Scott Pelley

NBC, CBS Cover Obama Spelling Flub; ABC Out to Lunch
March 8th, 2014 2:46 PM
Viewers of ABC's morning and evening newscasts on Friday would have been left unaware of President Obama's gaffe of elementary proportions during a White House concert on Thursday evening. Both Good Morning America and World News omitted how the Democrat left out the first "E" in the title of Aretha Franklin's most famous song: "When Aretha first told us what R-S-P-E-C-T meant to her."
By…

Evening News Shows Ignore Chevron's Win: Ecuador Ruling 'Fraud
March 6th, 2014 10:29 AM
In a huge victory for the second-largest U.S. oil company, a U.S. district judge ruled March 4, that a $9.5 billion award against Chevron by an Ecuadorean court was “obtained by corrupt means.” The massive figure had been lowered by Ecuador’s highest court in 2013 after an earlier decision against Chevron of $19 billion.
The broadcast networks took no notice of the decision and failed to…

ABC, NBC Ignore Estimate That Minimum Wage Hike Would Cost 500,000 Job
February 18th, 2014 8:29 PM
CBS was the only network on Tuesday evening to highlight a CBO report that President Obama's proposal to hike the minimum wage would cost 500,000 jobs.
The CBO report was released Tuesday afternoon and estimated that the wage increase would boost 900,000 Americans above the poverty line but would also result in the loss of half a million jobs. CBS was the only network to report the news;…

CBS Touts French President's Affair, But Ignores Unpopularity of His S
February 11th, 2014 8:50 PM
Reporting on Tuesday's White House state dinner featuring French president Francois Hollande, the CBS Evening News ignored the plummeting approval rating for his socialist policies.
CBS touched on the controversy of Hollande's affair and subsequent break-up with his partner, but ignored a poll showing over 70 percent of the French believing his taxes to be "excessive" and 80 percent calling…

Networks Ignore Controversy of Obama's Extending Another Employer Mand
February 10th, 2014 10:53 PM
On Monday evening’s news casts, none of the networks recognized the controversy of President Obama possibly acting outside the Constitution to delay ObamaCare’s employer mandate.
The President granted a one-year delay for businesses with 50 to 99 employees to provide them with health insurance. It was the second time he had delayed the mandate and thus changed a law passed by Congress, but…

Networks Echo White House Spin That ObamaCare Won't Cut Jobs
February 4th, 2014 9:02 PM
On Tuesday evening, the networks played to the White House spin that ObamaCare won't cut jobs since those expected to move from full-time to part-time work would do so voluntarily.
"We got a report today about ObamaCare that was both surprising and widely misunderstood," CBS anchor Scott Pelley introduced the CBO report that estimates ObamaCare will trim about 2 million full-time jobs by…

NBC, ABC Ignore Pork In New Farm Bill; CBS Reports It
February 3rd, 2014 8:05 PM
On Monday evening, CBS was the only network to report on hidden subsidies in the new farm bill and give voice to a government spending watchdog. NBC and ABC both ignored the story.
CBS's Sharyl Attkisson listed hidden taxes or spending increases in the bill which included "a new 15-cent fee on every live-cut Christmas tree sold to create a board to promote Christmas trees."

Networks Hype 'Bombshell:' Christie 'Thrown Under Bus'; Spotlight Call
January 31st, 2014 10:58 PM
The Big Three networks' evening newscasts on Friday jumped on the latest development in the traffic scandal surrounding Chris Christie. NBC and CBS both led with the accusation from the former Christie appointee, who claims that the New Jersey governor knew more about the lane closures than he previously asserted. CBS's Scott Pelley trumpeted how "Chris Christie just got thrown under the bus in…

NBC Won't Label Retiring Waxman a 'Liberal,' But CBS Does
January 30th, 2014 7:50 PM
On Thursday evening's news casts, both CBS and NBC announced the retirement of Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) but only CBS labeled him a liberal. ABC ignored the news.
"Democrat Henry Waxman in California, now in his 20th term, was elected with the post-Watergate class of 1974. He became one of the leading liberals in the House," reported CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley. In contrast, NBC…

Networks Boost Obama's Push for Minimum Wage Increase, Ignore GOP Oppo
January 29th, 2014 9:09 PM
The networks played right into President Obama's hand Wednesday evening as they touted his push for a minimum wage increase while giving barely any voice to his Republican opposition.
"[T]he President was out there hitting that 'give America a raise' theme hard today in campaign-style events both in Pennsylvania and in Maryland," noted ABC News White House correspondent Jonathan Karl. "Does…

NBC Keeps Hammering Christie Scandal But Ignores Senate Spending Bill
January 17th, 2014 11:14 AM
NBC continued hitting the Christie scandal on Thursday evening while the CBS and ABC evening news casts have not reported it since Tuesday.
The NBC Nightly News has already given the story a good chunk more coverage than the other network evening news shows, and while it devoted a short segment to the bridge scandal it didn't even have time to report the Senate passing a massive $1.1…
Brian Williams Skips Bad ObamaCare Enrollment Numbers, But Bids Farewe
January 14th, 2014 11:56 AM
On Monday's NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams ignored bad ObamaCare enrollment numbers for young people, but made time to announce the retirement of a long-standing liberal congressman, a development that neither ABC's World News nor the CBS Evening News deemed worth mentioning.
"Big loss for the Democrats in Congress," stated Williams, who said outgoing Rep. George Miller was "often…

CBS Touts ObamaCare 'Success Story'; Omits His Support of the Obama Ca
December 19th, 2013 6:44 PM
On Wednesday's CBS Evening News, Carter Evans spotlighted Leslie Foster, an apparent ObamaCare "success story," who gushed about the "amazing things" in his subsidized health plan. But Evans failed to mention that Foster "campaigned for President Barack Obama's election", as the Wall Street Journal reported in an October 7, 2013 article. [MP3 audio available here; video below the jump]
The…
CBS: Those Meddling Conservatives Oppose 'Too-Good-to-Be-True' Deal
December 12th, 2013 3:15 PM
The journalists at the CBS Evening News on Wednesday portrayed the possible scuttling of a budget compromise as the fault of conservatives opposing a "too-good-to-be-true" deal. Over on NBC's Nightly News, the reporters derided the plan as not spending enough, worrying about extending unemployment benefits. ABC's World News on Wednesday and Good Morning America on Thursday totally skipped…