Good Morning America

NBC and CBS completely skipped a new report indicating that President Obama's health care law will add hundreds of billions of dollars to the national debt. ABC's Good Morning America on Tuesday allowed a mere 17 seconds to the revelation that the law could balloon the deficit by $340 billion.

News reader Josh Elliott swiftly explained, "And President Obama's health care law could up costing a lot more than previously expected, at least according to one new study. It found that the law could add some $340 billion to the federal deficit over the next decade." However, he also parroted talking points that, according to the White House, the study was simply "new math." This was the only mention on GMA. NBC's Today and CBS This Morning ignored the story.

The Today show on Friday continued to ignore an embarrassing example of government waste during Barack Obama's tenure. ABC, CBS and NBC's Nightly News, however, have all highlighted the extravagant $823,000 spent for a General Services Administration conference in Las Vegas in 2010.

On Friday's Good Morning America, Jake Tapper pointed out that "one year after President Obama" admonished bailed out bankers to not "take a trip to Las Vegas," employees "at the GSA were doing just that." In contrast, when the Nightly News reported on the story on Monday, reporter Lisa Myers only mentioned that the "White House is angry" at the  revelations.

ABC and NBC could barely contain their contempt while covering the controversy over the all-male Augusta golf club. Katie Couric, guest anchoring Good Morning America on Thursday, lectured the organization hosting the Masters tournament to allow a woman in: "I mean, really. Get with the program. Seriously?"

Reporter Josh Elliott lamented that Augusta has remained "cloistered," "a secretive sanctuary for golfers and one that has never admitted a woman. On Wednesday's Nightly News, correspondent Lisa Myers wondered what Augusta Chairman Billy Payne would "tell his granddaughters about why women are excluded."

Good Morning America analyst Matt Dowd on Wednesday lectured Rick Santorum to "get out" and stop wasting "any little bit of political capital he has left." Depending on which count one looks at, Mitt Romney is currently 489 delegates short of the nomination.

That fact didn't stop Dowd from making his point clear. Over four sentences, he used the phrase "get out" four times, pronouncing, "I think he has to get out because he wants to preserve any little bit of political capital he has left and a voice in the Republican Party." The same man who, on March 26 slammed conservative states as hypocrites, instructed Santorum, "I think it would be good to get out right now before he loses Pennsylvania. But he has got to try to keep a voice in the party by getting out."

Good Morning America's John Berman on Tuesday again proved his ability to be crude, adding a zipper sound effect to a quote by Ann Romney. Sounding like a fifth grade boy, Berman derided the wife of the presidential candidate, insisting that "unexpected comments from Ann Romney...just begged to be taken out of context."

Berman played a clip of Mrs. Romney on a radio show in which she rebutted claims that her husband is "stiff," replying, "I guess we better unzip him and let the real Mitt Romney out." Immediately following this, ABC played a zipper sound. Now, while GMA and Berman found time for juvenile humor, there was no mention of President Obama's attack on the Supreme Court. [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Good Morning America offered another typical softball session with Bill Clinton on Monday to promote his latest Global Initiative meeting, but since using George Stephanopoulos might seem too obvious, they sent normally aggressive Jake Tapper to lob the softballs. Oddly, the questions that might actually be defined as news were edited out of the ABC program and left to a much smaller audience of political junkies on Tapper's Political Punch blog.

Instead of the program featuring queries about Travon Martin or the Supreme Court, Tapper highlighted the "long, bruising" Republican presidential primary and compared it to Clinton's 1992 campaign: "You turned it around. Can [Romney]?" An ABC graphic trumpeted, "Bill Clinton: Romney Can't Win." Clinton piously asserted that his presidential campaign endured "one long character attack." Tapper had no follow-up or query about Clinton's actual character issues. [See video below. See MP3 audio here.]

Is it right to make death threats against George Zimmerman and his family?  ABC News isn't sure. In a Good Morning America segment today on the Trayvon Martin case, as an ABC reporter spoke from Sanford, Florida, this graphic was displayed across the bottom of the screen:

"ARE DEATH THREATS GOING TOO FAR?" Video and screencap after the jump.

