Biased Access: Mrs. McCain Talks Adultery, Hillary Talks Housework
April 11th, 2008 4:23 PM
Cindy McCain granted an interview to Access Hollywood anchor Nancy O’Dell, and NBC’s Today picked right up on it Friday morning – shamelessly repeating O’Dell’s questions recycling the unsubstantiated New York Times story alleging Sen. John McCain had a sexual relationship with lobbyist Vicki Iseman. (Access Hollywood is produced by NBC Universal.) Some might wonder why Mrs. McCain would agree to…
Morning Shows Ignore Rockefeller Smear of McCain, Military Pilots
April 9th, 2008 5:45 PM
Our news analysts at the MRC have combed through the April 9 editions of ABC's "Good Morning America," CBS's "The Early Show," and NBC's "Today," and found zero mentions of the comments that Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.) made smearing McCain and military pilots past and present.[See a related NewsBusters item by Clay Waters here.]Yesterday I noted how news agencies were slow to cover the story,…
NBC News Can’t Seem to Find a Water Bottle it Likes
April 9th, 2008 4:23 PM
Last summer NBC told viewers bottled water was bad for the environment because of its packaging and transportation demands. This time, NBC's April 9 "Today" warned viewers some reusable water bottles are bad for society because they contain a dangerous substance. "[M]any of those sturdy, reusable plastic bottles contain a chemical, bisphenol-A, that many scientists are worried about," NBC…
CNBC on the Future of Network Newsgathering: 'That Ship has Sailed
April 8th, 2008 12:32 PM
It's no longer profitable for networks to have their own news organizations, according to CNBC's David Faber. In the wake of the news that CBS is in negotiations to outsource its news division to CNN, Faber explained on CNBC's April 8 "Squawk on the Street" CBS's news division is a victim of an evolving business. "The news that CBS is once again considering a deal under which it would…
Andrew Sullivan: Rumsfeld Will Be Indicted For War Crimes
April 6th, 2008 3:06 PM
Despite having officially left the White House in December 2006, the mere mention of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's name is almost as certain to evoke uncontrollable vitriol from liberal media members as someone saying in their presence "George W. Bush," "Dick Cheney," or "Halliburton."With this in mind, it certainly was not surprising to see Atlantic magazine's senior editor Andrew…
Media Divide Wall Street and 'Main Street
April 3rd, 2008 4:22 PM
As economic issues move to the front of the on-going presidential campaign, the mainstream media have given an increased amount of coverage to what is happening on Wall Street. However, they have portrayed Wall Street as something completely alien to what happens on "Main Street." "Now to Wall Street, which, as you know, doesn't always like what Main Street likes, and by the end of the…
Only ABC Highlights Dem Gluttony on Pork Spending
April 2nd, 2008 5:00 PM
Of the three morning shows, only ABC's “Good Morning America” highlighted the implications of a new report on pork barrel spending by the group Citizens Against Government Waste [CAGW]. GMA was the sole network morning program to mention that Democrats broke their campaign promise to cut such pork projects in half. On Wednesday, NBC's “Today” show skipped the subject completely and although CBS's…
'Today' Promotes Phil Donahue's Anti-Iraq War Doc
April 1st, 2008 3:14 PM
Phil Donahue looked across the film landscape littered with numerous anti-Iraq war box-office failures and decided he needed to add one more to the list and the "Today" show was more than happy to help him promote it. The liberal talk show host appeared on Tuesday's "Today" show with anti-Iraq war veteran/activist Tomas Young to plug what NBC's Ann Curry hailed as "a documentary that Sean Penn…
Olbermann Flops in Primetime
April 1st, 2008 12:25 PM
On Sunday, NewsBusters asked readers, "Will NBC Succeed in Making Olbermann Mainstream?"70 percent of respondents said, "No, he's too crazy."Well, Nielsen ratings of his "Countdown" program aired Sunday evening on NBC validate this position, and wonderfully depict Olbermann as clearly not being ready for primetime (h/t Thomas Stewart):
NBC's Ann Curry Tosses Softballs to Obama on 'Today
April 1st, 2008 10:45 AM
On Tuesday's "Today" show, co-anchor Ann Curry traveled with Barack Obama on the campaign trail and mostly threw softball questions to the presidential candidate, questions like who did he prefer: "Beatles or the Rolling Stones?" Curry also tried to broker an Obama-Clinton ticket as she pressed: "They want this. The Democrats want this." The toughest Curry ever got with the Illinois senator was…
Media's April Fools Keep Slobbering Over Obama
April 1st, 2008 10:36 AM
The following was adapted from the Media Research Center's April Fools Day Media "Reality" Check. The quotes are all fabrications written by the imaginative News Analysts at the MRC.Panicked by the success of Rush Limbaugh's "Operation Chaos" — urging conservatives to vote for Hillary Clinton in upcoming primaries to keep the Democrats in disarray — liberal reporters are becoming even more…