Broadcast Television

As Final Nail in Fact-Based Coffin Appears, 'Truth' Is Well on Its Way to Deserved Box-Office Oblivion
By Tom Blumer | November 3, 2015 | 12:59 AM EST

Truth, the cinematic attempt to make heroes out of the agenda-driven journalists who produced and broadcast the fraudulent 2004 CBS News story about George W. Bush's Texas Air National Guard service, went into wide distribution this past weekend, with utterly disastrous box-office results.

Readers, in between moments savoring the film's apparent descent into oblivion — though it will almost certainly be revived in left-controlled high school and college classrooms for years to come — really should read William Campenni's writeup at the Daily Signal. It puts the final stake in the heart of any attempt by anyone with an ounce of sense to claim that Dan Rather's and Mary Mapes's 60 Minutes report has any remaining credibility whatsoever. After the jump, let's have some fun looking at the movie's weekend attendance figures.

Not News: Obama-Clinton Emails Render His Related Kroft Interview Statements False
By Tom Blumer | October 31, 2015 | 11:58 PM EDT

A Friday evening story at the New York Times covered the Obama administration's decision to "try to block the release of a handful of emails between President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton."

In it, reporters Michael D. Shear and Michael S. Schmidt demonstrated that President Obama undoubtedly did not tell the truth in his interview with CBS News's Steve Kroft in a 60 Minutes episode which aired on October 11.

AP's Bauder Enlists As An Accomplice to the Cinematic Fraud of 'Truth'
By Tom Blumer | October 24, 2015 | 6:07 PM EDT

The press has consumed many barrels of ink and gigs of bandwidth providing free promotion for the eminently misnamed movie Truth, thus far virtually for naught.

On Thursday, the Associated Press's David Bauder did his part to generate interest by pretending, despite obviously forged documents and a virtually complete lack of anything resembling corroborating evidence, that what Dan Rather and Mary Mapes reported in 2004 about George W. Bush's Texas Air National Guard service might, as those two miscreants formerly employed by CBS still insist, be accurate.

As 'Truth' Debuts, NY Times Coverage of the Saga Contains Very Little of It
By Tom Blumer | October 17, 2015 | 1:02 AM EDT

As I noted on Friday, the New York Times has become the de facto head cheerleader for Truth, the movie which purports to tell the story behind CBS News's 60 Minutes report on President George W. Bush's Texas Air National Guard service in the early 1970s aired in September 2004.

The Old Gray Lady has hosted a TimesTalk video in which one of the film's lead actors, Robert Redford as Dan Rather, claims that the movie gives the offending journalists "their day in court." (Trust me, Bob. The last place they want to be is in a real courtroom; Rather found that out the hard way several years ago.)

NY Times Critic Holden: 'Truth' Is 'Beautifully Executed Journalistic Thriller'
By Tom Blumer | October 16, 2015 | 7:44 PM EDT

The New York Times has not merely climbed aboard the bandwagon of Truth, which exalts the fraudulent September 2004 CBS 60 Minutes report about President George W. Bush's Texas Air National Guard Service. It's now serving as the film's de facto lead apologist.

The most recent example demonstrating how deeply in the tank the Old Gray Lady has gone is Stephen Holden's Thursday film review published in Friday's print edition. Holden's praise comes from an alternative universe where genuine "truth" clearly doesn't matter, and uses a tortured analogy which in reality disproves his attempt at making a point (bolds are mine throughout this post):

Megan McArdle: 'A Marshmallow Planet' More Likely Than Finding Truth in 'Truth'
By Tom Blumer | October 16, 2015 | 12:50 AM EDT

The disgraceful determination of Hollywood to rewrite history not favorable to the left, its causes and its personalities has perhaps reached its nadir with the laughably misnamed movie Truth.

The film is about Dan Rather's September 2004 60 Minutes report on President George W. Bush's Texas Air National Guard Service during the 1970s. In Rather's words, "The nuanced, not preachy, script makes clear our report was true." The script may say that, but the historical record doesn't. On October 2, John H. Hinderaker and Scott W. Johnson's writeup detailing how bogus that report was from top to bottom appeared online at The Weekly Standard. Reading that essay in its entirely is undoubtedly important; but in this case, so is ridicule. Megan McArdle at Bloomberg View supplied that back in July.

