Broadcast Television

AP Ignores Minnesota Terror Suspect's Involvement With Airport De-Icing
By Tom Blumer | December 25, 2015 | 11:58 PM EST

In a year-end interview with National Public Radio, President Barack Obama largely blamed "a saturation of news" coming from a media which "is pursuing ratings" for growing concerns in America over the ability of ISIS and other terrorists to conduct attacks on U.S. soil, and indicated that "it's up to the media to make a determination about how they want to cover things."

It's reasonable to believe that Obama was telling the press corps, which already works furiously to prop him up, that they need to cut back on their reporting of domestic terrorist activities, arrests and court proceedings. It seems fair to say that the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, quickly took that advice to heart in its selective coverage of the saga of Abdirizak Mohamed Warsame, and that its selectivity has kept a noteworthy story very quiet.

10 Outrageous Ways the Media Were Anti-Business Activists in 2015
By Julia A. Seymour | December 21, 2015 | 10:09 AM EST

Objective journalism is so old-fashioned. Activism is the new objectivity, at least where the liberal media are concerned.

Rather than reporting as neutral outsiders on matters of race, CNN hosts and guest actually put their hands up in the “Hands up, don’t shoot” pose that never happened while reporting on protests. They seize on mass shootings to repeat calls for stricter gun control.

The sad fact is that many journalists and news publications don’t report on climate change, health care, wages and other economic issues; they promote a liberal agenda with their so-called news. Here are the top 10 ways the media acted as anti-business or anti-capitalism activists in the past year.

Evening News Shows Ignore Radicalism, Crimes Surrounding UN Climate Summit in Paris
By Erin Aitcheson | and By Julia A. Seymour | December 16, 2015 | 11:08 AM EST

In recent weeks, thousands of negotiators from 196 governments met in Paris “for a major conference on climate change” attempting to reach an agreement for every country to lower its greenhouse gas emissions: emissions climate alarmists say will cause catastrophic climate change.

That conference, dubbed COP21, began on Nov. 30, and wrapped up with the announcement of a non-binding agreement on Dec. 12. The broadcast networks covered the conference at the beginning and the end. Initially, they hyped President Barack Obama’s participation and the resilience of the city of Paris in the wake of devastating terrorist attacks, and concluded by praising the results as “historic” “monumental” and a “turning point” on climate.

CBS also took the opportunity to advance pre-summit hype by showing back to back to back segments about climate crisis. Those stories including a New York Times poll of Americans that favored protecting the climate more than growing the economy, the problem of air pollution in China, and college-aged kids moving to the Arctic to study greenhouse gases.

'SNL' Mocks Defunding Planned Parenthood As Irrelevant to Burning Need for Gun Control
By Michael McKinney | December 7, 2015 | 1:46 PM EST

On the December 5th airing of Saturday Night Live, fake-news anchor Michael Che called out the Republican Senate for scheduling action to defund Planned Parenthood, despite the recent shooting in San Bernardino. The reality of the Senate activity however is that the bill, known as the Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act, was scheduled for Thursday, December 4, back on November 18.

Behar On 'The View': The Bird Flu Is More Popular Than Ted Cruz
By Michael McKinney | December 2, 2015 | 3:38 PM EST

The View on Wednesday took issue at a recent video from Ted Cruz, in which he talks about encouraging staff using Star Wars voices. After the clip played, The View began a barrage of comedic jabs at Cruz’s expense. Michelle Collins began with “Did you see what a co-worker said?” Joy Behar interrupted Collins’ thought, saying “The bird flu is more popular than Ted Cruz.” Collins laughed at the bird flu joke, and continue her previous setup. “One co-worker said why do people take such an instant dislike of Ted Cruz? It just saves time.”

Lefty Professor: Republicans Don’t Appreciate Colbert’s ‘Nuance, Irony, and Layered Thinking’
By Tom Johnson | November 29, 2015 | 2:20 PM EST

You’ve probably heard the phrase “too smart for the room.” Penn State professor Sophia McClennen thinks that Stephen Colbert is too smart for America, or at least a huge chunk of it, and that consequently he’s fallen to third place in late-night television’s ratings race. In a Monday Salon piece, McClennen argued that even though Colbert has “moved his satire into a more centrist mode” since joining CBS, that hasn’t increased his appeal to conservatives, since their dislike for his comedy has as much to do with form as content.

