MRC's Worst of the Week: Favors for Democrats, Slashing 'Bizarre' GOP
There’s little pretense of media fairness as the 2010 elections approach. Last Thursday, ABC’s World News ran as “news” a video produced by the Obama White House. Diane Sawyer excitedly touted how “we got to listen in on a phone call today,” as viewers saw a brief clip of President Obama talking to a cancer patient who thanked him for the government takeover of health care.Then on Monday, NBC…
CBS, ABC Excited Over Barack Obama's Bid to Recapture His 'Glory Days
Both ABC and CBS on Wednesday played up Barack Obama's attempt to reignite his Democratic base and defeat surging Republicans. Good Morning America host George Stephanopoulos labeled the President's trip to Madison, Wisconsin a "glory days tour." On CBS's Early Show, Chip Reid used nearly identical language, claiming the President was "recalling his glory days on the 2008 campaign trail." The two…
MSNBC's Luke Russert Hypes Russ Feingold as a 'Fiscal Conservative,' H
MSNBC reporter Luke Russert on Tuesday lauded Democratic Senator Russ Feingold as a "fiscal conservative." During the same segment, he knocked Republican Sharron Angle for making "outlandish, absurd comments."Russert asserted that Feingold is known for "independence during his Senate career, having a lot of moral victories" and for "being fiscally conservative." [MP3 audio here.] The National…
On ABC, Bob Woodward Sympathizes With 'Intellectual' Obama and His 'In
According to Bob Woodward, Barack Obama is an "intellectual" who has agonized over Afghanistan. The Washington Post author appeared on Good Morning America on Tuesday and touted his new book, Obama's Wars, as a way of getting inside the President's "internal struggle" over military action in that country. During the segment, it was co-host George Stephanopoulos, who actually pressed Woodward on…
ABC's Jake Tapper Hits Dems for Playing the 'Fear Card,' CBS, NBC Sile
Only Good Morning America's Jake Tapper on Monday highlighted an attack from the liberal Alan Grayson that his Republican opponent "doesn't love this country." CBS's Early Show and NBC's Today have yet to report on the harsh new commercial by the Democratic Congressman. Additionally, none of the networks have discussed an ad where Grayson compares the same Republican to the Taliban. Focusing on…
'This Week' Ratings Plummet With Christiane Amanpour As Host
The Christiane Amanpour as "This Week" host experiment so far is a huge failure for ABC as ratings have plummeted since she took over the Sunday political talk show.Last Sunday's program attracted 29 percent less viewers than the same day a year ago.Making matters worse for ABC executives is the fact that Amanpour's numbers are far worse than interim host Jake Tapper's who did most of the…
ABC Describes Activist Court Ruling as ‘New Hope’ for Gay Adoption
On Wednesday’s World News on ABC, anchor Diane Sawyer briefly reported on a court ruling in Florida which struck down a state law banning the adoption of children by homosexual couples. Ignoring the issue of whether an activist court should make such a ruling, Sawyer seemed to frame the story from a sympathetic point of view for would-be same-sex parents in Florida as she referred to the ruling…
George Will Schools This Week Panel on Tea Party Causing GOP Civil War
George Will on Sunday gave a much-needed education to the entire "This Week" panel about how the Tea Party is moving the GOP in a positive direction that could alter politics in this nation for years to come.As Christiane Amanpour and her Roundtable guests - Democrat strategist Donna Brazile, National Journal's Ron Brownstein, and Republican strategist Matthew Dowd - all fretted about the so-…
Behar Claims Tea Partiers ‘Don’t Believe in Any Govt At All, Zero
On the September 15 The View on ABC, co-host Joy Behar insisted that co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck was wrong to assert that taxes are set to increase in January as the two sparred over the issue. Behar: "It's not an increase, Elisabeth. It is not an increase." She soon added, "They are not, stop saying it's an increase because it's not." After Hasselbeck shot back, "Okay, we’ll talk in January,"…
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Anti-Death Penalty 'Advocate
Good Morning America's Jim Sciutto on Friday suggested Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as an example of a human rights "advocate" opposed to the execution of a woman in Virginia. The odd aside came from just one day after the Iranian leader blamed the United States for the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Sciutto related the details of Teresa Lewis, who was executed on Thursday for plotting to kill her husband and…
ABC’s Walters Disputes Charges of Racism Against Ground Zero Mosque
Catching up on an item from the Thursday, September 9, The View on ABC, Barbara Walters was at odds with her co-hosts over the issue of whether racism was the primary motivation of the Arizona illegal immigration law as well as opposition to the Ground Zero mosque. Whoopi Goldberg raised the question of whether "there may be an undercurrent of racism in the USA that’s building up," leading co-…
CBS: GOP Pledge ‘Littered’ With Pro-Tea Party Sentiments; ABC: It
All three broadcast evening newscasts on Thursday covered the formal unveiling of the Republican ‘Pledge to America,’ a campaign document calling for the repeal of ObamaCare, no tax hikes and balanced budgets. CBS’s Nancy Cordes cast it as pro-Tea Party, “littered with references to the Constitution and promises to reduce the federal debt,” and Tea Party members as “grateful” for its policy…
ABC's Bianna Golodryga Goes Undercover to 'Expose' Secret Muslim Bias
ABC on Friday did its best to find secret discrimination against Muslims, sending Good Morning America's Bianna Golodryga undercover in a hijab (Islamic head covering). Yet, despite the misleading graphic, "Life Under the Veil: TV Experiment Exposes Bias," the morning show didn't find much bigotry. Late in the segment, Golodryga admitted, "Overt discrimination is the exception." When an ABC…
ABC's World News Runs White House Produced Pro-ObamaCare Video as 'New
Back in 1992, ABC World News Tonight anchor Peter Jennings told viewers his network would skip coverage of “routine” campaign events, unless they actually contributed new information that viewers could use. In an effort to keep ABC from being used as a propaganda arm for politicians, Jennings declared “there will be less attention to staged appearances and sound bites designed exclusively for…
