One day after treating Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton to a fawning one-hour town hall with her biggest fans, on Tuesday, NBC’s Today took a more hardball approach with Republican contender Marco Rubio. Co-host Matt Lauer pressed the Florida Senator on his attendance record: “29% of the time over the last year you not in attendance when votes were taken in the Senate....Are you placing your own personal ambitions above your responsibilities to your constituents down in Florida?”
Today
By Kyle Drennen | October 5, 2015 | 1:06 PM EDT
Throughout a live townhall event on Monday’s Today, Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton was treated to one softball after another from her adoring supporters at NBC. One sycophantic fan set the tone: “Secretary Clinton, you've had a lot of tough questions this morning. This may be the toughest one you get all day. But many years ago we saw another Clinton at his inauguration play an instrument and have a song. What song or instrument would you play at yours?"
By Kyle Drennen | October 5, 2015 | 9:36 AM EDT
In an exclusive interview with Hillary Clinton on Monday’s NBC Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie teed up the Democratic front-runner to slam the congressional committee investigating the Benghazi terrorist attack as a partisan hit job: “You're scheduled to testify before that committee. Do you think it should be disbanded? That's what Nancy Pelosi has called for.”
By Scott Whitlock | October 3, 2015 | 4:30 PM EDT
For several days, the Today show has been hyping a special edition show that would feature Hillary Clinton for what NBC has promoted as “Pancakes & Politics: A Town Hall With Hillary Clinton.” If the October 5 program is anything like ABC’s campaign 2008 town halls, it will be heavily stilted towards Democratic talking points.
By Jeffrey Meyer | October 1, 2015 | 10:44 AM EDT
Speaking to former Florida Governor Jeb Bush on Thursday’s Today, NBC’s Matt Lauer did his best to play up Donald Trump’s repeated attacks on his fellow Republican throughout the Republican presidential primary. During the one-on-one interview, Lauer told Bush “your resume and your pedigree are perfect for the job of president” but wondered “after several months in the race, you're losing in the polls to the host of Celebrity Apprentice. How do you get your arms around that?”
By Jeffrey Meyer | September 30, 2015 | 9:54 AM EDT
On Wednesday, the State Department will release 6,000 more pages of Hillary Clinton’s e-mails but NBC’s Today was the only network morning show to cover this news whereas ABC’s Good Morning America and CBS This Morning ignored the story altogether. In a full report, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell stressed that the e-mail release was a result of a “court order” which will continue the “drip, drip, drip that Hillary Clinton has acknowledged is haunting her campaign.”
By Scott Whitlock | September 29, 2015 | 11:41 AM EDT
All three networks on Tuesday hyped Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards appearing before Congress, insisting the pro-abortion leader will “staunchly defend” her organization in the wake of the sting videos. During the news briefs, ABC and CBS didn’t show any of hidden videos.
By Jeffrey Meyer | September 29, 2015 | 10:22 AM EDT
Amidst the ongoing controversy surrounding Hillary Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server, on Tuesday NBC’s Today rushed to promote former President Bill Clinton’s efforts to defend his wife from criticism. News reader Tamron Hall introduced the segment by touting “Hillary Clinton is dispatching her not so secret weapon, her husband and former president to help her weather the e-mail storm” and then turned to White House correspondent Kristen Welker to continue to tout the former president’s actions.
By Jeffrey Meyer | September 28, 2015 | 11:38 AM EDT
Following a contentious interview on Sunday’s Meet the Press, on Monday’s Today, NBC continued to harp over Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina’s recent statements condemning Planned Parenthood and their practice of harvesting fetal body parts. During a report on the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, reporter Peter Alexander proclaimed “[f]acing new scrutiny of her own, Fiorina’s defending her claim that Planned Parenthood employees were caught on tape keeping a fully-formed fetus alive to harvest its brain.”
By Scott Whitlock | and By Geoffrey Dickens | September 28, 2015 | 9:01 AM EDT
This week, after a summer of Hillary Clinton scandals, NBC’s Savannah Guthrie grills Chelsea: “What’s she like as a grandmother?...Paint us a picture of Hillary Clinton at home, talking baby talk.” Meanwhile, the media continue to fawn over the “remarkable” candidacy of Socialist Bernie Sanders, even as longtime Newsweek reporter Eleanor Clift castigates Carly Fiorina for the latter’s condemnations of Planned Parenthood: “To imply that they are selling and harvesting baby parts — I think it’s really offensive.”
By Curtis Houck | September 26, 2015 | 10:15 PM EDT
On Saturday morning, the major broadcast networks were at it again in bashing the “far-right” and “unruly hardliners” in the House Republican caucus for causing Speaker John Boehner’s impending resignation announced Friday that CBS added could hurt the party’s chances in 2016 if the “infighting” continues.
By Kyle Drennen | September 23, 2015 | 2:46 PM EDT
Appearing on Wednesday’s NBC Today, new Daily Show host Trevor Noah described his eagerness to mock the Republican 2016 field: “Yeah, a great gift, the campaign. Great gift, Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, these are all gifts, these are beautiful – I couldn't ask for more.”