Blogs

In January, when Barack Obama made the mere announcement of a presidential exploratory committee, the Los Angeles Times trumpeted the news with a headline, color photo, and text box on the top of its front page. (See the image here.)

So how did the Times cover Sen. John McCain's big announcement Wednesday night (2/28/07) on David Letterman's Late Show? The announcement was buried the next day on the bottom of page A14 within a modest, 485-word article about McCain's fundraising. The article is called, "California titans join McCain's campaign team" (Thu. March 1, 2007), and the "coverage" of the announcement covers a measly 31 words.

Two days ago a NewsBusters reader alerted me to some missing comments on a February 26 blog post by Evening News anchor Katie Couric at CBSNews.com.:

When I first saw this post on Couric's website last night (around 10:30 PM ET), I thought it was great that there were *12 pages* of comments appended to her post -- with every single one criticizing her and Al Gore for being limousine liberals and attacking the mistakes in her post. But when I looked at it again today (11:00 AM ET), all the comments have disappeared.

CBS's Greg Kandra addressed concerns about the missing comments in this February 28 post to "Couric & Co.":

As NewsBusters reported here, here, and here, there are huge dollars to be made from global warming alarmism. However, conceivably no one is better positioned to financially benefit from this scam than Dr. Global Warming himself, former Vice President Al Gore, a fact that the media will surely not share with Americans any time soon.

Yet, if America’s press would take some time out of their busy schedules covering the earth-shattering details surrounding Anna Nicole Smith’s demise, they might find a deliciously inconvenient truth about the soon-to-be-Dr. Gore that is significantly more fascinating and diabolical than anything likely to emerge from that courtroom in Broward County, Florida.

As reported by Dan Riehl (emphasis mine throughout):

The New York Times has done an interesting job of presenting the softer side of Iranian President President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Most recently they ratcheted up the spin machine in their attempts to seed doubt with the American governments contention that Iran is fueling the terrorist lead insurgency in Iraq with weapons and support.

Not content with planting the seeds of doubt with words alone, the Times storytellers have dug deep into the bucket of visual manipulation by presenting a flattering portrait like image of Ahmadinejad to accompany their story on the reported summit between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Note the deep thoughtful stare that is accentuated by the wistful shadows and subtle filter blur. The only thing missing is the brandy glass.

How slow was the news this morning? Bianca Solorzano, the CBS reporter covering the Anna Nicole Smith funeral in Nassau, the Bahamas was reduced to chatting with a local florist. Turns out Anna's favorite color was pink. Who knew? Solorzano also scored an exclusive with a fellow supervising the placing of crowd control barricades at the cemetery.

But along the way, co-host Tracy Smith [who normally works the weekend show], did pose a pertinent question when Obama tried to sneak an answer by her that was so disingenuous it might have made Bill Clinton blush. Smith mentioned that this weekend, both Obama and Hillary will go to Selma, Alabama for the commemoration of the civil rights marches of 1965. Barack actually had the chutzpah to claim "well, I think this weekend is actually not about politics. To me, it represents some of the best moments in American history where ordinary people stood up to injustice."

"The View’s" Joy Behar demonstrated again this week that the ladies of the ABC program are committed leftists, determined to spread propaganda. Co-host Behar made this point clear when she slandered the Bush administration as "murderers."

On the Al Gore front, "Today" co-anchor Meredith Vieira proclaimed the former Vice President to be the "coolest guy" at last Sunday’s Oscars. "The Washington Post," meanwhile, one-upped the NBC host and wondered if the potential 2008 candidate is "America’s coolest ex-Vice President ever." [Emphasis added]

"CBS Evening News" anchor Katie Couric blogged on the subject of Gore, referring to him as a "secular saint."

Despite growing into a massive network, National Public Radio still demonstrates signs of being the same countercultural liberal listening post that came of age in the Vietnam era. On Thursday’s Morning Edition, NPR covered war and post-traumatic stress disorder in a trendy liberal way: as an opportunity to sell combat veterans on the mystical healing power of yoga.

Government-subsidized yoga for veterans? NPR reporter Allan Coukell (sounded like "Cockle") suggested it’s the government-funded wave of the future: "So far, most of the veterans have been paying for the sessions themselves, but [Tom] Boyle hopes the Veterans Affairs system will start to offer yoga nationwide. He already sees PTSD and other symptoms of battle stress in troops back from Iraq — and he knows thousands more are still to come."

Obama's white ancestors owned slaves. So says the research of William Addams Reitwiesner, "who works at the Library of Congress and practices genealogy in his spare time", and who is featured in this morning's edition of the Baltimore Sun.

Many people know that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's father was from Kenya and his mother from Kansas.

But an intriguing sliver of his family history has received almost no attention until now: it appears that forebears of his white mother owned slaves, according to genealogical research and Census records.

