Media Apathetic About Glee’s Gay Kiss

The November 9 episode of Glee titled “Never Been Kissed” was quite the show stopper – unless you’re the media. The unexpected homosexual kiss between male high school students was nothing short of jaw-dropping, and yet the liberal media were “ho hum” on the controversy. Glee’s stereotypical jock character Karofsky, who has been bullying the openly gay character Kurt all season, in a moment…

George W. Bush Delivers a Basic Economics Lesson to Matt Lauer

In a follow-up interview to his prime time special with George W. Bush, NBC's Matt Lauer invited the former president on Wednesday's Today show and in the process got an education on how tax cuts can create jobs. During the wide ranging interview that covered everything from the Ground Zero mosque to Kanye West, it was Lauer's questions about Bush's tax policy where he revealed his bias. Noting…

Today Show Mourns Over No More Kennedys in Congress

For the Today show, Democratic Representative Patrick Kennedy's departure from Congress was something to mourn because it represented, as NBC's Matt Lauer lamented, "The end of an era. There's been a Kennedy in Congress since John F. Kennedy entered the House back in 1947." The nephew of the late President was invited on Monday's Today show to commemorate the occasion with he and co-host…

Karl Rove Goes Toe-to-Toe with Matt Lauer on Today

  When NBC's Matt Lauer threw out the tired, overused, standard media line, on Friday's Today show, that the public is tired of all the "vitriol" and wants the Republicans to just work with Barack Obama and the Democrats, his guest, Karl Rove, threw Obama's words back in Lauer's face as he pointed out it was the President who called Republicans "enemies." When Lauer asked if the GOP could …

Brian Williams Bizarrely Fixates on Portrait of Bill Clinton During Ob

Nightly News host Brian Williams on Wednesday oddly obsessed over a portrait of Bill Clinton that could barely be seen in the background as Barack Obama finished his first post-election press conference. During live coverage, as Obama walked away from the podium, Williams apparently spotted the Clinton portrait and pontificated, "Interesting bit there at the end, with Bill Clinton literally…

NBC's Gregory Blames Angle's Loss on...Dissing the News Media; Whitake

Just after NBC News called Nevada for incumbent Democratic Senator Harry Reid, Meet the Press host David Gregory credited his victory to how “Tea Party-backed” Sharron Angle disrespected journalists, citing how she “made some very unwise decisions, namely, saying things like 'I'm not going to give any interviews until after I'm elected.'” Gregory contended: “I don't think that inspires a great…

NBC's Brokaw & Williams Throw a Wet Blanket on Tea Party: They're Abou

Former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw threw a bit of wet blanket on the Tea Party's big night, after quoting Tea Party activist Matt Kibbe's declaration that "the people want less from their federal government," Brokaw skeptically added: "We've heard that before, when it bumps up against reality of closing a base or shutting down an agricultural substation...it gets pretty tough to do."…

From the MRC Archives: A Viewer's Guide to Election Night Spin

The actual voting results are just part of what makes for an Election Night in today’s mass media world. Perhaps as important — in some years, more important — are journalists’ first stab at interpreting the results, telling audiences what they voted for (and against). If history is a reliable guide, listen for: smug journalists slamming “angry” or stupid voters; claims that there’s no…

Today Show Tries to Set Up Sarah Palin for a Big Fail

 On Tuesday's Today show, a couple of correspondents laid down the potential story line of a big defeat for Sarah Palin if the Republican Tea Party candidate she endorsed, Joe Miller, doesn't win his bid for the Senate seat in Alaska as NBC's Chuck Todd proclaimed: "Sarah Palin's political future is a little bit on the line" and added "this would be a big embarrassment," while NBC's Kristen…

What Were the Media Predicting Back in

Sixteen years ago, the Republicans picked up 54 seats in the House of Representatives, taking control of that chamber for the first time since the 1950s. So how good were the media’s predictions back then? Trolling through the MRC’s archives, I came across these quotes from coverage just before the 1994 vote:

FNC’s O’Reilly Factor Picks Up MRC Study Documenting Slanted Campa

On Monday’s O’Reilly Factor, host Bill O’Reilly and former CBS News correspondent Bernie Goldberg talked about MRC’s study of the broadcast networks’ Campaign 2010 coverage, which has only talked about conservatives and Tea Party Republicans as “extremist” or “fringe,” not liberals or congressional Democrats. Goldberg argued that the problem is that “too many liberal journalists they don’t…

'Early Show' Ignores Reporters at CBS Alaska Affiliate Smearing Miller

On Monday, while both ABC's Good Morning America and NBC's Today covered the scandal involving reporters at CBS Anchorage affiliate KTVA caught on tape discussing ways to attack Republican Joe Miller's senate campaign, CBS's Early Show failed to make any mention of the incident. On Good Morning America, White House correspondent Jake Tapper reported: "In Alaska, some reporters with the local…

Pre-Election Notable Quotables: 'The GOP's Agenda Has to Be Stopped

One day before Election Day, the MRC has a fresh new edition of Notable Quotables posted over at MRC.org. Topics this week include: the liberal media’s pre-election meltdown, with MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann frothing that the election of “unqualified, unstable” Tea Party Republicans “would destroy America from within,” and Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter engaging in open electioneering: “The GOP’s agenda…

NBC Sees ‘Conservative’ Toomey, But No Label for Sestak; Gearing U

 On Sunday’s NBC Nightly News, during a roundup of several reporters covering a number of high-profile Senate races, correspondent Ron Allen was upfront in labeling Pennsylvania Republican Senate nominee Pat Toomey as a "conservative," but an ideological label for liberal Democratic nominee Joe Sestak was absent: "Conservative Pat Toomey, a former Congressman and businessman, has been…