Scott Whitlock's blog

Good Morning America's Terry Moran on Friday highlighted how Chief Justice John Roberts "saved" Obamacare, featuring voices that lauded the "statesman" and only one clip of Mitt Romney condemning the ruling. In comparison, CBS showcased an interview with Republican Congressman Eric Cantor.

Instead of allowing much conservative opposition, Moran delicately spun, "Roberts's opinion reframed the law to make it constitutional...And that's how Roberts saved it." He included a clip of Dahlia Lithwick of the liberal Slate website. She hyped, "I think [Roberts] made everybody a little bit angry and made many people very happy and looked like a statesman."

After comparing John Roberts to a Civil War-era Supreme Court judge who upheld the Dred Scott slave act, Wednesday, Chris Matthews reversed himself, Thursday, and praised the "bold," "defiant" "hero" who upheld ObamaCare.

Lapsing into self-parody, the Hardball anchor mocked the opponents of the health care law: "All the drum beating, all the horrors floated up from the right-wing fever swamps are, as of today, simply the hate vapors of the perennial rejectionists to progress." Matthews, who earlier this week speculated that the chief justice would have voted to uphold segregation, revised, "Today's hero, Chief Justice John Roberts, who walked to the forefront of history and who said yes to progress and no to the role prescribed for him by the right." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Good Morning America's Terry Moran on Thursday hyped Democratic talking points, parroting fears that if ObamaCare was struck down, women would suffer more. Moran ran through the President's complaints.

He fretted, "And, finally, a lot of people haven't paid much attention to this: Women will pay more. Right now, women pay more for health care than men." (Moran didn't mention how much Americans would, overall, pay more in taxes, should the law stand long term.) The journalist added, "Insurance companies charge them more. This bill outlawed that. If it goes, that goes."

In live coverage right after the Supreme Court upheld ObamaCare, ABC's anchors and reporters praised Chief Justice John Roberts for siding with the liberals. George Stephanopoulos insisted that the judge proved he really was an "umpire."

Barely restraining himself, Terry Moran fawned, "Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor for the court. Sometimes letting the politics of the thing play out preserves its authority for the next big case so that you don't have half of America hating them." (Doesn't half of America hate the court now?) [MP3 audio below. See video below.]

Although no one knows how the Supreme Court will rule, Thursday, on ObamaCare, journalists over the past few months have dismissed and derided the concept that the President's signature legislation could be declared unconstitutional. CNN's Jeffrey Toobin predicted an eight-to-one vote upholding the law. Former New York Times Court reporter Linda Greenhouse said that Americans who think the law is unconstitutional are "wrong."

Appearing on the March 23 Situation Room, Toobin hyped, "I actually think that Chief Justice Roberts and perhaps even Justice Scalia and Justice Alito might join Justice Kennedy in upholding the law." He added, "In striking this law down, it would really be a big change in constitutional law, and I'm not sure this court is ready to do it."

According to liberal MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts being the fifth vote to strike down Obamacare would make him the "second Roger Taney," the Civil War-era high judge who delivered the majority opinion in the Dred Scott Case and upheld the Fugitive Slave Act.

Talking to columnist Ezra Klein, Matthews smeared, "...A friend of mine, who is a fellow Roman Catholic said, he doesn't want to be the second Roger Taney."  Matthews added, "Roger Taney, of course, was a Roman Catholic who upheld the Fugitive Slave Law back before the Civil War and was villainized throughout history because of that." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Chris Matthews on Tuesday smeared Pennsylvania Republicans as attempting to "kill off the older voters" by enacting a new voter ID law in the state. The liberal Hardball host offered this baseless charge during a discussion of the true motive behind such GOP legislation across the country.

Matthews referenced Pennsylvania Majority Leader Mike Turzai's gaffe that a voter ID law will help the party win the state in the fall. From that, Matthews spewed, "Let's get to this GOP leader in the Keystone state and other states, this plan to kill off the older voters and others who might be planning, how dare they, to vote for Obama." [MP3 audio here. See video below.]

Chris Matthews, clearly worried that the Supreme Court will overturn part or all of Obamacare, frothed about this "most conservative" court, Monday, insisting that the current right-leaning judges would have upheld "separate but equal" and struck down the 1964 Civil Right Act.

Matthews sneered, "I wonder whether this court would have backed desegregation in the Brown case? I doubt this pack of conservatives, which includes Chief Justice John Roberts, Sam Alito, and Anthony Kennedy, would have voted to knock down separate by equal back in the 1950s." The Hardball anchor foamed, "Would this court, voting as it does today, have upheld the 1964 Civil Rights bill?"

MSNBC will debut a new program, Monday, featuring a 9/11 truth conspiracy theorist as a co-anchor. Toure Neblett will be one of the hosts for The Cycle, airing at 3pm on the cable network. Toure (who doesn't use his last name on MSNBC) has tweeted his suspicions about whether the 9/11 terrorist attacks were an inside job.

One entry on Twitter reads: "How could a plane crash into the Pentagon? And not appear on video cameras?? And leave little wreckage??? #Don'tbuyitfiremenow." Another tweet features a paranoid video claiming that the Pentagon was hit by a missile: "This fascinating video raises questions about the Pentagon attack: 757 or missle [sic]? http://bit.ly/12AOlN" Screen shots of these tweets can be found below.

World News anchor Diane Sawyer has a habit of showcasing fawning, deeply irrelevant stories on prominent Democrats. She continued this pattern on Thursday, informing viewers that Hillary Clinton wore flamboyant, purple glasses at a recent ceremony. Sawyer hyped that this was "proof that nobody does unplugged quite like the Secretary of State."

The host insisted that the over-the-top glasses highlight Clinton's "master class in letting your hair down." Sawyer recapped, "These past few months, we've been watching her swig a beer, brandish a scrunchy without apology and makeup-free and telling everybody she doesn't care what they think." What didn't World News find time for on Thursday? The Fast and Furious scandal. After actually covering the controversy on Wednesday, Sawyer went back to ignoring it. [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Steve Kornacki, who will debut as a new MSNBC host on Monday, appeared on Hardball, Thursday, to smear conservative opposition to Eric Holder and Barack Obama as racist. Asked why some on the right oppose the attorney general, Kornacki derided the "caricature of Obama" as a "secret black radical" who is trying to "take away rights or...money from, you know, from white people."

Kornacki saw an "aspect of race and culture" to the conservative disdain. In a discussion of the Fast and Furious scandal, Kornacki simplified, "...You take, you know, prominent, you know, black lawyer and you put him in charge of the Obama Justice Department and I think that's, to you know, to people who sort of traffic in that sort of thing, you know, it really is kind of a lightening rod." [UPDATED with video below. MP3 audio here.]

ABC and NBC's morning shows on Thursday actually noticed something interesting was happening with the Fast and Furious scandal. Both networks covered the vote by a House committee to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt. However, Good Morning America and Today spent more time focusing on a heat wave hitting the east coast than they did the controversy involving a murdered border agent.

Good Morning America allowed a scant minute and 21 seconds for Fast and Furious, but that was only after first touting, for two minutes and 49 seconds, warm weather in the summer. NBC's Today featured a single report on the swirling controversy (one minute, 58 seconds), but only following two minutes and seven seconds on people sweating. News reader Natalie Morales highlighted the congressional action as partisan: "...A Republican-lead House panel voted along party lines to cite [Holder] for contempt of Congress."

According to ABC's Jon Karl, Barack Obama's retelling of his own life in Dreams Of My Father has been exposed as "unreliable." On June 16 in the pages of the Wall Street Journal, the correspondent reviewed David Maraniss' new book, a 641 page tome that "raises questions about the carefully crafted story that Mr. Obama has told about himself." However, Karl and ABC have yet to interview or highlight Mr. Maraniss on the network.

Jack Welch, the former head of General Electric (which owned NBC), proclaimed that the revelations are so damaging, "the Romney campaign should just print this [book review] up" and use it as advertising. Welch made the declaration on Wednesday's Squawk Box on CNBC. He called the story "the most important article possible for the Romney campaign to take to the public."

Liberal MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews on Tuesday slimed the House GOP investigating Attorney General Eric Holder as racist, insisting that the possible contempt charges over Fast and Furious had an "ethnic" feel. Using charged, racial imagery, Matthews demonized, "Is this sort of stop-and-frisk at the highest level? Go after the attorney general, get him to empty his pockets, stand in the spotlight."

