NB Staff's blog

NBC, ABC and CBS have all ignored a new book by former Newsweek foreign editor Ed Klein that contains a shocking allegation from Klein's interview with Rev. Jeremiah Wright in which the former Obama pastor claimed that an Obama supporter offered him $150,000 if he would refrain from preaching until after the 2008 election.

From "now until election day," the liberal media will be seeking to herald only news that "advances Obama" while spiking news that "hurts him in any way," NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Hannity substitute host Tucker Carlson on the May 24 program's "Media Mash." [To watch the full segment, click on the play button in the video embedded below the page break]

Fox’s Your World with Neil Cavuto invited on MRC director of media analysis Tim Graham on Thursday to discuss the network near-blackout on the massive group of Catholic lawsuits against the Obama administration over their narrow definition of what a “religious institution” is. Substitute host Eric Bolling showed CBS leading off with Catholic sex abuse charges again, and asked if there were lighter stories on the evening news that deserved less attention than this litigation.

“Last night, the other two networks led with the Facebook IPO that’s collapsing,” Graham said. “But they had time for – ABC had three minutes on how you swim out of a rip current. They also had time on NBC to talk about how Prince Charles is trying his hand at being a DJ. So it’s not like they don’t have the time in these newscasts to devote two minutes to a lawsuit of this magnitude.” [Video and transcript below]

Updated with new statements | Fury over the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts’ continued refusal to report the lawsuits Catholic entities have filed against the Obama administration has spread beyond the Media Research Center watchdog group and Catholic leaders to 11 additional Christian leaders equally concerned about this decision to deliberately not report national news. Below are statements released by FRC’s Tony Perkins, Gary Bauer of American Values and nine more leaders.

Nine prominent Catholic leaders have joined the Media Research Center to voice outrage over the broadcast networks deliberately withholding news of the momentous 43 Catholic entities suing the Obama administration for violating their religious freedoms. They represent major organizations including the Acton Institute, Cardinal Newman Society, SBA List and others. More are coming in every hour.

There are 60 million Catholics in the US.  The Catholic vote will be the most important swing vote this year.  So it’s not just a major policy issue, it is one with massive political implications.  Yet, 19 seconds of news coverage remains the only attention given by the evening broadcast networks. Two days after news broke, the tally is:

"In 2008, in the primaries, there were 1,365 stories on Barack Obama" and of those, "not one single story" was devoted to President Barack Obama's admitted youthful use of illicit drugs. By contrast, President Bush's refusal to admit either way on youthful drug use in the 2000 campaign was met with non-stop media scrutiny, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell noted on Friday's edition of Hannity on the Fox News Channel.

What's more, when Hillary Clinton's campaign raised the subject of Obama's drug use in the 2008 campaign, it was denounced by the media as descending "into the gutter," the Media Research Center founder noted on the May 18 edition of Sean Hannity's primetime program. To watch the full "Media Mash" segment, click the play button on the video embed that follows the page break.

On Friday night, Fox News star Bill O'Reilly began his show with a Talking Points Memo touting a Media Research Center finding that the networks are much more attentive to describing Mitt Romney as very wealthy than were for John Kerry in 2004.

"Another sign the media wants Barack Obama re-elected. That is the subject of this evening's Talking Points Memo," he said. "The Media Research Center is a conservative watchdog group that exposes left-wing bias in the national press. Today, the center puts out an amazing analysis of how the evening newscast on the three networks covered John Kerry's wealth when he was running for President in 2004 as opposed to Mitt Romney’s money position now." [video and transcript below]

Post your comments on whatever topic of the day you'd like on this thread.

"On this one occasion we can give [NBC News] kudos for telling the truth," NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell observed on last night's Hannity program, reacting to video clips of Today show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie and Morning Joe contributor Mark Halperin admitting that the media are completely one-sided on the issue of same-sex marriage, while the American public are about evenly divided in national polling.

"It really does show you, Sean, the complete disconnect between the national news media and America, because in America it's a hugely controversial issue," the Media Research Center founder noted. Indeed, in 31 states, the people have expressed disapproval of same-sex marriage at the ballot box, even liberal California, Hannity noted. [watch the full segment video below the page break]

An openly gay adviser to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney resigned last week, and the Obama-loving media interested in discussing anything but the poor economy jumped all over it.

NewsBusters associate editor Noel Sheppard discussed this with Don Lemon on CNN Newsroom Saturday (video follows with transcript and commentary):

When then-President George W. Bush visited U.S. troops, saying similar things to what President Barack Obama said in his recent visit, MSNBC's Chris Matthews snarled that it was a mere "photo-op," NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell noted last night on FNC's "Hannity."

