It's understood there's a professional partnership between Newsweek and NBC/MSNBC, but it really seemed like the crew at Today on Tuesday were pounding consistently on the Newsweek drum of the week, that the crucial question in Washington is whether George W. Bush will listen to critics -- or to be more precise, whether George Bush will bend to the will of the liberal media establishment. NBC could have started the day be saying "We at NBC News, after consultations, have decided to ask today whether President Bush will listen."

MRC's Geoff Dickens noted that in the show's first minute, Ann Curry began: "Today, confirmation hearings begin for President Bush's pick to be the next defense chief, and tomorrow the Iraq Study Group releases its highly anticipated report. But just how open is President Bush to suggestions? We're gonna ask the man who's worked closer with him than probably anyone else, his former chief of staff Andy Card."

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, who regularly uses his Countdown show to ridicule President Bush, on Tuesday finally included the President in his list of nominees for "Worst Person in the World." For the past 17 months that Olbermann has featured the "Worst Person" segment on his show, the Countdown host has ironically avoided including Bush in spite of the regular, sometimes vitriolic, criticism Olbermann has spewed at the President, including calling him a "21st century Marie Antoinette" over his handling of Hurricane Katrina and delivering several "Special Comment" attacks on the President. But on the December 5 show, Olbermann awarded Bush the third place "bronze" distinction because of word that President Bush had been warned about the sensitivity of asking Democratic Senator-elect Jim Webb about his son's service in Iraq before doing so anyway. Below is a complete transcript of Olbermann's comments about Bush from the December 5 Countdown show:

The hubbub raised over six Islamic imams being removed from a US Airways flight in Minneapolis for suspicious behavior is the latest in a string of incidents underlining one consistent thread in the war on terror: Muslim terrorists have never given up on the tried and true idea of hijacking airplanes and blowing them up to kill and demoralize the infidels.

Police and witness reports suggest a list of suspicious activities and remarks. Some of the imams were discussing in Arabic about "bin Laden" and condemning America for "killing Saddam." Imams asked for seat belt extenders for the extremely obese, for no apparent reason. (Did you know such extenders even existed?) The imams spread out at all exits of the plane, two in front, two in the middle, two in the rear. Between the six imams, they had one piece of checked luggage.

No Chris Matthews, no problem. The regular host of MSNBC's Hardball might be taking a post-election break, but the show hasn't missed a beat when it comes to liberal bias. We detailed here the sycophantish performance that last week's substitute host David Shuster put on with guest Jimmy Carter. With John Kerry as his guest, this evening's pinch hitter Mike Barnicle kept the Matthews' anti-Bush flame burning.

Barnicle offered guest John Kerry this distinctly negative multiple choice test to explain President Bush's Iraq policy:

"Is the president delusional, is he isolated, is he stubborn, is he all of the above, none of the above?"

Failing to report on the legal status has become a common practice of the mainstream media as was demonstrated by a recent report done by WPTV in West Palm Beach, Florida. On Tuesday’s Fox and Friends First, hosts Brian Kilmeade, Gretchen Carlson, and Tiki Barber covered the story. The transcript is below.

Brian Kilmeade: "Let's talk about what's happening with, with illegals and soliciting funds for illegals. For example, what's happening in West Palm Beach in Florida."

Gretchen Carlson: "Well, you know, this is a really unusual story, because the TV station there, one of the affiliates in West Palm Beach, apparently did a story about how these immigrants needed help and that they had been giving back to the community, so now it was time for the rest of the community to step up an help them out. The only problem is is that usually television reports are supposed to be objective and they forgot to mention one major part of the story, which was the fact that these immigrants were illegal."

There’s good news and bad news. Well, in this case, there’s only bad news. Surprisingly strong data about the nation’s residential real estate market was released on November 30 by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. Despite the media’s fascination with what it proclaimed over five years ago was a housing bubble, no TV network other than CNBC bothered to share the good news with its viewers. 

But disappointing data from other government agencies and the National Association of Realtors has typically been given a lot of air time. NBC’s Brian Williams declared on September 25, “[T]he housing bubble has indeed and officially deflated.” A month later, CBS’s Katie Couric proclaimed that housing “prices are dropping like a rock.” And, a day before this OFHEO report was released, CNN’s Ali Veshi warned viewers, “[Y]our house is not gonna be the most expensive thing or the most valuable thing you own.”

My name is John Diamond and I am an Air Force veteran. As a military veteran, I took an oath to: “Support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic... So help me, God.” And as far as I am concerned, that oath did not end with the end of my military service.

But this begs the question: Who are these enemies of the Constitution?

I have written the book series The Rise of America to serve as a teaching guide in order to instruct Americans about the type of government that we are guaranteed under the Constitution and how that government has been ripped from the hand of the American people; who is responsible, and what we must do to fix it.  

Thought I would get everybody on this site accustomed to the sound of the titles above. The way things are trending, chances are looking pretty good that we may have another 8 years of those two.

If nothing is done to stop the Liberal media, and their constant poisening of the American "swing-voter" mind, Rodham-Clinton will be next Commander-of-Chief.

The bias in the media is the key issue that is determining political outcomes in the US.

The only cure is immediate and effective action by concerned and informed citizens that will not stand for the garbage the media is spewing forth.

We all must make a statement, and make it now.  December 2008 is too Late.

Get all family and friends to boycott the Liberal Mainstream Media. 

Write letters, cancel subscriptions, buy National Review or Newsmax subscriptions for Christmas presents.

Thought I would get everybody on this site accustomed to the sound of the titles above. The way things are trending, chances are looking pretty good that we may have another 8 years of those two.

If nothing is done to stop the Liberal media, and their constant poisening of the American "swing-voter" mind, Rodham-Clinton will be next Commander-of-Chief.

The bias in the media is the key issue that is determining political outcomes in the US.

The only cure is immediate and effective action by concerned and informed citizens that will not stand for the garbage the media is spewing forth.

We all must make a statement, and make it now.  December 2008 is too Late.

Get all family and friends to boycott the Liberal Mainstream Media. 

Write letters, cancel subscriptions, buy National Review or Newsmax subscriptions for Christmas presents.

Thought I would get everybody on this site accustomed to the sound of the titles above. The way things are trending, chances are looking pretty good that we may have another 8 years of those two.

If nothing is done to stop the Liberal media, and their constant poisening of the American "swing-voter" mind, Rodham-Clinton will be next Commander-of-Chief.

The bias in the media is the key issue that is determining political outcomes in the US.

The only cure is immediate and effective action by concerned and informed citizens that will not stand for the garbage the media is spewing forth.

We all must make a statement, and make it now.  December 2008 is too Late.

Get all family and friends to boycott the Liberal Mainstream Media. 

Write letters, cancel subscriptions, buy National Review or Newsmax subscriptions for Christmas presents.

Oklahoma Republican senator James Inhofe has been one of the lone bright spots in Washington when it comes to media accountability, specifically on the issue of global warming. He's continuing his hard-hitting approach Wednesday with a congressional hearing examining how the media has been been trying to scare the public into siding with climate change alarmists:

Sen. James M. Inhofe, Oklahoma Republican and chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, will hold a full committee hearing tomorrow on "Climate Change and the Media."

The hearing will look at how the media has presented scientific evidence regarding predictions of human-caused catastrophic global warming, the senator's office said.

"Senator Inhofe believes that poorly conceived policy decisions will result from the media's nonstop hyping of 'extreme scenarios' and dire climate predictions," said committee Communications Director Marc Morano. "This hearing will serve to advance the interests of sound science and encourage rational policy decisions."

Today's starters:

The global warming crowd must be getting desperate judging from a very threatening letter that some senators sent to ExxonMobil telling it to "end any further financial assistance or other support to groups or individuals whose public advocacy has contributed to the small, but unfortunately effective, climate change denial myth." Sounds more like a protection racket than a policy debate to me.

The Supreme Court is hearing a case about forced integration and whether it should be permitted. Patterico and La Shawn Barber have coverage.

On the Iraq front, The Anchoress blog has a lengthy essay on where Iraq is right now and what it means. An excerpt: "Damn Bush for getting us into this corner where all options suck, eh? Well, maybe. But sooner or later someone was going to have to do this. 9/11 made it imperative and regardless of what they say now, the whole world (at that point) believed Saddam had WMD. He was ignoring the UN, violating no fly zones and had threatened to assassinate a former president - a clear act of war which, btw, had it been answered back then, might have made our current reality quite different indeed."

Like NB's Mark Finkelstein did last month, Bill Roggio is blogging from Iraq. Most of the troops there are far from happy with the press's coverage of the war: "In nearly every conversation, the soldiers, Marines and contractors expressed they were upset with the coverage of the war in Iraq in general, and the public perception of the daily situation on the ground. The felt the media was there to sensationalize the news, and several stated some reporters were only interested in 'blood and guts.' They freely admitted the obstacles in front of them in Iraq. Most recognized that while we are winning the war on the battlefield, albeit with difficulties in some areas, we are losing the information war. They felt the media had abandoned them."

CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, is well known for bashing those who bash Islam or those who associate it with terrorism. Now they are attacking conservative columnist and radio talker Dennis Prager. Reports the AP:

An Islamic civil rights group wants a columnist removed from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council for criticizing Rep.-elect Keith Ellison's decision to use the Quran during his ceremonial swearing-in next month.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations said Monday that comments by Dennis Prager, a columnist and conservative talk radio host, displayed an intolerance toward Islam that makes him inappropriate to serve on the council, which oversees the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

Is it time to start spotting news bias trends for 2007? Maybe. All I know so far is:

Bird flu stories seem to be out. What's in? "What you don't know about your chicken might ill you.*"

You can read my full BMI article here:

"Is there a dirty bird on your dinner plate," wondered CBS anchor Katie Couric as she hatched a brief and biased news item centered around a new Consumer Reports study on chicken.

