Friday's CBS This Morning and NBC's Today both spotlighted the walk-out protest on Thursday of a group of congressional staffers, who gave the "hands up, don't shoot" gesture of the groups protesting the grand jury's decision in the Michael Brown case. NBC's Tamron Hall trumpeted the "powerful statement without words" on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. CBS's Jeff Glor noted that the participants "stood with their hands in the air." Neither morning show mentioned, however, that the pose forwards an inaccurate portrayal of the Brown shooting.
Tamron Hall
By Matthew Balan | December 11, 2014 | 5:30 PM EST
CBS This Morning was the sole Big Three morning newscast on Thursday to report that the police in Hong Kong cleared out the main camp of pro-democracy protestors in the former British colony. Anchor Charlie Rose gave a 20-second news brief on the government's crackdown on the demonstrators. BBC News reported that "more than activists have been arrested...after police cleared the main pro-democracy protest camp."
By Jeffrey Meyer | December 9, 2014 | 11:56 AM EST
On Monday night, President Obama appeared on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report for a friendly interview with the liberal comedian, and Tuesday morning the “big three” (ABC, CBS, and NBC) networks predictably promoted the president’s late night stop. CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King hyped how Obama “was a guest on Comedy Central Colbert Report last night. It was his first visit to the show as Stephen Colbert gets ready to end that program. At one point it appeared the president may have been auditioning for his next job.”
By Scott Whitlock | November 17, 2014 | 12:27 PM EST
Now that even the networks have grudgingly covered Jonathan Gruber's repeated attacks on the "stupidity" of American voters, MSNBC on Monday touted the President's efforts to distance himself. An MSNBC graphic hyped, "Obama Slams Gruber: Defending ObamaCare" and Tamron Hall insisted the President is "is firing back against" the accusations
By Matthew Balan | November 3, 2014 | 5:30 PM EST
NBC's Today and CBS This Morning both led their broadcasts on Monday with euthanasia advocate Brittany Maynard's drug-induced suicide. The morning shows' anchors sang the praises of the "beautiful, brave young woman," as Gayle King labeled Maynard. Charlie Rose touted how the cancer patient's "short and meaningful life is over." Savannah Guthrie gushed, "What a remarkable young woman, and to share it with everyone, obviously, took a lot of courage."
By Tim Graham | October 20, 2014 | 3:34 PM EDT
Chuck Todd noted on Meet the Press that the latest NBC News-Wall Street Journal-Annenberg weekly tracking survey found “the biggest lead we've reported yet for generically for the Republicans,” 49 to 44 percent among likely voters (and 45-43 among registered voters). “Here's what I can tell you. All Democrats agree, it was a bad week for them,” Todd said.
But Sunday’s NBC Nightly News and Monday’s Today couldn’t locate that poll, much like they’ve avoided other NBC News polls that look bad for Democrats.
By Jeffrey Meyer | October 16, 2014 | 10:58 AM EDT
On Thursday morning, all three network morning shows hyped Florida Republican Governor Rick Scott’s refusal to appear on stage for a scheduled debate with his Democratic opponent, former Governor Charlie Crist, due to the appearance of an unapproved fan. Despite the “big three” enthusiastically covering the Republican governor’s “Fangate” episode, the networks have repeatedly refused to cover political controversies from Democrats running for office this year.
By Matthew Balan | October 14, 2014 | 5:33 PM EDT
On Tuesday, the Big Three networks' morning newscasts carried water for the left-wing Human Rights Campaign by adopting their "seismic shift" label about the midterm report from the Catholic bishops' Extraordinary Synod on the Family. On Good Morning America, ABC's Amy Robach trumpeted that "the Catholic Church appears to be making a seismic shift towards gays and divorcees." Norah O'Donnell also used the "seismic" term on CBS This Morning.
By Kyle Drennen | October 13, 2014 | 12:07 PM EDT
On Monday's NBC Today, 9 a.m. ET hour co-host Willie Geist actually tried to spin top Democratic Party surrogates like Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton mispronouncing the name of Iowa Senate candidate Bruce Braley as a boost to Braley's campaign: "But now he's getting a lot of name recognition. Maybe it was like evil genius move, who knows?"
So his biggest supporters not knowing his name helps with name recognition? In the clip of the First Lady that was featured, she even went so far as to direct people to the wrong website: "You need to elect Bruce Bailey to the U.S. Senate....vote.BruceBailey.com, that's vote.BruceBailey.com."
By Kyle Drennen | September 30, 2014 | 4:55 PM EDT
On Tuesday, NBC's Today seized on accusations of anti-Muslim bias in the NFL after Kansas City Chiefs safety Husain Abdullah was hit with a 15-yard penalty after appearing to pray in the end zone after scoring a touchdown against the New England Patriots Monday night. This was the same network that censored any mention of the Islamic extremism of an Oklahoma man who beheaded a co-worker on Thursday.
By Kyle Drennen | September 24, 2014 | 4:33 PM EDT
Running defense for Barack Obama on Wednesday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer touted "some of the President's defenders" pushing back against a video of the commander-in-chief sloppily saluting Marines while holding a coffee cup by "circulating this photo of George W. Bush during his presidency...saluting service members while holding his dog, Barney." [Listen to the audio]
Lauer noted that despite Obama gaffe going viral on social media and "sarcastically being called the 'latte salute,'" it "didn't take long for that photo [of Bush] to come out as well."
By Matthew Balan | September 17, 2014 | 5:42 PM EDT
CNN and MSNBC viewers on Wednesday would have to switch channels if they wanted to watch the first hearing of the House Select Committee on Benghazi. CNN aired a 15-second news brief at the top of the 10 am Eastern hour, mere minutes before the nearly three-hour meeting began, but didn't cover the proceedings live. MSNBC set aside 12 minutes worth of segments to the event, and sometimes showed split-screen video, but didn't provide the audio. By contrast, Fox News Channel provided nearly 41 minutes (40 minutes, 51 seconds) of live coverage of the congressional committee's hearing during the 10 am and 11 am Eastern hours.