NBC's Lauer: Not to Be Rude, But Obama Hasn't Done Anything
October 9th, 2009 10:37 AM
Even Barack Obama’s fan club on NBC’s Today were stunned at the President’s winning of the Nobel Peace Prize. Co-host Matt Lauer found it baffling: “We’re less than a year into the first term of this president and there are no -- I'm not trying to be, you know, rude here -- no major foreign policy achievements, to date.”Meet the Press moderator David Gregory felt the need to point out the “left-…
Networks Allow Letterman to Play ‘Victim
October 2nd, 2009 12:57 PM
Just contrast the current David Letterman sex scandal against the 2004 Bill O'Reilly sex scandal.
Last night, left-leaning CBS Late Show Host David Letterman announced on his program that he had sex with female staffers. Letterman's announcement was spurred by the plot of a CBS producer to force the host to pay $2 million in exchange for his silence on the matter.
ABC, CBS and NBC largely…
NBC's Morales Gets Caught Up in Obama Olympic Charm Offensive
October 1st, 2009 12:03 PM
NBC's Natalie Morales, on Wednesday's "Today," was bowled over by the First Couple's "tag-teaming" effort to lure the Olympics to their home city of Chicago. Reporting live from Copenhagen, Morales cheered that "it doesn't get any better in terms of PR blitzes than this," and effused the First Lady was "turning on the charm, as only she can." "Today" co-anchor Matt Lauer introduced the segment…
'Today's' Matt Lauer Discusses Positive Aspects of Smoking Marijuana
October 1st, 2009 8:43 AM
What do you do to unwind at the end of the day? Read a book? Take a bath? Watch some TV? Well, maybe you should think about smoking some pot. At least that's the latest advice from NBC's "Today" show. On Sept. 30 an entire segment was devoted to discussing the positive aspects of pot smoking and included a pitch for legalization. "Today's" Matt Lauer interviewed Joanna Coles, the editor-in-chief…
NBC’s Lauer Fails to Challenge Claim Polanski ‘Did Not Forcibly Ha
September 30th, 2009 5:35 PM
NBC's Matt Lauer gave a "Today" show guest a free pass when she insisted that director/criminal/former fugitive Roman Polanski did not rape a 13-year-old girl in 1977. Debra Tate, sister of Polanski's late wife Sharon Tate, told Lauer, "There is, as I said, rape and there is rape. It was determined Roman did not forcibly have sex with this young woman. It was a consensual matter." Lauer's…
Worried Lauer Asks Bill Clinton if NY Gov Hurting Democratic Party
September 22nd, 2009 12:52 PM
During a wide-ranging interview with Bill Clinton, on Tuesday's "Today" show, about his Clinton Initiative summit, NBC's Matt Lauer wanted to get the former President's advice on whether current New York Governor David Paterson should run again. Lauer, seemingly concerned about the GOP capturing the governorship in New York state, asked Clinton if the unpopular Democrat's reelection bid might "…
How the Media Legitimized Perez Hilton, Cyber-Bully Extraordinaire
September 22nd, 2009 11:05 AM
Perez Hilton has proved that demonstrable talent or skill is no longer a prerequisite for fame. These days, all that's needed is a proclivity for peddling the sleaziest material imaginable. Hilton created a career for himself out of enhancing paparazzi shots of celebrities with crude white drawings of genitalia and bodily fluids and posting them on his blog, PerezHilton.com. He regularly…
NBC Invites On Radical Professor to Compare Joe Wilson's Two Words to
September 17th, 2009 8:46 AM
NBC spotlighted radical black Georgetown professor Michael Eric Dyson to rail against President Bush as a "clueless patrician" in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and then Brian Williams threw those words in Bush's face. On Wednesday, they spotlighted Dyson’s vicious attack on Rep. Joe Wilson and other conservatives as comparable to terrorists, like the suicide attackers of 9/11. Matt Lauer didn’t…
CBS and NBC Finally Catch Up to ACORN Scandal; Express Sympathy for th
September 16th, 2009 12:48 PM
In the first story on CBS since the scandal broke last week, on Tuesday’s Evening News, anchor Katie Couric reported: "The grassroots community organization called ACORN helps low-income Americans find affordable housing and gets tens of millions of dollars in government funding. But as Cynthia Bowers reports, that may be coming to an end after a scandal caught on tape."After showing undercover…
Broadcast Morning Shows Ignore 83-7 Anti-ACORN Senate Vote
September 15th, 2009 1:57 PM
A bipartisan consensus of senators in Washington is newsworthy in these fiercely partisan times, but when the matter of agreement is something that leaves egg on the faces of the left-wing community organizers, eh, not so much. Yesterday, in an 83-7 vote -- 50 Democrats and 33 Republicans for; 6 Democrats and 1 independent against -- the Senate passed an amendment to an appropriations bill that…
Oops – CNBC Misses First Minute and a Half of GOP Response
September 10th, 2009 12:26 AM
While none of the other cable networks experienced any technical delays leading into Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., CNBC - the business arm of NBC Universal's cable empire didn't quite get there on time. Boustany was cheated out of a little over a minute and a half giving his response on CNBC. However, its sister network - MSNBC, and the major cable networks caught up with the Republican response…
Nets Catch Up with Van Jones, Sure 'Sour Note' in 'Summer Squall' Won
September 6th, 2009 4:31 PM
It took Van Jones' resignation, around midnight Saturday night on a holiday weekend, for ABC and NBC to mention him for the first time in Sunday morning news shows which broached, but failed to quote, the insidious “911truth” petition he signed, while ABC's George Stephanopoulos, seemingly trying to rationalize ABC's spiking of the subject, came aboard Good Morning America to dismiss the matter…
Reliable Sources Gushes Over Sawyer, No Mention of GMA's Ratings
September 6th, 2009 12:08 PM
Howard Kurtz opened Sunday's "Reliable Sources" with a lovefest for the promotion of ABC's Diane Sawyer to replace Charles Gibson on "World News Tonight."Mysteriously, there was absolutely no discussion about how Sawyer's "Good Morning America" is constantly second in the ratings to NBC's "Today" show, nor was there mention of how Katie Couric regularly bested Sawyer in the morning but has been a…
Harwood: Opponents of Obama's School Invasion 'Not Smart Enough' To Ra
September 5th, 2009 8:00 AM
A new high-tech Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. Racism. And parents too dumb to raise their children. That was how NBC sought to explain away opposition to Pres. Obama's planned speech to schoolchildren.Andrea Mitchell narrated a segment on this morning's Today on the subject.ANDREA MITCHELL: Other presidents have faced opposition. But experts say it's now more organized, from cable television to…