MRC's 'Worst of the Week': Feeling Barack Obama's Pain

By NB Staff | May 6, 2008 - 14:46 ET

For the rest of the campaign, the Media Research Center will each Tuesday announce its picks for the “Worst of the Week,” meaning the most egregious, horrendous and stupefying liberal bias of Campaign 2008. This week, the spotlight shines on those journalists who rushed to the side of Barack Obama after his minister’s radical comments, and NBC’s ridiculous effort to hype bad economic news [audio/video links below fold]:

Feeling Obama’s Pain. After Barack Obama’s former pastor’s radical remarks at the National Press Club, liberal journalists rallied around the Democratic candidate. Hours after Jeremiah Wright spoke on April 28, NBC’s Brian Williams emphasized those who deemed it a "circus" and a "sideshow," as his NBC Nightly News highlighted the Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart: "Unfortunately, the victim in all of this is going to be Senator Obama’s campaign."

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On CNN, David Gergen decried Wright: "If this man cares one wit about electing an African-American to the highest office in the land, he should get off the national stage." Gergen instructed: "It’s time for him to get off the stage, and frankly, for the media, I suggest, to move on." [Audio/video (1:12): Windows Media (4.78 MB) and MP3 audio (357 kB)]

ABC reporter David Wright (no relation) sympathized with the Senator’s plight on the April 30 Good Morning America: "Imagine having to publicly denounce the minister who married you, who baptized your kids, who prayed with you the day you announced your candidacy....For Obama, whose own father abandoned him as a child, this must have been another painful break." [Audio/video (:53): Windows Media (3.39 MB) and MP3 audio (261 kB)]

On CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 that night, reporter Suzanne Malveaux was just as gentle with Michelle Obama: "Do you think that your husband has been treated fairly? Are you surprised at how nasty this race has gotten?" [Audio/video (:42): Windows Media (1.46 MB) and MP3 audio (207 kB)]


NBC Hypes Economic Misery. The May 2 NBC Nightly News sought to assess "the toll that rising prices of things like gas and food" is taking on senior citizens. Reporter Chris Jansing spotlighted one elderly couple claiming to have gone without food and "forced...to move out of this blue house and into their van, sleeping on a mattress in the back." Jansing cast them as typical: "Tens of millions of seniors rely primarily on a fixed income to live, and increasingly they’re having to make the kinds of tough decisions they never dreamed they’d have to make." But overall food prices are rising at an annual rate of 5.1 percent, which won’t spawn armies of starving, homeless senior citizens — notwithstanding NBC’s silly election-year hype. [Audio/video (:59): Windows Media (2.02 MB) and MP3 audio (293 kB)]

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Sit and spin for their

Sit and spin for their messiah...that's their job, that's their guy....I say carry on, no matter how maddening it gets at times....Obama is going to be their Waterloo...

Let the show continue...

"Never murder your opponent when he is committing suicide." ~ W. Churchill

My vote for the worst of the week:

Richard Stevenson, the editor in charge of presidential
campaign coverage for the New York Times, on the Times limited coverage of Reverend
Wright:

“We didn’t think that [Reverend Wright] made that much news that was relevant to Obama, which is, after all, why we’re paying attention to him at
all.”

(As reported by the Public Editor)

Boycott

I mean this with all the sincerity and lasting determination I have in my body ----- I will never again spend a single penny on any US news outlet. Period.

Perhaps if somewhere down the line they will open up and admit to the public that they are partisan and lay claim to what they do --- I might fork over some money to read around --- but until that day, as long as they hold tight to their utter hypocrisy, they get nothing from me.

The Nancy Pelosi vs. Newt Gingrich difference in election coverage shoved me finally to this point.

But it is the sham of Obama coverage that is the final straw.

These people don't even have the tinyest clue to even feel shame for what they do --- no matter how glaring obvious it is.

I'm sick of the whole industry.

Hey, NBC is always out protecting the R's - Oh yea, baby.

Didn't we hear the same thing from NBC during the Jack Abramoff scandal or the Joe Wilson road show? Surely I remember the questions asked by the anchors;

"Ambassador Wilson. Isn't it time you shut your trap already?"

and..

"Oh, get over it - these congressional Abramoff - like scandals are a dime a dozen. We ignored them for Bill Clinton, give it a rest."

And of course, Dan Rather was so put off by national anchors who just couldn't put down a productive hoax. 

What you say? You mean it wasn't that way? (;~/

I like the idea and love

I like the idea and love what MRC does, but I dont know, about using the word "worst".

These items could be called silliest, stupidest, goofiest or some thing along those lines. Worst sound to Oberdudish.

"Television is a freak show" Bernie Goldberg

"Unfortunately..." we have

"Unfortunately..." we have advocacy instead of journalism.

Fox News shows the reality

I was just watching Fox and Obama was in a diner giving his stump speech to the gentleman next to him and patting him on the back. The gentleman never looked at Obama, didn't acknowledge him and even turned his head away at the end of the clip.

Way too funny that this is the reality of Obama.

"Forget change, I want improvement!"

Wright sounds a lot like Obama

I'm still waiting for the media to cover Obama's OWN racially-kooky words from his book "Dreams from my Father".

Such as: "Any distinction between good and bad whites held negligible meaning."

http://www.anncoulte...

Hmmmm

Hmmmm, 'Worst of the Week', a little bland. Maybe you could do something like 'Worst, Worser, Worstest'.

There you go!

D

Keep the ILLEGALS out, join NumbersUSA to send free faxes to your reps.

Hey DFTT... I like

Hey DFTT...

I like that!

Good idea since a lot of us commented on these stories already and that could be fun to do...

"Never murder your opponent when he is committing suicide." ~ W. Churchill