During an appearance on Comedy Central’s The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore on Monday, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour joked “we defeat ISIS” when asked: “What happens first: we defeat ISIS or Brian Williams anchoring again?”
ISIS
By Curtis Houck | May 27, 2015 | 1:01 AM EDT
At the top of Tuesday’s Kelly File on the Fox News Channel, host Megyn Kelly tore into President Obama and his remarks at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day where “America's commander in chief celebrate[d] the absence of a major war, while his own top security advisers warn the American people directly that the danger right now is greater than at any time in a half century.”
NBC’s Richard Engel Continues Tearing Into Obama’s ‘Confused’ and ‘Self-Contradictory’ ISIS Strategy
By Curtis Houck | May 22, 2015 | 4:53 PM EDT The morning after he appeared on multiple MSNBC and NBC programs to rip President Obama’s handling of ISIS, NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel joined the Friday panel of MSNBC’s Morning Joe to continue his streak of tearing into the President for a “confused” and “self-contradictory” plan that “fights itself.”
By Curtis Houck | May 22, 2015 | 10:40 AM EDT
The Thursday panel on Fox News Channel’s Special Report with Bret Baier took on the issue of the Obama administration’s so-called policy in addressing ISIS and blasted the President for maintaining that the U.S. and its allies are not losing the fight against the Islamic extremist group despite the seizures this week of Ramadi in Iraq and Palmyra in Syria. Leading the way was FNC contributor Charles Krauthammer, who asserted that “[t]he administration is sounding like Baghdad Bob during the invasion of Iraq” and that “[t]hey're losing” which “[e]verybody understands.”
By Curtis Houck | May 21, 2015 | 11:28 PM EDT
As the Islamic terrorist group ISIS seized Ramadi earlier this week and now the ancient Syrian town of Palmyra, the major broadcast networks have largely declined to even mention any criticism of President Obama and his so-called policy in dealing with ISIS and Thursday night was no exception as ABC and CBS declined to raise that point of view. While it was brief, NBC Nightly News did make time for criticism of the administration in a segment by chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel: "Military officials say the current U.S. strategy just isn't working."
By Curtis Houck | May 18, 2015 | 8:54 PM EDT
CBS and NBC continued their refusal on Monday evening to criticize the Obama administration’s handing of Iraq and so-called policy on ISIS as the Islamic terror group seized control of Ramadi over the weekend. While those two networks continued to spin for the White House, ABC bucked the trend from the network morning newscasts by providing a blunt critique of the Obama administration for “painting far too rosy a picture of how this war is going for far too long.”
By Matthew Balan | May 12, 2015 | 4:09 PM EDT
CNN's Fareed Zakaria inserted a thinly-veiled shot at Fox News Channel during his Monday special on ISIS. Zakaria underlined that "the angry rhetoric of cable news fits right into the script [of ISIS]." He continued that "CNN makes an occasional appearance" in the Islamist terrorist group's propaganda, but then played up that "Fox News is a favorite of ISIS, with commentators who demand boots on the ground – playing into ISIS's dreams of a grand battle against America."
By Curtis Houck | May 7, 2015 | 11:28 PM EDT
During a segment on the Thursday edition of the Fox News Channel’s The O’Reilly Factor, host Bill O’Reilly cited a new analysis from the Media Research Center that detailed the massive amount of coverage the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC devoted in the month of April to numerous “allegations of police misconduct” compared to the time spent reporting on the terror group ISIS.
By Mike Ciandella | May 7, 2015 | 3:39 PM EDT
If you're more afraid of the cop on the corner than ISIS, maybe you should blame the media. In the month of April, according to a new survey by the Media Research Center, allegations of police misconduct accounted for one out of every seven minutes of broadcast evening news airtime, or 3 hours, 43 minutes.
By Mark Finkelstein | April 16, 2015 | 10:09 AM EDT
Mary Anne Weaver appeared on today's Morning Joe to discuss her New York Times Magazine cover article "Her Majesty's Jihadists." On the one hand, Weaver paints a striking portrait of the radicalization of young Muslims in the UK, reporting for example that there are more British jihadists than there are Muslims serving in the British military. But when asked what could be done about the problem, did Weaver criticize the radical clerics preaching a poisonous strain of Islam? Nope. She pointed her finger at the West 1. criticizing insufficient "integration" of Muslims into British society; 2. criticizing a new security law in the UK clamping down on people joining jihadist groups; and 3. saying that Muslims feel they are "under attack" from "indiscriminate bombing led by the US," in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
By Mark Finkelstein | April 6, 2015 | 9:21 AM EDT
Last week, NewsBusters brought you "Stumped," as April Ryan struggled to cite a single foreign policy success by her super-fave, President Obama. In the best Hollywood tradition, this morning we bring you a sequel--Stumped II: Syria!
On today's Morning Joe, lugubrious lefty Eric Alterman of The Nation mag was stumped when Joe Scarborough asked him what the US should do about Syria. After humming, hawing and a couple of false starts, Alterman asked how much time they had. Right, as if if only he had more time. Shades of that SNL skit in which President George H.W. Bush tries to skate away from a question only to be informed by the moderator that he had plenty more time.
By Randy Hall | April 2, 2015 | 3:49 PM EDT
Rick Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania who is known for his conservative stance on several social issues, became a target in a glossy, full-color publication produced by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria under the heading: “In the Words of the Enemy.”
During an appearance on the Fox & Friends early morning news show on Wednesday, Santorum found a silver lining in the grim situation: "Well, the difference is ISIS actually quoted me accurately, as opposed to the New York Times, which is a remarkable comment on the state of the media today.”