ABC, CBS, and NBC's morning newscasts on Monday all touted the apparent "backlash" and "firestorm" against Italian fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana for their support for the traditional family and condemnation of in-vitro fertilization and surrogate motherhood. The programs all spotlighted how homosexual musician Elton John called for a boycott of the duo's label, and how multiple celebrities ran to his support. However, they didn't bother to quote from Dolce and Gabbana's supporters.
Reena Ninan
By Scott Whitlock | October 7, 2014 | 9:40 AM EDT
Despite it's superficial tone and disinterest in serious news, Good Morning America on Tuesday profiled liberal congressional candidate Clay Aiken for the third time this year. News reader Amy Robach enthused over the "pop star entering politics" and hyped, "Former American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken, took the stage for his first debate in the run for Congress in North Carolina."
By Jeffrey Meyer | July 10, 2014 | 10:01 AM EDT
U.S. Marine Andrew Tahmooressi has been held in a Mexican prison for more than three months for accidentally crossing into Mexico with weapons and NBC News has yet to acknowledge the story.
On Wednesday, July 9, Sergeant Tahmooressi made his first appearance in a Tijuana courtroom and on Thursday both ABC’s Good Morning America and CBS This Morning covered the developments whereas NBC’s Today remained silent. [See video below.]
By Jeffrey Meyer | February 2, 2014 | 11:22 AM EST
Supposed new revelations have emerged in the “Bridgegate” scandal by former New Jersey Port Authority official David Wildstein claim that Governor Chris Christie (R-NJ) knew about the George Washington Bridge lane closures earlier than the governor claimed. Despite Wildstein’s failure to provide any evidence for his claims, ABC’s Good Morning America pounced and played up the Christie “bully” angle once again.
Appearing on GMA on February 2, co-host Dan Harris introduced the show by claiming that Governor Christie had launched “a very personal attack at a time when he should be celebrating the first ever Super Bowl in his state.” [See video after jump.]
By Brent Baker | May 25, 2013 | 9:23 PM EDT
Not a syllable Friday or Saturday night on ABC, CBS or NBC about any of the several Obama scandals, but on Saturday night ABC’s World News trumpeted President Obama’s role as “consoler-in-chief.”
With “Consoler-in-Chief” on screen, anchor David Muir announced: “President Obama will be in Moore, Oklahoma tomorrow. ABC’s Reena Ninan already there tonight as the President prepares to fill the role he so often has in the last few months.”
By Scott Whitlock | March 18, 2013 | 12:32 PM EDT
Good Morning America's Reena Ninan on Saturday let Barack Obama off easy. The ABC reporter allowed the President to escape blame for the sad story of a group of Iowa sixth graders who had their White House tour cancelled. Ninan blandly explained, "The tour canceled the result of automatic spending cuts brought on by the sequester."
Parroting Obama, she reminded, " In an interview with ABC News, the President said, don't blame him." Ninan then played a clip of the President swearing, "This was not a decision that went up to the White House." [See video below. MP3 audio here.] That comment is inaccurate and Obama was contradicted by his own White House Press Secretary on Wednesday. Good Morning America has yet to cover the discrepancy.
By Brent Baker | March 16, 2013 | 1:16 PM EDT
The Obama administration in 2009 dropped the Bush administration’s plan to add missile interceptor capability against North Korea, yet on Friday, when Obama’s Pentagon realized their error and scrambled to announce a reversal to implement the Bush plan, ABC, CBS and NBC failed to mention Obama’s dereliction. (Below: Krauthmmer zinged “Democratic resistance” to missile defense. “Reagan was right.”)
By Mark Finkelstein | February 16, 2013 | 9:25 AM EST
If Good Morning America's giddiness over the prospect that Hillary Clinton might run for president is any indication of how the MSM will treat the story, it's gonna be a long-g-g-g four years.
The excited GMA crew was looking for any harbinger--from falling meteorites to the number of baskets scored by an ABC reporter in a charity game--that Hillary might throw her pantsuit into the ring. A correspondent even joked--at least we hope she was joking--that GMA might have to run a segment every week with the latest is-Hillary-running news. View the video after the jump.
