ABC and NBC Showcase Weiner’s Anti-GOP Scream-Fest Expressing ‘the

Democratic New York Congressman Anthony Weiner’s theatrical temper tantrum rant on the House floor Thursday night, against supposed Republican obstructionism, animated cable news on Friday and Friday night ABC and NBC elevated it to legitimate news as they imputed great meaning to it as genuine frustration with congressional gridlock. ABC anchor Diane Sawyer announced:Every now and then, someone…

ABC Heralds 'Relief Replaced Dread, Hope Replaced Fear' While NBC Fear

“In a matter of minutes, relief replaced dread, hope replaced fear,” ABC's Barbara Pinto trumpeted in framing a Wednesday night look, at reaction to a federal judge's ruling barring implementation of key provisions of Arizona's immigration enforcement laws, around those pleased by it. NBC's Lee Cowan relayed how the ruling “certainly came as welcome news” for illegals, “but while some were…

Media Reality Check: Networks Protest Arizona's Immigration Law With C

The TV networks have aggressively demonstrated their dislike of Arizona’s state law “cracking down on illegal immigrants,” a law that “pits neighbor against neighbor.” An MRC review of morning and evening news programs on ABC, CBS, and NBC from April 23 to July 25 found the networks have aired 120 stories with an almost ten-to-one tilt against the Arizona law (77 negative, 35 neutral, 8…

As AZ Immigration Law Looms, ABC Touts Harm to Small Businesses

ABC's "World News" on Sunday caught up to CBS and NBC in fretting about the potential problems caused by illegal immigrants who may be leaving Arizona before the state's new law takes effect on Thursday. Correspondent Barbara Pinto devoted her entire piece to lamenting the possible damage to small businesses whose customers are presumably now leaving the state, but offered less than a sentence to…

Media Touted Distorted Claims Texas Conservatives Removed Slavery from

As the Texas State Board of Education worked to complete its once-every-ten-year revision of the curriculum for the state’s schools in May, much of the mainstream media promoted complaints and distortions from the left – many originating with the left-leaning Texas Freedom Network – about the nature of the changes in the guidelines and how they would effect textbooks that might end up in other…

Nets Which Promoted NAACP’s Attack on Tea Party Treat Sherrod as Vic

ABC and CBS last week jumped to advance the NAACP’s charge of racism within the Tea Party movement with friendly stories which provided corroboration for the allegation as neither identified the left-wing group’s ideology. On Tuesday night, however, the ABC and CBS evening newscasts had a sudden concern for the accuracy of the racism charge leveled against a USDA official via video posted by…

The Todd-Obama Interview: AP Misquotes Prez, Transcript Omits Referenc

Geez, can't anybody here play this game? During his visit to Holland, Michigan on Thursday, President Obama spoke with NBC's Chuck Todd. NBC aired the interview on the NBC Nightly News and The Today Show. (On Friday morning, NB's Geoffrey Dickens covered a separate aspect of that interview relating to the recess-appointed Donald Berwick.) In reporting on that interview, the Associated Press…

NBC’s Brian Williams Marks Passing of Medal of Honor Recipient/WWII

On Wednesday’s NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams commemorated the passing of World War II veteran Vernon Baker, recounting that "He fought and fought hard for his country, even though his country didn't want him fighting alongside some others in the Army under the same flag." Baker fought the Nazis in Italy where he "killed nine German soldiers single-handedly and took out a machine gun…

NBC Reporter Discovers New Immigration Law Causing Illegals to Leave A

NBC's Lee Cowan, on Thursday's NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, discovered a stunning result of Arizona's new immigration policies - illegal immigrants are now leaving the state. Cowan opened his piece noting a long line now "stretches around the Mexican Consulate in Phoenix every day" but noticed a twist, as the line was full of "immigrants trying to figure out not how to stay in Arizona,…

NBC Offers Additional 35 Seconds to Story of Controversial Medicare Ap

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 Newscasts Downplay or Ignore Obama Appointee Berwick’s Pro-S

President Obama’s recess appointment of Dr. Donald Berwick – a controversial advocate of socialized medicine and of government rationing of health care, particularly for the elderly – as head of the Medicare and Medicaid programs has so far received no attention on ABC’s World News or on the CBS Evening News, while the NBC Nightly News on Thursday devoted just 38 seconds to the President’s…

Evening News Watch: NBC Trick May Have Enabled Big 3 Nets to Avoid Goi

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…

Examiner's Byron York: The NASA-Muslim Outreach Story 'Has Not Made th

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…

ABCBSNBC Continue to Lose Audience

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…