NBC's Todd: Liberal Victory Means 'Hope' But Conservative Wins Will De
NBC's Chuck Todd couched it in terms of how “both parties” are peddling “fear” in this year's election season -- but his formulation Tuesday night of how 2008 was “the hope election” while this one will be “the fear election” – offered a likely preview of how the MSM will try to discredit voter repudiation of liberal Democratic Obama allies when they hardly cast in a negative light the 2008 voter…
Sub-19 and Sub-5: Big Three Nets' Drew Under 19 Million Last Week; CBS
They'll have all sorts of excuses (but only if asked) about why it happened: It's because they had a lot of guest anchors last week, it was hot, summer vacation season is still on (though lots of kids around in Greater Cincinnati were already back in school by last Wednesday), cable is killing us, blah-blah, etc., etc. But the Big Three networks won't be able to avoid the fact that their ongoing…
On Letterman, Brian Williams Cheers ‘Fruits’ of ‘Clinton Economy
Appearing on the Late Show on Monday night to plug his Friday night Dateline on the 5th anniversary of Katrina, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams bizarrely asserted “we're still enjoying the fruits really of the Clinton economy,” claimed Tea Party activists who say “we want our country back” want it back “from the Trilateral Commission” and ridiculed their presumed hypocrisy as he insisted “…
NBC's Todd Frets Obama's Effort to 'Tackle' Nation's Problems Allowed
NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams cited a “stunning number” from “a reputable pollster” (Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press) – which discovered “just under 20 percent of the American people believe the President is a Muslim” when “he is not” – to justify a full explanation from Chuck Todd on the mischaracterization of Barack…
CBS, NBC Skip Pelosi Threat to Investigate Opposition to Ground Zero M
Only Good Morning America's Jake Tapper on Thursday mentioned the call by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to investigate those who oppose the construction of a mosque near Ground Zero. CBS's Early Show and NBC's Today both skipped any discussion of the subject. So did Wednesday night's network newscasts. Tapper explained, "And the House top Democrat also called for transparency for who is funding the…
Olbermann Uses Words of U.S. Soldier to Bolster Anti-War Agenda, Ignor
On Monday’s Countdown show, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann used a clip of U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Tim Osborn, stationed in Iraq, commenting on how he had previously felt that the war in Iraq "wasn’t ever going to stop," to fit into the Countdown host’s suggestion that American troops had remained in Iraq too long. But what Olbermann did not show his viewers is that Staff Sergeant Osborn had also…
ABC's Dan Harris, Who Slimed Tea Party, Now Tries to Discredit Mosque
Dan Harris, who last year gave credence, by including their attacks in his stories, to those who wished to discredit the Tea Party as “actually largely orchestrated by people fronting for corporate interests” and smeared participants as “driven, in part, by a refusal to accept a black President,” on Monday night read from the same playbook in maligning the motivations of those opposed to building…
'Nightly News' Skips Social Security's 75th, Highlights Children's Car
Children must be making the news programming decisions at NBC "Nightly News." Aug. 14 was the 75th anniversary of Social Security, the largest government program and most troubled. Social Security is in the red this year - six years ahead of forecasts. The program faces a $41 billion shortfall this year alone. The major anniversary of a program often nicknamed the "third-rail" of politics…
Some Media Tag Serial Stabber as ‘Israeli National,’ Others See
When reporting on the nationality of a criminal from another country who has already been arrested, it normally would be considered unnecessary or even uncalled for to take the extra step of explicitly identifying the suspect’s ethnicity or religious affiliation as well. But, given that Israelis, the vast majority of whom are Jewish, often face sharp criticism and negative press reaction over…
FNC Notices Americans More Positive Toward Tea Party Than Toward Pelos
In FNC’s “Grapevine” segment Thursday night, Shannon Bream highlighted a finding in the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll which NBC’s Chuck Todd failed to point out in emphasizing the public’s disgust with Democrats, Republicans and the Tea Party. Bream observed: A new poll suggests Americans have more positive feelings for the Tea Party movement than for either of the Democratic leaders…
ABC and NBC Refuse to Identify Corrupt Rostenkowski as a Democrat
Dan Rostenkowski (?-Ill), 1928-2010. Reporting the passing of Dan Rostenkowski, the ABC and NBC anchors on Wednesday night managed to gently note his ignominious departure from public life while also including a humanizing anecdote about his life (NBC: He “went back to live in the same house he grew up in in Chicago's north side,” ABC: “In 1985, he famously asked Americans fed up with the tax…
Kagan's Confirmation Makes ABC and NBC as Giddy as Liberal Democrats
“The number that really excited Democrats is three: Think Ginsburg, Sotomayor and Kagan,” NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell excitedly announced Thursday night while leading into a clip of Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, who exclaimed as he bounced on his heels on the Senate floor: “Three women will serve together on the United States Supreme Court for the first time in our nation's history!” The news…
Networks Ignore Missouri Voters' Rejection of ObamaCare, Instead Celeb
In the first voter referendum on ObamaCare, Missourians on Tuesday overwhelmingly (by 71 to 29 percent) backed Proposition C which called upon the state to enact a statute to “deny the government authority to penalize citizens for refusing to purchase private health insurance,” an outcome the St. Louis Post-Dispatch described as “rebuking President Barack Obama's administration.” On Wednesday…
As Obama Affirms End to Combat in Iraq, Only ABC Credits Troop Surge t
All three broadcast evening newscasts on Monday ran full reports on President Obama’s declaration that all combat troops would leave Iraq by the end of this month, leaving behind 50,000 troops designated for training and support. But only ABC’s World News bothered to point out how the end of American combat involvement in Iraq can be credited “in large part, because of the final actions of the…