NBC’s Meredith Vieira used a liberal talking point against the Bush administration on the Today show on Tuesday. Vieira asked Inez Tenenbaum, the head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, “Under President Bush, the Consumer Products Safety Commission was criticized for being too cozy with business- essentially, toothless. How do you assure the American public...that that’s no longer the case?”
The NBC morning anchor interviewed Commisioner Tenenbaum just after the beginning of the 7 am Eastern hour on the CPSC’s recall of 2.1 million drop-side baby cribs on November 23. Vieira tied-in the concerns of new parents about the safety of the cribs as she included the left-wing criticism of the government agency during the Bush era in her last question to the Obama appointee: “Under President Bush, the Consumer Products Safety Commission was criticized for being too cozy with business- essentially, toothless. How do you assure the American public, particularly parents out there that are worried, that that’s no longer the case?”
Tenenbaum gave a very generic answer to Vieira’s question: “Well, what we’re going to do is enforce every law that Congress has passed. And last year, it passed a sweeping new law called the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. We’re enforcing that law firmly but fairly.”
Earlier in 2009, Vieira acted as a liberal apologist during an interview of Fox News contributor Dick Morris. She touted another of the left’s sound bites when she proclaimed how “President Obama [was] lashing out at Wall Street and clamping down on corporate fat cats” during a Today show segment in February. She even went so far to share her “emotional” reaction to Obama’s inauguration (she specified that she was feeling “blissful’ that day).
—Matthew Balan is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here.
NewsBusters is turning 5. Enter our free t-shirt contest to help us celebrate!
Editor at Large
Comments Policy
Just for fun
Tue, 11/24/2009 - 20:12 ET by ReaverVieira-“Under President Bush, the Consumer Products Safety Commission was criticized for being too cozy with business- essentially, toothless. How do you assure the American public, particularly parents out there that are worried, that that’s no longer the case?”
Tenenbaum- “Umm… because Obama is the president now?”
Viera- “Praise the Lord! My faith has been restored!”
I wouldn't recommend sex, drugs or insanity for everyone, but they've always worked for me. - Hunter S. Thompson
just wondering when they
Tue, 11/24/2009 - 21:25 ET by JAJTjust wondering when they were going to realize that Bush left office Jan 20th. they can't keep blaming Bush for Obama's daily failure. JAJT
Same One?
Tue, 11/24/2009 - 22:02 ET by countmein5050Is this a serious journalist...same one who had the cougar melt-down over a Marine on 'Millionaire'? Yeah...she's credible. She actually experienced an O and admitted it had 'been awhile' for her. Her husband must be SO proud. This is your typical hard-hitting liberal journalist....but NOW she's feeling MUCH better.
Dems ran Congress since 2006
Tue, 11/24/2009 - 23:01 ET by rfpzzzzzIt would be nice if someone in the media made mention that the Dems(including B. Obama) have run congress since Nov 2006 and the White House for a year. In 2006 the market was approaching an all time high , unemployment was about 5% and the deficit was less than $200 B. Will this government and its media arm ever take responsibility for the mess?NO!
Hey, if they can ignore the
Tue, 11/24/2009 - 23:04 ET by Free StinkerHey, if they can ignore the ClimateGate, they can ignore anything.
Look at all the stuff Obama said during the campaign that they ignored!
خال
Sorry I forgot we are living in occupied territory
Tue, 11/24/2009 - 23:15 ET by rfpzzzzzSorry I forgot we are living in occupied territory.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Wed, 11/25/2009 - 12:07 ET by mattmhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ro-El7WaYQ&feature=related
My sentiments exactly.
Tue, 11/24/2009 - 23:59 ET by SmartypantsMy sentiments exactly. The left has convinced much of the country that all eight years of the Bush Administration was pure torture. Of course, they don't explain how he managed to win reelection and pick up seats in Congress in the 2002 and 2004 elections, sending Tom Daschle packing in the process. Personally, my 401k averaged about a 15% return from 2002 through 2006. It was even doing alright through early 2007. I also remember the economy overall being pretty darn strong despite the media's attempt to run it down. Then, the capital markets melted down in December of 2008 due to bad loans made at the behest of liberal politicians, and it was Bush's fault. Whenever I hear anybody that buys into this b/s I cringe.
The most successful war America has ever waged is quickly becoming President Obama's war on capitalism.
What Idiots
Wed, 11/25/2009 - 00:03 ET by richb313The "Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act" is actually a very bad piece of legislation and has already put several small companies out of business just trying to comply with it. I will not go into details but Hugh Hewitt has commented frequently on this bad law. What idiots. These fools are business killers and instead of a warning and sending out kits they want to do a Total Recall they are idiots.
"...has already put several
Wed, 11/25/2009 - 12:04 ET by mattm"...has already put several small companies out of business..."
This is exactly why Big Business favors Democrats, not Republicans. (as per my post below)
Vieria is a hack!
Wed, 11/25/2009 - 00:08 ET by jarrett.edwardsI know every on here is most concerned
with Vieria's liberal talking points, but that's nothing new! But, as
a South Carolinian I must say Tenenbaum is a major screw up! She was
our Sec. of Education, and she drove our schools even further into
the ground! Then she ran for the Senate, and the liberals thought she
would actually win, but we were smarter and Jim DeMint crushed her.
This is her payoff job, and if she is as good at it as she was at her
old government job, be ready for No Consumer Protection whatsoever,
or either she will go off the deep end and recall every product on
the shelf, like when she took over a small school district here,
because they were failing, guess what when they turned it back over
test scores were lower and so was graduation rates.
Yeah, and under Clinton
Wed, 11/25/2009 - 00:57 ET by RR GOPYeah, and under Clinton there were no massive recalls of items after injury or death?
We always take chances with the things we buy, but of course we expect them to be as safe as possible, though nothing is 100% safe.
As for the little ones, man, it's impossible to keep them 100% safe even without defective items. These little guys get into everything and unfortunately tragic things can happen if your back is turned even for a minute...and sometimes even when you are watching them. Those of us here are the survivors and I'm sure we've all done thousands of things that have killed others very early on.
Very sad.
One of the 34% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 86% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory.
"Too cozy
Wed, 11/25/2009 - 12:02 ET by mattm"Too cozy with business..." This is another liberal myth.
This is one of the dirty little secrets of liberalism: It's the Dems who are supported by Big Business. This is partly because Dems keep bureaucracies, like the CPSC, in place, which large companies can afford to deal with but their smaller competitors can not.
bush was anti consumer
Wed, 11/25/2009 - 15:11 ET by sajc05I remember lou dobbs reporting at length that the bush administration was trying to stop an effort to get country or origin labels put on food, especially animal food. this was during the height of poisonous products coming in from china, children were at danger and people's pets too but bush didn't seem to care.
at the time my question to bush was why can't the american people know if they're food was coming form china? and of course they couldn't because he was cozy with big business and china.
this was dobbs reporting, not some left wing nut.
Link it dude.
Thu, 11/26/2009 - 06:31 ET by Dan The Man 2Link it dude.