ABCBSNBC Continue to Lose Audience
July 1st, 2010 12:50 PM
The big three nightly news broadcasts, NBC Nightly, CBS Evening and ABC World, lost a combined one million viewers in the second quarter of 2010, according to TVNewser.These numbers are comparable to the first quarter, which saw Evening News and World News get their lowest average viewers ever, while NBC's Winter Olympics coverage helped it get their highest average viewers since 2005. In the…
Kagan Hearings, Day #3: ABC and NBC Skip Nominee's Partial Birth Abort
July 1st, 2010 11:39 AM
Wednesday's evening news shows and Thursday's morning programs continued to minimize or leave out important moments of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's confirmation hearings. ABC's Good Morning America, for instance, has offered only 67 seconds of coverage over three days. Today and The Early Show each provided a single ten second news brief on Thursday. It's not as though the second day of…
CBS and NBC Delight in Al Franken's Sketch of Sessions: 'Suitable for
June 30th, 2010 8:26 PM
CBS and NBC took time Wednesday night to showcase Democratic Senator Al Franken's artistry -- not to scold Franken's frivolity, but to luxuriate in it. As CBS displayed Franken's drawing of Republican Senator Jeff Sessions next to a picture of the Alabamian, fill-in anchor Scott Pelley admired what Franken had created during the hearing for Supreme Court nominee Elana Kagan:A look over Franken's…
Networks Paint ‘Trailblazer’ Kagan as Hilarious Wit Who ‘Can Tak
June 30th, 2010 2:03 AM
“For the first time, Americans got to see the woman President Obama called a ‘trailblazer’ in action,” ABC anchor Diane Sawyer trumpeted Tuesday night before Jonathan Karl framed his story on Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s hearing around how “a confirmation hearing isn't usually a laughing matter, but if we learned one thing about Elena Kagan today, it's that she has a sense of humor.” Like…
Kagan Hearings, Day 1: Evening Newscasts Downplay; NBC Offers Just
June 29th, 2010 11:18 AM
All three network evening newscasts on Monday downplayed the start of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s confirmation hearings, with NBC Nightly News squeezing in just 24 seconds for Kagan at the tail end of a story about the Supreme Court’s ruling in favor the 2nd Amendment. For their part, CBS and ABC offered full stories outlining Kagan’s first day before the Judiciary committee after…
As Much on Byrd's Fiddle Playing as Klan Days; 'Like Constitution and
June 28th, 2010 8:54 PM
The networks Monday night skipped lightly over the late Senator Robert Byrd's segregationist and racist record, devoting as much time to the Democrat's fiddle-playing prowess as his years in the Ku Klux Klan, which CBS's Chip Reid excused as “an effort to help his political career.” Leading into file video of Byrd playing his fiddle, ABC anchor Diane Sawyer declared “Byrd was a powerhouse and old…
No Palin Setback Too Small for Couric Who Skips How Palin 'Acted in Go
June 24th, 2010 8:17 PM
Demonstrating that no setback for Sarah Palin which can be portrayed as a rebuke is too insignificant or relevant for Katie Couric, she made time on Thursday's CBS Evening News to inform her viewers about a disputable technical violation of arcane law:One little word will cost Sarah Palin a small fortune. Today, state investigators in Alaska said a legal defense fund she set up while she was…
MRC Study: Media Blackout of Supreme Court 'Battle
June 24th, 2010 10:32 AM
When President Obama picked Elena Kagan to replace Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, the broadcast networks referred to the upcoming Senate confirmation process as “contentious” a “meat grinder” and a “battle,” warning Kagan was “in for a fight.”But a Media Research Center analysis of the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts in the six weeks since Kagan was nominated shows the broadcast…
CBS's Katie Couric Fawns Over Left-wing Feminist and Her Outrageous Cl
June 23rd, 2010 6:33 PM
"[Carly Fiorina's] position on taxation would deprive women of childcare."The Hyde Amendment "penalizes poor women terribly.""You can't be a feminist who says other women can't" have an abortion.These are just some of the outrageous statements left-wing feminist Gloria Steinem made during an interview with CBS anchor Katie Couric on the latest installment of "@katiecouric," which was posted to…
ABC Frets Over Pickle McChrystal Has Put Obama Into: Look 'Petulant' o
June 22nd, 2010 8:41 PM
ABC, CBS and NBC all led Tuesday night with multiple stories on the “firestorm” over disrespectful coments by General Stanley McChrystal and his aides about President Obama and other administration officials, but ABC's Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos particularly despaired over the position in which McChrystal has put Obama. Sawyer fretted that Obama “now faces a mind-boggling choice,”…
CBS Poll Finds Tough Numbers for Obama on Oil Leak, But Couric Hides T
June 21st, 2010 9:26 PM
Katie Couric opened Monday's CBS Evening News by touting how “in a CBS News/New York Times poll out tonight, 43 percent of Americans approve of President Obama's handling of the spill. Only 13 percent approve of BP's efforts.” She offered no further details, such as how 47 percent disapprove of Obama's performance, and only those checking CBSNews.com would realize the selectivity in the…
Network News Shows Largely Skip President's $50 Billion Spending Reque
June 14th, 2010 3:46 PM
The network morning and evening news shows have all but ignored President Obama's Saturday letter to congressional leaders asking for $50 billion in additional spending to prevent the "massive layoffs of teachers, police, and firefighters." Only Sunday's Good Morning America on ABC has covered the President's request so far.The chief executive's June 12 letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate…
Obama's Knowing 'Whose Ass to Kick' Pledge Continues to Delight TV Net
June 8th, 2010 9:04 PM
More than 24 hours after NBC's Matt Lauer prompted him to say it in an interview, the morning programs all showcased it – and even after day-long playback on the cable channels – CBS and NBC on Tuesday night delighted in again highlighting President Barack Obama's boast that he's gathering information on the oil leak “so I know whose ass to kick.” Katie Couric put the soundbite, from a competitor…
Evening News Shows Enthuse Over Helen Thomas, a 'Bona Fide Icon' and a
June 8th, 2010 12:47 PM
The three evening news shows on Monday treated the announcement of Helen Thomas' retirement as an occasion to gush over the "bona fide icon" and "trailblazer." At the same time, CBS's Evening News, NBC's Nightly News and ABC's World News didn't find much time for outrage over Thomas' attacks on Jews and Israel. Instead, NBC's Andrea Mitchell played a clip of Thomas ranting to President Bush in a…