Sebelius’ Controversial Veto Takes Back Seat to Stories About Bo Oba
News editors need to retake Journalism 101 or move to features when stories about the White House dog take precedence over a controversial veto by the President's unconfirmed appointment to Secretary of Health and Human Services. Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius vetoed a bill, House Substitute for SB 218, April 23 which would have placed additional restrictions on third trimester abortions and…
ABC's Dr. Tim Johnson Still Touting Universal Health Care
"Good Morning America" medical expert Dr. Tim Johnson on Friday gave ex-Health and Human Services nominee Tom Daschle a forum to promote his calls for a government run health care system. Co-host Robin Roberts made it clear in an introduction to the segment that there would be no discussion of the tax problems that forced Daschle to withdraw his nomination. Johnson, however, did offer softballs…
ABC's Terry Moran Draws Comparison Between Middle East Torture and U.S
"Nightline" co-host Terry Moran on Wednesday committed an act of snide and unnecessary moral equivalence, connecting video of torture occurring in the Middle East and the political debate over how to handle enemy combatants captured by the U.S. ABC correspondent Brian Ross filed a report on video of a member of the United Arab Emirates' royal family filming himself as he brutalized a man, accused…
Summary of the April 15 TEA Parties Media Coverage
Ladies and Gentlemen, The Lamestream Media The media coverage of the more than 800 Taxed Enough Already (TEA) Party protests that took place in all fifty states on April 15 ranged from disdainful dismissal of their nature, significance and import, to outright hostility towards the events and individual participants, to sexual innuendo-based full-on ridicule…
Media Helps Activists in Aggressive Push to Embrace Homosexuality
April 17 marked the 13th annual "Day of Silence," a gay rights protest event sponsored by GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) that takes place in schools across the nation. Of course, gay groups can afford to be silent for a day, because they have the mainstream news media to speak for them. "Day of Silence" is, according to the event's Web site, "a student-led national event…
All Three Morning Shows Ignore Story of $25 Billion to Agency That Gav
[Updated 2009-04-21 16:02:29] All three morning shows skipped an exclusive story broken in Tuesday's Washington Times that explained how Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation in January to send "$25 billion in taxpayer money to a government agency that had just awarded her husband's real estate firm a lucrative contract to sell foreclosed properties at compensation rates…
Trouble Brewing In Caucasus, But Media Silent
Here’s a quick informal poll: Who has heard news of Russia’s recent troop buildup in the South Ossetia region of Georgia? Most of our readers would immediately think of the Russian invasion of that region last summer, during the presidential contest, but the Russians are arguably saber rattling again with a fresh buildup of boots on-the-ground ahead of planned NATO exercises. Last August, the…
AP: CNN Planning Obama 100th Day Special Prime Time Coverage
Conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh says the mainstream media attitude on President Barack Obama is that he is too big to fail. What CNN has planned for the night of April 29 is one of several signs that could be the case. According to an April 19 report from the Associated Press, CNN has a big night of coverage planned for Obama's 100th day in office that will deviate from its normally…
Donaldson on ABC's This Week on JFK Assassination: I'd Like to Ask Cas
ABC's Sam Donaldson let a little of his inner-conspiracy theorist out this morning on This Week with George Stephanopoulos. In a discussion of President Barack Obama's lessening the sanctions on Fidel Castro's Cuba, Donaldson began his analysis with one of a number a Kennedy-Truther notions that have been knocking around ever since President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on…
Networks Use Misleading Gun Statistic in Reporting on Mexican Drug War
While reporting on the ongoing drug war in Mexico, CBS, NBC, and ABC have all cited a dubious statistic that claims that 90% of the guns being used in the violence are from the United States. On Thursday’s CBS Evening News, correspondent Bill Plante reported: "Mexican drug gang violence spilling into the U.S. is the urgent issue of President Obama's visit...A major sore point -- more than 90% of…
Media Hails Hillary, Picks on Palin
New twist on the old media double standard: Strong pro-life women shouldn’t accept far-flung speaking engagements. They should stay home (presumably barefoot and pregnant, too.) Strong pro-choice women, however, are welcome to “champion women’s rights,” wherever and whenever they please. Alaska Governor Sarah Palin recently gave a speech at a pro-life dinner in Indiana on April 16 and the media…
ABC's Diane Sawyer Presses on Guns; Skips Story of Right-wing Violence
"Good Morning America" co-host Diane Sawyer interviewed Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Thursday and skipped any mention of a controversial report by the agency warning of right-wing extremist activity and disgruntled returning war veterans. In separate interviews, both the CBS "Early Show" and NBC's "Today" discussed the hot-topic issue with the top government…
Networks Ignore Jamie Foxx’s Verbal Attack on Miley Cyrus
The 41-year-old Oscar winner Jamie Foxx dished out some disgusting advice for Disney teen sensation Miley Cyrus, telling her to, among other things, “make a sex tape and grow up.” This tasteless “advice” coming from the father of a teen to a sixteen year-old girl didn’t seem to outrage anyone at ABC, CBS, or NBC.“The Foxxhole,” Jamie Foxx’s weekend radio show was the forum for a discussion of…
ABC Reports Obama is 'Unaware of Tea Parties
Maybe he just doesn't know that there are people who disagree with his massive tax and spend agenda. That would explain a lot. Perhaps the network media's near silence on the "tea party" phenomenon has kept President Obama from realizing that hundreds of tax day protests will happen today? "The White House says the president is unaware of the tea parties and will hold his own event today…