Sympathetic GMA Segment Highlights Terrorist Regrets; Focuses on Water
March 15th, 2007 1:09 PM
On Thursday’s "Good Morning America," anchor Chris Cuomo and reporter Brian Ross discussed the recent report that terrorist mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad admitted to planning 9/11 and other major attacks. However, Cuomo and Ross spent much of the segment fretting over the interrogation techniques used by the U.S. And Mr. Ross chose to recount an oddly sympathetic quote by the terrorist,…
ABC Frets Over Dismissal of 8 U.S. Attorneys; Ignored Clinton’s Firi
March 13th, 2007 12:30 PM
[Scroll below for 5:24pm EDT] On Tuesday’s "Good Morning America," ABC anchor Robin Roberts speculated and fretted over the allegations that some U.S. attorneys were fired because they wouldn’t aggressively investigate Democrats. Roberts dramatically stated that the firings highlight "a trail that points straight to the top" and wondered "how big could this be?" Yet when President Clinton fired…
ABC’s Koppel: U.S. ‘Turned Al Qaeda into the Biggest Franchise Sin
March 9th, 2007 1:26 PM
On Friday’s "Good Morning America," veteran journalist Ted Koppel talked with co-host Diane Sawyer about his new Discovery Channel special on the war against terror, "Our Children’s Children’s War." Koppel used the appearance to suggest that America stop calling the conflict a war, rely more on negotiations and he also blamed the U.S. for actually making things worse, asserting that " we turned…
Orange Juice Diplomacy: Sawyer Squeezes Khalilzad on Speaking with Ira
March 9th, 2007 9:05 AM
Back in the '70s, an exchange of ping pong players between the United States and China began a thawing of relations between the two countries that paved the way for Richard Nixon's famous trip to Beijing. Could we be entering a similar stage with Iran that could come to be known as "orange juice diplomacy"? Diane Sawyer certainly seems to hope so, judging by the way she pressed US ambassador to…
GMA’s Sawyer Spins Scooter Libby as ‘Scapegoat’ and ‘Fall Guy
March 7th, 2007 5:41 PM
On Wednesday’s "Good Morning America," anchor Diane Sawyer framed of the conviction of Lewis "Scooter" Libby through the perspective of anti-Bush liberals, continuing a tradition that began with the previous day’s evening news programs. An ABC graphic described Libby, a former top aide to Vice President Cheney, as the "fall guy" and Sawyer wondered if he was "a scapegoat." And nowhere in the…
GMA Highlights ‘Vicious’ Coulter; Ignores Maher Musings About Chen
March 6th, 2007 2:50 PM
Has Ann Coulter gone too far? “Good Morning America” reporter Jake Tapper posed that question on Tuesday’s program. Commenting on Coulter’s use of a slur at last week’s Conservative Political Action Conference, he used the words “vicious” and “mean spirited” to describe the author. An ABC graphic described the speech as “nasty.” And yet, the ABC program has not aired a single story on prominent…
GMA's Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell Segment Focuses on Sympathetic Story of One
February 28th, 2007 1:50 PM
It's a tried and true tactic of interest groups seeking to influence public opinion -- and legislative policy -- on a controversial issue. Find the most sympathetic individual case you can, and get the media to focus on that, rather than on the broaders merits of the matter. A prime example of the phenomenon was on display today at Good Morning America. Congressman Marty Meehan [D-MA] has…
