Sharyn Alfonsi

Liberals are "pro" and bestow rights on people. Conservatives are "anti" and negative. That's the impressions that viewers would get from watching ABC. On Tuesday, Good Morning America's Bianna Golodryga mentioned the possible presidential candidacy of George Pataki, noting the former New York governor is "pro-choice, pro-union and pro-gay rights."

Yet, on June 30, 2011, World News reporter Sharyn Afonsi highlighted Michele Bachmann's "anti-abortion view."  On June 07, 2011, GMA co-host George Stephanopoulos suggested to Ann Coulter, "You seem to express some kind of understanding for anti-abortion protesters who use violence.”       

 On Friday's World News on ABC, correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi detailed findings of a Harvard study which claims a correlation between attending July 4 parades and voting for Republicans.

Substitute host David Muir introduced the story: "And tonight, a provocative new study suggests the simple act of taking your child to see the parade shapes not only their patriotism but their politics. Who will they vote for?"

Alfonsi got right to the answer as she began her report with a play on the words "independence" and "independents":

 On Thursday evening, uniquely among the broadcast network evening newscasts, ABC’s World News featured a report on GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann’s recent revelation that her pro-life views were influenced by a miscarriage she once endured. ABC correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi also informed viewers of the Minnesota Congresswoman’s history of giving care to foster children with her husband.

Substitute anchor George Stephanopoulos set up the report:

 On World News Saturday and on Sunday’s Good Morning America, ABC continued to quote liberal commentator Ron Reagan’s recent criticisms of Sarah Palin without reminding viewers of his liberal political views and history of attacking conservatives as both shows recounted Palin’s speech in commemoration of former President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday.

On World News Saturday, after playing a clip of Palin’s speech, anchor Sharyn Alfonsi continued: "Reagan's outspoken youngest son Ron told the Associated Press that Palin, quote, 'is a soap opera who has nothing in common' with his father."

And on Sunday’s GMA, a piece by correspondent David Kerley used a clip of Ron Reagan from one of his recent appearances on GMA promoting his book, My Father at 100, when he had negative words to say about Palin. After relating that Palin had charged that America is "on a road to ruin because it has strayed from Reagan’s values," and after a clip of the former Alaska governor comparing her own political views to those of President Reagan, Kerley continued:

Of the three morning shows, only ABC's Good Morning America on Wednesday singled out New Jersey governor Chris Christie, chiding the "rising star of the Republican Party" for being out of the state when a blizzard hit. At the same time, reporter Sharyn Alfonsi praised Newark's Democratic Mayor Cory Booker for helping with the clean-up. She enthused, "Wow! A mayor with a shovel."

Regarding Christie, Alfonsi critiqued, "Meantime, anger also boiled over into New Jersey, where Chris Christie, the state's brash and often outspoken governor,...was nowhere to be found." To underline the segment's sarcasm, Alfonsi played a clip of the governor asserting, "Accountability is important now more now than ever."

For good measure, she added, "Christie, a rising star of the Republican Party, was at Disney World." In contrast, Alfonsi highlighted Booker, alerting, "In fact, about the only politician to weather the blizzard may be Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who spent the day responding to tweets from stranded residents, Personally helping shovel sidewalks and dig out cars."

[MP3 audio here. Video below.]

In broadcast network stories on how Ginni Thomas left a phone message for Anita Hill (“I would love you to consider an apology sometimes and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband”) , a revelation which ABC and NBC decided merited their lead slot, the network journalists couldn't resist scolding her for her conservative political activity.

“Ginni Thomas has long stretched our idea of what a spouse of a non-partisan Supreme Court justice should be,” ABC's Sharyn Alfonsi contended, explaining: “A long-time conservative activist, she now heads Liberty Central, an advocacy group opposing what she characterizes as the leftist tyranny of President Obama.”

On CBS, Jan Crawford declared the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas “has come under scrutiny” because “she formed a grass-roots conservative group and speaks at Tea Party conventions.” NBC's Andrea Mitchell echoed: “Recently, Virginia Thomas has emerged as a high-profile Tea Party activist and skilled fundraiser,” calling that “an unusually partisan role for a Supreme Court spouse, as the New York Times wrote on the 19th anniversary of the hearings, the same morning Mrs. Thomas called Anita Hill.”

According to Good Morning America's Sharyn Alfonsi, the White House is hoping the "star power" of Michelle Obama will be enough for the Democrats to beat the Republican senatorial challenger in Wisconsin. Of course, Alfonsi on Thursday failed to even mention the name of Ron Johnson, the man who currently holds a seven point lead over incumbent Russ Feingold.

