Matt Lauer Lets Obama Claim He Didn't Run Negative Ad Campaign in

February 7th, 2012 12:10 AM
As NewsBusters has been reporting, NBC's Matt Lauer had an interview with President Obama on Super Bowl Sunday that was as soft as cream cheese that's been sitting in the sun for hours. One such sickeningly squishy moment was when the Today show host let his guest get away with claiming he "ran an affirmative campaign" in 2008 without negative attack ads (video follows with transcript and…

Nets Hype Social Media 'Torrent' in Komen Reversal, Keep Slant Toward

February 6th, 2012 5:45 PM
ABC, CBS, and NBC spotlighted the Komen foundation's about-face on funding Planned Parenthood on their Friday evening newscasts, and played up the apparent role of social media in getting the charity to reverse its earlier decision. On World News, ABC's Diane Sawyer trumpeted the "dramatic day for people power," while on Nightly News, NBC's Lester Holt concluded, "score one for the power of…

NBC's Lauer to Obama: Can Mitt Romney 'Identify With the Middle Class

February 6th, 2012 5:15 PM
In his softball Sunday interview with President Obama before the Super Bowl, Today co-host Matt Lauer invited the Democratic commander in chief to speculate on Mitt Romney's ability to connect with voters: "He's a guy who's been incredibly successful in his life and career. He's made a lot of money, it's not a crime...can [he] identify with the middle class and the underclass in this country…

NBC's Lauer Chats With Obama About GOP Candidates 'Pummeling Each Othe

February 6th, 2012 10:56 AM
Once again touting the latest cover of New Yorker magazine, NBC Today co-host Matt Lauer lobbed this softball to President Obama in a pre-Super Bowl interview: "...you watching the big game on TV...on screen it's not the Patriots and the Giants. It's Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, same team, and they are pummeling each other. And look at the smile on your face there. Is art imitating life here…

Claire Shipman's Misleading Report Hits 'Political' Komen for Defundin

February 3rd, 2012 11:37 AM
Good Morning America reporter Claire Shipman on Friday offered a one-sided, misleading segment on Susan G. Komen's "political" decision to defund Planned Parenthood. Shipman inaccurately described a women who got a breast screening "through a Planned Parenthood screening." The organization doesn't do such procedures. Yet, an ABC graphic misrepresented that Monique Benoit "received a…

Nets Rush to Defend Planned Parenthood, Ignore Catholic Dispute with O

February 2nd, 2012 6:05 PM
The Big Three networks continued their blackout on covering the controversy involving the Obama administration trying to force Catholic institutions to include coverage of abortifacients and contraception in their health plans without a co-pay. Instead, Diane Sawyer on Wednesday's ABC World News highlighted Pfizer's recall of birth control pills that could "raise the risk of accidental…

NBC Slams Komen: 'Why Did It Cut Off Funds For Critical Breast Cancer

February 2nd, 2012 4:53 PM
Since announcing that it would no longer provide funding to Planned Parenthood on Wednesday, the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation has been subject to a vicious smear campaign by the abortion provider, a campaign which NBC News has worked to advance over the past 48 hours. At the top of Wednesday's NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams sounded the alarm: "Caught in the middle. Two of…

NBC: Obama Campaign Has 'One More Item' to Add to 'Greatest Hits Reel

February 2nd, 2012 11:33 AM
Sounding like an Obama campaign spokesman on Thursday's NBC Today, correspondent Peter Alexander touted how a recent gaffe by Mitt Romney was "not the first time...Remember that he said corporations are people, or there was the $10,000 bet during the debate." Alexander proclaimed it to be, "just one more item that could go on to the president's re-election campaign team's greatest hits reel…

NBC Uses Warm Weather During 'Most Unusual' Winter to Promote Global W

February 1st, 2012 5:52 PM
On Tuesday's NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams fretted over winter doing a "disappearing act" and proclaimed: "It was so warm today across much of the country, as you know, they're calling it June-uary. It's got a lot of people wondering whatever happened to winter?" The headline on screen pondered: "Where's Winter?" In the report that followed, chief environmental affairs correspondent…

Networks Hype Idea of a Long GOP Primary Wounding Romney: 'How Can It

February 1st, 2012 12:52 PM
All Three morning shows on Wednesday hyped the idea  of a painful, wounding primary fight between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, pushing the concept of a "damaged" nominee. Today host Matt Lauer interviewed Romney and showcased a cartoon from the liberal New Yorker to make his point. As an image of the two Republicans playing football appeared on-screen, Lauer pushed, "But if this goes on…

NBC Suggests Pregnancy 'Termination Kits' For Women Following Birth Co

February 1st, 2012 12:32 PM
Discussing the recall of two Pfizer brands of birth control pills on Wednesday's NBC Today, co-host Ann Curry pressed Dr. Keri Peterson on an "option" for women who "may be now vulnerable to being pregnant." Peterson offered this tip: "There are options....You're going to want to use condoms immediately...there are also over-the-counter termination kits available that you can take right away…

Fox Presses White House on Religious Freedom Controversy; Will Big Thr

January 31st, 2012 9:46 PM
Fox News's Ed Henry challenged White House Press Secretary Jay Carney during a Tuesday briefing over the growing controversy surrounding the Obama administration's move on January 20 to force most employers to cover sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs, and contraceptives in their health care policies without co-pay. This new federal mandate would force Catholic institutions, like hospitals…

Not Very 'Interesting': ABC and CBS Morning Shows Ignore Obama Gaffe

January 31st, 2012 2:56 PM
While NBC correspondent Peter Alexander noted on Tuesday's Today how "Republicans are jumping on the president's choice of words" in telling a woman her husband's long-term unemployment was "interesting" to him, neither ABC's Good Morning America nor CBS's This Morning bothered to highlight Obama's aloof flub. The NBC report played the sound bite of the president's remark: "It is interesting…

NBC Reporter: GOP Race 'Gotten So Nasty'; Obama 'Pokes Fun' at Romney

January 31st, 2012 12:45 PM
At the top of his Tuesday report for NBC's Today, correspondent Peter Alexander warned viewers about the state of the Republican primary race in Florida: "This campaign has just gotten so nasty lately. By some accounts, more than 90% of the ads that have run in this state have been negative." Remarkably, later in the same segment, Alexander was happily promoting a nasty line of attack by the…