Networks Defend Obama as ‘Critics Pounced’ and Took 'Too Literally
August 29th, 2014 12:50 PM
On Friday morning, the major broadcast networks were out in full force to defend President Obama after his remarks at a press conference Thursday afternoon in which he said that “we don’t have a strategy yet” in how to militarily address the Islamic terrorist group ISIS in Syria.
Leading the way was NBC’s Today, where co-host Matt Lauer told NBC News political director and moderator of Meet…
AP Headline Describes 160 Syrian Soldiers Massacred by ISIS as 'Dozens
August 28th, 2014 11:03 PM
I struggle to come up with a reason, other than an irresponsible attempt to minimize the impact of the horror, why the headline at a Thursday evening Associated Press story by Zeina Karam and Ryan Lucas about "more than 160 Syrian government troops" massacred by ISIS is "JIHADISTS KILL DOZENS OF CAPTURED SYRIAN SOLDIERS."
But that's how the wire service is presenting it:
'Americans Could Die!': Megyn Kelly Goes Off On Obama's Friday Fundrai
August 28th, 2014 9:31 PM
On Wednesday night, Megyn Kelly, perhaps the best host on the air today at adapting and responding to new information, did a double-take when Fox News White House correspondent Ed Henry told her that President Obama would be traveling to Rhode Island on Friday for a Democratic Party fundraiser.
Having been so informed, she then made those plans the first topic of discussion with each of her…
NBC and ABC Ignore Obama Fundraising Trip Snarling Holiday Travel, CBS
August 28th, 2014 4:22 PM
Despite a Thursday New York Post report that President Obama's upcoming Labor Day weekend fundraising junket would shut down airspace across the northeast and hurt business for local pilots, neither NBC's Today nor ABC's Good Morning America covered the controversy. CBS This Morning offered a mere 18-second news brief on the topic.
This Morning fill-in co-host Vinita Nair informed viewers…
Matthews on Arizona Gun Range Tragedy: ‘This Is Where You Get When Y
August 28th, 2014 1:02 AM
Chris Matthews devoted a segment during his MSNBC show Hardball on Wednesday evening to the tragic shooting death of a firearms instructor at a Arizona gun range after a nine-year-old girl accidently shot him with an Uzi submachine gun. Instead of discussing how tragic this incident was or possible safety measures to take in the future, Matthews and his guests chose to rail against the National…
Rush Limbaugh Levels Gwen Ifill's 'Is That America?' Piety on Ferguson
August 27th, 2014 7:40 PM
Among the things that conservative firebreather Rush Limbaugh deservedly loathes, it's sanctimony from an ostensibly neutral news anchor.
Gwen Ifill, moderator of "Washington Week" and co-anchor of "PBS NewsHour," was among the panelists who appeared on "Meet the Press" this past Sunday. The discussion inevitably turned to the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and the civil…
PBS Bemoans Philippines 'Diluting' Population Control Law to Protect R
August 27th, 2014 3:20 PM
Mark Litke hyped the "population explosion – what some are calling a crisis" in the Philippines on Sunday's PBS NewsHour Weekend, and played up how poor "families in Asia's most Catholic country...have had little or no access to contraception or family planning advice." Litke confronted a retired Catholic archbishop on his Church's teaching against birth control: "If the people of the…
Networks Fret Over Burger King 'Defecting' to Canada to Pay Lower Taxe
August 27th, 2014 2:24 PM
As news broke on Tuesday of Burger King buying Tim Hortons and moving its corporate headquarters to Canada, the broadcast networks quickly adopted the liberal talking point that the fast food chain was being unpatriotic by avoiding high U.S. tax rates. On Tuesday's ABC World News, anchor Diane Sawyer proclaimed: "Burger King, home of the Whopper, accused of doing something a lot of Americans…
O'Reilly: Al Sharpton 'Almost Single-Handedly Has Corrupted NBC News
August 27th, 2014 8:58 AM
On his show Monday night, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly declared that MSNBC host and Ferguson, Missouri activist Al Sharpton "has become so controversial in America that it's hard to explain how a news agency, NBC, can even have him on the payroll." Mediabuzz host Howard Kurtz agreed, labeling Sharpton's employment with the network "a travesty." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the…
Howler of the Night From Politico: Charlie Crist As a Former 'Rock-Rib
August 26th, 2014 11:45 PM
Former Florida Republican Governor Charlie won the state's Democratic gubernatorial primary tonight.
In his writeup on Crist's defeat of an overmatched challenger, the Politico's James Hohmann wrote that "Only four years ago Crist was a governor who had run for office as a rock-ribbed conservative." That wording is a bit too clever. One might argue that Hohmann is merely claiming that Crist…
Networks Dodge Huge IRS Scandal News as DOJ Attorney Says Lost Lerner
August 25th, 2014 9:15 PM
Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton appeared on the Fox News Channel (FNC) Monday afternoon and informed viewers that a Department of Justice (DOJ) attorney admitted to his organization on Friday that the e-mails belonging to former IRS official Lois Lerner that were thought to be lost likely still exist. He declared to FNC’s Shannon Bream that the story of Lerner’s hard drive being damaged and…
Left-Wing Missouri State Senator Praises MSNBC's Coverage of Ferguson
August 25th, 2014 3:29 PM
In a testament to how slanted MSNBC's coverage of the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri has been, Democratic state senator and left-wing bomb-thrower Maria Chappelle-Nadal praised the channel's activist coverage of the story during an appearance on Monday's Jose Diaz-Balart: "I have to tell you that because your network has been here, a lot of truths have come to light. If the national media was not…
NBC: Is Criticism of Obama Vacation 'Just Politics As Usual
August 25th, 2014 10:37 AM
On Monday's NBC Today, fill-in co-host Tamron Hall asked incoming Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd if all the criticism of President Obama's vacation in Martha's Vineyard amid numerous crises was "just politics as usual." Todd replied: "Yes, it's politics as usual, but in this case, this is optics, this was stuff they should have seen coming. This is not new to them." [Listen to the audio or…
Chris Matthews: Obama Should Take 'Lesson' From Holder, Who 'Showed Ho
August 22nd, 2014 4:28 PM
Filling in for Andrea Mitchell during MSNBC's 12 p.m. ET hour on Friday, Hardball host Chris Matthews hit President Obama from the left while praising Attorney General Eric Holder's visit to Ferguson, Missouri: "...it may be a lesson for the President, too, and I'm not usually a critic of him. But I have to say that I thought that in a very positive way Eric holder showed how you lead in this…