Nets Hype Muslims Targeted in Chapel Hill Shootings 12 Times More Than Christians in Oregon
By Kristine Marsh | October 7, 2015 | 1:02 PM EDT

It’s newsworthy when people of faith are killed by a gunman -- except when they are Christian. The broadcast networks made that clear by the difference between the massive coverage of the shooting of three Muslims in February and the little coverage of how the Oregon shooter reportedly targeted Christians.


“Many have already judged this as a hate crime,” CBS’s Scott Pelley asserted on the Feb. 14 evening news broadcast covering the Chapel Hill shooting. When three Muslim students were killed by an angry neighbor last spring, the broadcast networks jumped to allege this was an anti-Muslim “hate crime” -- bringing that phrase up a whopping 30 times in eight broadcasts.  

Press Ignoring Blatant Conflicts of Interest Exposed in CBS Benghazi Coverage
By Tom Blumer | September 30, 2015 | 11:59 PM EDT

Apparently, the establishment press is waiting for its marching orders on how to handle what an Investor's Business Daily editorial has already called a "scandal."

This one's a joint effort involving Hillary Clinton, Sidney Blumenthal, a recently deceased former CIA operative named Tyler Drumheller who worked with Blumenthal — and CBS News. As Mark Hemingway at the Weekly Standard reported Tuesday afternoon (i.e., now approaching two overnight news cycles ago), "Drumheller, the former chief of the CIA’s clandestine service in Europe who was working directly with Blumenthal as a member of Clinton’s spy network, was concurrently working as a consultant to CBS News and its venerable news program 60 Minutes." IBD's question, reacting to Hemingway's report: "Who is more corrupt, Clinton or the mainstream media?"

Trippin' With Trippi: All Is Really Well With Hillary's Campaign
By Tom Blumer | September 29, 2015 | 12:00 AM EDT

In an example of Animal House brought to life, Joe Trippi, Howard Dean's former 2004 campaign manager who during the past few years (until now) seemed reasonably sane, went to the op-ed section of the Los Angeles Times to declare in essence that "All is well" with Hillary Clinton's march to the Democratic Party's coronation — er, nomination.

In Trippi's fantasyland (i.e., Trippiland), the fact that Mrs. Clinton is ahead of Bernie Sanders by 15 points nationally proves his point. Never mind that Sanders is ahead in New Hampshire and Iowa, the only two states which are paying close attention right now. The only thing he'll concede is that things might change if Vice President Joe Biden enters the race.

A Media Tale of Two Popes: Benedict an ‘Enforcer,’ Francis ‘Humble,’ ‘Positive’
By Matt Philbin | September 25, 2015 | 3:47 PM EDT

For journalists, it was the best of popes and it was the worst of popes. News outlets were often negative when Pope Benedict visited the United States in 2008, calling him an “enforcer,” “God’s Rottweiler,” and “very conservative.”

Not so this time around for Pope Francis. The current pontiff shares the media’s views on climate change, immigration and inequality, and seems ambivalent at best about capitalism. Even better, his language on certain social issues has been less than precise, leading them to speculate that the Church might change its teaching on homosexuality, contraception and other near-and-dear lefty issues.

In short, the media suspects Francis is really one of them.

It Ain't Easy Being Green: Feminists Complain About Kermit's New Main Squeeze
By Melissa Mullins | September 4, 2015 | 4:03 PM EDT

Earlier this summer, in advance of the fall premiere of a new Muppets TV show on the ABC network, fictional characters Kermit the Frog and longtime partner Miss Piggy – who told MSNBC’s Irin Carmon she is a pro-choice feminist  -- announced their separation to the public via Facebook, with the porcine half of the famous couplet kicking her beloved Kermie to the curb.

USA Network Postponed ‘Mr. Robot’ Finale over Virginia Shooting
By Matt Philbin | August 27, 2015 | 10:27 AM EDT

Viewers looking forward to the season finale of Mr. Robot on USA Network last night were disappointed to find a rerun of last week’s episode. The network postponed the final episode until next week because “The previously filmed season finale of Mr. Robot contains a graphic scene similar in nature to today’s tragic events in Virginia,” it said in a statement.

So the Mr. Robot season ender featured something somewhat like a gunman murdering two people during a routine local news live spot and then posting his own video of the killings to social media. “Out of respect to the victims, their families and colleagues, and our viewers,” the statement went on, “we are postponing tonight’s episode. Our thoughts go out to all those affected during this difficult time.”