This week, NewsBusters is presenting the Media Research Center’s “Best Notable Quotables of 2015,” our annual awards for the year’s worst journalism. Today, the “Harsh to the Huddled Masses” award, for attacks on the GOP candidates for their supposed hostility to immigration. Winning the trophy: Yahoo! News anchor Katie Couric for suggesting to GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz that he lacked “empathy” because he didn’t support Barack Obama’s unilateral executive action on amnesty.
Tom Llamas
By Curtis Houck | December 15, 2015 | 8:04 PM EST
Just after the undercard Republican presidential debate began on Tuesday night, the “big three” networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC offered previews of the impending “freewheeling and fiery slugfest” debate and contrasted that with plenty of laudatory rhetoric for “grown up” Hillary Clinton as she spoke in Minnesota about ISIS and “slamm[ed] Republicans for fearmongering.”
By Scott Whitlock | December 9, 2015 | 3:56 PM EST
Whether one considers Donald Trump’s recent comments highly offensive or simply over-the-top, it’s clear that the networks have abandoned any attempt at objectivity. On Wednesday, Good Morning America’s Tom Llamas trumpeted the New York Daily News’s assault. Llamas described the front cover featuring Trump. The journalist cheered, “It shows Trump with a large sword. His victim? The Statue of Liberty.” Llamas opined, “The message, Trump has declared his own personal jihad on American values.”
By Kyle Drennen | December 9, 2015 | 11:36 AM EST
On Wednesday, all three network morning shows eagerly seized on the latest Donald Trump controversy to boost Hillary Clinton’s 2016 chances. On NBC’s Today, correspondent Peter Alexander proclaimed: “For the Grand Old Party, an urgent dilemma, fail to stand up to Trump and risk long-term damage to the party or confront Trump and risk his running as an independent....A Trump third-party bid would likely gift wrap the White House for Hillary Clinton.”
By Matthew Balan | December 5, 2015 | 12:35 AM EST
Friday's NBC Nightly News and CBS Evening News both spotlighted the New York Daily News's latest anti-conservative front page, which denigrated Wayne LaPierre of the NRA as a "terrorist." CBS's Nancy Cordes touted how "the always-heated gun debate has gotten personal. The New York Daily News...called the head of the National Rifle Association a 'terrorist.'" NBC's Hallie Jackson played up the liberal newspaper's attack, as well as The New Yorker's "provocative" cover targeting gun owners.
By Scott Whitlock | November 12, 2015 | 11:49 AM EST
Good Morning America’s Tom Llamas on Thursday whined that Marco Rubio was “dodging our questions” on immigration. Yet, the journalist seemed to forget that the Senator answered questions on that very topic on Wednesday’s GMA. At a campaign event, the journalist pounced and grilled the Republican about Donald Trump: “I tried asking Senator Marco Rubio about Trump's idea, but he dodged our questions.”
By Curtis Houck | November 11, 2015 | 9:58 PM EST
The Wednesday editions of ABC’s World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News each provided their own wrap-ups of the Fox Business Network Republican presidential debate from the night before, but the theme was predictably similar as both networks spun the event as illustrating “fierce opposition” and “dramatic divisions” within the GOP on apparently every issue.
By Matthew Balan | November 6, 2015 | 9:50 PM EST
On Friday's NBC Nightly News, Chris Jansing touted Politico's scoop about Dr. Ben Carson's "scholarship" claim about West Point, underlining how the liberal outlet "call[ed] Carson's story a 'fabrication.'" However, Jansing's report aired more than two hours after Politico removed the "fabrication" term" from their headline." The journalist later hyped that it's "hard to overstate how much Carson uses his personal story to connect with voters — so this heightened scrutiny...may be a very big threat to his campaign."
By Scott Whitlock | November 6, 2015 | 4:49 PM EST
The journalists at Good Morning America on Friday hyperventilated about Ben Carson being “under fire” and investigated for possible lies about his childhood. On the same show, a segment on Hillary Clinton simply cheered her latest late night comedy appearance.
By Curtis Houck | November 4, 2015 | 12:26 AM EST
As part of their 2016 coverage on Tuesday night, both ABC’s World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News took shots at Dr. Ben Carson for his “hardline conservative” stances on issues like abortion when other “issues” like “political experience” will be one that “he will have to address” as the campaign moves along.
By Curtis Houck | October 29, 2015 | 9:09 PM EDT
In the second of three segments on Thursday reporting on the fallout from Wednesday’s CNBC Republican presidential debate, NBC Nightly News touted an editorial by The New York Times calling on Governor Chris Christie (N.J.) to drop out of the 2016 field.
By Kyle Drennen | October 28, 2015 | 3:31 PM EDT
Hours before Wednesday’s Republican presidential debate, NBC’s Today and ABC’s Good Morning America both seized on a hit piece in Florida’s Sun Sentinel newspaper demanding that Marco Rubio resign his Senate seat. At the top of Today, co-host Matt Lauer proclaimed: “Florida Senator Marco Rubio gets dealt a tough blow from one of his state's newspapers.”