NBC’s Today: Bush’s “Dismal” Poll Numbers Are “Plummeting
Nobody would argue that President Bush is overly popular at the moment. The media, however, seem determined to keep it that way. The April 28 edition of Today made this point extremely clear. Katie Couric opened the NBC program with this tease of a Brian Williams presidential interview: Couric: "President Bush on those skyrocketing gas prices, his plummeting poll numbers and whether New Orleans…
ABC & NBC Focus on Exxon Profits, Skip How Government Gets More in Tax
The broadcast network evening newscasts on Thursday night hyperventilated over “record” profits for ExxonMobil, but failed to point out how government taxes exceed oil company earnings. ABC even fretted about how much ExxonMobil “spent rewarding shareholders,” though it was less than the federal government took in taxes, and NBC excoriated the company for “cashing in” at 9.5 cents per dollar. “…
Networks Ignore How Big Government Rakes In More than Big Oil
All three network morning shows played the envy card Thursday morning, as they hyped the “record high profits” and “corporate greed” of American oil companies. High on their agenda: ExxonMobil’s announcement of $8.4 billion in profits, which the networks implied was scandalous given the high price of oil.But unstated in the network coverage was the fact that the U.S. government took in more than…
Meredith Vieira “Peeved” at Bush, Calls America a “Gas Guzzling
Meredith Vieira just can’t help herself. The View co-host will soon be taking over for Katie Couric on the Today show. One would think that she would try and reign in her bias. Apparently not, as she opened the April 26 edition of The View with another attack on President Bush: Vieira: "...I’m a little peeved when I hear the President say there’s not much we can do about this, folks. According…
Media Attack Executive Pay, Hide Effort to Seal Their Own Compensation
Networks focus on ‘staggering’ pay and pensions for Exxon and other corporate CEOs, even as media companies fight SEC rule on disclosing high salaries.Free Market ProjectGas price rage has blended with executive pay rage recently, since the media have been bashing ExxonMobil’s departing CEO, Lee Raymond, for his pay and pension package. “Runaway pay,” said NBC’s Brian Williams on April 20,…