The Obama administration suffered another bad day in the Supreme Court, Wednesday, leading many to wonder if all of the President's health care law will be entirely scrapped. ABC's Good Morning America on Thursday responded to this with silence, totally ignoring the story.

GMA co-host George Stephanopoulos on Wednesday referred to the case as "historic," but apparently lost interest a day later. The other two morning shows, Today and CBS This Morning, each offered one report. In total, over eight hours of possible broadcast time, the three networks allowed a scant four minutes and 19 seconds. GMA, however, still managed to squeeze in a piece on important topics, such as an elderly Texas grandmother who is mad at Justin Bieber.        

Barack Obama's health care law ran into a legal buzz saw at the Supreme Court, Tuesday. So, how did the network morning shows on Wednesday cover the "historic" case? They mostly ignored it. Over two hours, ABC's Good Morning America allowed just two minutes.

Reporter Jon Karl hyped an Obamacare loss as win-win for the President. He insisted it would be a "rallying cry for liberals" and that "it would also take away an issue for Republicans." There's no down side to having one's biggest legislative accomplishment eviscerated? [MP3 audio here. See video below.]

The journalists at Good Morning America on Tuesday appeared shocked that a "sour" Rick Santorum dared to aggressively oppose a New York Times reporter, hyperventilating that the Republican presidential candidate has gone to "war against the media."

Former Democratic operative turned journalist George Stephanopoulos insisted that the "wear and tear of a long, tough campaign" is beginning to show on Santorum. He piled on, "His Cinderella story has gone a bit sour." Reporter Berman, who often can't refuse using over-the-top language for his stories, began, "Well, cover your ears and hide the children. Dirty words have hit the presidential race." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Sometimes journalists just come right out and say it: Appearing at the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) Awards, Saturday, ABC News anchor Josh Elliott gushed over media subjectivity: "I'm proud to work at a place that believes in advocacy journalism!"

Elliott, who reads the news for Good Morning America, fawned over the liberal gay rights group: "I will never be in a braver room than this!" The reporter seemed to be under the impression that, so long as the cause is good enough, objectivity isn't needed. Elliott highlighted his own late, gay father: "I took from him the importance of being an advocate for those who need it; and I took from him what it means to be a man."

When Nancy Pelosi was asked in a 2009 press conference about where in the Constitution Congress has the authority to order Americans to buy health insurance, she responded: “Are you serious?” That week, none of the Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) network news programs deemed Pelosi’s ludicrous response to the question from CNSNews.com worthy of coverage. The news blackout of the then House Speaker’s response isn’t surprising, given that the liberal news media, as documented in this recent MRC compilation, pushed at every point in the debate process for ObamaCare.

The following are the relevant portions from CNSNews.com’s Matt Cover’s October 22, 2009 article about Pelosi curtly dismissing the Constitution’s relevance to ObamaCare:

On Friday's Good Morning America, Chris Cuomo interviewed the man convicted of "bias intimidation" against a gay college student who took his own life. Co-host Robin Roberts admitted, "...So many people believe this case went beyond the facts, that a clear message was trying to be sent here." Cuomo, then touted the "message" that was sent.

He began, "The agony, in this situation, for the families involved, for people like you who fight for victims' rights, is we need a message about bullying. It's pervasive." He added, "Then, this case comes. Finally, we get that message." 

For the third day in a row, Wednesday, an absent George Stephanopoulos prompted ABC's Good Morning America to provide skimpy coverage of the GOP presidential race. While CBS This Morning devoted nine minutes, including an interview, on the Illinois primary, ABC allowed just two minutes and 21 seconds of coverage.

In GMA's only full report, Jake Tapper quoted Romney casting the race as law professor vs. conservative businessman (which typically leaves out describing Obama as liberal): "It's very clearly a very stark choice between Barack Obama, who [Romney is] casting as a law professor, versus a conservative businessman."

Next week, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on the constitutionality of ObamaCare, but if the media were the judges, the Court would rule 9-0 in favor of it. During its coverage of the health care debate, the liberal press never permitted questions about ObamaCare’s legality to interfere with their dream of a government takeover of the health care sector.

Starting even before Barack Obama became President, the press has been campaigning hard for passage of the most liberal version of health care reform as a cure-all elixir to all of America’s health problems. First, they pitched the public on the desperate need to, as ABC’s Dr. Tim Johnson demanded, fix America’s “national shame” of no universal coverage. (Worst of the Worst quote compiliation with videos after the jump)

Is there a clause in George Stephanopoulos's contract stating that politics must be ignored if he's not there? On Tuesday, for the second straight day, the former Democratic operative turned journalist was absent from Good Morning America. Despite March 20th featuring a critical primary in the Republican race for the White House, a Stephanopoulos-less GMA allowed just 19 seconds on the topic. (Dancing With the Stars, by contrast, received six minutes.)

The hosts who did show up for work on Monday and Tuesday's GMA also skipped a new ABC poll finding that "Two-thirds of Americans say the U.S. Supreme Court should throw out either the individual mandate  in the federal health care law or the law in its entirety."

ABC's Dan Harris trumpeted the "bromance between President Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron" on Thursday's GMA. Harris noted the presence of Vogue magazine head Anna Wintour at Wednesday's state dinner, but omitted that she is a major donor to Obama's campaign. Instead, he gushed over how "Michelle Obama and Samantha Cameron [were] both looking very regal in blue, floor-length gowns."

The same morning, NBC's Today show chose to play up the "little star power from George Clooney...and movie mogul Harvey Weinstein" at the dinner, but failed to mention Weinstein's $500,000 contribution to the President's campaign. CBS This Morning did report that "many of the guests included some of the President's top fundraisers," but anchor Charlie Rose, who attended the function, and correspondent Bill Plante, spent more time talking about the wines that the White House served [audio clips available here; video below the jump].

When FNC's Bill O'Reilly brought up "ABC News's coverage of this Rush Limbaugh/Fluke situation" on Wednesday's The O'Reilly Factor, guest George Stephanopoulos not only misled FNC viewers about ABC coverage by focusing only on how much time his weekday edition of Good Morning America devoted to the story while ignoring other ABC shows like World News and the weekend edition of GMA, but he even substantially understated the amount of time his own weekday GMA show spent on the controversy.

He also failed to mention that he repeatedly brought up the story as he hosted Sunday's This Week on ABC.

Who's the best person to give Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney advice? Why, longtime Democratic strategist James Carville, of course. Recapping the Super Tuesday primaries on Wednesday's Good Morning America, former Democratic operative turned Journalist George Stephanopoulos seriously wondered, "James Carville, you usually give advice to Democrats, but take that hat off for a second."

With no sense of humor or irony, the co-host continued, "Give some advice to Mitt Romney. How does he handle this right now?" Of course, Carville had no interest in giving Mitt Romney advice and proceeded to deride the Republican. [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Good Morning America's Dan Harris on Tuesday highlighted liberal hopes to turn Rush Limbaugh's "slut" comments into a "Don Imus moment." The March 6 segment brings the total number of ABC stories on the subject to eight in just four and a half days.

Harris played two nasty clips, one showing Jon Stewart mocking the conservative host as a "terrible person." Harris excitedly related, "This morning, liberal groups are going all out. They're mounting an aggressive online campaign to get Limbaugh's sponsors to pull their ads. They are hoping this is Rush Limbaugh's Don Imus moment."

The apology wasn't good enough. Journalists on Monday's Good Morning America chided the Republican presidential candidates for "equivocating" and not strongly condemning Rush Limbaugh's comments about Sandra Fluke. Analyst Matt Dowd appeared to deride Mitt Romney for "missing a huge opportunity" to slam Limbaugh.

John Berman focused on the fact that the conservative radio host called his own words "insulting" and that his apology went "much further than the words used by the Republican presidential candidates, whose condemnations all came with equivocations or deflections." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

The three network morning shows on Friday continued a left-wing attack on Rush Limbaugh, railing at the "ugly turn" the conservative radio host took when he "eviscerated" an activist college student who testified before Congress on birth control availability.

On NBC's Today, Matt Lauer lectured, "And an ugly turn in the battle over birth control. Rush Limbaugh has ruffled feathers with his choice words for a 23-year-old woman who supports insurance coverage for contraception." Reporter Kelly O'Donnell huffed, "Limbaugh, who called [Sandra] Fluke by the wrong first name, then called her some very ugly things." [See MP3 audio here. Video below.]