While reading this, my very first thought had me wondering how well this will sit with the Obama-isn't-black-enough contingent?

It didn't take long in the story to get the issue addressed.

After leading with the terrible toll of deadly “super-cell” storms with tornadoes which struck Missouri and Alabama on Thursday, CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric's mind turned to global warming as the potential cause. She asked “CBS News weather analyst” Bryan Norcross, working out of the network's Washington bureau: “Bryan, I understand people have been asking you this all day” -- probably CBS News staffers in the DC bureau -- “Does this have anything to do with global warming?”

Norcross, a “hurricane specialist” for the CBS-owned Miami station WFOR-TV channel 4, rejected the premise: “No, I don't think so. This is just part of this extreme situation we've had this winter -- very warm, very cold -- and so the extreme weather continues and it turns out the United States is just about the only spot in the world that has a lot of these kinds of super-cells, just not normally this time of year.”

Late Night with David Letterman hasn't aired since August of 1993, when Letterman moved his show to CBS, where it was re-named Late Show with David Letterman. But in reporting on Thursday's CBS Evening News about how John McCain announced on Letterman's show Wednesday night that he is running for President, Couric led into a clip of McCain by relating: “John McCain is in. As first reported here last night, the Senator made it official during the taping of Late Night with David Letterman.”

The Late Night show title remains the property of Couric's employer for nearly two decades ending last year, NBC, with Conan O'Brien's name attached for the past 13-plus years -- as in Late Night with Conan O'Brien. BTW: CNN's Anderson Cooper will be one of O'Brien's guests Thursday night and ABC's Bob Woodruff will be on the Late Show with David Letterman.

Rich Noyes, Director of Research at the Media Research Center and Senior Editor of NewsBusters, appeared at about 5:37pm EST Thursday afternoon on The Big Story with John Gibson on the Fox News Channel. He addressed the liberal bias at NBC News and how, after a ratings slide that has left NBC Nightly News in second place behind ABC's World News, NBC is replacing the Executive Producer of the newscast, the New York Times reported.

Rich raised how ABC's World News, but not the NBC Nightly News, aired a story important to pro-lifers about the survival of the earliest-born ever premature baby, coverage detailed in this NewsBusters item. Gibson asked about the role of controversy over William Arkin, the NBC News military analyst who called troops in Iraq a “mercenary force” and scolded them for daring to criticize Americans for saying they support the troops but not the mission.

Video clip (3:28): Real (2.6 MB at lower-quality 100 kbps) or Windows Media (6.8 MB at higher-quality 256 kbps), plus MP3 audio (1.2 MB)

Last week, the Senate Ethics Committee exonerated former Virginia Senator George Allen on charges that he failed to report stock options he earned during the time he served as a director of a biotech company. As Cal Thomas throughly documented in his current column, this determination of innocence has gone little noticed by the mainstream media. The accusations, however, which were made last October during Allen’s heated, and ultimately unsuccessful, reelection campaign, were heavily covered.

As noted by CNSNews.com, the charges, first reported by the AP, were picked up and editorialized in several prominent Virginia papers. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee even used the claims in an ad for Allen’s Democratic opponent James Webb. (See above picure) Not so coincidentally, Senator Allen ended up losing his pivotal Senate seat by around 8000 votes. So the question is, now that it turns out the media hyped faulty accusations, where does Senator Allen go to get his reputation and his Senate seat back?

In his March 1 column, Cal Thomas commented on the shoddy coverage by the liberal media [emphasis added]:

After some very controversial remarks on Wednesday’s edition of The View comedian and neoconservative Dennis Miller appeared on Thursday. After discussing John McCain’s announcement and the recent feud between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, Miller joked about Nancy Pelosi’s rapidly blinking eyes, leading Barbara Walters to defend her as "terrific." Miller also debated Rosie O’Donnell on the finer points of the Patriot Act. The exchanges are below.

Joy Behar: "How about Nancy Pelosi, what do you think of her?"

Dennis Miller: "Well, listen. If they pick her as the VP, I’m not going to be able to watch State of the Unions. Because if she is back there like, with the blink- it looks like she was signaling the Carpathia that she hit an iceberg or something."

Explaining how Hillary Clinton isn't as popular with African-American voters as Bill was, MSNBC's Chris Matthews pointed to the former president's verbal skills as one of the reasons why when he proclaimed: "There are times when he sounds like Jesus in the temple." Matthews made that observation during a discussion with the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson where both cited Bill Clinton's performance at Coretta Scott King's funeral as a prime example of Slick Willie's oratory abilities. The following exchange took place about 30 minutes into last night's Hardball: 

Eugene Robinson: "I mean, it's the one memorable speech from, from that funeral."

Over at National Review Online Jay Nordlinger is praising a national media outlets for its reporting from the United Nations. The UN is not exactly a hot or hostile beat for liberal media outlets, who seem to like the intentions of the UN, and never seem to worry much about the follow-through. Oil-For-Food fraud? Yawn. Sexual harassment by UN brass? Yawn. This story is more pedestrian, about how "multilateralism" can often break down into a moral void.

I wanted to be super-sure that you saw this highly revealing article about the United Nations. It’s by Edith M. Lederer, the excellent U.N. correspondent of the Associated Press. 

The United States criticized the United Nations for refusing to list a panel it organized Tuesday entitled “State-Sanctioned Mass Rape in Burma and Sudan” on a U.N. Web site.

The U.S. Mission to the United Nations arranged to hold the panel on the sidelines of the annual two-week meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women which this year is focusing on discrimination and violence against women. It will include presentations about rape and sexual violence in both countries.

But the U.N.’s Meeting Services branch objected to the title, which was published in the U.N.’s daily journal last Thursday, because it “would be perceived as offensive to named member states,” according to a letter to the U.S. Mission obtained by the Associated Press.

According to the Times, the most recent four-month period, boxed in red below, represents a manufacturing recession; The Times has already declared it ("For Manufacturing, a Recession Has Arrived"; link may require registration):

But the following periods boxed in orange from 1995-2000 did not:

Any questions?

This news out of Canada should give Americans an idea of just how out of control the reporting and the hysteria surrounding global warming has gotten: “A former Canadian defense minister is demanding governments worldwide disclose and use secret alien technologies obtained in alleged UFO crashes to stem climate change.”

To put this in its proper perspective, it seems quite unlikely that America’s media will cover a recent National Geographic article concerning the possibility the sun is much more responsible for climate change than man as reported by NewsBusters Thursday.

However, it is almost a metaphysical certitude that this absolutely insane UFO story from Agence France-Presse will get attention from a media clamoring for anything that promotes more global warming hysteria (emphasis mine throughout):

Today is the first day of the CPAC conference. Several of the MRC and NB staff will be in attendance. Stop by the MRC booth and blogger corner and say hi if you're around.

This year the Media Research Center marks 20 years of busting liberal media bias. Today's Washington Times took notice, with a profile of the MRC by reporter Robert Stacy McCain entitled "Keeping the press honest."

You can find the article online here and here (printer friendly version).

Here's an excerpt:

Six silent television screens are tuned to six different channels on the third-floor offices of the Media Research Center in Alexandria, producing a discordant TV tableau. On a recent afternoon, one screen shows a woman crying on the "Dr. Phil" show, while on another screen, director James Cameron is promoting a documentary that purports to show the tomb of Jesus.

It's all in a day's work for the center, whose red-bearded founder, L. Brent Bozell III, chuckles cheerfully as he guides a visitor on a tour.

In a nearby room, he points to row upon row of archived video recordings of news broadcasts, dating back to the founding of the conservative media-watchdog group two decades ago. In another room, banks of computers hum away, digitally recording the day's news from every U.S. network.

"I think, in one sense, you could say we've exceeded all expectations," says Mr. Bozell, whose organization will celebrate its 20th anniversary March 29 at its annual gala banquet.

It was “Miller Time” again on the “O’Reilly Factor” Wednesday night, and though the boys got off to a slow start, they finished quite strong.

This increasingly popular Fox News segment featuring comedian Dennis Miller and host Bill O'Reilly focused on the Oscars, Al Gore, the New York Times, and the recent virtually unreported ACLU controversy.

With that in mind, here are some of the highlights for your viewing and entertainment pleasure (video available here courtesy of our friend Ms Underestimated):

What is it about the New York Times where they can't stay above their talking points even when trying to interest the people in a higher level of political discussion and debate?

The Times was bemoaning the current sad state of political discourse amongst political candidates today (and rightfully so, I might add) in a story reporting the interesting extended debate between Newt Gingrich and ex-Senator Mario Cuomo sponsored by New York's Cooper Union Hall, the great room in which Abraham Lincoln first came to national prominence prior to his running for president of the United States.

MRC President Brent Bozell just appeared on "Fox & Friends" to address the Discovery Channel's decision to air "The Lost Tomb of Jesus" on March 4. The documentary, produced by filmmaker James Cameron, claims to have found a tomb bearing the remains of Jesus Christ, but archaeological experts dispute Cameron's claims.

Video clip (3:43) Real (2.71 MB) or Windows (2.27 MB) plus MP3 (1.06 MB)

Bozell argued: "The Discovery Channel calls itself, bills itself, as the number one network of nonfiction on television today. The only problem being, this [documentary] is fiction. There is nothing accurate about this piece of nonsense that's going on the air. As a matter of fact, it is not — it's being denounced not just by all manner of religious scholars, but the scientific community has denounced this.

