Morning Newscasts Still Skipping Obama Supporters' Cancer Death Ad
On Thursday morning, the Big Three continued their complete blackout on the controversy surrounding a pro-Obama super PAC's new ad that points the finger at Mitt Romney for a woman's cancer death. ABC's Good Morning America and NBC's Today minimized their political coverage. Even worse, CBS This Morning had former DNC head Ed Rendell on, but instead bringing up the hot topic, they discussed the apparently fascinating topic of federal infrastructure funding.
By contrast, liberal CNN slammed the Priorities USA ad on Tuesday and Wednesday, with The Situation Room, Erin Burnett's OutFront program, Anderson Cooper 360, and Piers Morgan Tonight all covering it. Even MSNBC's Mika Brzensnski hammered Obama operatives on Thursday's Morning Joe for playing dumb about the misleading ad: "That's just not going to pass. They're not telling the truth." (video below the jump)
CBS This Morning interviewed two former politicians - Rendell and former GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani - during the 7 am Eastern hour. Anchors Charlie Rose and Gayle King brought on Giuliani to discuss the Romney V.P. guessing game. At one point, Rose asked the former NYC mayor, "Why don't Americans, at this time, know more about Mitt Romney?"
Over twenty minutes later, the two CBS anchor turned to Rendell, who criticized President Obama from the left for devoting too little of the $900 billion "stimulus" to infrastructure repair, and even dropped Ronald Reagan's name to support his pro-federal spending message. It was the second time in three days that the morning show helped the former Pennsylvania governor promote his new book.
NBC's Today didn't cover the presidential race at all on Thursday. The closest that the morning show came to a political segment was when they brought on leftist BBC anchor Katty Kay, who bemoaned how "the role of government here [in the U.S.] is much more complicated. People don't want it in America. In Britain, we expect government to provide things for us." ABC's Good Morning America had just one news brief on a Romney fundraiser in New Jersey, and how the Republican candidate's motorcade drew the attention of a wedding party.