Co-host George Stephanopoulos offered banal assertions such as "Her pitch is more personal than partisan. White House officials tell me she's having a good time out on the campaign trail."

e, Alfonsi on Thursday failed to even mention the name of Ron Johnson, the man who currently holds a seven point lead over incumbent Russ Feingold.

Co-host George Stephanopoulos offered banal assertions such as "Her pitch is more personal than partisan. White House officials tell me she's having a good time out on the campaign trail."

ABC News set out Monday night to rehabilitate the reputation of the iman behind the proposed mosque near Ground Zero, Feisal Abdul Rauf, trying to discredit criticism of him from the right as Sharyn Alfonsi portrayed him as a model of religious tolerance who condemns suicide bombers, terrorism and Hamas and who deserves admiration because he “eulogized Daniel Pearl.”

The night before, in a Sunday World News story on protests over the mosque, ABC expressed sudden respect for former President Bush as reporter Linsey Davis used him to undermine opponents: “In an attempt to make a clear distinction between Islam and terrorism, within days of 9/11 President Bush went to a mosque.”

Alfonsi generously began with how “he candidly discussed his beliefs with Barbara Walters for her 2006 special on Heaven” where he promised her “the Jews, the Christians, whoever believes in God and does good will be saved.” As for whether “one man's suicide bomber is another man's martyr?”, Alfonsi assured viewers:

In his book, the imam wrote: “The truth is that killing innocent people is always wrong and no argument or excuse, no matter how deeply believed, can ever make it right.”

All three morning shows on Monday railed against BP CEO Tony Hayward for attending a yachting race in England on Saturday, but they found no such anger for Barack Obama's golf outing on the same day, ignoring the story. The pattern was nearly identical on Sunday, with only Good Morning America briefly mentioning the President's recreational activities.

On Monday's Early Show, Katie Couric appeared and derided, "But that image of Tony Hayward participating in that yacht race over the weekend probably hurt his image even more, as if that's possible." Good Morning America's Sharyn Alfonsi indignantly reported, "...Tony Hayward goes sailing, but residents weren't the only ones wondering what was he thinking?"

The morning shows even repeated the White House's assaults on Hayward's yachting trip, hypocritically ignoring Obama's golfing. On the June 20 Sunday Morning (CBS's weekend equivalent of the Early Show), host Charles Osgood parroted, "White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel labeled Hayward's outing another PR gaffe."

Now that actress Andrea Fay Friedman of the Fox television series the Family Guy has spoken out publicly against Sarah Palin’s criticism of the show, ABC News has aired a story on the controversy, which ran on Saturday's World News. The Family Guy episode in question not only treated Down’s Syndrome as something to laugh at (credit to NB reader Birch Barlow for emailing in the link as a tip), but also made a reference to the former Alaska Governor being the mother of a character – voiced by Friedman as both she and the character have Down’s Syndrome – presumably to suggest that Palin has a tendency to give birth to such children and that doing so would be funny.

As he began the piece showing scenes from the episode, and a clip of Palin saying that the jab at her family felt like a "kick in the gut," correspondent Jeremy Hubbard understated the level of obscenity that Seth MacFarlane has a history of employing on the show as he simply described the show's creator and producer as "irreverent," and informed viewers that fans of the "button-pushing" show would find the episode "hardly shocking."

The ABC correspondent went on to give credibility to the view that Palin may be "overreacting" as he cited what he referred to as "half-hearted" praise for the show by "some" advocates for those with Down's Syndrome, and relayed the argument that the show actually delivers a positive portrayal. Hubbard: "Although there has been criticism, some Down's Syndrome advocates have given half-hearted praise to the cartoon for including a well-rounded character dealing with the disability, which leads Palin detractors to ask: Is she overreacting?"

If you thought figuring out what to eat was difficult before, the Center for Science in the Public Interest has released a new study called "The Ten Riskiest Foods," which slams four of the five food groups.

On Oct. 6 "Good Morning America's" Sharyn Alfonsi devoted an entire segment to the doom-and-gloom study. But of course she conveniently forgot to mention that CSPI is a radical left-wing kill-joy consumer group that has attacked everything from remote controls to washing machines to Chinese food to casual dining.

The study was discussed in relation to a recent New York Times headline about the 22-year-old girl Stephanie Smith who was paralyzed apparently from E. coli in a frozen hamburger.

In highlighting a new study which found $147 billion a year is spent on obesity-related health care and obese people spend $1,400 more a year for health services, ABC and CBS on Monday night couldn't resist interjecting a plug for imposing a tax on soda to bring in revenue to pay for ObamaCare.

ABC's Sharyn Alfonsi asserted “health officials seem to like the idea of a federal soda tax” since “adding a tax of three cents a can to high-calorie sodas could generate $24 billion over the next four years,” and while “opponents argue Americans won't tolerate another tax,” supporters “say it could cut health care costs and America's ever- expanding bottom line, all at once.”

Following a full CBS Evening News story on the obesity report, anchor Katie Couric set up a story on the tax idea: “Now, some believe another way to help pay for health care reform is to put a tax on one of the causes of obesity: soft drinks full of sugar. Nancy Cordes has more on that.” Cordes began: “Americans consume roughly 250 more calories everyday than they did in the '70s and half those calories come from sugary drinks, which is why some health advocates are urging Congress to help pay for health care reform with a tax on non-diet sodas...”

In a surprising turn for the network, ABC’s “Nightline” included a strong pro-abstinence message on April 6 when it featured comedian and radio host Steve Harvey.

Harvey is the author of the New York Times bestseller “Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man” which is all about love and relationships and includes advice on waiting to “give up the cookie.”

Sharyn Alfonsi’s insightful interview with Harvey who has found success with his down-to-earth advice found in his book. “A guy that’s really serious about you, he’s gotta be talking to you,” Harvey told Alfonsi. “He’s gotta wanna have one-on-one, in your face interaction. That’s how we are! The guy that’s just texting you, that’s no effort. He doesn’t have to get in the car, he doesn’t have to remember your number, he can just text you. And you sit there and you see all these wonderful things he's texting you. Well, guess what, he could be ccing that same text to six other women. And you think you're special? … Please.”

Catching up on an item from Friday night, the three broadcast evening newscasts aired virtually nothing on January 23 about President Obama’s executive order permitting federal funding of abortions, overturning orders signed by President Bush in his first week in office back in 2001. Both CBS and NBC’s White House reporters squeezed in a single sentence about Obama’s action during stories about the economic stimulus bill, while ABC’s World News said nothing about the orders on Friday.

But on Sunday’s World News, ABC’s Dan Harris highlighted conservative criticism of Obama’s abortion decision, arguing that it showed how “despite his desire to reach out to people who disagree with him, the new President may find that on some issues, it may be impossible to find common ground.” Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi also painted the President -- whom she said hoped “not to provoke” conservatives by banning photographs of the signing -- the victim of a “brutal” reaction from conservatives:

Thursday’s "Good Morning America" used the Fourth of July holiday to exaggerate the effects that food prices are having on consumers. In its "Hitting Home" segment, reporter Sharyn Alfonsi reported on the price increases of certain Fourth of July barbecue staples, claiming that "Americans are gonna eat 110 million pounds hot dogs and that could take a big bite out of their wallets."

Alfonsi claimed:

They had to really be looking for this, but ABC's April 17 "World News with Charles Gibson" has found something else for parents to be concerned about.

This time it is artificial turf on sports fields.

"It's become part of the American landscape - synthetic turf, durable and soft," ABC correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi said. "It's everywhere, from stadiums to neighborhood soccer fields. But now, questions over whether those fields are safe. Health officials in New Jersey randomly tested synthetic turf fields across the state. Two of the fields had lead levels so high they closed them."

“He was once called 'Mr. Stiff.' Now he's known as 'The Goreacle,' the new Al Gore,” CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric touted in plugging an upcoming Friday night story. With “Gore 2.0” on screen, Couric set up the subsequent tribute by asserting that “no one's getting more attention than the latest edition of Al Gore. Sharyn Alfonsi reports on Gore 2.0.” Attention from the media, certainly. Alfonsi trumpeted how “Al Gore seems to have gone from awkward to almost slick,” proposing that “all it took was eight years, some melting polar ice caps and an Oscar win for his documentary.” Interspersed with clips of Gore on various news and entertainment shows, Alfonsi hailed how “he spread the word about global warming, and now is changing the political climate. In some polls, Gore is third for the Democratic nomination, and he's not even a candidate. And he's come out with another book, The Assault on Reason.” In his media tour for it, he's “knocking the media with one arm and the Bush administration with the other.”

