduled to start at 2:30, it's now 2:38.

Watching on Fox News Channel. May also through up some Tweets @KenShepherd

The archive of official White House press briefings can be found here.

14:45: Still waiting for Gibbs to come out. Fox News has gone to split-screen.

14:52, Gibbs finally underway.

CNN's 'AC360' Highlights Obama Waffling on Jobs
By Julia A. Seymour | February 3, 2009 | 4:39 PM EST

Conservatives, including the Business & Media Institute, have criticized President Barack Obama's mathematics and language regarding job creation. CNN's Ed Henry brought up that same criticism on Feb. 2 during "Anderson Cooper 360°."

"[T]here are now questions about how many jobs Mr. Obama is promising to create," Ed Henry told viewers of the broadcast. Henry used three separate video clips of Obama talking about jobs to illustrate the way the President "seemed to move the goal post" for job creation.

Henry began with a clip of Obama's remarks on Nov. 22, 2008 when he said his team would be working on a plan to create 2.5 million more jobs in two years (by January 2011).

White House Press Briefing Live-blog [Jan. 27, 2009]
By Ken Shepherd | January 27, 2009 | 3:54 PM EST

Once again I'm going to live-blog the daily press briefing. I'll be focused on the reporters' questions, not so much Gibbs's answers. I also caution this is a rough transcript and may contain errors. I hope to render as accurate a depiction as possible of the questions asked and who's asking them.

As a little twist, I'll also try Twittering some comments on my Twitter page, @KenShepherd.

The presser was scheduled for 3:45 p.m. ET, but is late getting off the ground. Gibbs entering room at 3:53 p.m. ET

White House Briefing Live-blog [Jan. 26, 2009]
By Ken Shepherd | January 26, 2009 | 1:44 PM EST

Update/Closing thoughts (14:34):  Hearst columnist Helen Thomas continues to make a cartoon of herself in her using her perch to parrot ultra-left-wing talking points. Her question today was on why President Obama wants to send troops into Afghanistan to "kill more people."Without doubt it was the loopiest left-wing question posed today. Oddly enough, given her history of bias, one of the best queries today came from April Ryan of American Urban Radio Networks, who questioned the wisdom of pegging hopes of economic recovery on so-called "green jobs."

Actor Voight to CNN: 'It's Become a Partisan Press'
By Mike Bates | October 9, 2008 | 1:54 PM EDT
On Saturday's Ballot Bowl 2008, CNN anchor Ed Henry interviewed actor Jon Voight. Henry must have been surprised when Voight very quickly made an important point, one that it's impossible to deny: Much of the mainstream media has become unabashedly partisan. Henry asked Voight how he thought Sarah Palin did in the recent vice presidential candidate debate: