Today

Seven weeks after his arrest for allegedly attempting to peddle Barack Obama’s Senate seat, Rod Blagojevich was removed as governor of Illinois on Thursday. ABC, CBS and NBC all offered full reports last night and this morning, but none of the anchors or reporters provided any hint that Blagojevich was a Democrat. Back on December 9, reporting on the then-governor’s arrest, NewsBusters noted…

Acting like Caroline Kennedy's PR flack NBC's Andrea Mitchell, on Monday's "Today" show, first delivered the news that the Kennedy family was "furious," at the way her Senate bid was treated by New York Governor David Paterson, but then she quickly merged her own personal opinion into the story, calling the smearing of the former First Daughter, "inexcusable." Curiously Mitchell never revealed to…

Appearing on Monday's "Today" show former President Jimmy Carter offered his advice to President Barack Obama on the Mideast peace process and to her credit "Today" co-host Meredith Vieira actually expressed skepticism about Carter's faith in Hamas in those negotiations. Vieira repeatedly questioned Carter about the trustworthiness of Hamas as she queried Carter, "But do you believe that Hamas…

The three network morning shows on Friday almost totally skipped any coverage of President Bush's farewell address to the country on Thursday. Despite having a combined eight hours of air time, NBC's "Today," CBS's "Early Show" and ABC's "Good Morning America" devoted only 55 seconds total to reporting on Bush's speech. Instead, important topics such as "Obama thongs" and cheddar biscuits were…

During a report on Thursday’s Today show, NBC News correspondent Norah O’Donnell replayed Barbara Walters’ characterization of Sarah Palin’s recent interview as “disturbing” from Tuesday’s The View. O’Donnell highlighted how the Alaska governor’s comments about how the media treated her versus how it treated Caroline Kennedy “drew a reaction” from the ABC host, and that it was “one more sign that…

On Wednesday’s Today show, NBC News principals Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira, and Tom Brokaw all gushed over Hillary Clinton’s testimony in front of a Senate panel for her confirmation as Secretary of State. During an interview of Senator John Kerry, Lauer asked, “Did you see any area, Senator, where she didn’t show, I guess, a complete mastery of the issues?” In the following segment, Vieira and…

Among the anchors and correspondents on the broadcast networks, NBC’s David Gregory has been unique in conveying to viewers the nature of Hamas as, on two occasions during the opening weekend of the airstrikes by Israel in Gaza, Gregory referred to Hamas as a "terrorist organization that is bent on the destruction of Israel." He also recently gave attention to the Hamas doctrine that the purpose…

Just one day after Ann Coulter chided NBC News' Matt Lauer and Brian Williams, on the "Today" show, for  softball questions to Barack Obama, CNBC's John Harwood, on Thursday's "Today," outdid them both in Obama puffery. In a one-on-one interview with the President-elect, Harwood asked such hard-hitting questions as what kind of "family advice," he got from his lunch with the former presidents, if…

Ann Coulter made a second appearance during the 10 am Eastern hour of Wednesday’s Today show, and hosts Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb continued the discussion about the apparent “venom” in her books. Kotb asked if Coulter’s style was “kind of like shock jock, shake the cage, freak everyone out, wake everybody up,” and later stated that she felt the tone of the conservative’s writing was “…

NBC's Meredith Vieira stated during the Jan. 7 "Today" broadcast that she found it "obnoxious" that people took pictures of a pant-less skier caught dangling from a chairlift and posted them on the Internet.  Yet apparently it's not "obnoxious" for the top-rated morning news show to devote 36 seconds of airtime to showing those pictures, as it did this morning. Matt Lauer laughingly called Vieira…

After reports that Ann Coulter had been banned from NBC News, her return to the "Today" show set this Wednesday morning was, as expected, a fiery one with co-host Matt Lauer. The conservative author put Lauer on the defensive on her being bumped for the likes of Rachel Maddow and Perez Hilton, his colleague Brian Williams’ softball questions to Barack Obama, and Lauer’s charges that Coulter’s…

GMTA.  Last night I posted an item on David Shuster's hypocrisy in branding Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston "unwed parents," pointing out that the MSM would never normally use such an un-PC term, preferring to speak reverentially of "single mothers."  This morning, Ann Coulter appeared on Today to discuss her new book, Guilty, and by coincidence, an important focus of Ann's remarks was . . . the…

Appearing in the timeslot of the fourth hour of Tuesday's "Today" show that Ann Coulter was originally booked to appear on, celebrity blogger/author Perez Hilton addressed the Coulter bumping controversy directly, as he challenged the conservative author: "Ann Coulter, if you’re watching, bite me!" "Today" co-hosts Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb then acknowledged that Coulter was, in fact,…

Conservative author Ann Coulter, having been either banned or bumped from NBC's "Today Show" Tuesday, has apparently been rebooked for Wednesday.With all this controversy, you've got to figure she'll end up getting better ratings and sell more books.So says Politico's Michael Calderone: