'Today' Rejects Personal Responsibility, Attacks Online Dealmakers
Have you ever felt so embarrassed about a financially damaging mistake that you tried to blame everyone except yourself to cover your tracks? If so, you can always count on a network morning show to back you up. That's what NBC's "Today" show did August 26 in a segment attacking online dealmakers. Co-host Meredith Vieira warned shoppers could find "mysterious and unwanted charges on their…
Again This Morning, No (D) for Incarcerated Detroit Mayor
The Big Three networks continued to ignore the party affiliation of the now-incarcerated Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick on Friday morning, just as they had done in their evening news programs the previous night. The Early Show on CBS chose to ignore the story of Kilpatrick’s arrest on a bail violation entirely, while ABC’s Good Morning America devoted one 16-second news brief to the story near…
'Today' Refuses to Label Kwame Kilpatrick a Democrat
Picking up where the broadcast network evening news shows of last night and yesterday's ABC's Good Morning America left off, Tuesday's "Today" show failed to note the party affiliation of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. NBC News' Natalie Morales had a total of three opportunities to mention that Kilpatrick was a Democrat but failed to do so in two news briefs and one introduction to a Michelle…
'Today' Continues Embargo on Spitzer Party Affiliation
For the second consecutive day NBC's "Today" show refused to identify Eliot Spitzer as a Democrat. In a total of seven Spitzer-related segments on Wednesday’s "Today" show and one interview with Barack Obama, where the scandal was mentioned, not one anchor, reporter, guest, talking head or on-screen graphic mentioned Spitzer's party affiliation. However, following the trend on NBC's Nightly News…
'Today' Spends 4 Hours Ignoring the 'D' Next to Spitzer's Name
With four hours of air time to fill NBC's "Today" show devoted a whopping 11 segments to the Eliot Spitzer scandal but not once did any of the show's anchors, reporters, guests, talking heads or even on-screen graphics mention the fact that Spitzer was a Democrat. "Today" co-anchor Meredith Vieira set the tone when she ignored Spitzer's party affiliation as she opened the March 11, "Today" show…
NBC's Today Has Used 'Pimped,' 'Pimping,' and 'Pimped Out
Is NBC News allergic to the use of "pimp" during its serious news broadcasts? In the wake of the scandal over MSNBC's David Shuster suggesting Chelsea Clinton had been "pimped out" by her mother's campaign, a quick look at the Nexis database shows that NBC News hosts and anchors have not been immune to the rising use of "pimp" in our pop culture as not only a noun, but as a verb or adjective,…
Networks: Bashing Airlines Is Just the Ticket
According to the networks, the skies have been unfriendly to fly this summer and the airlines are to blame.Journalists have been quick to point the finger at business when the problems can easily be pegged to an outmoded computer system – owned and operated by the U.S. government.“One of the knocks on JetBlue following this Valentine’s Day situation was that the airline had grown too big too fast…