Back in January, ABC anchor Charles Gibson was the most triumphant over supposed Democratic achievements after taking control of Congress. But on Friday night, only Gibson's World News, of the three broadcast network evening newscasts, reported on the failure of Democrats to pass the bills they promised in their first one hundred days. (Brian Williams' lead on NBC: “A new and growing political problem for the White House: Missing e-mails.”) Gibson had trumpeted on January 4 how video of Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the House floor holding a baby while she talked to colleagues demonstrated “the ultimate in multitasking: Taking care of the children and the country” (NewsBusters post with video) and two weeks later he celebrated how House Democrats “completed their scheduled hundred hours of work in just about 42 hours, so they can put the other 58 in the bank.” (NewsBusters item)

On Friday night's World News, Gibson explained: “When Democrats took control of the Congress in January, they promised it would be a new day. They'd get things done. They even had a checklist. Well, a hundred days after taking control, we've checked the checklist.” Jake Tapper made clear how they've come up very short, pointing out how the Democrats “have no major legislative accomplishments to mark this anniversary. None of their 'Six for '06' campaign promises last year have made it to the President's desk.” Tapper listed several bills which passed in the House but have yet to be reconciled with the Democratic Senate and he noted how Democrats have “conducted twice as many oversight hearings over the Bush administration as Republicans did last year.” Tapper concluded, through the perspective of Democrats, on a hopeful note: “Democratic leaders know conflict with the White House is not enough for voters. So in the next hundred days they'll try to deliver on the promises of their first hundred days.”

In 1998, CNN was convinced that congressional oversight of the Clinton administration was a problem, and congressman Dan Burton was a harsh zealot with an unglued personality. Fast forward to 2007, and Jack Cafferty finds the president is the zealot, and the investigating congressmen and journalists are heroes.

On Friday’s Situation Room, CNN commentator Cafferty was doing publicity for the Bush-hating site Salon.com, reciting some of the many quotes blogger Glenn Greenwald collected from a variety of liberal media sources, such as the New York Times, Newsweek, NPR, and the Associated Press. These quotes from news articles "tend to suggest a pattern," as Cafferty put it, of missing documents and e-mails with the Bush administration. Among the circumstances which Greenwald pulled up quotes for are the Abu Ghraib controversy, the case of suspected terrorist Jose Padilla (pronounced "Patilla" by Cafferty), the supposed gaps in President Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard record, and Hurricane Katrina. After presenting many of Greenwald’s collected quotes, Cafferty asked viewers if they think there’s a pattern, and compared it to a "compost heap... the more stuff you pile on it, the greater the odor that emanates from it."

The Washington Post Style section on Friday featured a front-page story on the gay-left group Soulforce and their so-called "Equality Ride" to conservative Christian colleges trying to stir up fights and publicity. Hanna Rosin's story was headlined "Young, Gay Christians On A Bumpy Bus Ride."

Original caption:

Radio personality Don Imus appears on Rev. Al Sharpton's radio show, in New York on April 9, 2007. CBS fired Don Imus from his radio program Thursday, April 12, the finale to a stunning fall for one of the nation's most prominent broadcasters.

"View" token non-liberal Elisabeth Hasselbeck appeared on the April 12 edition of "Hannity and Colmes" to announce her co-host appearance on "Fox and Friends" and to add her opinion on the Imus controversy. Hasselbeck echoed her comments on "The View" that Imus deserved at the very least a long suspension. However, she sang a very different tune when asked about her "View" colleague Rosie O’Donnell and her outrageous comments.

Co-host Sean Hannity asked Hasselbeck about Rosie’s anti-Asian remarks and inquired if Rosie should be held to the same standard. "The View" co-host responded that "that would be for Rosie to decide" and noted Rosie’s intentions "were not malicious."The transcript is below.

"Minding Your Business" reporter Ali Velshi flubbed his tax data near the end of an April 13 report on the alternative minimum tax.

Velshi was busy sympathizing with House Democrats who are unlikely to seek a full repeal of the AMT when he ran into trouble:

“Why? Because repealing the AMT would cost the government $50 billion a year. And no matter who you are – if you were the government – you probably wouldn’t give up the $50 million a year,” said Velshi.

Velshi meant billion, although Americans for Tax reform puts the figure higher -$872 billion over the next 10 years, which averages out to $87.2 billion per year.

