ABC and NBC led their morning shows on Tuesday with nearly 10 minutes of "breaking news" coverage of Angelina Jolie's double mastectomy. This celebrity-driven story was apparently deemed more important than abortionist Dr. Kermit Gosnell being found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder, as Good Morning America and Today devoted just 38 seconds to the Gosnell trial. (audio clips of Jolie coverage available here; video below the jump)
Altogether, the ABC and NBC morning newscasts aired 19 minutes and 3 seconds of coverage on Jolie. Tuesday's CBS This Morning waited 12 minutes to cover the Hollywood news item, but ultimately ended up setting aside 7 minutes and 49 seconds of air time to the surgeries, versus a 18 second news brief on Gosnell. The total Big Three coverage of Jolie on Tuesday morning, including CBS's reporting, added up to 26 minutes and 52 seconds, as opposed to 56 seconds on the Gosnell case.
Angelina Jolie
Today's "You're Really a Turkey" award goes to actress Angelina Jolie who according to a friend so despises Thanksgiving that she's intentionally out of the country.
The gossip website Popeater is also reporting that Jolie feels Americans are celebrating a story of murder (h/t Big Hollywood):
Actress and United Nations Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie apparently hates Barack Obama.
On top of this, according to an Us Weekly article, she and partner Brad Pitt have a lot of fights over their differing views of the President.
Such seems surprising not just due to her high-profile activism, but also that Us Weekly, as one of the Obamas' biggest fans, would report it.
Consider that in March 2008, UW owner Jenn Wenner wrote such a gooey endorsement of candidate Obama in his other magazine Rolling Stone that Politico's Mike Allen suggested he and Barack should "Get a room!"
Which makes this piece all the more amazing (h/t Parcbench via Leon Todd):
Celebrity breakdowns and comebacks, love triangles and teen pregnancy were the most covered entertainment stories.
For years, NewsBusters has been telling readers how much better the foreign press are at covering both sides of the global warming debate.
On Tuesday, Britain's Daily Mail published a perfect example of this maxim with a delicious piece about "hippy-crites": those pompous, holier-than-thou movie stars that go around the world advocating environmental causes and reducing one's carbon footprint while they themselves emit more carbon dioxide in a year than the average person will his entire life.
Here are a few of my favorites (h/t NBer Blonde, picture right courtesy Daily Telegraph, others courtesy Daily Mail):
In a recent op-ed published in the Washington Post, an unusual call for the USA to stay in Iraq rang out with pleas for the US to commit even more money and resources to help rebuild that war torn nation. Published under the byline of Angelina Jolie, the piece said that, "we have finally reached a point where humanitarian assistance, from us and others, can have an impact." This editorial is unusual because the Washington Post is usually filled with tales of how we have failed in Iraq and how we should just get out, but here is this one saying we are now at a place where leaving would be the worst thing we could do. One wonders if this article will find the name of Angelina Jolie used as an epithet by the get-out-now, anti-war set from among the netrooters and the MSM? Or will her celebrity and long standing interest in humanitarian efforts give her cover with the same sort of people?
What ever treatment we'll see meted out by the far left to the Hollywood star whose name graces this interesting piece, the fact that a call has been made to stay in Iraq by someone other than the conservative movement here is interesting if not amazing. It strikes a little heard note of optimism in news coverage that usually focuses only on the so-called failures of US forces in Iraq.