NewsBusters Archive

"American Morning" host Miles O'Brien prefaced a September 13 interview with White House Press Secretary Tony Snow by mentioning the President's 9/11 speech and wondering "if lawmakers on both sides of the aisle" were heeding Bush's call for unity. It soon became clear that when O'Brien said both sides, he meant only Republicans. The CNN anchor led with a quote critical of Democrats by Majority Leader John Boehner. Snow then attempted to reference some tough statements made by liberal Senator Carl Levin. O'Brien respond:

O'BRIEN: "No, no, I want to ask -- can I ask about Republicans first? Let's just talk about Republicans....I want to ask you about Republicans."

It hasn't taken Katie Couric long to tailor the CBS Evening News to her liking.  The New York Observer reports the Perky One has replaced medical correspondent Elizabeth Kaledin with Dr Jonathan LaPook, Ms. Couric's gastroenterologist.

What makes that move even more interesting is that the good doctor's father-in-law is longtime liberal activist Norman Lear.  According to the Web site Newsmeat, the physician has contributed to the presidential campaigns of John Kerry, Wesley Clark, and Al Gore.

Don't be surprised if the CBS Evening News begins reporting on stories relating to matters such as the health dangers of global warming and the desirability of socialized medicine.

With the news of Air America's expected demise comes the contest for which media outlet has been the most aggressively clueless in ignoring this fact in Al Franken interviews. This week's winner has to be Time magazine, whose Jeffrey Ressner swaps gibes with Franken in their "Ten Questions" interview during Bankruptcy Week with toughies like this:

TIME: Who would you rather be stranded with on a desert island: Ann Coulter or Katherine Harris?

Franken: Hmmmm. I'd say Katherine Harris, because there's more meat on the bone.

Before that came the question: "You've locked horns with most of the top conservative pundits: Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly. Which one is your favorite feud?"

Air America Radio will announce a major restructuring on Friday, which is expected to include a bankruptcy filing, three independent sources have told ThinkProgress.

Air America could remain on the air under the deal, but significant personnel changes are already in the works. Sources say five Air America employees were laid off yesterday and were told there would be no severance without capital infusion or bankruptcy. Also, Air America has ended its relationship with host Jerry Springer.

The right wing is sure to seize on Air America’s financial woes as a sign that progressive talk radio is unpopular. In fact, Air America succeeded at creating something that didn’t exist: the progressive talk radio format. That format is now established and strong and will continue with or without Air America. Indeed, many of the country’s most successful and widely-syndicated progressive talk hosts — Ed Schultz and Stephanie Miller, for instance — aren’t even associated with Air America.

The British newspaper The Daily Mail has published a video clip of “Death of a President,” the controversial film about to be released dealing with the assassination of George W. Bush (hat tip to Drudge). As reported by DM:

The shocking footage, which you can preview exclusively here, is from a new Channel 4 movie to be broadcast on More4 in October, focusing on the fictional slaying of the world's most powerful man.

Watch a clip from the film everyone's talking about

Keith Olbermann used the solemn occasion of the fifth anniversary of 9/11 to launch a no-holds-barred political attack on President Bush, as you can see in this September 11 Countdown video. Olbermann also added to the poor taste of his bad timing with this quote from an episode of the Twilight Zone called The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street:

The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts... attitudes... prejudices. To be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill, and suspicion can destroy, and the thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all its own for the children, and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to The Twilight Zone.

This one has to go in the category of “If you live long enough...”

Civil rights activist Dick Gregory was interviewed last week on XM radio (hat tip to Hot Air), and according to Redding News Review, he had some rather extraordinary things to say about a British film dealing with the assassination of President George W. Bush (video clip preview of the film now available here):

WASHINGTON, Sept. 08, 2006, 11:20 p.m. - Controversial comedian and activist Dick Gregory today said he would not be surprised if a UK film's fictional assassination of President Bush comes true and he does not "finish his term out."

The article despicably continued:

A company statement called the video "illjudged, and we will be speaking with those involved." This means that censorship now extends to private parties for the self-flagellating BBC. In forty years, hopefully Al-BBC executives will be just as abhorrent of anti-European jokes.

Reports the Evening Standard.

Members of the BBC London news team today face a grilling from senior bosses after they filmed a spoof video making light of the conflict in the Middle East.

The film, a skit on Peter Kay's (Is This The Way To) Amarillo? was made to mark the departure of assistant editor Simon Torkington who is going to the news channel Al-Jazeera International in Qatar with his wife, former ITV news anchor Shiulie Ghosh.

Another classic from Reuters:

Four gunmen shouting religious slogans attacked the U.S. embassy in Damascus on Tuesday, but failed to harm any American diplomats before all four were killed, a Syrian official said.

Of course, the news service would provide similar cover if these gunmen were Christian... (h/t Small Dead Animals)