CNN host Michael Smerconish did his best to diminish the House Select Committee investigating Benghazi during an appearance on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, May 11. 

Appearing as a panelist, Smerconish claimed that "I think nothing from Benghazi has received traction apart from the GOP base. It’s really the abortion of the 2014 cycle." [See video below.]

Since word broke on Thursday night that Chelsea Clinton will be having a baby, ABC has fixated over the news, devoting 12 minutes and 47 seconds of coverage to the arrival of America's new "royal" child. Yet, the same network totally ignored the latest delay of the Kyestone XL pipeline by the Obama administration (and the political ramifications that go with it). 

On Friday morning, ABC reporter Bianna Golodryga hyped, "Move over, Prince George, though. This morning, Americans have their own royal, or, rather, presidential baby, to look forward to." On Sunday, This Week avoided Keystone, yet the ABC program opened with an announcer hyping, "Chelsea Clinton's surprise announcement. Has a Clinton dynasty begun?" Host Martha Raddatz brought the baby up to her panel and fawned, "Very important question, what do you think Hillary Clinton should be called as a grandma?" [See video below. MP3 audio here.] 

First Lady Michelle Obama spoke to students at Peking University in China over the weekend and spoke of the need for China to limit its censorship of information and controlling access to the Internet.

Despite both ABC and NBC hyping Mrs. Obama’s “strong message” about the need for an open Internet in China, both networks skipped the irony of the White House not allowing American press to travel with the First Lady to China. Instead, ABC promoted how Obama decided to tackle “hot-button issues” as “she’s making headlines over what she said about the Internet.”

Ben Affleck, an actor who himself admitted that he was “not a Congo expert” was given star treatment on Sunday’s This Week w/ George Stephanopoulos. Earlier this week, the liberal actor testified before Congress on the war-torn nation of Congo, and the folks at ABC couldn’t have been happier to obtain an exclusive interview with him.  

Host George Stephanopoulos cheered how “Ben Affleck scored some bipartisan praise on Capitol Hill this week...The Oscar winner’s traveled there nine times for his Eastern Congo initiative. And as he told Martha Raddatz, that mission has changed his life.”

Still stinging from the large number of primary debates that often changed the momentum from one Republican candidate to another during the 2012 presidential contest and liberal moderators who all asked questions that favored Democratic incumbent Barack Obama over GOP candidate Mitt Romney, Republican officials are “quietly advancing a new batch of rules aimed at streamlining” what they call a chaotic nominating process.

Those claims are taken from an article written by CNN's Peter Hamby, who stated he received information from “multiple GOP sources” that “handpicked members of the Republican National Committee” have been working with party chairman Reince Priebus in Washington, D.C., since August to sanction “a small handful of debates” in which party officials will have “a heavy appetite” for a much stronger say over who will moderate any encounters of presidential candidates.