Yet when President Obama made his surprise visit to Kabul earlier this week, Matthews ridiciculously gushed that Obama's speech was "right out of Henry the Fifth," alluding to the St. Crispin's Day "band of brothers" speech in the Shakespeare play. [Watch the full "Media Mash" segment below the page break; MP3 audio here]

NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell recently awarded two members of the Media Research Center (MRC) field team --  Ryan McNicholas and Paul Thurman --  with Apple iPads for their diligent work so far this year.

The MRC field team liaises with Tea Party leaders and conservative Americans around the nation. Ryan and Paul are two outstanding members of our 10-person field team which has traveled the country, bringing MRC signs, buttons, bumper stickers and hand fans to Tea Party rallies and conservative events in more than 35 states thus far. Paul and Ryan have worked especially hard, logging thousands of miles and working nights and weekends. Brent sought to recognize their hard work with a token of his esteem.

"There is no slur against conservatives that's off the table" for the so-called journalists at MSNBC, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Sean Hannity last night. The Media Research Center president made that remark after viewing a clip of Hardball host Chris Matthews calling the GOP the "Grand Wizard crowd," a not-so-thinly veiled suggestion that conservatives are violent racists.

What's more, "Chris Matthews is lying," Bozell argued, pointing back to a January 13 quote about Romney wherein Matthews called Romney a "moderate." "Even Chris Matthews doesn't believe that lie that he told." Also addressed on the April 26 "Media Mash" segment was how Matthews's colleague Martin Bashir callously suggested that Mitt Romney was "intentionally using" his multiple sclerosis-suffering wife to close a "gender gap." [watch the full Media Mash segment video below page break]

In the 2008 campaign, "[t]he media were awestruck, embarrassingly so," over Barack Obama and failed to vet him thoroughly, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell noted on last night's edition of Hannity. "In the primaries in 2008, we counted 29 different times when the networks either called him a rising star, an emerging star, a rock star, or a superstar. Twenty-nine different times," but they never, of course, affixed such a label to his GOP opponent John McCain.

Shortly after that, Hannity played a montage of liberal journalists gushing over President Obama -- treating him like awestruck groupies -- since he's taken office. "This is embarrassing, this is journalism today," Bozell, the founder of the Media Research Center observed. [MP3 audio here; watch the full segment below the page break]

The liberal media generally but the Associated Press in particular are acting as mere "stenographers" for Barack Obama, failing to scrutinize the president's campaign rhetoric about the economy, NewsBusters senior editor Tim Graham noted on today's Your World with Neil Cavuto.

"As much as they say they hate being stenographers to power, this really is what we're seeing in this reelection year, and that is, oh, well, Obama said this today and Obama's going to do this today, and they don't seem to come up with any troublesome facts or counter-arguments," the Media Research Center director of media analysis told Stuart Varney, who was substitute-hosting the April 19 program. [MP3 audio here; watch the full segment in the video embedded below]

Earlier this week, NewsBusters publisher and Media Research Center founder Brent Bozell announced he was calling on Congress to investigate Comcast, the parent company of NBC, given the network's malfeasance in the Zimmerman 911 audio editing.

Comcast's "continued silence on how to prevent such malfeasance in the future constitutes a serious breach of public trust," Bozell noted in letters sent to Congress on Tuesday. As the cable giant is "in the midst of a business deal with Verizon requiring approval" by the FCC and DOJ, "the public policy issues related to the approval of this deal are so critical" as to require congressional hearings, Bozell wrote in his April 10 letter to the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights Subcommittee. A similar letter was simultaneously transmitted to the chairman and ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet. You can read those letters here and here.

NBC's apology for its malicious Zimmerman 911 audio edits is woefully inadequate, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell noted on last night's "Hannity." For instance, the network has not given an on-air apology, only a written apology in a press release. What's more, the network has not disclosed the name of the producer it fired, even as it insists his error was not malicious in intent.

That's why, "we've gone to Congress now," Bozell noted, pointing out that NBC's parent company Comcast is looking for approval of a deal with Verizon that raises "potential antitrust issues." "We're asking them what about the public trust?" the Media Research Center founder noted. "This network simply just can't be trusted," he concluded. [See video below page break]

NewsBusters publisher and Media Research Center (MRC) founder Brent Bozell announced earlier this morning that the MRC is calling upon Congress to investigate Comcast / NBC News for the intentional editing of the George Zimmerman audio that was broadcast multiple times and subsequently flamed the fires of racial hatred and animosity

“NBC is laughing at the public. Last week we said we would have more to say if their behavior in this matter didn’t change.  Given their continued irresponsibility, today we open up a new front," Bozell noted in a press release available here.

The staff of NewsBusters would like to wish you and yours a happy Easter and Passover.