This week, NewsBusters is presenting the Media Research Center’s “Best Notable Quotables of 2015,” our annual awards for the year’s worst journalism. Today, the “Harsh to the Huddled Masses” award, for attacks on the GOP candidates for their supposed hostility to immigration. Winning the trophy: Yahoo! News anchor Katie Couric for suggesting to GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz that he lacked “empathy” because he didn’t support Barack Obama’s unilateral executive action on amnesty.
Good Morning America
ABC Skips WashPost Smear on Cruz Girls; CBS, NBC Excuse It as a ‘Feud,’ Part of ‘Increased Scrutiny’
By Curtis Houck | December 23, 2015 | 12:31 PM EST The morning after Washington Post cartoonist Ann Telnaes published (then unpublished) an illustration depicting Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz’s daughters as toy monkeys, calling them “fair game” since they appeared in a campaign ad, ABC’s Good Morning America ignored the story completely while CBS This Morning and NBC’s Today excused it as merely a “feud” and part of “increased scrutiny” for Cruz as he ascends in the polls.
By Scott Whitlock | December 17, 2015 | 11:41 AM EST
All three network morning shows on Thursday covered the breaking news that Defense Secretary Ash Carter used private e-mails for government work. But only ABC deemed it an “embarrassment” for Barack Obama himself. Good Morning America’s Mary Bruce asserted, “This is no question this is an embarrassment for the White House and will likely draw attacks from Republicans who say the administration isn't doing enough to safeguard sensitive information.”
By Matthew Balan | December 16, 2015 | 6:00 PM EST
ABC's morning and evening newscasts, along with those of competitors CBS and NBC, have yet to cover on the latest Washington Post/ABC poll finding that 53 percent of Americans oppose a new assault weapons ban. This is the "first time in more than 20 years of ABC News/Washington Post polls, with the public expressing vast doubt that the authorities can prevent 'lone wolf' terrorist attacks and a substantial sense that armed citizens can help."
By Curtis Houck | December 13, 2015 | 5:54 PM EST
On Sunday, ABC’s Good Morning America served as the latest example of shameless corporate synergy by touting in its lead 2016 report how actor Tony Goldwyn from the network’s lead drama Scandal spent Saturday giving Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton “a big boost” by campaigning for her Iowa.
By Kyle Drennen | December 10, 2015 | 11:55 AM EST
While both NBC’s Today and ABC’s Good Morning America found the time on Thursday to devote minute-long segments to First Lady Michelle Obama rapping about kids going to college, neither morning show bothered to mention President Obama’s strategy or lack thereof to combat radical Islamic terrorism in the wake of the San Bernardino attacks.
By Scott Whitlock | December 10, 2015 | 10:32 AM EST
Former Bill Clinton operative George Stephanopoulos on Thursday interviewed Marco Rubio and demanded the Republican listen to a clip of Hillary Clinton sneering that all the GOP contenders are as bad as Donald Trump. Following a comment by the senator on the importance of refocusing the debate on terrorism, the Good Morning America co-host pounced, “On that issue Secretary Clinton is making the argument the whole GOP field is cut from the same cloth. Watch this.”
By Geoffrey Dickens | December 10, 2015 | 9:30 AM EST
An MRC analysis of interviews from January 1 to December 4 finds the broadcast networks have pounded the candidates with a blizzard of hostile and left-wing questions.
By Scott Whitlock | December 9, 2015 | 3:56 PM EST
Whether one considers Donald Trump’s recent comments highly offensive or simply over-the-top, it’s clear that the networks have abandoned any attempt at objectivity. On Wednesday, Good Morning America’s Tom Llamas trumpeted the New York Daily News’s assault. Llamas described the front cover featuring Trump. The journalist cheered, “It shows Trump with a large sword. His victim? The Statue of Liberty.” Llamas opined, “The message, Trump has declared his own personal jihad on American values.”
By Scott Whitlock | December 9, 2015 | 12:01 PM EST
Good Morning America’s Matt Gutman on Wednesday feared that angry Americans will lash out with violence in the wake of the San Bernardino shooting and Donald Trump’s comments about Muslims. The segment also highlighted the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Just as with CBS on Monday, the group’s extremist views weren’t mentioned.
By Kyle Drennen | December 9, 2015 | 11:36 AM EST
On Wednesday, all three network morning shows eagerly seized on the latest Donald Trump controversy to boost Hillary Clinton’s 2016 chances. On NBC’s Today, correspondent Peter Alexander proclaimed: “For the Grand Old Party, an urgent dilemma, fail to stand up to Trump and risk long-term damage to the party or confront Trump and risk his running as an independent....A Trump third-party bid would likely gift wrap the White House for Hillary Clinton.”
By Matthew Balan | December 8, 2015 | 1:49 PM EST
CNN, ABC, and CBS's morning newscasts on Tuesday all touted the Philadelphia Daily News's thinly-veiled comparison of Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler on their front page. On Good Morning America, George Stephanopoulos pointed out to Trump himself that the headline "says, 'The New Furor Over Donald Trump,' showing you raising your hand in a pretty demonstrative gesture." On New Day, CNN's Chris Cuomo held a picture of the front page on-camera: "You wound up on the Philadelphia Inquirer (sic) front page like Hitler! They got you in a personage of Hitler right now!"