ABC & CBS Exploit Senate Race They Obsess Over to Regurgitate Ridicule for Palin
By Brent Baker | October 14, 2010 | 21:07
Airing rare stories on a U.S. Senate debate, ABC, CBS and NBC all ran full reports Thursday night on the only race they repeatedly find newsworthy, one in which the Republican is behind by double-digits, as ABC and CBS exploited the Delaware debate to regurgitate ridicule for Sarah Palin.
“[Christine] O'Donnell's toughest moment came when she was asked to name a recent Supreme Court decision with which she disagreed,” asserted CBS's Nancy Cordes, “a question that also tripped up her mentor, Sarah Palin,” back in 2008. On ABC, Jonathan Karl echoed how “O'Donnell got tripped up when asked to name a Supreme Court decision she disagrees with,” which Karl called “a flashback to 2008 when another candidate got asked the same question.”
Katie Couric's intro undermined the justification for her newscast's focus as she painted the contest as uncompetitive: “ There was a time Republicans thought they had a good chance to take back the Delaware Senate seat once held by Vice President Joe Biden. That was before Tea Party candidate Christine O'Donnell won the GOP nomination, becoming a national celebrity, but trailing badly in the polls.”
The NBC Nightly News managed to avoid highlighting O'Donnell's inability to name a specific court decision and thus didn't resurrect Palin, but still considered this particular debate worthy of a full story. Brian Williams announced his top political report:
Now back in this country, we turn to politics and we begin tonight in the state of Delaware where there have been two debates in less than 24 hours between the Tea Party favorite and Republican Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell, and her Democratic Party opponent, Chris Coons. They went at each other over everything from taxes to late-night television. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell following the race tonight from Wilmington.
From the start on Jonathan Karl's piece on the Thursday, October 14 ABC World News:
JONATHAN KARL: O'Donnell got tripped up when asked to name a Supreme Court decision she disagrees with.
CHRISTINE O'DONNELL, IN DEBATE: Oh, gosh. Give me a specific one, I'm sorry.
MODERATOR: Actually, I can't because the, I need you to tell me which ones you object to.
O'DONNELL, IN DEBATE: I'm very sorry, right off the top of my head, I know that there are a lot. But I'll put it up on my Web site.
KARL: It was a flashback to 2008 when another candidate got asked the same question.
SARAH PALIN, ON THE CBS EVENING NEWS, OCTOBER 1, 2008: Well, let's see. There's-
CBS Evening News:
KATIE COURIC: Turning now to Campaign 2010, there was a time Republicans thought they had a good chance to take back the Delaware Senate seat once held by Vice President Joe Biden. That was before Tea Party candidate Christine O'Donnell won the GOP nomination, becoming a national celebrity, but trailing badly in the polls.
....
NANCY CORDES: O'Donnell's toughest moment came when she was asked to name a recent Supreme Court decision with which she disagreed.
O'DONNELL, IN DEABTE: Oh, gosh. Give me a specific one. I'm sorry.
CORDES: A question that also tripped up her mentor, Sarah Palin.
KATIE COURIC, IN 2008: What other Supreme Court decisions do you disagree with?
SARAH PALIN, IN 2008: Hmmm. Well.
CORDES: O'Donnell said later that the reason she had such a hard time answering that question is that she actually agrees with so many decisions handed down by a Supreme Court that's led by a conservative Chief Justice, John Roberts.
— Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
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Comments
These women aren't smart,
Submitted by Bretner on Thu, 10/14/2010 - 9:13pm.
These women aren't smart, thats the bottom line.
They can read republican talking points well and smile but getting stumped on easy questions shows there's nothing behind their rhetoric.
todays GOP: For outsourcing, for the selling of America to the highest corporate bidder.
Fixed news: GOP's media wing.
Christine O'donnel: "I've got Sean Hannity (a Fixed News employee) in my pocket"
Bathtub Boy Bretner---
Submitted by matthewdean on Thu, 10/14/2010 - 10:19pm.
You wouldn't happen to be comparing the intellectual capability of Republican women to the towering intellectual ferocity displayed by Democratic Party females like Barbara Boxer, Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, Sheila Jackson Lee, and Bawney Frank, would you?
MD
MD
Submitted by Blonde on Thu, 10/14/2010 - 10:29pm.
You forgot Corrine Brown.
