On Wednesday afternoon, the Clinton Foundation group Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) admitted that it had made “minor errors” in its tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in both 2012 and 2013 and thus added another layer to the Clinton Foundation scandal. When it came to major broadcast networks covering this on Wednesday night, however, ABC’s World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News both ignored the new revelation.
Government & Press
By Michael McKinney | November 4, 2015 | 4:42 PM EST
On Wednesday’s MSNBC Live with Thomas Roberts, Ayman Mohyeldin presented a video of his interviews with two college kids from Jerusalem, one an Israeli, the other a Palestinian. After playing the video, Thomas Roberts and Mohyeldin continued to discuss the video. Mohyeldin lectured, “To try to understand this current cycle of violence, one of the reasons Palestinians will always say is the humiliation and frustration that the young people are experiencing.”
By Michael McKinney | November 3, 2015 | 4:34 PM EST
Tuesday at Salon.com, Sarah Burris claimed that Stephen Colbert gave a "bombshell endorsement" to Black Lives Matter, when he talked about the “excessive force by police departments across the country.” In reality, Colbert gave a moderate response to the recent controversy. Salon evoked imagery and a message that Colbert never addressed in the segment. Colbert offered only comedic pandering on the topic, rather than what Salon badly abbreviated to an “endorsement.”
By Michael McKinney | November 2, 2015 | 5:11 PM EST
Monday’s Morning Joe featured a discussion with Richard Stengel, the Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. What proceeded was a discussion of the administration for securing the Iran Deal, without any effort to release Journalist Jason Rezaian, or the other three hostages of the government in Iran. Stengel would try to defend the lack of action, by highlighting that other governments do the same, but the Morning Joe crew was not having any of it.
By Michael McKinney | October 30, 2015 | 12:01 PM EDT
Friday's Morning Joe featured a discussion by the roundtable on the subject of the debates and the fairness needed for them. While Newsbusters previously discussed Morning Joe's discussion on the bias of moderators, Morning Joe also discussed their surprise and support of Dr. Ben Carson, who has come out leading the change to reform these debates.
By Curtis Houck | October 27, 2015 | 9:07 PM EDT
On Tuesday, the “big three” networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC censored from their evening newscasts any mention of the House of Representative beginning the procedures to impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen on the heels of Republican Congressman and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s expected ascension to Speaker of the House.
By Michael McKinney | October 27, 2015 | 12:39 PM EDT
In Sunday's New York Times Magazine, the cover story by Daniel Engber focused on the recent criminal proceedings involving Anna Stubblefield. Stubblefield has been charged of sexually assaulting a African-American disabled man. Anna Stubblefield, a philosophy professor at Rutgers, was accused of assaulting D.J., a severely disabled man she assisted with “facilitated communication.”
By Michael McKinney | October 26, 2015 | 4:03 PM EDT
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.
By Curtis Houck | October 23, 2015 | 1:40 AM EDT
Roughly a minute after the 11-hour Benghazi Committee hearing with Hillary Clinton concluded on Thursday night, CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 turned to political commentator Carl Bernstein, who drooled over Clinton’s performance while comparing Republicans to Joseph McCarthy and his House Un-American Committee for concocting an “abusive” hearing.In the next hour on CNN Tonight, Bernstein trotted out the same comparison against “a group of demagogues” while Hillary “did great” in using “the facts at her command.”
By Curtis Houck | October 22, 2015 | 11:13 PM EDT
Suddenly worried about government spending, the Thursday edition of ABC’s World News Tonight featured anchor David Muir complaining on three separate occasions about the cost of the House Select Committee on Benghazi while chief White House correspondent Jonathan Karl observed that Republicans “really didn’t succeed” in “draw[ing] blood” from Hillary Clinton.
By Curtis Houck | October 22, 2015 | 9:31 PM EDT
Analyzing Hillary Clinton’s performance before the House Benghazi Committee, CBS News political director John Dickerson stated on Thursday’s CBS Evening News that Clinton “avoid[ed]” falling into any “pitfalls” as those questioning her fought “like cats and dogs.”
By Curtis Houck | October 22, 2015 | 3:03 AM EDT
Using clips from the 1973 Watergate hearings, MSNBC’s Last Word host Lawrence O’Donnell went off on Wednesday at the House Select Committee on Benghazi for failing to exhibit the Watergate committee’s professionalism and instead being “oblivious and uninhibited” in creating a hearing that he promises will “waste enormous amounts of time on irrelevant questions.”