An absolutely startling report about climate change was published Wednesday in National Geographic which stated “the current global warming on Earth is being caused by changes in the sun” and not by man.

Unfortunately, as this goes counter to the position of an alarmist media and their seeming field general, Dr. Global Warming aka Al Gore, it seems quite unlikely that these revelations will be covered in today's papers or evening newscasts.

Regardless, the earth-shattering piece began (emphasis mine throughout):

Simultaneous warming on Earth and Mars suggests that our planet's recent climate changes have a natural—and not a human-induced—cause, according to one scientist's controversial theory.

The article marvelously continued:

A Democratic senator has just announced his presidential candidacy. On the next morning's "Fox & Friends," a Fox News reporter who recently denied that Fox has any conservative leanings or that Sean Hannity is a conservative narrates a segment on the announcement. To analyze the Democrat's candidacy, she plays clips of two reporters, one from the National Review and the other from the Weekly Standard. Host Brian Kilmeade follows, schmoozing about the senator's prospects with a former senior aide to a conservative Republican governor.

Total lack of balance! Couldn't Fox News have found at least one Democrat to discuss a Democrat's candidacy? Outrageous, isn't it? Well, yes, it would be. Except it didn't happen. But the mirror-image did. Here's how this morning's "Today" covered John McCain's announcement of his candidacy on last night's Letterman:

Andrea Mitchell, who recently denied that NBC has any liberal bias

Ever heard of the Wise Men of Chelm? They are the well-intentioned but foolish residents of an imaginary Jewish village, and the object of humor that stretches back 500 years. Here's one story. One of the "wise men" is sent to a neighboring village to bring back a horse. On the way home the horse wanders off and is lost. "Schlemiel!" remonstrate the townspeople with him. "Don't you know you have to lead the horse back on a rope?"

A week later the same man is sent off to bring back a slab of butter. Learning from his mistake and taking the advice to heart, he drags the butter all the way home along the dusty road on a rope.

The Wise Men are still with us. They might be gone from Chelm, but continue to populate academia and the MSM. One resident popped up on the pages of the Boston Globe this morning. Andrew Bacevich is professor of history and international relations at Boston University. In Rescinding the Bush Doctrine, Bacevich calls for Congress to learn from the errors of President Bush's ways in Iraq, and "focus on averting any recurrence of this misadventure." And just how would the well-intentioned professor rope in our foreign policy and prevent it from wandering off, so to speak? By formally and legislatively renouncing the use of preventive war. Specifically, Bacevich calls on Democratic leaders to "offer a binding resolution that makes the following three points":

• First, the United States categorically renounces preventive war.
• Second, the United States will henceforth consider armed force to be an instrument of last resort.
• Third, except in response to a direct attack on the United States, any future use of force will require prior Congressional authorization, as required by the Constitution.

Washington Post reporter Lyndsey Layton reported Thursday that House Republicans will move for an unusual vote protesting the new committee assignment of Democratic Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana, the congressman still under investigation for the $90,000 in bribe money found in his home freezer. After removing Jefferson from the powerful Ways and Means Committee last year as the Democrats ran against a "culture of corruption," Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi now wants to place him on the Homeland Security Committee.

Layton's story highlights Jefferson's role as a "vocal critic of FEMA's performance" in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans as a rationale for his Homeland Security appointment. But the Post left out Jake Tapper's September 2005 scoop on Jefferson using the government to check on his personal property in the hurricane aftermath: "Amid the chaos and confusion that engulfed New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck, a congressman used National Guard troops to check on his property and rescue his personal belongings — even while New Orleans residents were trying to get rescued from rooftops, ABC News has learned."

Last night, "Nightly News" and "Evening News" chose to inject a negative reference to the housing market into economy stories following Tuesday's stock market drop to make it look worse to viewers.

Both programs mentioned the 16.6 percent decrease in new home sales for January calling it the biggest drop in 13 years. But both networks also left out positive data for the same month available from the National Association of Realtors.

NBC reporter Carl Quintanilla even provided viewers with what he termed a "nightmare scenario: that home values plummet, more Americans default on their mortgages and stop spending."

The entire Business & Media Institute story can be found here.

Former CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite was in San Jose last week to give a speech at the Commonwealth Club. Before he did, he gave an interview to the local CBS affiliate’s Hank Plante (video available here).

In fairness, Cronkite seemed very tired, and a little out of sorts. However, there were several moments during the interview when Cronkite forget simple things – like who the former tyrant and leader of Iraq was – and another when he stated that Barack Obama is in his twenties. Honestly.

With that in mind, here were some of the more interesting highlights first with his opinion of the Iraq war: