For PBS's Margaret Warner, Israel-Gaza Apparently IS Rocket Science
For at least ten seconds there, it appeared Margaret Warner thought PBS stood for the Palestinian Broadcast Service. On last night's NewsHour Ms. Warner, whilst interviewing Israel's Ambassador to the United States Sallai Meridor, posed one of the dumbest questions in the long, dumb history of broadcast journalism. So banal was her query that there was for nearly five seconds the most pregnant…
CBS Laments Obama’s ‘Life in the Media Bubble’...of Adoration
On Tuesday’s CBS Early Show, fill-in co-host Chris Wragge seemed to feel sorry for Barack Obama having to withstand the media spotlight while vacationing in Hawaii: "Coming up, life in the media bubble. How is Barack Obama adjusting to the press following his every move?" However, as correspondent Ben Tracy later reported, that spotlight is not exactly harsh: "Tours of Obama's childhood stop at…
CBS Looks Back At ‘Exciting and Historic’ Year in Politics
On Tuesday’s CBS Early Show, co-host Maggie Rodriguez introduced a segment on 2008 politics and declared: "The end of 2008 brings to a close one of the most exciting and historic years in national politics." At the top of the story, Mike Allen of the Politico explained what made the year so exciting: "2008 was the year that Barack Obama re-wrote the book on American politics."The segment was…
Network Morning Shows Fawn Over Obama Vacation Photos
The Tuesday morning shows of NBC, ABC, and CBS all promoted Barack Obama’s celebrity status as hosts and reporters ogled the latest paparazzi photo of Obama in swim trunks while on vacation in Hawaii, as NBC’s Matt Lauer declared on Today: "And fit to serve, Barack Obama photographed shirtless in Hawaii and a lot of women are giving him the presidential seal of approval." On ABC’s Good Morning…
AP Flunks 'Meltdown 101' in Comparing US and Foreign Car Companies
You would think from reading yesterday afternoon's report by the Associated Press's Tom Murphy that companies like Toyota, Nissan, and Honda are not that far from finding themselves in the situations US taxpayer bailout recipients General Motors and Chrysler are in. Murphy tries mightily to make the foreign-owned companies' situations look serious, at one point even putting out the howler that…
AP's 'Novel' Name That Party Wrinkle: Purging Dem Party IDs from Origi
Two situations over the weekend illustrate that the Associated Press's habitual failure to identify the political party of Democrats in trouble is more than likely a conscious decision. This is despite the AP Stylebook's guidance (as of 2000, the latest free edition I can find; a PDF is here) that a reporter should "include party affiliation if readers need it for understanding or are likely to…
Newsweek Buries 2008 with Obit Bias
In its year-ending double issue Newsweek couldn't resist injecting liberal media bias into its mini obituaries entitled "Remember Them Well."Yet the newsmagazine seemed to forget, perhaps intentionally, the left-of-center politics of prominent liberals profiled while using terms like "far-right" to describe the politics of deceased conservatives such as Paul Weyrich. But wait, there's more,…
ABC: Barack Obama Tops Newsweek’s List of 50 Elite People
At the end of Monday’s ABC Good Morning America, co-host Chris Cuomo talked to Newsweek editor Jon Meacham about the magazine’s ‘Elite 50' list of influential people, as Cuomo put it: "People who will literally be able to shape our lives in many different ways." Meacham explained: "Our goal with this was, you know, elite got a bad rap this year. It wasn't a good thing to be an elitist. But there'…
ABC’s GMA Looks At Obama’s Hawaiian Christmas Vacation
At the top of Monday’s ABC Good Morning America, co-host Chris Cuomo teased a story on Barack Obama’s Christmas vacation plans: "And Aloha, President-elect Barack Obama says Mele Kalikimaka on a bright Hawaiian holiday. We'll take to you to the $30 million retreat where the future first family is spending Christmas." Later, fill-in co-host Elizabeth Vargas introduced the segment: "Barack Obama…
Matthews: Jeremiah Wright on 'Left,' Rick Warren 'Far Right
Surely no one would view Rev. Jeremiah Wright as closer to the centerpoint of American politics than Pastor Rick Warren, right? Wrong. Here's Chris Matthews on this evening's Hardball.CHRIS MATTHEWS: It seems like Barack Obama, as much as seems to inspire people, including me, has a problem with pastors. I don't know what it is. You get him hooked up with a pastor, whether it's Jeremiah Wright…
CBS’s Reid Looks at Barack Obama’s New Deal
On CBS’s Sunday Morning, correspondent Chip Reid compared Obama’s economic plan to that of Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal: "During the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt started the Works Progress Administration, the WPA. It would put 8.5 million to work...Now a new American president-elect is vowing to put the country back to work. This Sunday Morning, we'll take a look back at the…
CBS’s Smith: Gay Marriage ‘A Serious Civil Rights Issue
At the top of Friday’s CBS Early Show, co-host Harry Smith teased a segment on the controversy surrounding Barack Obama’s decision to have pastor Rick Warren deliver the invocation at the inauguration: "Barack Obama angers gay rights groups by choosing Rick Warren to give his inaugural invocation." Later Smith brought on Dr. Robert Jeffress of the First Baptist Church of Dallas and David Corn of…
CBS’s Schieffer: Obama ‘Must Restore Government’s Credibility
On Sunday’s Face the Nation on CBS, host Bob Schieffer concluded the broadcast by sharing a recent political cartoon: "...a cartoon from the Houston Chronicle caught the flavor, a man standing in front of a burning building labeled the ‘Economy’ is shouting into a phone, ‘My house is on fire. How soon can you get here?’ A fireman who looks like Barack Obama answers, ‘January 20th.’" Schieffer…
CBS ‘60 Minutes’: Barney Frank, ‘The Smartest Guy in Congress
In a softball profile of the liberal Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank on Sunday’s CBS 60 Minutes, anchor Lesley Stahl led with: "Barney Frank has been called the smartest guy in Congress, which is lucky for us, since he works on some of the thorniest issues around. The 14-term, 68-year-old Harvard-educated Democratic congressman from Massachusetts is chairman of the House Financial Services…