“Satire,” wrote McClennen, “uses irony, sarcasm, and parody to encourage critical thinking…[I]t is the sort of humor that is much less likely to appeal to Republican viewers because it depends on questioning beliefs and criticizing the status quo…[I]t is not just a question of who Colbert targets in his joke; it is also a question of how he makes the joke itself.  Nuance, irony, and layered thinking may be…the problem.”

Scarborough Questions President’s Mudslinging, Ignatius Says Governors Are Worse
By Michael McKinney | November 18, 2015 | 11:27 AM EST

Morning Joe on Wednesday discussed the recent remarks by President Obama on Republicans who are “afraid of orphans and widows.” When the discussion turned to David Ignatius for commentary, he gave a defense of Obama. Scarborough would press Ignatius with on using "the widows and orphans" to antagonize Republican governors. While Ignatius conceded there is always room to correct the words used, he thought the President was on point.

Mika Brzezinski: There Is Vetting Despite No Records to Verify
By Michael McKinney | November 17, 2015 | 1:56 PM EST

Morning Joe featured on Tuesday, an interview with Congressman Peter King. Early into the segment, Mika Brzezinski began a war of words with Congressman King. After Brzezinski introduced the topic, King stated, “I'm extremely concerned because what the President is telling us is not true.” Brzezinski interrupted the Congressman, saying that “there is vetting,” and arguing that he was wrong. What followed was a tense segment where the Morning Joe crew questioned King on his statements and his argument’s credibility.

ABC News Consultant Rips Into Rubio as Refugee Hypocrite on 'The View'
By Michael McKinney | November 16, 2015 | 4:38 PM EST

Monday’s The View featured a segment with Richard Clarke, an ABC News consultant and former Clinton and Bush national security staffer. Clarke iterated that “We are a country of refugees. The people we're allowing in are the victims of terrorism. We shouldn't punish victims of terrorism.” When Paula Faris brought up that Marco Rubio said “you can't do a background check on a lot of these refugees. You just can't call someone up in Syria because it's hard to track them down,” Clarke got personal against Rubio.

AP Avoids Reporting Obama's Callous 'We Have Contained ISIS' Statement
By Tom Blumer | November 15, 2015 | 11:44 AM EST

As of early this morning, Matt Drudge was carrying a link to a story headlining how President Obama is "under fire for saying ISIS 'contained' just hours before Paris attack."

Well, Obama is under some fire, but Drudge's link is to coverage at the UK Daily Mail. That's unfortunately unsurprising, because there is little to no mention of Obama's naive, foolish and callous statement in the U.S. establishment press. So Obama may be "under fire" from people who are paying attention, but low-information news consumers (and voters) who didn't happen to see the original Thursday interview will likely remain unaware of it. In one such example of convenient oversight, the Associated Press published a Thursday evening story on that interview, and decided that its only newsworthy element was Obama's immigration-related criticism of GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Press Definition of 'Joke': Any Statement That Insults or Threatens a Republican or Conservative
By Tom Blumer | November 11, 2015 | 11:39 PM EST

Just as a reality check, I asked a friend today what his reaction would be if I said with a sincere-sounding voice that he makes me want to strangle him. He said, "Almost sounds like a threat." I said, "No, it was supposed to be a joke." He said, "No it's not."

I also asked another person what her reaction would be if I earnestly called her "demented." She said, "You'd be insulting me." I asked, "What if I said I was just joking?" Response: "I'd say, 'The heck you were.'" In the past ten days, members of the press have decided that threatening language and an insult, both directed at GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina, were only "jokes." There is virtually no chance that these same people would give the same treatment to threats and insults directed at Democrats and leftists.

ABC Report: Fiorina's Factual Assertion That Planned Parenthood Is Harvesting Baby Parts Is Only a 'Claim'
By Tom Blumer | November 7, 2015 | 10:42 AM EST

On Friday's The View, as CNS News's Mark Judge reported, Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar went ballistic when GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina stated that Planned Parenthood is "harvesting baby parts through late term abortion." Part of Goldberg's response as she serially talked over Fiorina: "You know that’s not true. Carly, you know no one’s harvesting baby parts." Behar chimed in: "That offends my sensibility to hear you say something like that when you know it’s not true.”

Fiorina was and remains indisputably correct, while Goldberg and Behar are both embarrassingly wrong. Yet an ABC report filed at its web site Friday afternoon by Jordyn Phelps would only characterize Fiorina's assertion of an obvious, widely-known fact as a "claim." Beyond that, Phelps characterized the candidate's citation of Planned Parenthood's announced decision to cease taking compensation for harvested body as merely being (in Fiorina's view) "proof of her point."