Reporting on an upcoming foreign policy speech by former Florida governor and 2016 contender Jeb Bush on Wednesday's NBC Today, correspondent Peter Alexander was quick to hype a liability for the Republican: "It's one of the biggest challenges facing Jeb Bush, how he addresses the violence and volatility in Iraq, the country his brother, former President George W. Bush, invaded more than a decade ago."
Peter Alexander
By Kyle Drennen | February 11, 2015 | 12:17 PM EST
After six days of limiting its coverage of the scandal engulfing NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams to a few cryptic briefs only seconds long, NBC News finally provided full coverage of the controversy on Tuesday's Today show. Co-host Matt Lauer introduced the report: "And now we turn to a story that hits very close to home for all of us who work at NBC News. Brian Williams, who's anchored Nightly News since 2004, has been suspended from his job for six months."
By Jeffrey Meyer | January 21, 2015 | 11:33 AM EST
On Tuesday night, President Obama gave his sixth State of the Union address, and on Wednesday morning, ABC and CBS did their best to boost his speech and tout his liberal agenda to their audiences. During their respective broadcasts, ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s Today made sure to play up Obama’s “renewed swagger” by giving an “aggressive speech” to Congress and America. ABC’s Jonathan Karl, ABC News Chief White House Correspondent, went so far as to declare Obama “seemed so confident you would have thought he had just won another election.”
NBC’s Peter Alexander: Mike Huckabee 'Preaching to the Party's Right Wing' Ahead of Possible 2016 Bid
By Curtis Houck | January 14, 2015 | 12:49 AM EST On Tuesday’s NBC Nightly News, NBC News national correspondent Peter Alexander reported on the current makeup of the Republican presidential field in 2016 on the heels of news that the Republican nominee in 2012, Mitt Romney, has begun reassembling his campaign staff to make a third bid for the White House.
In the course of mentioning former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee as one of those possible candidates, Alexander declared that Huckabee was already out “preaching to the party's right-wing in his new book” and “skewering the First Family's parenting skills.”
By Kyle Drennen | January 6, 2015 | 5:29 PM EST
While Republicans officially took control of both the House and the Senate on Tuesday, NBC, ABC, and CBS all touted GOP setbacks. NBC's Today led the way, with correspondent Peter Alexander seizing on comments from the top Senate Republican: "Among incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's main goals for his party: don't be scary."
By Kyle Drennen | November 21, 2014 | 11:48 AM EST
In the wake of President Obama's announcement Thursday night that he would go around Congress to grant amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants, Friday's NBC Today warned of Republican overreaction to the presidential power grab. Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd proclaimed: "Republican leaders are nervous that they won't be able to control their conservative members who would like to lash out and have a fight now with the President."
By Kyle Drennen | November 20, 2014 | 10:57 AM EST
On Thursday's NBC Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie framed President Obama's upcoming executive order granting amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants as him simply keeping his word: "President Obama will address the nation tonight on the hot-button issue of immigration reform, planning to make good on a progress – a promise to sidestep Congress and take executive action."
By Kyle Drennen | November 17, 2014 | 11:44 AM EST
After 2013 comments from ObamaCare architect Jonathan Gruber crediting passage of the law on "the stupidity of the American voter" went viral over a week ago, NBC's Today finally covered the major controversy on Monday. Co-host Savannah Guthrie made it sound like a breaking news headline: "...big story out of Washington this morning." News anchor Natalie Morales followed: "A new controversy now is brewing over comments made by MIT professor Jonathan Gruber, the self-described architect of ObamaCare."
By Matthew Balan | November 13, 2014 | 12:56 PM EST
On Thursday's Daily Rundown on MSNBC, Jim Miklaszewski misidentified the political ideology of the protesters that attacked three American sailors in Istanbul, Turkey. Miklaszewski reported that "these radicals – these right-wing radicals, who are pro-communist and anti-U.S. – were more intent on propaganda than causing these individual sailors harm." The perpetrators are members of the Turkish Youth Union, which hold left-wing views.
By Curtis Houck | October 14, 2014 | 5:46 PM EDT
On Friday afternoon, Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis and her campaign released a new ad that took aim at her Republican opponent Greg Abbott as a “hypocrite” for supposedly not caring about the disabled after becoming a paraplegic in 1984.
Since the despicable ad aired, only one story has been offered on the morning or evening newscasts of the major broadcast networks through Monday night. That single story came on Tuesday morning during the 7:30 a.m. half-hour of NBC’s Today by NBC News national correspondent Peter Alexander and lasted just over two minutes.
By Kyle Drennen | October 7, 2014 | 4:27 PM EDT
While ignoring any mention of the pivotal midterm election less than a month away that could decide control of the United States Senate, on Tuesday, NBC's Today instead devoted a full two-minute segment in its first hour to newly discovered photos of John and Jackie Kennedy's wedding – from 61 years ago.
Co-host Matt Lauer introduced the segment by announcing "a stunning series of never-before-seen photographs from the wedding of John and Jacqueline Kennedy." In the report that followed, correspondent Peter Alexander proclaimed: "It was one of the most celebrated American weddings of the 20th century, the handsome young senator and his beautiful bride....Now more than six decades since Camelot, a never-before-seen glimpse at that historic wedding day, September 12th, 1953."
By Scott Whitlock | September 26, 2014 | 12:34 PM EDT
The 2014 midterms may be building towards a Republican wave, but the elections in 39 days have drawn little interest from the networks. NBC and CBS on Thursday made exceptions, but only to highlight GOP struggles and embarrassments. Awkward, uncomfortable examples involving Democrats have been either ignored or massively minimized.