Just hours ahead of Tuesday’s 2016 Democratic presidential debate on CNN, the network was already in spin mode for Hillary Clinton down to the most minute detail as senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny marveled during The Situation Room at the sight of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin surveying the stage for Clinton to gather “a sense of what this evening is going to be.”
Wolf Blitzer: Obama ‘Was Embarrassed of the United States in Front of the World’ after Oregon Shooting
By Curtis Houck | October 1, 2015 | 10:49 PM EDT As part of CNN’s live coverage Thursday night of the deadly community college shooting in Oregon, fill-in AC360 host Wolf Blitzer declared that President Barack Obama “was embarrassed of the United States in front of the world” when he commented on the tragedy and urged Americans to “politicize” mass shootings. Prior to Blitzer’s observation, Zeleny fretted the presidential campaigns like that of Hillary Clinton will be unable “to bring any sense to this” shooting with the President encountering “not a bipartisan spirit to do anything.”
CNN’s Zeleny: Biden Is a ‘Generally Excellent’ Campaigner; ‘Authenticity That Is Really Being Craved’
By Curtis Houck | August 14, 2015 | 11:22 AM EDT CNN senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny had some fawning words during Thursday’s Anderson Cooper 360 for Vice President Joe Biden as he continues to mull a 2016 presidential campaign, referring to him as a “generally excellent” campaigner with an “authenticity that is really being craved in this election cycle.” As part of a segment on the possible run by Biden, host Anderson Cooper asked Zeleny to explain “what do we know about him as a campaigner” and “how much of his calculus right now is based on what he perceives Hillary Clinton's abilities as a campaigner or lack of abilities as a campaigner are.”
By Randy Hall | July 22, 2015 | 7:52 PM EDT
Whether it was due to sheer panic or simple irony, during Wednesday's edition of New Day -- the early-morning program on the Cable News Network -- co-hosts Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota expressed great concern regarding Hillary Clinton's front-runner status in the early primary states of Iowa, Colorado and Virginia, according to a new survey conducted by Quinnipiac University.
“Hot off the presses,” Camerota began the segment discussing a poll that revealed “some very interesting findings,” including results that indicate “Hillary Clinton facing major challenges against her Republican opponents in some very key primary states.”
By Tom Blumer | July 9, 2015 | 10:57 PM EDT
One would think that a presidential candidate falsely claiming that she never was subpoenaed would be bigger news story than people in the opposing party criticizing that candidate after the fact for her obviously false statement. As Tim Graham at NewsBusters noted late this afternoon, that's not the case. This post contains several more examples.
At CNN, the network's own Brianna Keilar, who conducted the interview during which Hillary Clinton denied ever receiving a congressional committee's subpoena for her work-related emails, "sharply criticized the Democratic presidential contender’s performance" for failing to answer several questions satisfactorily and for not even "engaging" when asked others. Despite Keilar's disappointment, beat reporters Jeff Zeleny and Tom LoBianco at CNN.com went light on Mrs. Clinton, and highlighted Republican critics.
By Jeffrey Meyer | July 6, 2015 | 3:29 PM EDT
On Sunday, the political panel on CNN’s State of the Union with Jake Tapper blasted the Clinton campaign for the horrible optics of Mrs. Clinton use of a moving rope line to separate herself from the media during a 4th of July parade in New Hampshire.
By Brad Wilmouth | June 25, 2015 | 1:09 PM EDT
On Thursday's CNN Newsroom, during a discussion of GOP presidential candidate Bobby Jindal's official announcement speech, CNN political reporter Sara Murray provocatively asserted that some of Jindal's pitch was aimed at GOP "core" members who want immigrants to "act like every other white person in America."
By Curtis Houck | April 24, 2015 | 12:27 PM EDT
On two occasions during CNN’s New Day on Friday, CNN personalities raised the often-used liberal argument that Republicans have “overplayed their hand” on a scandal with the latest being their handling of the allegations surrounding the Clinton Foundation. The first person to raise the point was CNN political commentator and NY1 host Errol Louis. Jeff Zeleny parroted a Clinton campaign talking point about there being no quid-pro-quo with the donations coming in while the uranium deal was taking place: “The big picture here is there's no huge smoking gun so far in this book as we know now.”
By Jeffrey Meyer | December 31, 2014 | 9:23 AM EST
On Monday, a liberal blogger revealed that Congressman Steve Scalise (R-La.) spoke at a conference hosted by white supremacists in 2002 and the “big three” (ABC, CBS, and NBC) networks eagerly jumped on the story. Starting with Tuesday’s morning news shows, the “big three” have given 13 minutes and 7 seconds to Scalise’s 2002 speech with each network doing its best to push how it could hurt Republican efforts at reaching out to minority voters.
By Scott Whitlock | August 25, 2014 | 11:55 AM EDT
NBC and CBS have ignored a questionable joke about Asian Americans by Harry Reid on Thursday. Only Friday's World News highlighted the "foot-in-mouth" moment from the Senate Majority Leader. Speaking to the Asian Chamber of Commerce, Reid quipped, "One problem I've had today is keeping my Wongs straight." [See video below. MP3 audio here.] Looking at the comment critically, anchor Diane Sawyer wondered, " So, what did he say, and what's the line between a joke and a racist remark?"
Reporter Jeff Zeleny chided, "'Racist and disgusting' is what some are calling harry Reid's attempt at humor." Instead of covering the story, Nightly News and the Evening News on Friday made time for frivolous topics. NBC covered a blue lobster being caught in Maine. CBS highlighted a pink cookie being dropped from the menu at certain high schools.
By Jeffrey Meyer | August 17, 2014 | 10:38 AM EDT
Following the indictment of Governor Rick Perry (R-TX) for threatening to veto funding for the state’s public integrity unit after a Democratic District Attorney refused to resign for a drunk driving incident, ABC and CBS did their best to play up the charges against the Texas Republican.
CBS reporter Manuel Bojorquez provided the most hyperbolic commentary by proclaiming “even if he is eventually cleared of these charges, he may have to deal with the political embarrassment of a mugshot.”
By Matthew Balan | June 20, 2014 | 11:28 PM EDT
The Big Three networks' Friday evening newscasts finally noticed the latest development in the IRS scandal (they omitted it on Thursday), after Rep. Paul Ryan grilled Commissioner John Koskinen earlier in the day. ABC's David Muir spotlighted "the outrage...involving the IRS claiming to have lost thousands of crucial documents – lawmakers asking, how can the tax man be let off the hook for losing documents, while ordinary taxpayers would never get away with that?"
NBC's Brian Williams noted how Koskinen claimed that the IRS "lost evidence in the investigation into how they handled conservative political groups...and given how long the IRS holds on to things like our tax returns, some members of Congress just aren't buying it." CBS's Nancy Cordes zeroed in on congressional Democrats' attack on their Republican colleagues over the scandal – something that ABC and NBC didn't do: [MP3 audio available here; video below the jump]