It took nine days, but ABC and NBC finally covered the controversial videos of ObamaCare architect Jonathan Gruber making disparaging remarks about the American voters. Since the first video surfaced, CBS had been the only “big three” (ABC, CBS, and NBC) network to cover the Gruber video, but on Sunday, November 16 ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos and NBC’s Meet the Press briefly mentioned the videos. However, as of this writing, ABC and NBC’s morning and evening newscasts have yet to mention the Gruber controversy once.
Jonathan Karl
By Joseph Rossell | November 12, 2014 | 11:53 AM EST
The Republican “wave” in the November 4, 2014, midterm elections had many reasons, but at least one was dissatisfaction with the economy. While, the three broadcast networks acknowledged the elections were bad for Democrats, they mostly ignored the economy and its impact on the election.
Instead, now that Republicans hold a majority of seats in the House of Representatives and the Senate, the networks have chosen to preach bipartisanship.
By Curtis Houck | November 4, 2014 | 2:01 AM EST
On Monday night, NBC continued to doubt the real possibility of the Republicans taking over control of the U.S. Senate following the midterm elections on Tuesday. Both NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams and NBC News political director and Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd expressed reservations during the program’s opening five minutes, as Williams led off by describing the election as a “cliffhanger” with “several big races” that “have perhaps tightened.”
By Curtis Houck | October 29, 2014 | 10:08 PM EDT
ABC and NBC failed to cover the upcoming midterm elections during their Wednesday evening broadcasts, but instead devoted over three-and-a-half minutes to going after New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) for confronting a protestor earlier in the day during an event marking the second anniversary of Superstorm Sandy.
Christie, who has received some rare praise from the mainstream media for a Republican, was not that person this evening as ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir reported he was “unscripted” and “lashing out” as he engaged in “a war of words” with the heckler in what “was supposed to be a mission accomplished moment” for promoting the rebuilding of the Jersey Shore.
By Jeffrey Meyer | October 14, 2014 | 3:12 PM EDT
Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Kentucky, has been mocked repeatedly for refusing to tell voters if she voted for President Obama in 2008 and 2012 citing the sanctity of the ballot box as her reason. With Grimes continuing to not answer a basic question about her political leanings, Jonathan Karl, ABC’s Chief White House Correspondent, hilariously asked White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest about his vote for president. The ABC reporter framed his question by maintaining that “the Democratic candidate for Senate in Kentucky, this is the Democratic Party’s top hope for knocking off an incumbent Republican, Allison Grimes.”
By Tim Graham | October 11, 2014 | 8:07 AM EDT
During Tuesday's segment of the new Bloomberg TV show, "With All Due Respect," hosts Mark Halperin and John Heilemann were getting whimsical with their guest, Obama press secretary Josh Earnest, asking which reporter at the White House is the "consistently most delightful."
Earnest picked ABC's Jon Karl -- suggesting he's the un-favorite right now.
By Tom Blumer | September 29, 2014 | 11:45 PM EDT
ABC's Jonathan Karl is on a tear — and his editorial bosses at ABC seem determined to ignore him.
As Scott Whitlock at NewsBusters noted earlier today, Karl on Friday "grilled White House press secretary Josh Earnest ... about claims that al Qaeda had been 'decimated,'" mainly because it hasn't been. Instead, it seems like there are at least ten times as many versions. The network televised none of the exchange. Tonight, NB's Curtis Houck wrote that ABC was among the networks which ignored how "several sources in the intelligence community disputed President Obama’s comments" about how they had supposedly underestimated the ISIS/ISIL threat. It turns out that ABC was silent even though Karl wrote a scathing column this afternoon which named specific names (bolds are mine):
Statements By Dempsey Open Possibility of Troops In Iraq; Nets Rush to Reiterate Obama's Promise None Will Go
By Curtis Houck | September 17, 2014 | 12:55 AM EDT On Tuesday night, the major broadcast networks worked to quickly remind viewers that President Barack Obama has promised that no United States combat troops will be on the ground in the Middle East to fight the Islamic terrorist group ISIS despite congressional testimony by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, on Tuesday that U.S. troops returning to Iraq could still be a possibility.
ABC, CBS, and NBC each offered reports on Dempsey’s statements and included ABC World News Tonight anchor David Muir asking ABC News chief White House correspondent Jonathan Karl to “keep us honest” on the question of “[b]oots on the ground in Iraq” and lamented: “That's not what the President said last week.”
By Jeffrey Meyer | September 14, 2014 | 2:45 PM EDT
In a similar theme to NBC’s Meet the Press, ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos used Hillary Clinton’s visit to Iowa as an opportunity to play up liberal dissatisfaction with the potential 2016 presidential candidate.
ABC’s Jonathan Karl traveled to Indianola, Iowa to speak with retiring Democratic Senator Tom Harkin ahead of his annual Harkin Steak Fry event. During the interview, Karl asked “were some Progressives a little uneasy with Hillary Clinton? I mean, is she going to be too hawkish on foreign policy? Is she going to be too moderate on economic issues?”
By Kyle Drennen | September 9, 2014 | 11:29 AM EDT
On Tuesday, ABC's Good Morning America and NBC's Today, offered mere seconds on President Obama's approval rating hitting "near record lows" amid his reluctance to aggressively combat ISIS terrorists. CBS This Morning skipped any mention of the dismal poll numbers for the commander-in-chief.
On Good Morning America, after touting broad public support for the kind of military action against ISIS that Obama would likely announce in a Wednesday night address to the nation, co-host George Stephanopoulos noted: "It comes at a time when he's facing some real popularity problems. We see 56% of the country disapproving of how the President's handling foreign policy." [Listen to the audio]
By Jeffrey Meyer | August 14, 2014 | 11:30 AM EDT
On Thursday, August 14, all three network morning shows did their best to defuse the conflict between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Obama following Clinton’s criticism of the White House’s foreign policy.
The “big three” (ABC, CBS, and NBC) insisted that any dispute between the two Democrats had subsided with ABC and NBC pushing the White House line that when the two met for a birthday party on Martha’s Vineyard “a good time was had by all.” [See video below.]
By Jeffrey Meyer | August 13, 2014 | 10:56 AM EDT
On Wednesday, August 13, all three network morning shows did their best to minimize the conflict between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Obama following Clinton’s criticism of the White House’s handling of the militant group ISIS.
The “big three” (ABC, CBS and NBC) networks all played up how Clinton plans to “hug it out” with President Obama when they meet at a party on Martha’s Vineyard. Speaking to “The Atlantic” magazine, Clinton criticized Obama’s foreign policy by insisting that “great nations need organizing principles. Don’t do stupid stuff is not an organizing principle.” [See video below.]