CBS: 'Tough' Pennsylvania Immigration Law, Like 'Controversial' Arizon
July 13th, 2010 3:51 PM
On Saturday's CBS Evening News, anchor Jeff Glor reported on an immigration protest in Boston: "...hundreds opposed to Arizona's controversial immigration law protested the presence of Arizona Governor Jan Brewer at a meeting there." One protestor held a sign that read: "Jan Brewer is a Bigot." Glor then turned to a report on a similar immigration law proposed in Pennsylvania. Correspondent…
CBS Continues to Pressure Congress to Extend Unemployment Benefits
July 13th, 2010 12:07 PM
On Saturday's CBS Evening News, anchor Jeff Glor decided what should be at the top of Congress's agenda as it returned from the July 4th recess: "Congress returns to Washington next week to face a big backlog of unfinished business, and topping the list is the future of unemployment benefits."In a report that followed, senior White House correspondent Bill Plante chided elected officials for…
NBC Offers Additional 35 Seconds to Story of Controversial Medicare Ap
July 9th, 2010 11:53 AM
NBC's Nightly News with Brian Williams on Thursday became the first evening news broadcast to cover the recess appointment of Donald Berwick to run Medicare. Anchor Brian Williams asserted that "Republicans are angry, claiming it's antagonistic." He also observed, "Berwick has spoken about the need to ration medical care to control costs." NBC has offered the most reporting on Berwick: 20 seconds…
Evening News Watch: NBC Trick May Have Enabled Big 3 Nets to Avoid Goi
July 8th, 2010 12:48 PM
Last week, Matt Robare at NewsBusters noted the fact that the Big 3 networks' combined year-over-year audience fell by a bit more than 1 million during the second quarter. Last week's showing appears to be to a slight pickup over the previous week, but it may have been much worse. Here, per Media Bistro, is how the the week of June 28 as reported by Nielsen compared to the week of June 21, the…
CBS's Couric to Netanyahu: 'Should You Be More Strongly Advocating' on
July 8th, 2010 11:58 AM
In an interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric noted President Obama's unpopularity in Israel and pressed Netanyahu to remedy that fact: "To change public opinion in your country, should you be more strongly advocating on his behalf?" Couric preceded that question by citing a recent poll of Israelis, which she seemed perplexed by…
ABC, NBC and CBS Mostly Ignore Obama's Recess Appointment of Pro-Healt
July 7th, 2010 11:49 AM
Barack Obama's decision to make a recess appointment of Dr. Donald Berwick to run Medicare has been vastly ignored by the mainstream news media, despite the fact Berwick has made controversial statements favoring rationing of medical care. As CNSNews.com's Terry Jeffrey reported Dr. Berwick, at a talk celebrating the 60th birthday of Great Britain's National Health Service, told the audience to…
Examiner's Byron York: The NASA-Muslim Outreach Story 'Has Not Made th
July 7th, 2010 9:31 AM
At the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog (HT Instapundit), Byron York documents the results of some Lexis Nexis searching: Total words about the NASA Muslim outreach program in the New York Times: 0. Total words about the NASA Muslim outreach program in the Washington Post: 0. Total words about the NASA Muslim outreach program on NBC Nightly News: 0. Total words about the NASA…
Oh, No! On Independence Day, CBS Frets Congress Becoming 'Paralyzed' O
July 5th, 2010 4:37 PM
West coast viewers got to see a July 4 CBS Evening News on Sunday, and those who tuned in saw CBS's interim "report card" on Congress's performance so far. Under the headline of "unfinished business," correspondent Wyatt Andrews and his sole expert, Politico's Jonathan Allen, both fretted how Congress is now "paralyzed" due to a "growing fear of the deficit."Many Americans are probably wishing…
CBS's Chip Reid Rails Against Failure to Extend Unemployment Benefits
July 2nd, 2010 12:23 PM
CBS's Chip Reid on Thursday railed against the Senate for failing to extend unemployment benefits. The Evening News reporter opined, "So who's fault is that? On the surface, it appears Senate Republicans are to blame. Led by Mitch McConnell, they killed the bill with a filibuster." At no point did Reid or fill-in anchor Scott Pelley discuss whether unemployment benefits should be extended yet…
Saving Us from Ourselves: 'Evening News' Justifies Federal Tanning Tax
July 1st, 2010 4:31 PM
So you want to crawl under a high-powered lamp and bake your skin so that it has a brownish-orangish glow to it, even though there are potential health consequences. Well, the federal government is here to save you and, according to "CBS Evening News," that's not a bad thing.The new federal 10 percent tax on indoor tanning has provoked odd alliances - such as when Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.,…
ABCBSNBC Continue to Lose Audience
July 1st, 2010 12:50 PM
The big three nightly news broadcasts, NBC Nightly, CBS Evening and ABC World, lost a combined one million viewers in the second quarter of 2010, according to TVNewser.These numbers are comparable to the first quarter, which saw Evening News and World News get their lowest average viewers ever, while NBC's Winter Olympics coverage helped it get their highest average viewers since 2005. In the…
Kagan Hearings, Day #3: ABC and NBC Skip Nominee's Partial Birth Abort
July 1st, 2010 11:39 AM
Wednesday's evening news shows and Thursday's morning programs continued to minimize or leave out important moments of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's confirmation hearings. ABC's Good Morning America, for instance, has offered only 67 seconds of coverage over three days. Today and The Early Show each provided a single ten second news brief on Thursday. It's not as though the second day of…
CBS and NBC Delight in Al Franken's Sketch of Sessions: 'Suitable for
June 30th, 2010 8:26 PM
CBS and NBC took time Wednesday night to showcase Democratic Senator Al Franken's artistry -- not to scold Franken's frivolity, but to luxuriate in it. As CBS displayed Franken's drawing of Republican Senator Jeff Sessions next to a picture of the Alabamian, fill-in anchor Scott Pelley admired what Franken had created during the hearing for Supreme Court nominee Elana Kagan:A look over Franken's…
Networks Paint ‘Trailblazer’ Kagan as Hilarious Wit Who ‘Can Tak
June 30th, 2010 2:03 AM
“For the first time, Americans got to see the woman President Obama called a ‘trailblazer’ in action,” ABC anchor Diane Sawyer trumpeted Tuesday night before Jonathan Karl framed his story on Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s hearing around how “a confirmation hearing isn't usually a laughing matter, but if we learned one thing about Elena Kagan today, it's that she has a sense of humor.” Like…