The three networks have, thus far, skipped Tuesday's revelation by Energy Secretary Steven Chu that the "overall goal" of the Obama administration isn't to get gas prices down. This is despite the fact that ABC, NBC and CBS have previously focused on the rising gasoline prices in general.

Politico reported, Tuesday, "The Energy Department isn't working to lower gasoline prices directly, Secretary Steven Chu said Tuesday after a Republican lawmaker scolded him for his now-infamous 2008 comment that gas prices in the U.S. should be as high as in Europe."

On Wednesday's NBC Today, chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd was looking for any excuse to be an Obama spokesman as made this declaration about the announced retirement of Maine Senator Olympia Snowe: "...she's serving as a personal testimonial to the President, who says there's no more centrist coalition inside the Republican Party." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

On Tuesday, ABC World News anchor Diane Sawyer praised the liberal GOP legislator as, "The principled voice of reason in some of the most contentious debates in Washington..." and noted how fellow Maine Senator and Republican moderate Susan Collins was "absolutely devastated by this decision."

According to liberal New York Times columnist Charles Blow, "Rick Santorum scares the bejesus out of people" and could never be elected President. The journalist appeared on MSNBC, Tuesday, to dismiss the idea that the Republican could appeal to independents, should he get the nomination.

Blow, who just last week made an ugly, anti-Mormon remark about Mitt Romney, did his best to portray Santorum as unable to broaden his appeal: "You cannot pivot from 'college is where Satan is having his biggest impact' and pivot that into an economic issue. That's just a fallacy. That's not going to happen."  [See video below. See MP3 audio here.]

In the wake of new sexual revelations concerning John F. Kennedy and a nineteen-year-old White House intern, you would think media members would shy away from putting the former president on a pedestal concerning his religious beliefs.

Yet there was ABC World News anchor Diane Sawyer Monday telling George Stephanopoulos of his previous day's interview with Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum, "Couldn’t believe that he was going on the offensive on church and state and the separation of them against John Kennedy" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Good Morning America's David Kerley on Saturday parroted Democratic talking points, mocking Mitt Romney for "embarrassing missteps." Kerley openly wondered how the campaign could get things "so wrong."

The ABC correspondent played up the location of a  Romney speech, Friday, and harped on the Republican for saying he had a "couple" Cadillacs. Kerley complained, "So, what were they thinking?...For what was billed as a big speech, how did they get it so wrong? " He continued, "Romney in a cavernous football stadium, just 30 yards of chairs, some of them empty and the entire stands completely empty."

ABC's John Berman on Friday chided the Republican presidential candidates for not talking about jobs enough, lecturing the GOP field that social issues could harm their chances of winning the White House. Berman whined, "...The shift to the right in rhetoric could be hurting in the middle."

Regarding Romney's planned speech on tax cuts, Friday, Good Morning America's Berman condescended, " [Romney says [his plan] will help create jobs. Jobs. Remember that word? The candidates uttered the word jobs just four times in two hours in this week's debate." Of course, as Berman proved with video clips, it was the candidates– and not debate moderator John King– who brought up jobs.

ABC on Thursday and Friday hyped the idea, pushed by Nancy Pelosi, that oil speculators on Wall Street are to blame for high gas prices, citing a "top government watchdog." Of course, the network neglected to inform viewers that Bart Chilton, who is a commissioner on the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, is an ex-Democratic staffer.

On Friday, Good Morning America's Josh Elliott described the options as blaming "tension in the Middle East or speculators on Wall Street for the skyrocketing prices." Not offered as a choice was Barack Obama. Now, when gas prices were high under Bush, there were more stories and the blame was directed at the Republican President.

An unusually harsh Jake Tapper on Thursday lashed out at Rick Santorum, mocking the Republican's "horrible" debate performance. The ABC journalist appeared on Good Morning America and suggested that Santorum was so bad he should take himself to court.

Tapper piled on, deriding the former Pennsylvania senator: "You know when you meet somebody and you make a bad impression, you wish you could take it back? That's what Rick Santorum must be feeling like today...A horrible night for him." Although much of the reaction to Santorum's performance was mixed to negative, Tapper was over-the-top. [See video below. MP3 audio here.]