On Monday's CBS This Morning, co-host Gayle King claimed that Americans were "divided" over the CIA's use of enhanced interrogation techniques after September 11th. However, the latest CBS News poll she cited "shows that 49% of Americans feel aggressive interrogation techniques like waterboarding are sometimes justified. 36% say they are never justified." The remaining 14% said that it "depends" or "didn't know."
Gayle King
By Jeffrey Meyer | December 10, 2014 | 3:20 PM EST
On Wednesday, Michael Morrell, former Deputy Director of the CIA and current CBS News Senior Security Contributor, appeared on CBS This Morning to discuss the Democrat-led Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA’s use of enhanced interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists. While the former CIA official vehemently rejected the contents of the report, co-host Norah O’Donnell did her best to discredit Morrell’s defense of the agency. O’Donnell proclaimed “to me the idea that someone could be waterboarded, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, 183 times and that's not torture, I just don't understand that definition.”
By Jeffrey Meyer | December 9, 2014 | 11:56 AM EST
On Monday night, President Obama appeared on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report for a friendly interview with the liberal comedian, and Tuesday morning the “big three” (ABC, CBS, and NBC) networks predictably promoted the president’s late night stop. CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King hyped how Obama “was a guest on Comedy Central Colbert Report last night. It was his first visit to the show as Stephen Colbert gets ready to end that program. At one point it appeared the president may have been auditioning for his next job.”
By Jeffrey Meyer | December 3, 2014 | 9:43 AM EST
On Tuesday afternoon, Jonathan Karl, ABC News Chief White House Correspondent, confronted White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest over President Obama’s appointment of Colleen Bell, a major Obama donor and producer of the soap opera The Bold And The Beautiful, to be the ambassador to Hungary. Despite the controversy surrounding the appointment, ABC has yet to cover Karl’s questioning on television, but CBS This Morning found the news worth reporting and gave the story more than a minute of coverage during its Wednesday morning broadcast.
By Scott Whitlock | December 2, 2014 | 12:12 PM EST
The hosts of CBS This Morning on Tuesday hailed liberal comedian (and multi-millionaire) Russell Brand on his crusade for "affordable housing." The British comic was protesting in London against a proposed real estate development that would displace others.
By Kyle Drennen | December 1, 2014 | 1:08 PM EST
Between Sunday and Monday, all three broadcast networks devoted full reports to a Republican congressional staffer criticizing the Obama daughters on her personal Facebook page. On ABC's Good Morning America on Sunday, host Dan Harris proclaimed: "The online outrage over an attack on President Obama's daughters. A Republican congressional staffer posting a rant on Facebook about the way Sasha and Malia looked and acted at this moment here during the White House turkey pardoning the other day."
By Matthew Balan | November 19, 2014 | 3:48 PM EST
Wednesday's CBS This Morning played up how "the Vatican is under fire from the mother of a woman who ended her own life." Jan Crawford's spotlighted Deborah Ziegler's "sharply-worded letter" to opponents of euthanasia, especially Pope Francis and the Catholic Church. Ziegler's daughter, Brittany Maynard, committed suicide on November 1, 2014, after being diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, and became the face of the pro-euthanasia movement during her final days.
By Jeffrey Meyer | November 18, 2014 | 10:32 AM EST
On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Jonathan Gruber, one of the architects of ObamaCare, made more than a dozen visits to visit the White House since “Democrats began drafting the law in 2009.” Despite the latest developments in the Gruber controversy, which contradicts President Obama’s line that Gruber was “some advisor who never worked on our staff,” CBS This Morning was the only network morning show to mention the report, giving it a mere 24 seconds during its Tuesday morning broadcast. ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s Today ignored the Journal’s report altogether.
By Jeffrey Meyer | November 11, 2014 | 10:28 AM EST
On Tuesday morning, Bill Nye “The Science Guy” appeared on CBS This Morning to promote his new book, and used his platform as an opportunity to trash individuals who question the existence of manmade climate change. Speaking about his book “Undeniable: Evolution and the science of creation” Nye argued that “it's not a coincidence that the creationists also deny climate change. It's a really important thing.”
By Jeffrey Meyer | November 4, 2014 | 11:10 AM EST
On Tuesday, the folks on CBS This Morning did their best to downplay the significance of a potential GOP-controlled Senate in this year’s midterm elections. Unlike ABC and NBC who provided mostly straightforward coverage of today’s elections, CBS made sure to push the line that regardless of the outcomes, the election was an indictment of both political parties. Throughout three segments, multiple CBS News contributors pushed the line that even if Republicans take control of the Senate “not only is this election not about either party's ideas, Democrats or Republicans, but really more about the fact that Americans just want to get rid of whoever is in there now and put somebody else in Washington.”
By Matthew Balan | November 3, 2014 | 5:30 PM EST
NBC's Today and CBS This Morning both led their broadcasts on Monday with euthanasia advocate Brittany Maynard's drug-induced suicide. The morning shows' anchors sang the praises of the "beautiful, brave young woman," as Gayle King labeled Maynard. Charlie Rose touted how the cancer patient's "short and meaningful life is over." Savannah Guthrie gushed, "What a remarkable young woman, and to share it with everyone, obviously, took a lot of courage."
By Jeffrey Meyer | November 3, 2014 | 10:28 AM EST
On Monday, CBS This Morning followed in the footsteps of ABC and NBC by hyping a new United Nations report on climate change. Unlike the other two networks that offered only news briefs during their Sunday broadcasts, CBS gave a full 2 minutes and 37 seconds of promotional coverage to the U.N. report on Monday morning. Co-host Charlie Rose began the segment by proclaiming “scientists are heating up an old debate this morning. The United Nations says climate change is real and manmade. It calls for drastic changes by the end of the century. The U.N. says without action there could be irreversible damage.”