This is not the first time this year that CBS has gushed over Gore. Less than two weeks ago, the Mother's Day edition of the CBS Evening News devoted a story to DraftGore.org (Mark Finkelstein's item). Bill Whitaker touted him as “a star of an Oscar-winning documentary on global warming” who is “so hot he's cheered on one of the coolest shows on TV,” Comedy Central's The Daily Show hosted by left-winger Jon Stewart. When he testified before House and Senate committees back in March, Couric celebrated “a lot of excitement on Capitol Hill. A movie star showed up to testify before Congress -- a movie star named Al Gore.” On The Early Show in February, Harry Smith asked Richard Branson: “Is Al Gore a prophet?”

Last night, ABC "World News with Charles Gibson" and CBS "Evening News" devoured a recent report from the food police: Center for Science in the Public Interest. The CSPI report charges casual dining restaurants with serving high calorie and high fat appetizers, entrees and desserts and promotes federally mandated nutrition information on menus.

While both programs did include restaurant spokesmen, the meat of both stories came straight from the CSPI release which is not surprising since CSPI experts frequently appear in network news stories -- most recently on February 20, 21, 22, 23 and then in the "extreme eating" stories on the 26th.

Unfortunately they don't give you any perspective from the medical community or the makers of distilled spirits or beer. Nope, they just give you two liberal critics of the alcohol industry to scare parents with tales of stomach pumps and binge drinking.

Happy New Year.

Is it time to start spotting news bias trends for 2007? Maybe. All I know so far is:

Bird flu stories seem to be out. What's in? "What you don't know about your chicken might ill you.*"

You can read my full BMI article here:

"Is there a dirty bird on your dinner plate," wondered CBS anchor Katie Couric as she hatched a brief and biased news item centered around a new Consumer Reports study on chicken.

"Bad news," "Evening News" correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi summed upon the December 4 program. Consumer Reports magazine found that the chicken on your dinner table is "dirtier than ever."

Last night all three network newscasts did story's on a proposed ban on trans fats in New York City restaurants. Katie Couric practically made out trans fat to be a lethal lipid stalking the stainless steel kitchens of the Big Apple's finest eateries

“New York, New York is getting ready to lead the nation in evicting a killer from restaurants,” teased Katie Couric at the intro to the “Evening News.”

Yet oddly enough, it was her correspondent's report that was the most balanced of the three networks, as correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi reported the price tag accompanying the ban for any restaurants holding on to offending cooking oils: $2,000 per violation.

In an interview with the CBS News website Public Eye, CBS reporter Sharyn Alfonsi displayed a typically leftish enthusiasm for New York Times columnists and former Democratic presidents who pride themselves on being Southern charmers.

When asked about the last "really great movie or book you've found, Alfonsi mentioned a classic Southern novel and "Also, I just finished Thomas Friedman’s From Beirut to Jerusalem. I love him. He’s a great writer and a genius." When asked about the "most fascinating person," Alfonsi displayed her years in Arkansas journalism: "Most fascinating: I interviewed Bill Clinton a few times. He’s a study."

The wholesale price of oil and gasoline took a huge drop on the commodities markets Wednesday. But, you never would have known it from watching the broadcast networks’ evening news programs. In fact, the pain at the pump mantra continued in earnest at CBS and NBC without even the slightest mention of a greater than $2 decline in oil prices and an almost 9 cent decline in gasoline prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Instead, the NBC “Nightly News” did two pieces dealing with rising energy prices, including one about the politics of the problem. Brian Williams began the report: “Also in Washington tonight, these days, as we know, a lot of high anxiety over gas prices, and more political fighting over what to do about it.” Williams handed it off to David Gregory who concluded: “Amid all the anxiety tonight, some hope. Oil industry sources and administration officials say, given a recent boost in the supply of gas, that prices could actually come down, at least a bit, this summer.” Might have been a nice time to tell the viewers that they already have. In fact, after reaching a wholesale price high of $2.23 per gallon a few weeks, yesterday’s close of $2.09 represents a six percent decline in about eleven trading days. I guess energy prices are only newsworthy when they go up.

Of course, the CBS “Evening News” didn’t do much better, as it decided to report on how rising gas prices are harming a minor league baseball team. Bob Schieffer set up the segment:

Monday’s CBS Evening News inaugurated a new series, “Eye on the Road,” the network’s latest gimmick to keep people outraged at the high cost of gasoline. Reporter Sharyn Alfonsi is driving from Florida to Boston to find people to complain about the high prices, and last night she highlighted senior citizens who are ostensibly sacrificing food and medicine because of Big Oil’s greediness.

