A night after the CBS Evening News ignored CIA Director Leon Panetta's rebuke of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Saturday's newscast continued the blackout as anchor Jeff Glor only mentioned Pelosi in setting up a question by explaining she “put herself in a very awkward position” when “she said the CIA lied to her or misled her about water-boarding,” before he asked Time magazine veteran John Dickerson: “Is this something that's over for the Speaker now or does this continue?”
Though the whole topic is apparently already over for CBS News, Dickerson maintained “it's not over for the Speaker” as he proceeded to empathize with her plight by suggesting she's “got to hope another issue...blows her off the front pages” and that “when Congress goes home for their recesses that somehow she gets out of the news cycle because she's still in a fix.” But not one that interests CBS News.
Nor NBC, which like ABC on Saturday night, didn't utter Pelosi's name – possibly because all three evening newscasts were so exited about what they made their lead stories: President Obama naming Utah's Republican Governor, Jon Huntsman, ambassador to China. “A political masterstroke” declared ABC's George Stephanopoulos on World News in repeating the same phrase applied moments earlier by reporter Jonathan Karl. Stephanopoulos even managed to get in a dig at conservatives as he hailed the pick as “one more sign that this is a party [Republican] where the reformers -- the moderates -- are looking for an exit.”
Back to CBS, Kimberly Dozier touted Obama's wisdom, “Pundits on the left and the right are calling it a savvy move: the White House gets the right man for job while politically neutralizing a potential rival.”
For details on the disinterest in Pelosi shown by the broadcast network newscasts, check two Friday NewsBusters posts:
- CBS and NBC Spike Panetta's Rejection of Pelosi's Smear of the CIA
- After Three Weeks, Pelosi's Anti-CIA Rant Pushes Nets to Action
From the Saturday, May 16 CBS Evening News:
JEFF GLOR: Next to Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, who put herself in a very awkward position this week, as you know, when she said the CIA lied to her or misled her about water-boarding. Is this something that's over for the Speaker now or does this continue?
JOHN DICKERSON, CBS NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST: It's not over for the Speaker. It continues. And she's really the only one who can get herself out of it. As one administration official put it, she's trying to untie a knot by pulling both ends of the rope. And she's got to back away from this big fight she took on with the CIA. She's started to do that a little bit already, but she's also got to hope another issue, maybe even the Huntsman nomination, blows her off the front pages and maybe hopes also that in the summer, when Congress goes home for their recesses, that somehow she gets out of the news cycle because she's still in a fix.
GLOR:: And the White House wants nothing to do with the issue.
DICKERSON: The White House wants nothing to do with it. They basically say, for the moment, she's got to rescue herself. They do need her some day, though, because there is an agenda the President's trying to put forward and she's a very powerful inside player, but they can't get in the middle of this fight and she's going to have to do it herself.
GLOR: Alright, John Dickerson joining us from Washington. John, as always, thank you.
—Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center
Editor at Large
Comments Policy
Re Front Pages
May 16, 2009 - 22:01 ET by slickwillie2001The Pelosi story will be off the front pages if the liberal media decides it is time to cut Nan a break and take it off the front pages. If they do that, they can choose any old story they want in its place. Does the appointment of an Ambassador to China rate top billing over the predicament of the Speaker of the House? Are they capable of following only one story at a time? It may depend on what leaks from the CIA.
Re Huntsman, some conservative sources see this as knocking off a possible worthy challenger to the Bamster, and others see him as a Schwarzeneggar RINO and say good riddance. I don't know his positions well enough, any Utahns here?
slick... I hope this
May 16, 2009 - 22:28 ET by bigtimerslick...
I hope this fills you in enough...I know it does for me and I say good-riddance too.
But that's just me....
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
Stephanopoulos even managed
May 16, 2009 - 22:12 ET by MidAmericaStephanopoulos even managed to get in a dig at conservatives as he hailed the pick as “one more sign that this is a party [Republican] where the reformers -- the moderates -- are looking for an exit.”
Yeah you could spin it that way or you could see it as a sign of weakness from obama that he is needing the credibility of a rational Republican for an important post that he can't fill with the second string of crackpots he's got to pick from in his own party.
And it could be that Huntsman wanted to go back to China
May 17, 2009 - 07:52 ET by PamObama needed to appoint him, and it just might be that Huntsman wanted to go back to China..
...
May 16, 2009 - 22:57 ET by EugeniaB.O.zo will get this whole mess off any remaining newscasts by naming his pick for the supreme court next week. Then it'll be Nancy who?
E... Wouldn't doubt
May 16, 2009 - 23:04 ET by bigtimerE...
Wouldn't doubt it.
Something will come up...that is for sure...always does...the left have the msm in their pockets as we all know...and they will play along if not lead the way.
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
Maneuvering
May 17, 2009 - 01:00 ET by KC MulvilleIt's pure speculation, but I think Obama's crew is behind this. I suspect they feel they got blasted when they handed over the tax bill to the Democrat Congress, and the Democrats came back with a boondoggle. Obama probably doesn't trust her, and thinks he'd be better off with a speaker he can control.
Don't bother watching Pelosi, because she's just going to stonewall through it. What might be fun is watching the liberal media factions fight it out among themselves, each releasing their own stories at just the right time.
The snakes that they are...............
May 17, 2009 - 08:59 ET by DanoThey (the left) will slither through the tall grass like the snakes they are. Truth , honesty, etc. are not in the liberal lefts minds at all. Its all political , period.
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
– Thomas Jefferson
Masterstroke?
May 17, 2009 - 09:25 ET by nkviking75It's a political masterstroke to "neutralize" a potential Republican "moderate" who might have run against Obama? Have they forgotten how they performed against the last moderate they faced? If a conservative candidate gets the GOP nod, he or she is much more likely to be tough on Obama than a RINO.
When you put the clowns in charge, don't be surprised when a circus breaks out.
Re strategy
May 17, 2009 - 09:29 ET by slickwillie2001There's absolutely some political strategy going on here. RINO or not, Huntsman was a possible primary candidate for 2012, and this appointment makes that less likely. It does position him as a stronger candidate for 2016, but unless the Bamster is a King by then, he won't care. No one should think that the Bamster sat down with the SoS and said, 'so, who is the best man in the USA to be ambassador to China?' (Coincidentally, this is the same situation Hillary is in, -how to run in the 2012 primary from the SoS chair.)
Re Pelosi and maneuvering, even if Pelosi was completely faithful to the Bamster, I can see him wanting to replace her. I see it as similar to the situation when a new CEO is hired in a big company. He or she tend to bring 'their people' with them, even if those they replace are competent and willing to be loyal, the CEO wants people in that job that are beholden to him for that job. Pelosi's likely replacement is Steny Hoyer, who apparently is buds with Rahm.
Someone yesterday posted an article from December re Pelosi laying down the ground rules on Obama (which is worthy of a repost); I didn't keep it but I have to think that might have been the beginning of bad blood with the Bamster. After that meeting the Bamster must have looked at Rahm and said -'who the h does she think she is?'
I also don't get this concept of 'not being able to turn down the President when he asks for X'. I have respect for the office but it only goes so far, especially in the case of the Bamster.
PS How about Dingy Harry, what message does PrevariGate send him? He's being very quiet.
Obama could take a crap in
May 17, 2009 - 17:00 ET by RogerCfromSDObama could take a crap in the woods and Stephy would stroke masterfully about that, as well.
What a media tool.
A nation cannot be free without a free, unbiased media. We are not free.