The AP is still spinning the anti-Imus wheel with spinoff articles. AP's Sean O'Driscoll wrote a scolding article (this could be old, but this one was posted Tuesday) that whites like Karl Rove should not attempt to rap, as he did at the Radio & TV correspondents dinner, concluding with Jimmy Kimmel saying it is "never, ever funny." Then there's this one from Deepti Hajela: "'Nappy' Has Long, Hurtful History." We are told that whites should never attempt the loaded "in-group" terms:

"When Imus says 'these nappy-headed hos,' his first flaw is he's using an in-group term that's loaded," said Lanita Jacobs-Huey, associate professor of anthropology and American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California."When I hear it from someone who doesn't understand the depth of pain, they just don't have the right to say it," Jacobs-Huey said.

On the April 13 edition of "The View" co-executive producer Barbara Walters again washed her hands clean of Rosie O’Donnell’s extreme remarks. Barbara Walters, Rosie O’Donnell’s boss, stated bluntly: "I don’t have to take responsibility. I do not control you and you and I are still affectionate friends."

On the same week Rosie defended Don Imus’s "free speech," Walters may be responding to the mounting criticism of Rosie’s extreme comments. Rosie, for her part, exclaimed: "If you hate me, hate me, but leave my Barbara out of it!" The entire transcript is below.

ROSIE O’DONNELL: Now, are you still getting in trouble because of me with your friends? Are they still calling you, going, you know, what is that crazy woman saying?

The April 13 edition of "The Early Show" reported on CBS firing Don Imus from the radio for bigoted remarks. To react to the news, anchor Harry Smith interviewed the Reverend Al Sharpton. After hard hitting interviews with Alberto Gonzales and Tony Snow, the CBS anchor seemed disinterested in throwing hard balls to the left wing activist. Smith asked standard questions like what "made it necessary for him not to be on the air," "did he seem like a person who was sorry for what he did," and even asked if Smith’s boss, Les Moonves "gets it."

Although he asked a very mildly worded question about what Sharpton would do about similar language in hip hop music, Smith did not bother to mention his past anti-Semitic comments and the Tawana Brawley case that even the ladies of "The View" discussed. Harry Smith, who covered the Duke lacrosse case dismissal the previous day, did not even see it fit to ask if Sharpton had any regrets from his rush to judgement in Durham. The entire transcript is below.

"Good Morning America," which will participate in a day-long push for liberal environmental action on April 20, touted the "long way" California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has come in adopting left-wing policies. GMA co-host Diane Sawyer asserted that the former actor is now trying "to save the planet for real."

ABC anchors Sawyer and Chris Cuomo seem to have found a Republican that they actually like. Both hosts repeatedly mentioned Schwarzenegger and the presidency (an office he's ineligible to seek). Below is a sampling of their comments:

Chris Cuomo: "In fact, he's out in front of one of the biggest political issues facing our time and he has a lot of presidential buzz surrounding him, even though he's not allowed to run."

Cuomo [To Schwarzenegger]: "You’re on the cover of ‘Newsweek’ magazine. Frustrating that you can't be on the national stage running for president?"

Cuomo: "You do, though, think about what it would be like to run for president if you could?"

The arrogance of Hollywood liberal elites is truly astounding, folks.

After embarrassing herself on CNBC Tuesday, and following it up with an absurd rebuttal Thursday, the producer of Al Gore’s global warming schlockumentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” Laurie David, went for a dubious hat-trick by taking on talk radio host Rush Limbaugh.

I kid you not.

In what was presented as a letter to El Rushbo at the Huffington Post, David attacked Limbaugh for -- get this! -- his lack of knowledge concerning global warming (emphasis added throughout, h/t NB member Sick-n-Tired):

In the wake of the Imus affair, MSNBC is airing an all-day discussion on the theme "What's OK to say?" Poet Maya Angelou appeared at 11:05 AM EDT, and in the course of her interview with MSNBC's Peter Alexander, had this exchange:

ALEXANDER: Dr. Angelou, you're an author and an artist. I guess the question is, is there a need for more censorship of our media and of our arts, are you comfortable with that? And if that happens, when does it end? What is OK to say?

ANGELOU: Exactly. I agree with that. I think the society decides upon the censorship. Each person censors himself or herself. Do you think, if any of these hip-hoppers, if they said about Mrs. Bush what they say about black women, do you think they would be given a microphone? Do you really think so? So we have to censor ourselves. And then, the society makes that decision.

View video here.

Yesterday I noted that the New York Sun reported Melissa McNamara to be the producer CBS fired for plagiarizing the Wall Street Journal in a script she wrote for Katie Couric's April 4 "Notebook" vlog. For its part, CBS News refused to publicly release the name of the fired producer. As of publication of this blog post, CBS's ombudsblog "Public Eye" has not addressed the Sun's reporting. Now there's another development in the story.

Yesterday, the New York Observer reported that McNamara was slated to teach journalism courses offered by Media Bistro.