Alfonsi highlighted a poll taken by the liberal lobbying group AARP to supposedly prove the hardship gas prices are having on the elderly. “They’re used to living on fixed incomes,” Alfonsi reported, “but now skyrocketing gas prices are forcing seniors to make difficult choices. Some are cutting back on medicine, others say they’re eating less.”

As she spoke, the screen showed the words “AARP Survey” plus the words “Cutting Back,” followed by “Medicine 6%,” then “Food 13%.”

But the poll wasn’t taken “now,” during the wave of network stories wailing about high gas prices. It was actually conducted for the AARP newsletter AARP Bulletin nearly eight months ago, in early September 2005, in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and fairly extensive supply disruptions in the eastern U.S.

After Monday's CBS Evening News showed a clip of a Marine recruit at Parris Island explaining that he volunteered because “I want to be fighting the evils that did what they did to us on September 11th," reporter Sharyn Alfonsi related how “all three of the recruits we sat down with say they enlisted because of September 11th.” Alfonsi, however, couldn't let such an apparent link between 9/11 and the war in Iraq go unchallenged and so she quickly admonished the naive recruits as she stressed how “politicians will argue whether the war and 9/11 are related” -- though she added that “clearly here, to these recruits, the two are inseparable."

Alfonsi's clarification about 9/11 connections came in an otherwise very positive story about three Marine recruits and their disappointment that more Americans are not closely following the war. Her piece was the first of a new series, “CBS News Road Tour: The Home Front,” which will take Alfonsi and her mini-van to Ft. Benning in Georgia on Tuesday. Full transcript follows.

Declaring that the Media Research Center “is a much more biased organization than any institution in the MSM," CBS Evening News Executive Producer Jim Murphy, on the CBS News “Public Eye” blog on Thursday, criticized two MRC CyberAlert articles I wrote which were first posted this week on NewsBusters. Public Eye Editor Vaughn Ververs asked Murphy to comment on a September 20 NewsBusters item, “CBS: Bush Should 'Wake Up and Smell the Coffee.'” Murphy seemed befuddled by the article: “Please explain to me what's WRONG with pointing out the President spoke from an air-conditioned tent, which to most people on the gulf would be a more than welcome relief from their existence. It was not gratuitous, it was an interesting note” and the CBS reporter's “use of the well-known phrase, 'wake up and smell the coffee,' was attributed to the restaurant owners as THEIR feeling, NOT hers. It's just good, colorful, pointed writing.” (The MRC's Michelle Humphrey tracked down a still shot of Murphy from a May of 2004 appearance on CNN.)

Murphy was similarly flummoxed by the September 21 NewsBusters article, “CBS Trumpets Carter's Criticism of Bush Administration,” contending that “we simply reported it because the former President SAID it.”

But Murphy's reasoning is a tautology. I was criticizing the judgment of CBS News on what is news. Other outlets did not choose to highlight Bush's air-conditioned surroundings, how one woman at a French Quarter restaurant assailed him for not experiencing their suffering or what Jimmy Carter said. Carter makes comments nearly every day. CBS chose to report this particular comment on this day. CBS decided that the restaurant owner's comment was more newsworthy than any number of other soundbites they could have run. The story reflected an agenda. By Murphy's reasoning, my articles should be beyond criticism since they accurately quoted what CBS reported.

Public Eye Editor Ververs conceded the NewsBusters/MRC piece on Bush had a point about CBS's "attitude." That and a bit more from Murphy follows.

CBS on Tuesday night delivered a sarcastic look at President Bush's visit to the Gulf coast. After reciting a list of problems people are having in New Orleans, reporter Sharyn Alfonsi jumped to a soundbite of Bush in Mississippi, declaring: “Every time I come back here, I see progress." Alfonsi gratuitously pointed out that Bush was “speaking inside an air-conditioned tent” and noted how “he toured a Folgers plant in Louisiana” but, she stressed, “small business owners say this kind of progress is the exception.” Then, over video of a row of damaged and abandoned store fronts in New Orleans, she countered: “This is the reality.” Alfonsi made it personal, holding Bush responsible for the frustrations of a French Quarter restaurant owner: “After five visits in three weeks, they want the President to wake up and smell the coffee.” (That cute line ran over video of Bush, in a sweat-soaked shirt, shaking hands at the coffee plant.) Restaurant owner Arly Questa demanded: "Hang out, no air-conditioning, eat some MRE's every day, and then you might really understand what it's been like down here in New Orleans."

Picture of Bush's sweat-soaked shirt and transcript follows. Video excerpt: RealPlayer or Windows Media