Say NBC: Is Iraq Still In 'Civil War
November 20th, 2007 4:34 PM
As the first anniversary of its grand declaration fast approaches, does NBC continue to believe that Iraq is in a state of civil war? Readers will recall that as we described here, Matt Lauer opened the Today show on November 27th, 2006 with these words:Good morning. Civil war. A bloody weekend of sectarian clashes in Iraq and no sign it's letting up.A bit later, Lauer portentously declared: For…
CBS ‘Early Show’ Celebrates the ‘Dixie Chicks of Bridge
November 20th, 2007 3:32 PM
Apparently bridge has officially become edgy and provocative. I must not have gotten the memo.On Tuesday’s CBS "Early Show," co-host Hannah Storm interviewed a championship bridge team that held up a sign that read "We didn’t vote for Bush," at the World Bridge Championship in China last month. As a result of this dissent, many in the mainstream media have dubbed the women the "Dixie Chicks of…
Iraq News Too Good for Even NYT To Ignore
November 20th, 2007 7:22 AM
The President's escalation strategy has failed. We need to stop refereeing this civil war, and start getting out now. -- Hillary Clinton, statement of August 23, 2007As many had foreseen, the escalation has failed to produce the intended results. -- letter to Pres. Bush from Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, June 12, 2007That's not a cement mixer you hear. It's the collective Dem gnashing of teeth.…
NBC and CBS Jump to Showcase Rise in Army Desertions
November 20th, 2007 2:48 AM
Catching up with news from the end of last week, NBC and CBS on Friday night jumped to highlight an increase in Army desertions blamed on the Iraq war, but failed to note the rate has simply returned to its 2001 level or that the number of desertions by Marines, a service also heavily committed to Iraq, has fallen. Brian Williams led the NBC Nightly News with how “the number of desertions from…
Anchoress's Anecdotes Demonstrate Ongoing Negative Impact of Old Media
November 16th, 2007 10:02 PM
The Anchoress, a three-time Weblog Awards finalist and 2007 Catholic Blog Awards Winner (congratulations!) in the Best Political/Social Commentary category (scroll down at link to see it), delivered a cold but necessary shower earlier this evening to those of us who are tempted to exaggerate or overstate the impact New Media is having on most Americans. I'll bet that a lot of us can relay similar…
CBS Again Uniquely Notes Plummet in Attacks on U.S. Forces in Iraq
November 15th, 2007 9:42 PM
On Thursday, for the second time this week, only the CBS Evening News -- of the three broadcast network evening newscasts -- gave a few seconds to new stats from the Department of Defense with good news on Iraq, this time a 50 percent reduction in IEDs. On Monday, only the CBS Evening News devoted a few seconds to how rocket and mortar attacks on U.S. forces fell in October to the lowest level…
NBC Catches Up With ABC to Highlight Safer, Better Life in Iraq
November 14th, 2007 10:45 PM
Three weeks after ABC's World News aired the first of three stories then and since about significant declines in violence and improving living conditions in Iraq, NBC Nightly News caught up Wednesday night as anchor Brian Williams acknowledged: “We are all hearing more and more these days about a significant drop in violence and deaths in Iraq, even though 2007 some time ago became the bloodiest…
CBS Tribute to Norman Mailer, Who Said WTC ‘Had to Be Destroyed
November 14th, 2007 4:54 PM
On CBS’s "Sunday Morning" this past weekend, reporter Martha Teichner did a profile of recently deceased ultra left-wing author, Norman Mailer, who she described as "... a hell of a big man for a short guy, scrappy, brilliant, controversial. Slugging away at life and letters until the very end." Of course, this was the same Norman Mailer that said of the World Trade Center in October 2001: "…
CBS ‘Early Show’: Veteran Suicide Rates ‘Shockingly High
November 13th, 2007 5:56 PM
Tuesday’s CBS "Early Show" featured a segment on a recent Veteran’s Affairs report that outlined "an alarming suicide rate among veterans," according to co-host Julie Chen. Reporter Armen Keteyian then previewed an upcoming "Evening News" segment on the findings and shared the stories of particular veterans who served in Iraq:Staff Sergeant Justin Reyes spent a violent year serving in Iraq...…
Olbermann's Cheap Shot at Bush on Veteran's Day Speech
November 13th, 2007 5:18 PM
Both President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney gave speeches honoring military veterans on November 11, Veterans Day. Yet rather than take a short breather from his usual rants about the Bush administration to celebrate veterans' service and sacrifice, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann chose to portray the president as a callous commander-in-chief for not laying a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery…
CBS: Decrease in African-American Military Service Bush’s Fault
November 13th, 2007 1:45 PM
In what began as a Veterans Day tribute to African-American military veterans, a segment on Sunday’s CBS "Sunday Morning,"soon became a rant against the Bush Administration as reporter Bill Whitaker exclaimed: The concerned Department of Defense has studied why black enlistment has plummeted and found that many of the so-called "influencers" in the black community, parents, teachers, clergy, feel…
CNN Puts Negative Spin on Withdrawal of Brigade from Iraq
November 13th, 2007 1:02 PM
Instead of the progress that has been made in lowering violence in the country, CNN decided to focus on the "significant price" of the troop surge in Iraq. Tuesday’s "American Morning" reported that the Defense Department had decided to pull an entire brigade out of Iraq. Co-host John Roberts asked Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr "what’s this really mean for the war?" Starr only mentioned…