"Bad news," "Evening News" correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi summed upon the December 4 program. Consumer Reports magazine found that the chicken on your dinner table is "dirtier than ever."

In a special edition of MSNBC's Hardball College Tour former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw went on diatribes against the President's war policy, comparing it to Vietnam, praised "rock star" Barack Obama, castigated "blatantly racist" Republican ads, charged Ronald Reagan neglected, "Mother Earth," and declared of the notoriously liberal Daily Show: "There are more facts and more truths told in the first eight minutes of The Daily Show than most political news conferences in Washington."

NBC's Campbell Brown filled in for host Chris Matthews as she teed up questions to Brokaw at Fordham University. The following are some of the more relevant rants from Brokaw:

My name is John Diamond and I am an Air Force veteran. As a military veteran, I took an oath to: “Support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic... So help me, God.” And as far as I am concerned, that oath did not end with the end of my military service.

But this begs the question: Who are these enemies of the Constitution?

I have written the book series The Rise of America to serve as a teaching guide in order to instruct Americans about the type of government that we are guaranteed under the Constitution and how that government has been ripped from the hand of the American people; who is responsible, and what we must do to fix it.  

My name is John Diamond and I am an Air Force veteran. As a military veteran, I took an oath to: “Support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic... So help me, God.” And as far as I am concerned, that oath did not end with the end of my military service.

But this begs the question: Who are these enemies of the Constitution?

I have written the book series The Rise of America to serve as a teaching guide in order to instruct Americans about the type of government that we are guaranteed under the Constitution and how that government has been ripped from the hand of the American people; who is responsible, and what we must do to fix it.  

Channel 4, a TV station seen all across England, has decided to embrace the country's coming Islamification. Reports the Daily Mail:

Channel 4 is to reignite controversy over the wearing of the veil - by featuring a Muslim woman in full niqab giving the broadcaster's alternative Christmas message.

The woman, today named only as Khadija and said to be a lecturer in Islamic studies, will go head-to-head with the Queen when she gives her annual speech to the nation on 25 December.

Producers are said to have "discovered" her after a month-long search for a suitable candidate.

A spokesman for the channel added: "We felt it fitting that Channel 4's alternative Christmas message should be given by a Muslim woman in a year when issues of religious and racial identity and freedom of expression have dominated the news agenda.

For a man that is averaging a paltry 600,000 viewers an evening, he sure is full of…himself. MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann sat down with the folks from Radar Online for an interview published Monday (hat tip TVNewser), and it must have been hard to get his head through the entranceway.

First, he did what most employees learn at an early age is a no-no – he took on his boss. His interviewers asked: “Dan Abrams said recently that your program ‘could become a model for the newscast of the future.’ Are you a role model?” Olby obnoxiously responded (emphasis mine throughout):

I don't know what Dan has to do with it frankly. We've never had a conversation about the direction of the show. He's actually the—The general manager [of MSNBC], right, but we rarely interact. As far as I know he works on dayside programming. Phil Griffin runs the network. He is the vice president of NBC [News] and my original producer in television.

Then, he went after CNN’s Lou Dobbs (emphasis mine throughout):

The New York Times took on the cause of an upcoming Supreme Court ruling by framing the new conservative majority as hostile territory for two school systems that are defending their use of skin color as a determining factor in public school admissions.

The article, Court Reviews Race as Factor in School Plans, is just what you’d expect from hacktivist reporters who spend just as much time furthering an agenda as they do in reporting out of context and sparsely connected facts. The end result is an article that has little to do with being correct let alone honest.

The Iraq Study Group's recommendations are about to be released. Think about it: what should be the media's focus? I'd say attention should center on what those recommendations are, and whether if implemented they would advance - or impair - US interests in Iraq.

But that's not the MSM's focus at all. From the cover of Newsweek to the Today show, the concern is not whether the recommendations are good, but only whether President Bush will accept them.

In the course of Matt Lauer's interview of former Bush chief-of-staff Andy Card, 'Today' flashed the Newsweek cover shown here. When Card began

Give New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof credit for a couple things. First, he is as far from an armchair pundit as you can get, having been virtually everywhere and put himself on the line innumerable times. Check his bio. Second, he makes no bones about what he is proposing in Iraq in his pay-per-view column of today. "Cut and walk" isn't my gloss; it's Kristof's headline.

That said, Kristof's column reads like something that might have been written by warm 'n fuzzy Stuart Smalley, the SNL character Al Franken hilariously immortaliz