The Situation Room

French President Hollande: Terrorists 'Have Nothing to Do With Muslim Religion'
By Mark Finkelstein | January 9, 2015 | 2:27 PM EST

Sand, meet head of Hollande.  In his just-concluded speech on the terrorist attacks in his country, Socialist French President Francois Hollande claimed that the terrorists "have nothing to do with the Muslim religion."

Of course.  Terrorists run through Charlie Hebdo, shouting "allahu akbar" as they murder, and proclaim themselves to be acting in the name of al Qaeda of Yemen.  Why would anyone think this had anything to do with the Muslim religion? As my MRC colleague Rich Noyes observed, Hollande must watch MSNBC [where Howard Dean expressed a similar sentiment.]

CBS, NBC Continue Hyping ‘Fangate’, Yet Ignore Apology from Debate Organizers
By Curtis Houck | October 16, 2014 | 10:54 PM EDT

CBS and NBC continued on Thursday night to harp on the so-called refusal of Florida Republican Governor Rick Scott to initially debate his opponent, Democrat and former Florida Governor Charlie Crist, on Wednesday because of Crist’s usage of a fan that broke the rules of the debate.

After each of the “big three” (ABC, CBS, and NBC) mentioned it on their morning newscasts, the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News aired new segments and included NBC’s Brian Williams stating that what transpired on Wednesday night “may say more about the broken state of our politics these days than we'd like to admit.”

ABC, NBC Continue to Omit Coverage of Report Alleging WH Role in Prostitution Scandal
By Curtis Houck | October 9, 2014 | 10:04 PM EDT

According to a report in The Washington Post, senior White House officials knew that an individual with the White House advance team had a prostitute spend the night with him as part of the 2012 Colombian prostitution scandal despite the White House previously denying any involvement during the official investigation. 

After failing to cover the story on their morning newscasts, ABC and NBC continued that blackout into their Thursday evening newscasts as well. The CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley ignored the story as well, despite the network having aired a full report on Thursday’s CBS This Morning.

Networks Dodge Obama Linking ISIS Terror, Unrest in Ukraine to Events in Ferguson
By Curtis Houck | September 24, 2014 | 8:59 PM EDT

During his speech to the United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly on Wednesday, President Barack Obama made a striking, unusual and ridiculous comparison between the reign of terror taking place in the Middle East at the hands of the brutal Islamic terrorist group ISIS and the unrest that took place in Ferguson, Missouri last month after the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown.

As far as the any of the major broadcast networks bringing up this absurd comparison on their evening newcasts, neither ABC, CBS, or NBC gave that portion of the President’s speech any attention or allowed it to see the light of day.

CNN’s Blitzer Refuses to Ask Susan Rice About Benghazi on Anniversary of Attack
By Curtis Houck | September 12, 2014 | 10:42 AM EDT

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer interviewed President Obama’s National Security Adviser Susan Rice during Thursday’s edition of The Situation Room and neglected to bring up the second anniversary of the tragic attack in Benghazi, Libya that left U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, foreign service officer Sean Smith and CIA contractors Tyrone Woods and Glenn Doherty dead. Instead, the nearly eight-and-a-half-minute interview discussed President Obama’s speech to the nation from Wednesday night on ISIS and reaction to Diane Foley speaking to CNN’s Anderson Cooper about how she believed that the United States did not do enough to save her son Jim before he was brutally murdered by ISIS.

MRC Study: After Hyping Christie’s ‘Bridgegate,’ CNN Buries Andrew Cuomo’s Scandal
By Curtis Houck | August 15, 2014 | 9:47 AM EDT

It has been over three weeks since The New York Times published a front-page investigation unmasking the actions of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) shuttering an anti-corruption commission. In reaction, the U.S. Attorney has now begun investigating Cuomo’s administration for possible “witness tampering and obstruction of justice,” according to The New York Post.

Despite these serious allegations, CNN has all but ignored the story. The cable news outlet completely ignored the Cuomo scandal until it aired a single tease and report on August 7 during The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. 

CNN’s John King Excuses Poor Obama Poll Numbers: ‘It’s Not All His Fault’
By Connor Williams | August 7, 2014 | 3:00 PM EDT

After citing a whole host of issues where President Obama is receiving abysmal approval ratings from Americans, CNN’s John King absolved the commander-in-chief of any blame, arguing that this was typical of recent second-term presidents.

On the August 6 edition of The Situation Room, host Wolf Blitzer pointed to an NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll, one that has, thus far, been ignored by the NBC Nightly News, showing Americans are dissatisfied with U.S. handling of the border crisis, Russia, Gaza, and the increasing presence of ISIS in Iraq. King dismissed that this had anything to do with the President: “I'm not blaming the president for this. It's a complicated world and it's not all his fault, but when people look around the world and then look at home, there's not much to cheer about right now.” [MP3 audio here; video below]

Surprise: CNN's Blitzer Challenges Hamas Spokesman on His Blood Libel Against Jews
By Tom Blumer | August 4, 2014 | 11:53 PM EDT

A popular blood libel Palestinian leaders and parents tell their people and children goes as follows: "Jews used to slaughter Christians in order to mix their blood in their holy matzos."

In the video (HT Twitchy) which follows the jump, Blitzer asks Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan to confirm that the quoted words just cited are what he recently said and meant. Over nearly seven agonizing minutes, Hamdan never admitted to anything, but certainly conducted himself as if he had uttered those words. To his credit, Blitzer noted that the end of the segment that his question had not been answered, leaving reasonable viewers to believe Hamdan did say previously say them, and that the bare outlines of his attempted excuse, which was essentially a claim that "I was just repeating something someone else said," doesn't fly.

CNN Reassigns Reporter Who Called Group of Israelis 'Scum' on Twitter
By Laura Flint | July 18, 2014 | 3:10 PM EDT

The liberal media is hemorrhaging foreign correspondents from Israel and the Gaza Strip. Only one day after NBC suddenly pulled anti-Israel Ayman Mohyeldin from Gaza citing security concerns, CNN was forced to relocate journalist Diana Magnay from Israel. Both correspondents struggled to keep their reporting and social media presence neutral in tone.

Magnay reported during The Situation Room from a hill in Israel where citizens were “cheering”while watching the “astonishing” and “awful” launch of missiles into the Gaza. The CNN correspondent, normally based in Berlin, followed the segment with a tweet calling the celebrating Israelis “scum.”

CNN’s Blitzer Presses IRS Chief: ‘Why Shouldn't Taxpayers Use the Crashed Hard Drive Excuse?’
By Curtis Houck | June 27, 2014 | 2:40 PM EDT

During Thursday’s edition of The Situation Room on CNN, host Wolf Blitzer committed an act of journalism in grilling IRS Commissioner John Koskinen with question after question about the growing IRS e-mail scandal. His questioning included one where he asked (via a Twitter follower), “[w]hy shouldn’t taxpayers use the crashed hard drive excuse when undergoing an IRS audit?”

The interview, which lasted 13 minutes and 47 seconds, is more time than ABC and NBC spent on the IRS e-mail scandal combined on both their morning and evening news programs since the outrage surrounding lost emails of IRS employees, including former employee Lois Lerner, broke on June 13. [MP3 audio here; Video below]

Birth Control Mandate? Wolf Blitzer Doesn't Think Religious Liberty Is Threatened
By Matt Hadro | February 26, 2014 | 8:08 PM EST

CNN's Wolf Blitzer hounded Rep. Michele Bachmann over Arizona's religious freedom bill on Wednesday and "disagreed" that religious beliefs of business owners are being violated when they are forced to act against their consciences and serve all customers.

"Americans are very tolerant people. And there is religious freedom in our country," Blitzer insisted. When Bachmann responded that "This is not tolerating people's religious beliefs," he chimed back in, "On this one, I disagree."

Toobin Calls Clarence Thomas ‘Disgraceful,’ CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Hails ‘Excellent Article’
By Brent Baker | February 25, 2014 | 2:07 PM EST

CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer brought Jeffrey Toobin aboard Monday’s The Situation Room to expound on his New Yorker magazine blog, “Clarence Thomas’s Disgraceful Silence,” posted on Friday. After quoting how Toobin derided Thomas as an “embarrassing” justice, Blitzer ended the segment by endorsing Toobin’s screed denigrating Thomas, trumpeting: “It’s an excellent article in the new issue of The New Yorker.”