Michelle Obama: Our White House Sundays Are For 'Downtime,' 'Lounging
April 27th, 2014 5:48 PM
Barbara Boland at CNSNews.com noticed that Michelle Obama explained in a Monday interview with TV talk show host Michael Strahan that most Sundays, the Obamas are just “lounging and napping” or plotting out the girls’ activities, like rehearsals or birthday parties. Their church attendance is very sparse.
Strahan asked “Easter was yesterday, so how did you spend the day?” After church, "We…
FLOTUS Flops on Parks & Rec
April 25th, 2014 10:57 AM
Parks and Recreation closed out its season last night with a star-studded bang: from musicians most people have probably never heard of before but assume have some cache (here's lookin' at you, Kay Hanley), to Jon Hamm, to THE FLOTUS, Michelle Obama.
As a president, Barack Obama has often been criticized for his celebrity status. Critics argue that political leaders to be refined, dignified…
No Bad News for Michelle: Nets Skip Protest Over First Lady's High Sch
April 22nd, 2014 12:17 PM
ABC, NBC and CBS routinely offer fawning coverage over Michelle Obama and her role as First Lady. However, a growing protest related to a planned gradation speech in Kansas has been ignored by the networks.
Fox and Friends covered the story on Sunday. Co-anchor Ainsley Earhardt explained, "The five high schools in the district would have a single ceremony, limiting the number of guests that…
WashPost Devotes Front-Page Real Estate to Junk Food-less Obama White
April 21st, 2014 12:40 PM
What better day than Easter Monday for the Washington Post to publish a 31-paragraph page A1 fluff piece celebrating the health nuts in chief at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?
Staff writer Juliet Eilperin was positively saccharine sweet about how the Obamas "have so transformed the culture inside" the White House "regarding nutrition and fitness" while painting conservatives as foot-stamping…
Scarborough Says 'Asinine' Kansans Concerned About Michelle Obama's HS
April 21st, 2014 7:55 AM
Shut up, Joe Scarborough explained. That was the Morning Joe host's advice today to people in Topeka, Kansas who are concerned that First Lady Michelle Obama's visit to the city's joint high school graduation ceremony will limit seating for family members and take the spotlight off the graduates themselves.
The man who makes his living offering his opinions and expressing his concerns…
NBC’s Today Touts Michelle Obama’s Interview With High School Stud
April 7th, 2014 6:06 PM
We know that NBC loves to lob softball questions at First Lady Michelle Obama when interviewing her, and apparently they also enjoy it when others do the same. On Saturday’s Today show, co-anchor Lester Holt brought on Nene Sy, a high school girl who recently interviewed the First Lady.
Holt hyped the story, calling Sy, “the young woman who was recently handed a very big assignment – a…
WashPost Finally Notes First Lady Shut Out Press on China Trip; Buries
March 26th, 2014 10:00 AM
It’s been nearly a week but it seems that someone in the press finally noticed the lack of American media traveling with Mrs. Obama across China. The Washington Post’s Krissah Thompson, who just yesterday gushed over the first lady’s trip, finally acknowledged in a March 26 piece that American media were shut out from the first lady's press pool.
Despite Thompson’s admission, the Post buried…
NBC Reports Michelle Obama's China Trip, But Ignores Her Press Ban
March 24th, 2014 10:27 PM
Monday's NBC Nightly News gave a nice shout-out to First Lady Michelle Obama's trip to China without mentioning the controversy that no press contingent was allowed to accompany her and her daughters.
Anchor Brian Williams warmly recapped the Obamas' trip abroad: "They have walked along a section of the Great Wall, they have visited the incredible Terra Cotta army at 6,000 strong. And the…
CBS Hypes Michelle Obama for 'Praising Free Speech,' Skips Press Black
March 24th, 2014 12:22 PM
Ignoring the most important part of the story, CBS This Morning reporter Jan Crawford hyped Michelle Obama for promoting free speech in China. Yet, Crawford never mentioned that American journalists weren't allowed to travel with the First Lady on her trip. With no sense of irony, Crawford touted, "Michelle Obama hit a hot button issue in China by praising freedom of speech in America." [See…
NPR Boosts Mrs. Obama's Trip to China, Ignores American Press Shut-out
March 24th, 2014 11:09 AM
National coverage of Michelle Obama’s trip to communist China has been overwhelmingly glowing and shamelessly quiet on Team Obama’s decision to allow no press contingent to follow along, because the trip was apparently “not political.” The networks dutifully repeated that with no protest, despite more than 30 tweets from the First Lady’s account touting her trip.
But NPR’s Weekend Edition…
NBC’s ‘Today’ Compares Michelle Obama to China’s Communist Fir
March 23rd, 2014 12:50 PM
First Lady Michelle Obama is wrapping up her tour of China today and even though the American press was shut out from her trip, the First Lady has received glowing coverage of her taxpayer-funded visit.
Despite the already over-the-top praise, NBC’s “Today” had a unique take on the trip. Appearing on Sunday, March 23, CNBC’s Eunice Yoon commented that both Mrs. Obama and the wife of the…
Irony: ABC, NBC Tout Michelle Obama’s Internet Freedom Speech In Chi
March 23rd, 2014 8:39 AM
First Lady Michelle Obama spoke to students at Peking University in China over the weekend and spoke of the need for China to limit its censorship of information and controlling access to the Internet.
Despite both ABC and NBC hyping Mrs. Obama’s “strong message” about the need for an open Internet in China, both networks skipped the irony of the White House not allowing American press to…
ABC, CBS Trumpet Mrs. Obama's 'Ping-Pong Diplomacy' in China; Omit Pre
March 21st, 2014 10:02 PM
Friday's CBS Evening News and ABC's World News both glowingly harkened back to a prominent past example of bilateral exchange between the U.S. and China, as they reported on Michelle Obama's trip to the East Asian country. But they continued their blackout on covering the White House's ban of journalists accompanying the First Lady. During a news brief, CBS's Scott Pelley trumpeted how "…
Networks Tout Michelle Obama's Sightseeing and Ping Pong in China; Sti
March 21st, 2014 11:34 AM
All three network morning shows on Friday fawned over First Lady Michelle Obama's visit to China, but the broadcasts refused to mention that reporters had been banned from accompanying her on the trip. On Thursday, NBC's Today and CBS This Morning both insisted the overseas travel was "not political" while ignoring the press corps being left behind.
In a full report for Friday's Today,…