The “Big Three” (ABC, CBS, and NBC) networks have hailed the “historic” deal with Iran which was a described as a “major victory” for President Obama. The media, however, have a poor record when it comes to U.S. negotiations with rogue nations seeking nuclear weapons. In 1994, President Bill Clinton agreed to a deal with North Korea, an agreement which the networks at the time hailed as a sign that “the Cold War is really over.”
Peter Jennings
By Jeffrey Meyer | January 18, 2015 | 11:41 AM EST
Monday is Martin Luther King Day, a federal holiday signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1983, and on Sunday morning, ABC’s This Week decided it was the perfect opportunity to scold the Republican over his civil rights record. During the show’s weekly “powerhouse puzzler” segment, guest host Martha Raddatz asked the This Week panel “which president signed a law making MLK’s birthday a national holiday?” The ABC reporter then played a clip from ABC’s report on the signing ceremony in which ABC’s Sam Donaldson proclaimed “the president and Dr. King's widow walking into the Rose Garden together in an effort to spruce up Mr. Reagan's tattered civil rights image.”
By Rich Noyes | November 8, 2014 | 2:11 PM EST
Twenty-five years ago, the largely peaceful revolutions of 1989 — epitomized by the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9 of that year — ended the grip of communism in Eastern Europe. Looking back at journalism’s track record on communism, one finds a press that was too willing to act as a mouthpiece for the world’s worst dictatorships, and too accepting of the perverse claim that communism meant safety and security for its people.
By Rich Noyes | June 10, 2014 | 11:40 AM EDT
Not even Diane Sawyer could refrain from gently pushing back at former Secretary of State and prospective presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s claim that she and her husband were “dead broke” when they left the White House in January 2001. Talking about the huge fees both Clintons now rake in for speaking engagements, Sawyer wondered: “Do you think Americans are going to understand five times the median income in this country for one speech?”
But Sawyer could easily have gone to ABC’s own videotape library to show how preposterous Mrs. Clinton’s claim of poverty was. Back on December 15, 2000 — more than a month before the Clintons left the White House — ABC’s World News Tonight suggested the massive book advance for Hillary Clinton’s post-White House memoir was astonishing and perhaps corrupt for an incoming United States Senator. [Video and transcripts after the jump.]
By Geoffrey Dickens | June 3, 2014 | 1:35 PM EDT
Thursday (June 5) marks the 10th anniversary of President Ronald Reagan’s passing and a look through the MRC’s archives shows that during his presidency many in the liberal media couldn’t withhold their contempt of the conservative icon.
From depicting Reagan as a puppet of the rich whose economic policies were cruel towards the poor and minorities, to denying his foreign policy vision helped lead to the downfall of the Soviet Union, the media did their best to trash the 40th President. The following is a look at the many ways the liberal media attempted to distort Reagan’s record. (videos after the jump)
By Tim Graham | April 18, 2014 | 1:26 PM EDT
Ten years ago, Mel Gibson unveiled his massively successful movie The Passion of The Christ. It came out on Ash Wednesday (February 25, 2004), but is often re-viewed on Good Friday. It had a worldwide box-office gross of over $611 million.
In our Special Report on religion coverage that year, we explored how the TV networks attacked Gibson's movie as extreme, divisive, and potentially harmful -- one CBS reporter even called it an "ecumenical suicide bomb" -- and how that differed from their fascination with theories in The DaVinci Code:
By Rich Noyes | September 17, 2012 | 8:00 AM EDT
For the past two weeks, NewsBusters has been showcasing the most egregious bias the Media Research Center has uncovered over the years — four quotes for each of the 25 years of the MRC, 100 quotes total — all leading up to our big 25th Anniversary Gala September 27.
If you’ve missed a previous blog, recounting the worst of 1988 through 2002, they are here. Today, the worst bias of 2003: The New York Times compares the U.S. bombing of Baghdad to the horror of September 11; Peter Arnett goes on Iraqi state TV to propagandize against the U.S.; and we find out what a “comfort” Ted Kennedy’s liberal policies would have been to Mary Jo Kopechne, “if she had lived.” [Quotes and video below the jump.]
By Rich Noyes | September 8, 2012 | 8:01 AM EDT
Once a day for 25 days, NewsBusters is showcasing the most egregious bias the Media Research Center has uncovered over the years — four quotes for each of the 25 years of the MRC, 100 quotes total — all leading up to our big 25th Anniversary Gala on September 27. (Click here for ticket information)
So far, we’ve published the worst quotes from 1988 through 1993 (you can find those here). Today, the worst bias of 1994, including ABC’s Peter Jennings calling voters “two-year-olds” for electing a Republican Congress (“the voters had a temper tantrum last week”), and a USA Today columnist hoping Clarence Thomas would die. [Quotes and video below the jump.]
By Rich Noyes | September 2, 2012 | 8:11 AM EDT
Every day for the next few weeks, NewsBusters will be showcasing the most egregious bias the Media Research Center has uncovered over the years — four quotes for each of the 25 years of the MRC, 100 quotes total — all leading up to our big 25th Anniversary Gala on September 27. (Click here for ticket information.) With each TV quote, we’ve added the matching video from our archive, some of which hasn’t been seen in nearly a quarter-century.
To start: the worst quotes of 1988, MRC’s first full year in business. Among the highlights: Dan Rather ambushes the first George Bush and Ted Turner’s TBS super-station aired a propagandistic tribute to the U.S.S.R. [Quotes and video below the jump.]