CBS’s Smith: Obama Inauguration A ‘Sacred Event

At the end of Wednesday’s CBS Early Show, co-host Harry Smith reflected on Barack Obama’s inauguration: "Politics, and patriotism, and the presidency. It is the place where the secular and the religious merge. And one of the sacraments of our national religion is the inauguration...So it was that as many as 2 million pilgrims made their way to Washington and the Mall to witness this most sacred…
Kyle Drennen
January 21st, 2009 1:07 PM

CNBC's Quintanilla on the Inaugural Stock Drop: 'This Was Brutal Even

'Squawk Box' co-host notes the Obama stock market swan dive and declares if economy doesn't respond to Obama stimulus, it's a depression.
Jeff Poor
January 21st, 2009 1:02 PM

NBC's Lee Cowan: Obama Inaugural Like Being in a 'Political Cathedral

On Monday's inaugural edition of the "NBC Nightly News," well known Obama fan Lee Cowan made no effort to restrain his fawning over the new president, likening the experience of watching the Democrat's speech to being in a "political cathedral." After featuring clips of people viewing the address all over the country, Cowan cooed, "In the end, though, it really didn't matter where you were as…
Scott Whitlock
January 21st, 2009 12:31 PM

Only Fox News Aired Bush's Texas Homecoming Ceremony Tuesday

It seems inaugural attendees weren't the only ones cheerful about George W. Bush's departure from Washington, D.C., Tuesday, for only the Fox News Channel aired a live broadcast of the homecoming ceremony held in Midland, Texas, for our 43rd President.As the Los Angeles Times reported: The rest of the networks, however, did not see the Bush address as news fit to broadcast. At 6:40 p.m. EST,…
Noel Sheppard
January 21st, 2009 11:57 AM

Open Thread

NB Staff
January 21st, 2009 10:48 AM

Jon Stewart: Obama's Inaugural Address Sounded Just Like Bush

It appears the good folks at Comedy Central noticed the same thing that many on the right have been saying for many months: Barack Obama's vision of hope and change when distilled down is actually nothing new.In fact, according to "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart, parts of Obama's inaugural address Tuesday sounded like what George W. Bush has been telling the nation for eight years.Strap yourselves…
Noel Sheppard
January 21st, 2009 10:22 AM

Mitchell: Cell Cameras 'Seemed Like Stars Shining Back' at Obama

NBC's Andrea Mitchell encapsulated the veneration for Barack Obama and what his inauguration means to the media elite as she began a Tuesday NBC Nightly News story about her day watching the festivities: “It may take days or years to really absorb the significance of what happened to America today, even for those of us who were lucky enough to have a very close up front view.” Showing a clip of…
Brent Baker
January 21st, 2009 9:24 AM

Gwen Ifill Book Party: My 'Truth' Won Out Over Conservative Bloggers

The liberal media elite piled into David Bradley's Embassy Row mansion in northwest Washington DC on Monday night to celebrate PBS anchor Gwen Ifill's book The Breakthrough, touting the ascent of black Democrats in the Age of Obama. (FishBowl DC has a nice photo of the hope-and-change Barack Obama cookies at the party.) So didn't writing this book taint her as a debate moderator? Ifill told the…
Tim Graham
January 21st, 2009 8:24 AM

'What Else Should a Reporter BE' But a Liberal

WARNING... Video Below Fold So what do you get when you mix a Canadian TV hostess with the venerable Helen Thomas? An admission of bias so strong that it could ward off a vampire. Just why the image of the undead first came to my mind is anybody's guess, but there you have it. On a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation morning TV interview show called "Sun Day," Thomas was interviewed on how she…
Warner Todd Huston
January 21st, 2009 1:40 AM

On Nightline, Obama's Ascension = 'America the Beautiful

Brent Baker
January 21st, 2009 12:51 AM

Pulpit Culprits: Mainstream Media Compares Inauguration to 'Spiritual

Networks tout occasion as 'sacred,' calling incoming crowds, a 'pilgrimage.'
Erin Brown
January 21st, 2009 12:00 AM

ABC: 'National Pride' Made Cold Feel Warmer as Seagulls 'Awed

Offering the most hyperbolic take of the night on the crowds who attended President Obama's inauguration, on World News ABC's Bill Weir delighted in wondering “can national pride make a freezing day feel warmer?” He decided it can indeed since “never have so many people shivered so long with such joy” while “from above, even the seagulls must have been awed by the blanket of humanity.” Weir was…
Brent Baker
January 20th, 2009 9:25 PM

Unofficial Inaugural Parties Struggle Tonight, Will Nets Report

A  reported one to two million people attended the inauguration today.  For the amount of glowing reports about how many people attended, who would have thought that certain inaugural parties are being cancelled due to lack of interest?   The Washington Post’s gossip columnists Roxanne Roberts and Amy Argetsinger reported today that those with official ball tickets sponsored by the Presidential…
Kerry Picket
January 20th, 2009 8:34 PM

FNC's Shep Smith: If We Taxed Inaugural Parade Carbon, Would Be Expens

Ken Shepherd
January 20th, 2009 6:53 PM