Labeling

An MRC analysis of labels used on ABC, CBS and NBC morning and evening news shows during the 24 hours after each of the past six Supreme Court nominations demonstrates the pattern. GOP nominees John Roberts, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch were labeled by reporters as “conservative” a total of 36 times, while Democratic nominees Sonya Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Merrick Garland were called “liberal…

The media’s relentless beating of the two-week-old Donald Trump administration could hardly be seen as beneficial to him, but PBS’s Tavis Smiley tried to argue that on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday. “What troubles me, Chuck, is that we -- too many of us that is -- rushed to normalize a racist, sexist, classist campaign that he ran to win this office,” Smiley whined as he smeared the president…

With CNN’s recent boasting of increased sales of George Orwell’s 1984 in response to President Donald Trump, and with their accusations of the administration gaslighting the country, it’s quite hypocritical of them to have a panelist on that appears the be practicing his own doublespeak. During Sunday’s Inside Politics, Washington Post writer Ed O’Keefe hammered the president and Republicans for…

As Curtis Houck demonstrated at NewsBusters on Wednesday, the historic step of including four outside-the-DC Beltway journalists at White House press conferences via Skype is not sitting well "with many establishment media types." The aggrieved folks at CNN are particularly upset.

UPDATE, Feb. 7: On Feb. 5, Jake Tapper tweeted that "if you're concerned about things being 'incomplete' maybe consider adding into your post Manchin on same show response to rule." I attempted to find that video, and could not. If it was so important, and in the interest of balance, one would hope it would be part of the CNN video at the web link cited below — and it's not. As Nicholas…

On Wednesday, an early Associated Press report following the confirmations of two of Donald Trump's cabinet nominees employed extraordinarily strident and bitter language, portraying Republican Senate Committee which approved those nominations as de facto bullies who were "unilaterally" imposing their will. An evening revision updating that afternoon report expanded that portrayal to include…

On Thursday afternoon, CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper aired footage damaging to the Environmental Protection Agency while fearing the effect of easing regulations on the coal industry. “A big victory for the coal industry today. Moments ago, the U.S. Senate voted to repeal an Obama-era regulation the industry calls burdensome,” noted Tapper leading into an in-person report by CNN government…

NBC went all-out against President Donald Trump’s foreign policy during Thursday’s edition of Nightly News. They knocked Trump for getting tough with Iran, pretended he didn’t get tough with Russia, left out key parts of favorable quotes, and repeated dubiously sourced ones. “In these early days of his administration, President Trump is signaling a willingness to take the tough approach over…

CNN’s immediate reaction to President Donald Trump’s nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court Tuesday night was surprisingly neutral, in fact, they almost seemed to laud the pick and the presentation. But later that night, the outlet’s Don Lemon seemed desperate to hammer the president as he grilled his panel on the attendance of Trump’s sons Don Jr. and Eric. “Some reporters also…

Wednesday's CBS This Morning turned to liberal attorney David Boies for his take on President Trump's nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. However, the newscast failed to provide balance by bringing on a conservative legal expert. Boies twice asserted that Gorsuch was "not in...the mainstream of judicial thought." Anchor Norah O'Donnell later gushed over the "so smart" guest.

As liberals around the country continued to rage over President Donald Trump’s not-a-travel-ban ban Tuesday evening, reporter Mark Phillips took the time on CBS Evening News to remind everyone that the people of Europe don’t care for our president either. “Not just the crowds that have poured onto the streets of Europe are angry with Donald Trump,” he reported, “The disenchantment has now reached…

Thanks to the press's obsession with cooperating with and promoting those who object to President Donald Trump's opening week actions, Live Action's exposure of Planned Parenthood as hardly more than a collection of grisly abortion chambers has gone relatively unnoticed. This heroic work deserves much wider exposure, and much more press attention. A week ago, covered by Tim Graham at NewsBusters…

The Big Three networks' morning newscasts on Tuesday forwarded the same language about two of President Trump's possible Supreme Court picks. On CBS This Morning, Jan Crawford labeled Neil Gorsuch and Thomas Hardiman "solid conservatives." ABC's George Stephanopoulos used the same term on GMA, and played up that "either one of these finalists could be picked by any Republican president — both…

The radical rhetoric targeting President Donald Trump got extremely out of hand during Monday’s edition of MSNBC’s Hardball, with accusations that America’s number one enemy for 10 years, Osama bin Laden, desired Trump’s travel ban. “Osama bin Laden’s whole theory of a war of the west on Islam now gains great credence thanks to what Donald Trump just did,” declared the Huffington Post’s Howard…