That still cracks me up every time I watch it. Although it shouldn't. :)
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 138 (and Counting)
LMAO Blonde! I had never seen
Submitted by Radical1979 on Fri, 10/15/2010 - 9:21am.
LMAO Blonde! I had never seen then that. Now, as I'm drying the tears of laughter, I have to say, why the hell is our Congress giving time for "congradulatin" sports teams?
Right-o, Blonde---
Submitted by matthewdean on Thu, 10/14/2010 - 10:56pm.
" Brainiac Brown" should be at the very top of that list.
Funny, but sad, indeed.
MD
Patty Murray
Submitted by libBuster on Fri, 10/15/2010 - 9:05am.
Did you forget about Patty Murray
There is nothing behind your
Submitted by NL207 on Fri, 10/15/2010 - 12:14am.
There is nothing behind your inane posts either, not one blessed fact that I can see.
Try to make some of your points with references. Show me how Republicans ar at fault for corporate outsourcing of jobs.
In the meantime, I will assert Democrats are responsible for the 2008 financial meltdown. I will start with a nice explanation of what the subprime mortgage crisis is and how it brought down the markets. Then all we need do is tie enforcement of the Community Reinvestnment Act of 1977 by the Clinton Administration to the creation of the subprime mortgage bubble.
Challenge : find any Republican who profited from the FannieMae and FreddieMac scandals. For added bonus points. find me a conservative Republican who profited from this scandal.
Just to keep it fair, i will provide you with a Democrat who profited from FannieMae. In fact he profited so much, he had to plead guilty. Franklin D. Raines, crook extraordinaire.
NL207
Submitted by gfrrman on Fri, 10/15/2010 - 12:32am.
and the investigation of slobbering Barney Frank and Chris Dodd should be item one when Repubs take over!!!
"Socialists eventually run out of other peoples' money"...Margaret Thatcher
Darn it, Blonde...
Submitted by Jer on Thu, 10/14/2010 - 10:39pm.
Darn it, Blonde...I'm having trouble downloading Adobe Flash Player to Mozilla Firefox.
I needed my monthly hit of Corrine 'Gator' Brown.
Jer
The Left is having their five
Submitted by Van Halen on Fri, 10/15/2010 - 12:32am.
The Left is having their five minutes of fun. But election night approaches. Then it's our turn. And it will be a hell of a lot longer than 5 minutes of laughs while the Left tear themselves apart like rabid wolves.
Greene
Submitted by scottcom36 on Fri, 10/15/2010 - 12:50am.
If they want me to watch the evening news they need to run an Alvin Greene story every night.
"What is the second article of faith?"
Submitted by JakeMo on Fri, 10/15/2010 - 2:17am.
Libs always like to pull out the old, "Name the case law" question when they get backed into a corner by common sense.
Hey libs, those of us who live in the real world, with real jobs where we do real work creating real products and real services don't waste our time memorizing legal opinions and contriving clever legal theories that deny the people their God given freedom.
We know the Constitution. And we know when you guys aren't following it.
For the record, I also can't name the specific statute being violated when my house gets robbed. But I know it ain't right.
I agree we normal people dont
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Fri, 10/15/2010 - 1:57pm.
I agree we normal people dont spend too much time on court descisions as we cant do too much about them. However, this is for a Senate seat and they do approve SCOTUS judges and she is a lawyer and should have a passing famliarity of these descisions.
She screwed up and should have done more homework for teh debate. Moreover she should have tried to get the debate not so slanted. At the very least she should have mentioned teh Kelo case as its a travesty of the rights under the constitution.
SCOTUS descisions dont really matter in her capacity as Senator. She will be looking at potential judges and their descisions. She actually brought up that judge in California who ruled on DADT. Now that is relevant to being a Senator.
You Don't..........
Submitted by GeneralAl on Fri, 10/15/2010 - 7:05am.
You don't have a clue what you are talking about! Your Democrat pals took over America in 2007 by stealing elections across America. They caused the housing market to crumble destroying large and small businesses alike [Including mine!] and they went on a spending spree with my money [You probably have a government job or work for some "Cause"!]. The jobs weren't outsourced, they were destroyed by your Democrat Scum Bag Communist Stupid Idiots!
"Old Soldiers never die, they just fade away"!
Why are these people so
Submitted by liberalsarefunny on Fri, 10/15/2010 - 12:13pm.
Why are these people so terrified of Sarah Palin?