ABC Acts as Gay Rights Soapbox for Ellen DeGeneres' Wife

On Dec. 4, the Australian actress Portia de Rossi, wife of Ellen DeGeneres, appeared on both ABC's "Good Morning America" and "The View" to promote her ABC sitcom ‘Better off Ted" ... well, supposedly. In reality, ABC simply offered de Rossi a soapbox to rant about gay rights. During his interview with de Rossi, GMA correspondent Bill Weir called DeGeneres and de Rossi a "beautiful couple" and…
Carolyn Plocher

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews: Media Refs 'Calling All The Plays' For Obama

Responding to President Obama criticizing media coverage of the White House jobs summit, on Friday’s Hardball on MSNBC, host Chris Matthews wondered why the President wasn’t more appreciative of all the media’s help: “Why would you ride the ref when he’s calling all the plays for you? What’s he out there bashing the media for?” During a town hall meeting in Allentown, Pennsylvania on Friday,…
Kyle Drennen

Protest Sign - 'ClimateGate: It Won't Go Away. Report It, CBC

Is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation acting like America's leading television networks and also boycotting the ClimateGate scandal?The answer is "No," but a protester who crashed a CBC live feed by holding up a sign behind an on air reporter certainly thinks so.After all, the words "ClimateGate: It won't go away. Report it, CBC" are rather self-explanatory (video embedded below the fold, h/t…
Noel Sheppard

Katie Couric Absurdly Declares: Walter Cronkite Had an ‘Unswerving C

In the December 4, 2009 edition of Entertainment Weekly, CBS’s Katie Couric bizarrely asserted that the late Walter Cronkite possessed an "unwavering commitment to reporting the news accurately, fairly, and responsibly." In the brief tribute, she also repeated, "Walter Cronkite once said, ‘Objective journalism and an opinion column are about as similar as the Bible and Playboy.’"In reality,…
Scott Whitlock

Corrected: Politico Makes No Mention of ClimateGate in Al Gore Intervi

An earlier version of this blog post incorrectly stated that John Harris and Mike Allen of Politico declined to ask former vice president Al Gore about controversial emails from climate scientists who support the idea of anthropogenic global warming after knowledge of those emails was publicly disclosed. In fact, the interview with Gore occurred before the emails were public knowledge, therefore…
Lachlan Markay

CBS’s Schieffer: Obama Facing Most Challenges Since WWII

On Friday’s CBS Early Show, co-host Harry Smith asked Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer about all the problems facing President Obama: “it was Afghanistan, now it’s jobs...healthcare....Do you remember a time when a president had as many irons – critical irons – in the fire, as this one seems to have right now?” Schieffer replied: “Oh, I suppose during the dark days of World War II.”  Schieffer…
Kyle Drennen

TVNewser: MSNBC's Ratigan to Gain Afternoon Slot on Network in

Dylan Ratigan (file photo at right), whose bias and occasional forays into balanced journalism have both been documented at NewsBusters, is set to gain an afternoon slot in 2010, according to Chris Ariens of TVNewser:MSNBC's "Morning Meeting" is about to get an afternoon edition. TVNewser has learned that starting Monday, host Dylan Ratigan will be on for one hour, 9am ET only, so he and the…
Ken Shepherd

When Underlining 'Conservatives Jumping Ship,' Try a Newer One Than An

Tim Graham

Headline: 'Michelle Obama Wore Clothes to Light the Christmas Tree

Just when you thought Obama-loving was on the decline, along comes an absolutely astonishing bit of sycophancy that totally boggles the mind.The following is an actual headline published at New York magazine's The Cut blog moments ago:  Michelle Obama Wore Clothes to Light the Christmas TreeNow, the implication is that this is out of the ordinary. Do first ladies normally light the White House…
Noel Sheppard

Matthews Goes on Tear Against Term 'Homeland

Chris Matthews, on Thursday's Hardball, admonished one of his panelists, April Ryan of American Urban Radio Networks, for using the term "homeland," because "it sounds like Russia," and worried that use of that term could lead to calling the United States "motherland," and "fatherland," and "that's when we are getting imperial." The discussion with Ryan and Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post,…
Geoffrey Dickens

‘Today’ Ignores Climategate, Discusses British Couple Financing We

We're heading into the fourteenth day that the networks have deliberately ignored the Climategate scandal. And it's understandable. After all, air time is valuable and there are so many pressing issues to cover. Like ... um ... Well, on Dec. 4, NBC's four-hour "Today" show couldn't squeeze in a single reference to Climategate, but it did find the time to discuss a British couple that's…
Carolyn Plocher

Obama: We Want To Make Sure People Buying Health Care Don't Get 'Gyppe

gyp Slangvb gyps, gypping, gypped, gips gipping, gipped(tr) to swindle, cheat, or defraud[back formation from Gypsy]Someone call the PC police. At a town hall in Allentown, PA today, Pres. Obama said he is seeking to regulate health insurance companies to make sure that people don't get "gypped."Perhaps PBO thought the term would appeal to the crowd.  This was Pennsylvania, after all, the state…
Mark Finkelstein

Bozell: Maybe Networks Don't Know About ClimateGate; We'll Send Them N

For 14 straight days, the three broadcast networks have failed to report on the great and growing ClimateGate scandal on their weekday morning or evening news programs.  How to explain this?Perhaps it is that ABC, NBC and CBS have not yet heard of the story, despite two weeks of non-stop reporting on and discussion of ClimateGate in a whole host of media outlets.Perhaps the broadcast networks…
NB Staff

MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan Slams ClimateGate Fakery: When Will NBC Do the

MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan on Friday aggressively took on the subject of ClimateGate, informing a global warming scientist that the "perceived integrity of what you are saying is diminished by scientists who appear to be hiding something." If MSNBC can debate this serious subject, why have the three major networks ignored it for 14 days? [Audio available here.] The Morning Meeting host brought on…
Scott Whitlock