Only ABC Mentions Obama Flip-Flop on Presidential War Powers, CBS and NBC Ignore
While a report on ABC's Good Morning America on Tuesday referenced 2007 comments from then-Senator Barack Obama against a president taking military action without congressional approval, CBS and NBC both failed to point out President Obama contradicting those earlier statements by failing to seek congressional approval before committing U.S. forces in Libya.
As NewsBusters' Scott Whitlock earlier reported, ABC correspondent Jake Tapper noted during the Tuesday GMA report: "There was a conference call over the weekend in which one Democrat, one liberal Democrat, read a quote from candidate Obama about the need to seek congressional approval before taking military action and the member of Congress said, 'I agree with candidate Obama.'"
A Tuesday New York Times article similarly noted Obama's reversal: "'The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation,' Mr. Obama told the Boston Globe in 2007."
Between Tapper's mention and it being featured in the pages of the New York Times, CBS and NBC had no excuse not to include Obama's flip-flop in their reporting.
In addition, as the Media Research Center's Rich Noyes pointed out, the networks demanded the Bush administration get congressional approval before going to war in Iraq in 2003, but have been largely silent on the issue when it came to Obama's use of military force in Libya.
- Kyle Drennen's blog
- Login to post comments
Comments
Is it my imagination or has
Submitted by Beukeboom on Wed, 03/23/2011 - 12:54pm.
Is it my imagination or has it become repetitive...almost routinely so...to read that ABC mentions something on some Obama foulup while CBS and NBC ignores?It ain't just Big Media.
Submitted by Ashrak on Wed, 03/23/2011 - 1:03pm.
I am betting that NBC and CBS are thinking that Libya operations stop in a week or two. That way, they can just pretend none of this happened.
Big Media has culpability here but you know what? Republicans in the HOUSE have every ability to compose, introduce and debate this very issue on the floor to force media coverage and they also have stumps on which to speak about it.
That they are not, in large numbers and daily,doing so shows that Big Media members are not the only ones being dishonest, lying by omission, here.
Good Morning America was extra-special this morning
Submitted by SickofLibs on Wed, 03/23/2011 - 1:04pm.
First Tapper, and then Miss Robin Roberts' segment on Chris Brown's impersonation of an enraged animal yesterday after their interview...
...when he tore his shirt off and threw a chair through the greenroom window, sending glass shards to to the street. Luckily, there were no bushes around, or he would have been tearing them out and brandishing them threateningly, too.
Miss Robin Roberts said today of yesterday's incident: “We wish him the absolute best and and again we’ve extended the invitation to him and I sure hope that he takes us up on it, because I’d love to have another chat with him.”
I'm sure if he does return, Stephie will again take the day off - just to play it safe.
(Don't ask me who the hell Chris Brown is)
GMA
Submitted by jpwcpa on Wed, 03/23/2011 - 2:08pm.
I suspect the reason Good Morning America wants Chris Brown to come back is because that will be the best opportunity for the folks at GMA to present Mr. Brown with the bill for the damages he caused.A new racist word
Submitted by Radical1979 on Wed, 03/23/2011 - 2:27pm.
On The View yesterday they were talking about Brown and someone used the word "thug". Shepherd took offense to it, because, as Whoopi put it, it sounds racist. So, although Bill Mahr can use the vulgar term he uses, the word "thug" is now deemed racist. These people screaming racism need to get over themselves. No one thinks in those terms as much as they do.Folks, you're gonna love this one...
Submitted by Beukeboom on Wed, 03/23/2011 - 1:12pm.
Folks, you're gonna love this one...
Quoting from an article written by Doug Powers on MichelleMalkin.com documenting an appearance by Joe Biden on MSNBC's Hardball:
"...in 2007, Joe Biden argued that the president had no constitutional authority to launch an attack without congressional approval against a nation that hadn’t attacked or threatened imminent attack on the United States. Biden also insisted that doing so is an impeachable offense."
So where's Silent Joe now?
Beukeboom,
Submitted by Ashrak on Wed, 03/23/2011 - 2:05pm.
He must have told Obama "This is a Big F'n Deal!"
Maybe that is why Obama skipped the Mayan ruins and is heading back here now.
That might be the only thing
Submitted by astonrickenbach on Wed, 03/23/2011 - 3:52pm.
That might be the only thing he ever said that I agree with.
Spinning for the nObama
Submitted by dmann on Wed, 03/23/2011 - 1:21pm.
Even Bill O'Reilly's slip is showing, last night he claimed the UN mandate forced nObama to commit our troops w/o addressing Congress or "the folks". Billy also claimed Gaddafi was about to slaughter innocents.............Keep spinning Billy and maybe you'll get to play the fool yet again at the feet of your Messiah!In His Defense
Submitted by IrateNate on Wed, 03/23/2011 - 9:01pm.
You can't be too tough on Obama for bypassing Congressional approval. After all, he was on vacation with the family in South America at the time...