By Jeffrey Meyer | December 18, 2012 | 11:31 AM EST
Following Hillary Clinton’s illness last week, which prompted a fainting spell and a mild concussion, Good Morning America on Tuesday morning hyped the busy career of Ms. Clinton, proudly dubbing her the “Most Traveled Secretary of State.” The story began with GMA co-host George Stephanopoulos, a former President Clinton operative, mentioning that Ms. Clinton is, “On the mend now" although "she may be still out of action for most of her remaining time as Secretary of State."
ABC News Correspondent Reena Ninan described in detail the accident Ms. Clinton experienced, as this was the second time in eight years the Secretary has fainted because of a stomach bug. While Ninan and Stephanopoulos both emphasized the rest Mrs. Clinton requires, neither mention the fact that as a result the Secretary will miss the December 20 hearing scheduled to receive her testimony on the September 11 terrorist strike on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. You may recall that Clinton's State Department received numerous complaints from the late Amb. Chris Stevens about insufficient security on the ground in Libya. [See video below page break. MP3 audio here.]
By Jeffrey Meyer | November 30, 2012 | 2:26 PM EST
A week after the staff of Good Morning America joked about the impending closure of Hostess and the loss of 18,000 jobs, the crew at GMA switched to bashing the Hostess executives and sympathizing with the recently laid off employees, ignoring the role unions played in the collapse.
On Friday’s GMA, co-host Josh Elliott introduced the segment by reporting on new data showing corporate profits have hit an all-time high of $1.75 trillion, then smugly commenting that, “of course not everyone sharing in that wealth.” This led into Elliott bringing in the bankruptcy proceedings at Hostess where he said, “unlike the rank and file, the company's executives are about to score a major payday.” [See video below page break. MP3 audio here.]
By Scott Whitlock | October 16, 2012 | 12:56 PM EDT
All three morning shows on Tuesday highlighted Hillary Clinton "falling on her sword" and "taking blame" for the growing scandal over Libya. But NBC and ABC avoided specifics. On Good Morning America, reporter Reena Ninan failed to press the Secretary of State on details concerning Barack Obama's role.
In contrast, CBS reporter Margaret Brennan pushed for details on what the administration knew and when. She singled out United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice and her initial claims that the murder of Chris Stevens was a result of an anti-Islamic movie: "Who briefed Ambassador Rice that day? Did you sign off on that briefing and those speaking points?" Clinton said no and curtly replied, "You would have to ask her...Everybody had the same information." Yet, according to ABC's Ninan, "...Clinton appeared to fall on her sword."
By Brad Wilmouth | January 8, 2010 | 11:44 PM EST
A year ago today, when U.N. officials accused the Israeli military of killing the driver of a vehicle delivering relief aid to Gaza during the Israeli campaign against Hamas, all the broadcast and news networks reported the accusation on January 8, 2009, noting the U.N.'s resulting cessation of relief aid deliveries. But, after the Israeli military conducted an investigation and charged that Hamas was responsible for the killing, very few of the shows that reported the initial charges by the U.N. updated viewers on this important development. An examination of the morning and evening newscasts on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FNC, and PBS – including American Morning and The Situation Room on CNN; as well as Fox and Friends, the Fox Report, and Special Report with Bret Baier on FNC; and PBS's NewsHour – between January 8 and January 12, 2009, found that all these shows – with the exception of ABC’s Good Morning America – reported on the truck driver’s death at least once, with nearly all shows also directly relaying the U.N.’s charge of Israeli military culpability.
But only CNN's The Situation Room, on the January 9 show, took the time to briefly inform viewers that the Israeli military had denied responsibility for the incident as correspondent Nic Robertson related: "[The U.N.] said that two of their workers were killed by Israeli tank and machine gun fire. Israeli Defense Forces say they have investigated it. Now, they say it wasn't them, which implies that it must have been Hamas."