I checked the course Web site today and it notes that the course has been postponed with a new start date to be announced. These development have not been covered by CBS's "Public Eye" blog.

Yet here's how "Public Eye" envisions its mission within CBS News and as a service to CBSNews.com readers:

During Thursday’s "Good Morning America," ABC ran a promo previewing a day-long push for liberal environmental action. The event, which takes place on April 20, will encompass ‘Good Morning America,’ ‘Nightline’ and ‘World News.’ The ad’s narrator promises a "call to action," and notes that the proceedings be hosted by GMA’s Diane Sawyer and will culminate in a hour long special at 10pm:

ABC ad: "Mother nature is sending us a message and we hear it. [Video of falling glaciers, animals and pollution] In eight days, an extraordinary global event. Travel live to all seven continents with ABC News and Diane Sawyer, revealing first hand the real changes in our planet. This is a call to action."

Diane Sawyer: "On Friday, April 20th, ABC News will show you how and what you can do to help. Then, starting at 10 pm, don’t miss the landmark special: ‘Planet Earth 2007.’"

Dionne has a column in today’s WP which elaborates even further on the FOX debate issue.

He blames the network for leaking information on Obama and poses the question, with that credibility, why debate on Fox?

This, after all, is the network that in January floated a false report that Obama had been educated at a madrassa. The nicely staccato Fox report said of Obama's alleged time in an Islamic school: "The first decade of his life, raised by his Muslim father as a Muslim and was educated in a madrassa.... Financed by Saudis, they teach this Wahhabism, which pretty much hates us. The big question is, was that on the curriculum back then?" Talk about Innuendo City. Fox's competition, notably CNN, went after the story and proved it untrue. Obama, as he recounted in his own book, went to an Indonesian public school.

Payton Hoegh at CNSNews.com captured an odd Easter weekend occurrence outside Walter Reed. Here's a story you won't see in the Washington Post: the hula-hooping Easter death bunny.

With temperatures dropping into the low 30s, Easter weekend felt more like Christmas in the nation's capital, and with anti-war protestors dressing in creepy costumes, it looked more like Halloween to some critics, too. CodePink, Veterans for Peace and other anti-war groups have been holding demonstrations outside Walter Reed Hospital for almost two years.

Outside the hospital over Easter, one protestor wore a black outfit with a skull and cross-bones emblazoned on his chest and a pair of pink bunny ears on his head. Adding to the creepiness, the bunny was hula-hooping next to his peace sign.

Politics, jokes and whatever else...

Touchy, touchy! Diane Sawyer is in the business of dishing out tough questions and challenging people's answers. But when a guest on today's "Good Morning America" politely corrected her on a First Amendment matter, the GMA host was quick to accuse him of "attacking" her.

Los Angeles-based radio talk show host Larry Elder was Diane's guest, in to discuss the Imus matter. Sawyer introduced him as a "conservative radio host" though on his own site Elder describes himself as a "libertarian" and "a blend of fiscal conservative and social liberal." Of course we all know how many times the MSM has described Al Sharpton as a "liberal" in the course of his innumerable appearances over the last week or so: that would be precisely zero, at last count.

Elder opined that Imus' punishment did not fit the crime. Imus' comment was offensive, sexist and racist, said Elder, "but he apologized, apologized again, did the obligatory beatdown tour à la Michael Richards by appearing on the Al Sharpton show, and as far as I'm concerned, that should have been enough. In the grand department store of life, Don Imus operates in the toy section and I think that those remarks should have been taken with some perspective, but they weren't."

Leave it to a liberal to claim that Americans are "cheapskates" because our government does not spend enough money on foreign aid. In the L.A.Times for April 13th, that is just what we are treated to with Rosa Brooks' screed titled, "To the rest of the world, we're cheapskates" and subtitled, "The U.S. international affairs budget -- which helps fight AIDS, poverty and more -- is just 1% of total spending." But, by attacking our country over its record on charity and foreign aid spending, Brooks proves that she neither understands the nature of American generosity, nor the American character.

Click here for instructions on running Gaggle daily on your own site. There's also an archive of previous toons available here.

The April 10 London Daily Mail dares to say what others have not. Instead of a trendy story about green celebs, reporter Richard Simpson revealed an Inconvenient Truth; many of the musicians participating in Al Gore’s upcoming Live Earth concerts are major eco-offenders themselves:

The stars of a major Live 8-style concert to raise awareness of climate change have been condemned as hypocrites for failing to lead environmentally friendly lives themselves.

The likes of Madonna and Red Hot Chili Peppers will perform at Live Earth at Wembley Stadium on July 7, yet campaigners say they are among the least "green" individuals on the planet.