On Thursday, ABC’s Good Morning America and CBS This Morning eagerly promoted President Obama’s latest proposal that would require all private companies provide their employees with “at least seven days of paid sick leave.” NBC’s Today did not cover President Obama’s initiative on their Thursday morning broadcast. During the network coverage of Obama’s initiative, GMA co-host Robin Roberts cheered on the program and insisted that “studies have shown again and again and again that paid sick leave, not only benefits workers and their families but employers, as well, because productivity goes up.”
Robin Roberts
By Jeffrey Meyer | September 30, 2014 | 11:07 AM EDT
Liberal feminist Lena Dunham appeared on Tuesday’s Good Morning America to promote her new book “Not that kind of girl” and was treated to a fawning interview by ABC co-host Robin Roberts. Prior to discussing the book, Roberts proclaimed that George Stephanopoulos was “still blushing because you called him handsome” to which Dunham responded “George is something of a sexual icon.”
By Jeffrey Meyer | September 8, 2014 | 1:30 PM EDT
Wendy Davis, the Texas Democrat who is currently running to replace Rick Perry as the state’s next governor, spoke with Good Morning America co-host Robin Roberts for an interview that aired on Monday, September 8. Davis appeared on ABC to hawk her memoir “Forgetting to Be Afraid” in which she revealed how she had two abortions in the mid-1990s.
Throughout the two segments, Roberts treated the Texas Democrat to a fawning interview in which she played up how Davis “isn’t shying away from tough issues, both personal and political” before asking “why are you sharing so much right now? So personal.”
ABC Cheers Belgian Woman's Modeling Contract, Ignores That It Was Revoked After 'Hunting Americans' Joke
By Scott Whitlock | July 11, 2014 | 11:47 AM EDT The hosts of Good Morning America, the superficial ABC morning show, on Friday gushed over a beautiful woman who was spotted at a World Cup match and given a modeling contract by L'Oreal. Yet, Robin Roberts and reporter Gio Benitez somehow managed to ignore the important part of the story: Axelle Despiegelaere has already been fired by the company after joking about "hunting Americans."
Completely avoiding the resolution, Roberts enthused, "For one woman, [the World Cup] offered her a chance of a lifetime." Benitez hyped Despiegelaere and her "golden ticket." He raved, "As the world's attention was on the soccer field, World Cup photographers had their lenses focused on one beautiful face in the crowd." [See video below. MP3 audio here.] Giving half the story, Benitez continued, "She came out a winner. L'oreal offering mod gig in this beauty tutorial for their hair products." The journalist didn't tell viewers about what Despiegelaere said on her Facebook page.
By Scott Whitlock | June 24, 2014 | 12:25 PM EDT
Robin Roberts, the co-host of Good Morning America, is a favorite pick of top Democrats to host fawning, content-free interviews and panel discussions. On Tuesday's GMA, she showcased an exclusive one-on-one interview with Michelle Obama. As though she were reading talking points, the journalist touted, "Now, to the big all-day White House summit on working families. President Obama making a strong pitch for guaranteed paid maternity leave." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]
An on-screen graphic promoted the event (which originally aired on C-SPAN) as a "presidential push for working moms." Roberts's questions, such as they were, offered no challenges for the First Lady: "Women are going into the workforce...Is that part of the movement in letting everybody know that it is an issue for everyone in the family?" The host reminded attendees at the Washington D.C. event that Mrs. Obama is a "strong woman, a strong mother, a strong wife."
By Randy Hall | June 16, 2014 | 10:27 PM EDT
The Washington Post editorial board used the tragedy on Tuesday morning, June 10, in Troutdale, Oregon -- where a 15-year-old boy armed with an AR-15 rifle shot and killed a 14-year-old student before taking his own life -- to declare in a June 13 editorial that “such senseless violence shouldn't happen” and put the blame on Congress for not passing “any kind of responsible gun control.”
“A Congress that’s more terrified of the National Rifle Association than another Sandy Hook needs to be pushed to change by a public willing to vote out those who won’t act,” the editors declared. “It’s clear from the countless locales that have been scarred by gun violence that no place is really safe.”
