NBC Champions 'Global Force' Gore as Nation's 'Potential Savior
Three months after NBC promoted Al Gore's agenda by broadcasting more than 75 hours of his “Live Earth” concerts, Thursday's NBC Nightly News got the jump on the inevitable media excitement -- if Gore wins the Nobel Peace Prize to be announced Friday -- by championing how that award could launch a Gore presidential bid. Anchor Brian Williams cited “rumors today surrounding” Gore about the Nobel…
Networks Play Goldilocks With Winter Weather Predictions
Warmer winter. No - colder winter. No. Warmer winter, definitely warmer winter. Last night's network news broadcasts made the Energy Department's most recent prediction for this year's winter climate, released yesterday, sound like a report from Dustin Hoffman's "Rain Man."On CBS's Evening News, Katie Couric stated that "the government predicted today that temperatures this winter will generally…
Month Ago CBS Saw Recession, But Now Skip Big Job Gains
When the Labor Department reported a net loss of 4,000 jobs for August, the September 7 ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts highlighted the bad news as evidence of an impending recession, but on Friday, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics revised the August number to a gain of 89,000 jobs and reported 110,000 new jobs for September (AP story), only ABC bothered to mention the revision while CBS…
NBC Sees Scandal in 'Abusive' Interrogations; MSNBC: 'More Lies
Presuming Bush administration dissembling and illegality, NBC anchor Brian Williams considered it “big” news Thursday night that the administration “secretly authorized abusive interrogation techniques for terrorism suspects, including torture, despite denial from everyone from President Bush on down. And the policy remains even though the Supreme Court ruled against it.” Picking up on the front…
Senate Condemnation of MoveOn’s ‘Betray Us’ Ad Receives Mixed Co
On Thursday, a NewsBusters headline asked, "How Will Media Report Senate Vote Condemning MoveOn's ‘Betray Us' Ad?" The answer is a mixed bag with some outlets such as the Washington Post giving the issue a surprising amount of focus, and others like CBS and ABC totally ignoring the matter. From a print perspective, the Post certainly showed a lot of moxie with its front page piece entitled "…
‘Nightly News’ Leads With ‘Jena 6,’ Ignores Beaten White Kid
When members of the Duke University lacrosse team were falsely accused of raping a black stripper last year, media focused great attention on the woman in the middle of the controversy, and the supposed crime. Yet, as pointed out Thursday by NewsBuster Matthew Balan, as the press report activities in Jena, Louisiana, the name of the white boy who was beaten by the "Jena 6," Justin Barker, is…
