With Monday marking the third anniversary of the horrifying murders of 20 children and their teachers in Newtown, Connecticut, the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News used the somber occasion to lament the lack of gun control passed by the GOP Congress and compared the need for gun control to seat belts and passing a driving test to obtain a driver’s license.
Stephanie Gosk
CBS and NBC Use Newtown Anniversary to Lament Lack of Gun Control; Compare It to Car Seats, Driver’s Licenses
By Curtis Houck | December 14, 2015 | 11:53 PM EST 
By Curtis Houck | October 15, 2015 | 9:35 PM EDT
Closing out Thursday’s NBC Nightly News, the evening newscast found it pertinent to tout a new campaign by the British edition of the liberal feminist magazine Elle to photoshop men out of pictures of elected officials in an effort to promote the global need for more women in office.
By Kyle Drennen | October 8, 2015 | 11:12 AM EDT
On Thursday, NBC’s Today joined CNN in promoting the latest issue of People magazine, which demanded congressional action on gun violence. At the top of the morning show, co-host Savannah Guthrie heralded: “People gets political. The glossy magazine known more for its celebrity scoops and red-carpet fashions wades into one of the most controversial issues in America. Is the magazine taking sides?”
By Kyle Drennen | August 27, 2015 | 10:48 AM EDT
Wednesday’s NBC Today devoted a full report to the Freedom From Religion Foundation forcing a Kansas school to take down a painting of Jesus. Co-host Matt Lauer declared: “...a controversial decision to take down a portrait of Jesus that’s getting an awful lot of attention.”
By Tom Blumer | July 13, 2015 | 10:12 PM EDT
The media instinct to trash all that is inspiring and noble was unmistakable in Monday morning's Today report on the new novel (Go Set a Watchman) by Harper Lee, the author of the widely celebrated, best-selling To Kill a Mockingbird, first published in 1960.
Debate has raged over whether Lee, who is in very poor health and whose mental competence has been questioned, ever wanted her manuscript to be released. "Today" totally ignored that important controversy. Wanted or not, the book officially hits the shelves on Tuesday. Watchman portrays Mockingbird hero Atticus Finch in his old age as "a racist" who is "opposed to that era's reforms, like desegregation, even attending a Ku Klux Klan meeting." Naturally, Today contends that "many feel" (media-speak for "we believe") that the new book's "broader moral themes" are "just as vivid now as they were in the 1950s" because of "racial tensions" in Ferguson and Charleston.
By Matthew Balan | July 10, 2015 | 9:42 PM EDT
On Friday, ABC, CBS, and NBC's evening newscasts all ignored how the Obama administration issued the latest version of its abortifacient/contraception mandate under ObamaCare, which ignores multiple court rulings against it – including the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby ruling in 2014 – and again tries to force religious non-profits to fund drugs that they consider to be immoral. Instead, the Big Three programs all devoted over a minute and a half each to the ticker tape parade in New York City for the World Cup-winning U.S. national women's soccer team.
By Matthew Balan | May 1, 2015 | 11:16 PM EDT
ABC and NBC's evening newscasts on Friday both spotlighted how a former New Jersey government official pled guilty as a result of Bridgegate. On World News Tonight, ABC's Ron Claiborne touted how "this scandal has taken a tremendous toll on Governor [Chris] Christie's presidential prospects," even after pointing out how "nowhere in today's indictments is Governor Christie said to have known about the alleged plot." By contrast, both programs continued their week-long blackout on the Clinton Foundation scandal.
By Curtis Houck | April 16, 2015 | 3:12 AM EDT
In response to the far-left and union-led protests nationwide on Wednesday for a $15 minimum wage for fast-food and retail workers, NBC Nightly News applauded the protests with a glowing report that felt more like a campaign commercial. Disguised as a segment on the broader topic of income inequality, interim anchor Lester Holt and correspondent Stephanie Gosk led the way in offering no opposing viewpoint and largely downplayed the political motivations behind the event.
By Curtis Houck | December 11, 2014 | 11:20 PM EST
On Thursday night, CBS continued to make no mention of the news that the hacking attack on Sony Pictures has revealed emails between co-chairwoman Amy Pascal and film producer Scott Rudin mocking what they perceived to be President Barack Obama’s movie tastes.
The CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley covered continued fallout from the attack, but only in the context of no press being allowed at the premiere of the Sony film The Interview, which is largely believed to be the reason that the movie studio was targeted for attack.
By Geoffrey Dickens | June 26, 2014 | 9:21 AM EDT
On Tuesday, Univision’s Jorge Ramos did something his colleagues at the Big Three networks have been reluctant to do. He pinned the blame for the ongoing border crisis squarely on Barack Obama’s immigration policies.
Writing in the June 24 edition of Miami’s El Nuevo Herald (translation courtesy of MRC Latino’s Ken Oliver-Mendez) Ramos blasted the President: (video after the jump)
By Matthew Balan | June 13, 2014 | 10:22 PM EDT
On Friday's NBC Nightly News, Brian Williams strongly hinted that the recent Islamist blitzkrieg in Iraq was completely former President Bush's fault: "Make no mistake: what's happening in Iraq right now is a direct outgrowth of the U.S. decision to invade the country over a decade ago." However, he glossed over the Obama administration's failure to negotiate a continued U.S. presence and pulling out all American forces in late 2011 as a factor in the crisis.
Williams repeated his point to David Gregory: "How does the President sell any action at all to the component of the American people who feel...it's not our dance...even though...we broke it?" Gregory seconded his contention: "Right, that Pottery Barn rule: you broke it; you own it; you got to somehow fix it." Later, Stephanie Gosk did reference the troop pullout, but didn't mention President Obama by name: [MP3 audio available here; video below the jump]
By Kyle Drennen | February 17, 2014 | 3:11 PM EST
In a report aired on Monday's NBC Today from the Sochi Olympic games, correspondent Stephanie Gosk toured the Russian capital: "Moscow evokes powerful images. The Kremlin, Soviet leaders, the Red Army. But beyond the Cold War symbols, this city of 10 million people is a modern bustling metropolis..." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]
Later in the segment, Gosk described the city's subway system as "one of Moscow's hidden gems," even to the point of praising the ruthless Soviet dictator who created it: "Stalin promised the metro would be a palace for the people, and so it is. Open architecture, mosaics, even chandeliers."