Terry McAuliffe

Walter Cronkite's longtime producer Leslie Midgley once wrote that "News is what an editor decides it is." News today is what TV producers decide can help President Obama. News that hurts isn't news at all.

In the last week, network anchors like Brian Williams repeated endlessly that the "Occupy Wall Street" protests are "increasingly resonating." It’s the story reporters will declare "isn’t going away" -- and they're going to see to it. They are using their microphones like yellow Hi-Liter pens to draw attention to it.

Appearing on Tuesday’s CBS Early Show, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele criticized potential Democratic efforts to delay seating Republican Scott Brown as the Senator from Massachusetts as “unseemly,” but co-host Maggie Rodriguez replied: “Is that fair? Because wouldn’t your party do the exact same thing?”

Rodriguez went on to argue: “Isn’t it true that when the GOP had the majority and the Democrats would filibuster something, you know, you didn’t like that....They’re trying to keep you from doing the same thing to them that you did when you were – had the majority.” Steele began to reply: “You’re mixing an apple and an orange here.” Rodriguez interrupted: “No, no, I’m really not.”

Steele explained: “To filibuster on an issue is not the same as seating a member in the United States Senate regardless of what’s going on in the Senate. There is a process that unfolds....[Democrats] made it very clear that [they] will obstruct this process...will change the rules in order for [them] to get [their] way in the Senate.” A shocked Rodriguez asked: “So you’re implying that they would do something illegal?” Steele replied: “I’m not – illegal is left for lawyers to decide. What I’m saying is that there is a process.”  

Normally I wouldn't find a local market television reporter joining a gubernatorial campaign worth a post on a national blog like NewsBusters, but in this case the candidate is a very well-known national figure: Terry McAuliffe, the former Chairman of the Democratic National Committee who also chaired Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign last year and is a long-time Friend of Bill.

Dave Hughes reported Monday, on his DCRTV blog, that Allyson Wilson, a reporter and sometime anchor on Washington, DC's Fox-owned WTTG-TV/DT, “is leaving to join Democrat Terry McAuliffe's campaign for governor of Virginia. She'll be his deputy press secretary. Wilson is a native Washingtonian and a graduate of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts.”

On Wednesday night's "Hardball," Chris Matthews seemed "thrilled" by new poll numbers showing Obama gaining strength and was so caught up in Terry McAuliffe's prediction of a Democratic sweep he encouraged the former DNC chair "to get the vote out."

First up, on the July 9 edition of "Hardball," Matthews made the following introduction to a segment with NBC's Chuck Todd on state by state poll numbers.

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Welcome back to "Hardball." The NBC News political unit has some brand new battleground maps on the fight for the White House. Let's check in with NBC News political director Chuck Todd. Chuck, dazzle us right now, will ya? Because I'm thrilled with this. Obama's strength in the Northeast, the West Coast and the Great Lakes.

On Monday’s CBS "Early Show," co-host Harry Smith talked to Obama supporter Congressman Robert Wexler and asked: "Here's the question though, Congressman. If Hillary Clinton continues the fight this week, does it ruin the Democratic Party's chances in November?" Wexler responded: " I don't think it ruins chances, but it would be a very, very serious matter. And only Senator McCain wants Senator Clinton to go to the Democratic convention."

Following his interview with Wexler, Smith talked to Clinton Campaign Chairman Terry McAuliffe and picked a fight:

MCAULIFFE: Listen, we know it's an uphill climb, but if you look at the results yesterday, Puerto Rico we won by 142,000 votes. She clearly can now argue --

SMITH: In a weak contest where not so many people showed up.

McAuliffe later touted the fact that Hillary Clinton won more votes than any other presidential candidate in a primary and Smith suggested he was lying: "Which is really, really, really not true if you really look at Michigan, you can't really count Michigan. You don't really count the caucus states like Iowa and Washington. It's not really true." Smith was much kinder to former Bush White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan later in the show.

On Thursday’s CBS "Early Show" co-host Harry Smith fretted over Hillary Clinton’s refusal to drop out of the presidential race and pressed Clinton campaign manager Terry McAuliffe on why she is still in the race: "Let me show you some headlines this morning. From this morning's Daily News, 'It's His Party,' with a picture of Barack Obama. From the New York Post, 'Over the Hill,' you know what they're talking about there. From The Wall Street Journal, 'Democrats Look to Life After Clinton.' Terry McAuliffe, why is your candidate still in this race?"

After that introduction, Smith went on to try to convince McAuliffe that the situation was futile:

SMITH: Can you formulate a scenario, though, in which she actually mathematically can get this nomination?

MCAULIFFE: Sure. She can move ahead in the popular vote. We're assuming we get Michigan and Florida resolved. Because there are --

SMITH: Excuse me. Everything Howard Dean has said so far as though that's all off the table. That is not going to happen. Those states took themselves out of the process.

NBC's "Today" show added its voice to the chorus of "Get Out Hillary!" chants as its co-host Meredith Vieira asked Clinton's campaign chairman if the New York senator worried that "she could become a spoiler, the longer she stays in the race?"

Vieira attempted different variations of the "When will Hillary get out?" line with Terry McAuliffe on Thursday's "Today" show as she pressed:

VIEIRA: "Is there any light at the end of the tunnel or is it a train headed your way?...But Obama right now has the math, he has the momentum. What does she have left?...There is no way she will carry this to the convention then? Absolutely none?

After an Andrea Mitchell set-up piece that was headlined: "Should Hillary Clinton Drop Out?" Vieira conducted the following interview with McAuliffe on the May 8, "Today" show:

Three voices of the Clinton campaign, three distinctly different takes on its fortunes. James Carville is candid about the pickle Hillary's in. Hillary, true to form, utterly evades the question. Ah, but there's always Terry McAuliffe. The proud graduate of the Baghdad Bob School of Flackery this morning declared that he's "more confident than he's ever been" about winning the nomination.

Carville, appearing on last night's Larry King, couldn't have been more succinct.

LARRY KING: If Hillary loses Texas or Ohio, is it over?

JAMES CARVILLE: Yes.

View Carville and Hillary video here.