Guthrie Decides Obama Gave a Great Speech -- On MSNBC My Boss Told Me So

The insular world of NBC News and MSNBC. In her Tuesday NBC Nightly News story on President Barrack Obama's status of the economy speech, reporter Savannah Guthrie emphasized how “the White House billed today's speech as a 'major' one” and so it was “carried live on cable” where “analysts said it was short on rhetoric and long on policy.”

Guthrie's expert “analysts” turned out to be one analyst, her boss. In a clip lifted from MSNBC earlier in the day, NBC Nightly News viewers heard NBC News Washington Bureau Chief Mark Whitaker effuse: “Well, there was a moment of church in that speech, but the rest of it was pure law school.”

ABC's World News and the CBS Evening News stuck to reporting what Obama said and managed to avoid such a thematic assessment.

Before replacing the late Tim Russert, Whitaker was the top editor at Newsweek magazine.

From the end of Guthrie's report on the Tuesday, April 14 NBC Nightly News:

SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: The White House billed today's speech as a “major” one. Carried live on cable, analysts said it was short on rhetoric and long on policy.

MARK WHITAKER, NBC NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, ON MSNBC: Well, there was a moment of church in that speech, but the rest of it was pure law school.

GUTHRIE: Aides say the President's goal was to give Americans a realistic picture of where the economy is.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: You can continue to expect an unrelenting, unyielding, day-by-day effort from this administration to fight for economic recovery on all fronts.

GUTHRIE: Well tomorrow is, of course, the deadline to file taxes. The President will use the occasion to talk about the tax cuts and credits in his economic recovery package.