By Jeffrey Meyer | June 11, 2014 | 10:51 AM EDT
On Tuesday morning a high school student in Oregon open fire in a high school killing another student before taking his own life. Following the tragedy, all three morning network news shows played up President Obama’s reaction and promoted his call for action.
While ABC, CBS, and NBC all promoted Obama’s statement, NBC’s Today was the most enthusiastic with Savannah Guthrie noting the president “had some pretty strong words” and hyping “pretty extraordinary moment” following the shooting. [See video below.]
By Kyle Drennen | June 10, 2014 | 3:57 PM EDT
After giving Hillary Clinton a chance to clean up her "dead broke" gaffe in the first part of a live interview on Tuesday's Good Morning America, ABC host Robin Roberts saved all of her softball questions for part two of the exchange later on the broadcast: "You and your husband have very intense schedules, how much quality time – let's say how many days in the month are you actually able to be together as a family?...You're going to be a grandmother in the fall. Have you offered any names to Chelsea?" [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]
Telling the possible 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, "You're known for your sense of humor," Roberts decided to hit Clinton with a "lightening round" of frivolous questions: "Who is your favorite Republican in Congress?...who is the person living that you admire the most?...Politician you'd let babysit your future grandchild?...Game three of the NBA finals. Heat or Spurs? So you gotta go with Texas or Florida. That's tough."
By Kyle Drennen | June 10, 2014 | 1:12 PM EDT
In a live interview with Hillary Clinton on Tuesday's ABC Good Morning America, co-host Robin Roberts actually pressed the former first lady on claims that she and Bill Clinton left the White House "dead broke": "The reaction has been very strong about what you said to Diane [Sawyer]....using the words 'struggling' and that it wasn't easy, when many Americans are in the same situation but they know they don't have a book and the opportunities that you have. Any regrets in how you phrased that?" [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]
Clinton tried to clean up her gaffe: "Well, let me just clarify that I fully appreciate how hard life is for so many Americans today. It's an issue that I've worked on and cared about my entire adult life. Bill and I were obviously blessed. We worked hard for everything we got in our lives and we have continued to work hard."
By Rich Noyes | June 10, 2014 | 11:40 AM EDT
Not even Diane Sawyer could refrain from gently pushing back at former Secretary of State and prospective presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s claim that she and her husband were “dead broke” when they left the White House in January 2001. Talking about the huge fees both Clintons now rake in for speaking engagements, Sawyer wondered: “Do you think Americans are going to understand five times the median income in this country for one speech?”
But Sawyer could easily have gone to ABC’s own videotape library to show how preposterous Mrs. Clinton’s claim of poverty was. Back on December 15, 2000 — more than a month before the Clintons left the White House — ABC’s World News Tonight suggested the massive book advance for Hillary Clinton’s post-White House memoir was astonishing and perhaps corrupt for an incoming United States Senator. [Video and transcripts after the jump.]
By Jeffrey Meyer | May 18, 2014 | 4:55 PM EDT
ABC’s Robin Roberts sat down with CNN’s Brian Stelter, host of Reliable Sources, to discuss her newest book “Everybody's Got Something” and was treated to softball question after softball question.
Appearing in an interview that aired on Sunday, May 18, Stelter asked Roberts “Michael Sam talks about thinking that maybe he will be a beacon for others. Do you think about it in the same way?” [See video below.]
By Scott Whitlock | May 8, 2014 | 9:17 AM EDT
ABC on Thursday morning highlighted more of Robin Roberts’ fawning interview with Hillary Clinton. On the issue of Benghazi and the revelation that the White House had a direct hand in creating false talking points about the 2012 terrorist attack, Roberts could only manage this lame effort: “Benghazi. The new investigation. Are you satisfied with the answers and are you content with what you know what [sic] happened?” [See video below. MP3 audio here.]
That was it. No follow-up. No interrogation about Clinton’s handling of the incident that left four Americans dead, including a U.S. ambassador. Instead, Roberts moved right on to this 2016 gossip: “And the question I took straight from the audience, were you to run for president in 2016, would you consider Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren or San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro as a running mate?” Continuing the softball questions, the Good Morning America host wondered, “You're going to be a grandma?”