On Thursday, October 22, 2015, President Barack Obama signed a veto message of the National Defense Authorization Act. The NDAA establishes budgets and policies for the Defense Department, and in the last 53 years it has only been vetoed four times. Coverage of the veto signing and its significance has been rather dismal despite Obama summoning the White House press for a public signing. ABC and NBC aired nothing. Here are the brief mentions the other networks offered on the funding for our troops and their salaries, as well as benefits and training. CNN, PBS, and CBS provided brief statements on the NDAA and its planned veto by the President. Meanwhile, Fox News devoted a portion of time greater than the other networks combined.
PBS
By Brad Wilmouth | October 25, 2015 | 11:47 AM EDT
Appearing as a guest on Friday's Tavis Smiley show on PBS, actor Dick Van Dyke spoke of his support for presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, and oddly complained that it is "incendiary" for his critics to call him a "socialist," even though Sanders labels himself a "democratic socialist." Van Dyke then declared that "we're a fairly socialist government already."
The veteran actor, who is currently promoting his book, Keep Moving: And Other Tips and Truths About Aging, had previously appeared on MSNBC's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell and pronounced Sanders the winner of the Democratic presidential debate.
By Brad Wilmouth | October 23, 2015 | 9:51 PM EDT
Appearing in the regular "Shields and Brooks" segment of the PBS NewsHour on Friday, New York Times columnist David Brooks asserted that the Benghazi hearing this week yielded a "big nothingburger," and theorized that there is a "psychosis" around Republicans being "obsessed" with pursuing Clinton scandals.
By Matthew Balan | October 23, 2015 | 8:56 PM EDT
ABC, CBS, and NBC's evening newscasts on Friday all failed to cover the Justice Department announcing that it would be ending its investigation into the IRS's targeting of conservative groups. The Big Three networks' news program did find time to air reporting on the top Google searches for Halloween costumes, the fewer number of turkeys available for upcoming Thanksgiving dinners, and the controversy over the first bear hunt in Florida in 20 years.
By Jeffrey Meyer | October 15, 2015 | 10:20 AM EDT
During an appearance on PBS’ Charlie Rose on Wednesday night, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman heaped praise on Hillary Clinton’s debate performance and proclaimed that her campaign was popping champagne corks from her New York headquarters “to Nevada where the debate took place.”
By Brad Wilmouth | October 9, 2015 | 10:19 PM EDT
On Friday's PBS Newshour, host Judy Woodruff joined liberal columnist Mark Shields in declaring that the House GOP's conservative wing is holding the Congress "hostage," with allegedly right-leaning regular and New York Times columnist David Brooks then complaining that Tea Partiers are good at "destruction," but not "construction." Brooks further griped that, "to get elected, especially as a Republican," there is an incentive for "radical rhetoric," referring to the situation as a "mental problem."
By Curtis Houck | October 8, 2015 | 1:31 PM EDT
During a fascinating and wide-ranging interview on the Wednesday edition of Charlie Rose’s PBS show, Fox News Channel (FNC) host Megyn Kelly pushed back at liberal feminists and the very label for their complete double standard in the treatment of conservative and pro-life women (and specifically Sarah Palin). The issue came up when Rose asked Kelly if she was an advocate like many of his personal friends in that they’re “constantly making us and helping us remember how much we need to do with respect to women and equal pay.”
By Curtis Houck | October 8, 2015 | 3:11 AM EDT
Embattled 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton sat down for her latest interview on Wednesday and surprisingly, the liberal media’s questioner in Judy Woodruff of the PBS NewsHour (and Clinton Foundation donor) came prepared and hit Clinton on issues ranging from her e-mail scandal to the administration’s misjudgment of Russia’s global threat to allied super PACs attacking socialist Bernie Sanders and possible candidate Joe Biden.
By Jeffrey Meyer | October 5, 2015 | 11:57 AM EDT
During appearances on NPR’s All Things Considered and PBS NewsHour on Friday, the Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne and the New York Times’ David Brooks eagerly touted President Obama’s blatant decision to “politicize” the Oregon school shooting to push gun control.
Tavis Smiley: When GOP Says Entitlement Reform They Really Mean Balance the Budget on 'Backs of the Poor'
By Geoffrey Dickens | September 23, 2015 | 5:01 PM EDT According to PBS host Tavis Smiley when Republicans say the words “entitlement reform” they really mean “balance the budget on the backs of the poor.” On Monday, Smiley invited on GOP presidential candidate Lindsey Graham and when the South Carolina senator brought up the topic of entitlement reform Smiley offered his own translation of the term.
By Scott Whitlock | September 3, 2015 | 1:05 PM EDT
The ombudsman for PBS on Thursday chastised anchor Gwen Ifill for mocking Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Twitter. After it became clear that the Senate could not override a presidential veto of the Iran deal, Ifill tweeted, "Take that, Bibi." PBS Ombudsman Michael Gelter derided the comments by the NewsHour host as "inexcusable."
By Brad Wilmouth | August 30, 2015 | 4:15 PM EDT
Catching up on Wednesday's PBS NewsHour, a report filed by PBS political director Lisa Desjardins on the debate over Planned Parenthood funding featured several soundbites of a University of California at Davis professor who, although not presented as a biased source, put forth a mostly liberal slant on the issue as he tagged GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz as the "most radical" on the issue, and warned that Hillary Clinton may benefit in the general election.