Three CNN programs on Wednesday night and Thursday morning promoted the anti-prayer front page of the New York Daily News: "God Isn't Fixing This." Unsurprisingly, pro-gun control anchor Carol Costello quoted from the liberal newspaper's headline and sub-headline on Thursday's CNN Newsroom: "It's gotten a lot of buzz this morning...It reads, 'God Isn't Fixing This,' and slams [Ted] Cruz and other 2016 contenders as — quote, 'cowards who continue to hide behind meaningless platitudes.'"
Early Start
By Matthew Balan | November 25, 2014 | 7:00 PM EST
Two CNN anchors channeled the supporters of Michael Brown's family on Tuesday's Early Start, as they played up how St. Louis County, Missouri Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch presented the Brown case to a grand jury, instead of pursuing charges himself. Chris Cuomo pointed out that "the prosecutor could still bring charges even after the grand jury." Deborah Feyerick later forwarded her colleague's point: "Could the prosecutor...basically, overrule the grand jury and say, charges should be filed?"
By Matthew Balan | November 24, 2014 | 3:22 PM EST
CNN stood out on Sunday and Monday for actually covering the sex abuse charges against Terry Bean, a "major fundraiser for President Obama," as correspondent Erin McPike labeled him. The cable network devoted three full segments and two news briefs to the criminal charges against Bean, who is also the co-founder of the left-wing homosexual activist group Human Rights Campaign. As of Monday morning, the Big Three networks have yet to cover the story on their morning and evening newscasts.
By Matthew Balan | August 19, 2014 | 5:17 PM EDT
On Tuesday's This Hour, Michaela Pereira endorsed guest L. Z. Granderson's take on the media's extensive coverage of the ongoing turmoil in Ferguson, Missouri in the wake of the shooting death of Michael Brown. The liberal commentator pointed out that "this past weekend, we had over 30 people shot – seven of them died – in the neighborhoods in Chicago – many of them black and brown. None of that was covered." [MP3 audio available here; video below the jump]
Pereira replied to Granderson by asserting that "because of Ferguson, Chicago is sort of taking a back seat in the headlines. And Chicago's a very concerning thing, and we need to keep watching. We need to keep addressing what's going on there." One wonders if the anchor will criticize her own network, as CNN has only mentioned the violence in the Windy City twice over the past week. Back on the August 13, 2014 edition of The Lead, Jake Tapper cited a recent column by Jesse Jackson:
By Matt Hadro | October 16, 2013 | 4:33 PM EDT
Lost in the midst of CNN's debt ceiling coverage was its own list of ObamaCare's shortcomings. Investigative correspondent Drew Griffin authored a report on "ObamaCare woes" that aired only three times on Monday and Tuesday.
Griffin reported trouble with ObamaCare's website, cited a March GAO report on missed deadlines for the system's construction, and quoted a consultant who said that insurance executives had waved red flags that the "whole system is not ready for primetime."
By Matt Hadro | September 19, 2013 | 3:54 PM EDT
CNN has all but ignored a new report that according to IRS documents, the agency gave extra scrutiny to 162 political groups – 80 percent of them conservative – that were seeking tax-exempt status.
A USA Today report stated that the IRS "flagged" groups based on "'anti-Obama rhetoric', inflammatory language and 'emotional' statements." CNN briefly mentioned the bombshell report once, on Wednesday's Early Start at 5:08 a.m. ET. The network has ignored the report since, moving to join the networks in their blackout.
By Matt Hadro | September 12, 2013 | 12:26 PM EDT
On the one-year anniversary of the Benghazi attacks, only three CNN shows bothered to hold the Obama administration accountable for not having made any arrests of suspects. Hosts Jake Tapper and Erin Burnett, and anchor Michael Holmes were the three CNN figures to point at the administration for not having made any arrests.
For the rest of CNN's 18-hour news day, any mentions of Benghazi ignored the lack of arrests and were mostly brief reports on Wednesday's bombing of the Foreign Ministry building in the city and reminders that it was the one-year anniversary of the attacks. Piers Morgan Live made no mention whatsoever of Benghazi.
By Matt Hadro | August 9, 2013 | 11:54 AM EDT
Alarm bells are ringing over the status of Obamacare's privacy protection system, which is scheduled to start October 1 despite missed deadlines in getting it ready to operate. CNN has made no mention of the Inspector General report on the missed deadlines.
Reuters said the government was "months behind" in testing the system's security, where personal information would be stored to determine a person's eligibility for subsidies in purchasing health insurance at state exchanges. If the system was rolled out as scheduled before it was ready, "The most likely serious security breach would be identity theft," Reuters said.
By Matt Hadro | August 8, 2013 | 1:17 PM EDT
CNN had extensive coverage on Wednesday of President Obama's interview with NBC's Jay Leno, but only two CNN hosts actually challenged some of the President's claims during the 11 different news hours that played clips of the interview.
One of Obama's statements went completely unchallenged for the entire day. The President said that "we don't need a huge government, but we need government doing some basic things," in reference to infrastructure. He added that the country needs to "make sure we don't waste money."
By Matt Hadro | August 1, 2013 | 2:44 PM EDT
[UPDATED BELOW] CNN's Arwa Damon scored an exclusive interview with a suspect in the Benghazi attacks, yet CNN chose to air it only once. Aside from a brief mention of it on Thursday morning, the network has dropped its own scoop that it broke on 5 p.m. Wednesday on The Situation Room.
None of the three networks mentioned the story on their Wednesday evening news casts, and only CBS talked about Benghazi on Thursday, though they didn't mention Arwa Damon's report.
By Matt Hadro | July 16, 2013 | 5:57 PM EDT
CNN's Early Start should have been re-named "DNC TV" on Tuesday. Anchors omitted almost every controversial detail about Democrats, showing no such love for Republicans.
While CNN reported charges against a former staffer for Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), the network spun scandals into positives for New York Democrats Anthony Weiner and Eliot Spitzer with the headline "Scandals Help, Not Hurt." Then in its report on embattled San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, CNN omitted his Democratic affiliation. Filner is also a former Democratic congressman, who currently faces accusations of sexual harassment.
By Matt Hadro | July 9, 2013 | 10:36 AM EDT
CNN mentioned Eliot Spitzer's prostitution scandal in every single report on his comeback bid in politics on Monday and Tuesday, but hid that he was recently a CNN prime-time host in five of the seven reports.
Spitzer was originally hired by CNN as a liberal voice, to co-host a prime-time show with "conservative" Kathleen Parker that debuted in October of 2010. When Parker left the show months later in February of 2011, Spitzer – originally hired for his liberal bias – became the sole host of In the Arena, which was canceled later in July. Yet CNN only disclosed this information twice in its seven reports on Spitzer's candidacy for New York City comptroller.