The Hardball host, who had previously been ignoring the Fast and Furious scandal, changed course and portrayed the whole thing as a bigoted witch hunt. Talking to former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, Matthews speculated: "I don't want to start too much forest fire here, but it is my instinct: Is this ethnic, Mr. Mayor?" [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

ABC offered rising Republican Marco Rubio an extended interview for Monday's Nightline, but pressed the Senator on briefly attending a Mormon church as a child and on a misstatement over when his parents left Cuba. In contrast, the same network and show gushed over Barack Obama in 2008, thrilling that his rallies were like "Springsteen concerts."

Reporter David Muir on Monday highlighted that in Rubio's newly released autobiography, the Republican references his "journey to Las Vegas, where for a time, the family switched to the Mormon church." Muir probed, "You were baptized in the Mormon church?"

Chris Matthews on Monday smeared supporters of enforcing America's immigration laws, linking them to the post-Civil War "back to Africa" movement for African Americans. After liberal columnist David Corn insisted that Mitt Romney had boxed himself in, politically, on the issue, Matthews snarled, "How is this any different than the big boat argument of people when it comes to African Americans after the Civil War?"

Matthews continued, "This idea of 'put them on a boat and send them back where they came from.'" Finding the worst motives in his political opponents, Matthews insisted, "You know, he says that in polite language, but that's what Romney's been saying. 'Get home where you came from.'" [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

NBC's Nightly News on Friday offered a one-sided segment touting Barack Obama's decision to lift the threat of deportation to young people who came to America illegally. The Pete Williams report featured six clips of individuals or groups thrilled by the reaction, only two against and one nuanced response by Mitt Romney.

Williams began by touting, "Young people covered by the new policy cheered the announcement outside the White House." An unidentified woman enthused, "I can't describe it. It's so amazing. I'm so happy." A crowd in front of the White House chanted, "Yes, we did! Yes, we did! Yes, we did! Yes, we did!"

ABC and NBC on Friday both excitedly touted Barack Obama's "star-studded" celebrity fund-raisers in New York City, gushing over the "Prez in the City." Neither network wondered if $40,000 per plate dinners with millionaire celebrities might make the President seem out of touch, a charge often leveled at Republican Mitt Romney.

On Good Morning America, reporter Jon Karl enthused, "Call it Prez in the City, a star-studded, big city Obama fund-raiser at the Manhattan home of Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker." "The A-list evening didn't end there," Karl added, highlighting Obama's follow-up party with Mariah Carey at the Plaza hotel.

Chris Matthews isn't even trying anymore. The liberal anchor on Wednesday went into full Democratic adviser mode. Talking to Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, he turned an interview into a strategy session, saying of the campaign against Republican Scott Brown: "Let me help you on this, to the extent that I, as a journalist, can help you."

Providing an additional contribution, Matthews somehow managed to skip the controversy that's been plaguing Warren's campaign for a month and a half: The fact that she has repeatedly tried to pass herself off as a Native American. (At one point, the Democrat claimed she was 1/32 Cherokee.) While avoiding this embarrassing subject, Matthews incredulously wondered, "Why are the polls so close?...You should be miles ahead of [Brown]." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

According to ABC News' Matt Negrin, Republicans are "victimizing" and "demonizing" Attorney General Eric Holder. The ABC network has almost completely ignored the growing Fast and Furious scandal, but an online article written by Mr. Negrin put the blame on the GOP. (Negrin mocks the concept of media bias on his Facebook page. See screen cap below.)

In fact, it seems Negrin's ABCNews.com article was so biased, the network altered the headline. The original title spewed, "Demonizing Attorney General Eric Holder, GOP Is Fast and Furious." The altered headline reads: "Against Attorney General Eric Holder, GOP Is Fast and Furious." (The first version can still be found in the hyper link.) In his piece, Negrin whined, "There's little question that Republicans want to use the demonization of Holder as a political issue."

MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Wednesday outrageously compared Dorothy Sandusky standing by her alleged child rapist husband, Jerry, to Pat Nixon supporting Richard Nixon. The liberal cable anchor was discussing the molestation case and shockingly inserted a political comparison.

After legal guest Kendall Coffey tried to explain how Mrs. Sandusky could be a helpful witness to her disgraced husband, Matthews linked the 52 counts of sexual abuse to America's 37th president: "This is the new story of our life: The wife who stands by their man, as if they were Pat Nixon standing up there putting up with the ignominy that their husband's 100 percent responsible for and yet being loyal." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Effete MSNBC host Chris Hayes, in a new Lean Forward commercial airing on the network, can be seen merrily biking around New York City while lecturing Americans that climate change is "the biggest governing challenge I think we've ever faced."

The cable anchor, who on May 27th infamously said he was "uncomfortable" calling fallen military members "heroes," pranced around the city as his voice-over pontificated: "...The scale and scope of [fighting global warming] is every bit as transformational as the industrial revolution or the transition to the digital age." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Good Morning America, hosted by former Democratic operative George Stephanopoulos, highlighted panic, Wednesday, about Barack Obama's reelection campaign. GMA's Jake Tapper warned, "Top Democrats are sounding the alarm. They are worried that President Obama's economic message is tone-deaf."

The segment featured James Carville, who worked with Stephanopoulos in the Clinton administration. Carville fretted that when the White House talks, "people take that as a signal that [the Obama administration] thinks things are fine." Carville and other Clinton operatives have produced a memo on Obama's precarious situation. CBS and NBC have not highlighted this.

Over a three year period, from 2007 to 2010, Americans saw their average net worth drop by 39 percent. CBS, however, wasn't interested in this dire economic news.  The network skipped the new report by the Federal Reserve, ignoring it on Monday's Evening News and Tuesday's This Morning.

In contrast, NBC and ABC did cover it. But both made sure to avoid any mention of Barack Obama or how this grim revelation might impact his reelection campaign. In a news brief, Good Morning America's Josh Elliott vaguely explained, "Meanwhile, some stunning new information this morning on just how much the great recession has, in fact, cost us." On Monday's Nightly News, Anne Thompson fretted over the "stomach-churning" drop.

NBC's Today on Monday delved into the tabloid gossip of Robert Kennedy Jr and his late wife Mary Kennedy, who killed herself last month. The report featured documents "obtained" by Newsweek. Reporter Jeff Rossen highlighted RFK Jr's. complaints, including court affidavits claiming, "Mary's violence and physical abuse towards me began before we were married."

Rossen touted the grim details of Kennedy's complaints, reciting, "When he went over to the house, 'Mary was intoxicated. I opened the door and she leapt out of her bed and hit me with a roundhouse punch.'"

Elitist film critics at several big city papers, Friday, mocked the Christian-themed movie For Greater Glory as "catnip for crusaders," a movie that exploits the struggle for religious freedom with "maximum teary-eyed outrage."

The movie, directed by Dean Wright, tells the story of a Catholic uprising against religious persecution in 1920s Mexico. However, Los Angeles Times film critic Robert Abele sneered, "'For Greater Glory' is mostly single-minded, dying-for-the-cause fodder, catnip for crusaders but not so interesting to those looking for a deeper view into how politics and religion can tragically clash."

Good Morning America's Josh Elliott on Friday reported incorrect jobs numbers, touting stats more favorable to Barack Obama and less reflective of the dismal facts. In the 8am hour, news reader Elliott insisted that "new figures show" an unemployment rate "sitting" at 8.1 percent for May with 158,000 new jobs created. [See video below. MP3 audio here.] In fact, unemployment rose to 8.2 percent and only 69,000 jobs were created.    

The monthly unemployment numbers are usually released about 8:30am. In the hours before an announcement, GMA has previously reported what the projections suggest. In fact, in the 7am news hour, Elliott allowed that "the government is expected to report it's added some 158,000 jobs." He offered no such caution in the 8am hour. 

A new ABC News/Washington Post poll found Mitt Romney has made "sharp advances" with women. But you wouldn't know it from watching the ABC network. Wednesday's World News and Nightline, as well as Thursday's Good Morning America skipped covering the Republican's steep gains.

The Washington Post put the story on its front page. ABC, however, relegated it to the network's website. There, reporter Gary Langer explained, "A sharp advance among women has boosted Mitt Romney to his highest favorability rating of the presidential campaign." Langer added that while Obama still beats Romney 52 to 41 percent in favorability, "that’s down from 21 points last month, giving Romney the better trajectory."

The Los Angeles Times on Wednesday spun Joe Biden's seemingly unending series of gaffes as proof that the Vice President is a combination of "affable everyman and the Dos Equis 'Most Interesting Man in the World.'" Although staff writer Michael Memoli admitted that Biden's blunders can "keep Obama strategists awake at night," he studiously avoided actually describing any examples.

Instead, in a page one story, Memoli hyped, "For a White House led by a famously cool — at times robotic — commander in chief, the vice president's loose, less-programmed, often self-deprecating style provides a humanizing touch." The print edition featured a smiling Biden with the headline, "Just an average Joe?"