CBS's Stem Cell Expert: Doctor Who Yearned to Shape Obama's Health Pol
March 9th, 2009 9:04 PM
Four days after Sanjay Gupta, in the wake of Tom Daschle's withdrawal as HHS Secretary-designate, decided to turn down the Obama administration's offer to become Surgeon General, CBS went to the CNN medical correspondent for expert analysis on the benefits of Obama's decision to allow federal funding of research on embryonic stem cells. (Monday afternoon following Obama's announcement, CNN…
Couric Uses Bad News to Tout How 'Stimulus' Bill 'Is Creating' Jobs
March 6th, 2009 8:52 PM
CBS anchor Katie Couric on Friday night used the jump in the unemployment rate to 8.1 percent to cheerlead for how the “stimulus” bill is “creating” jobs, an impact her newscast illustrated with two full stories after reporter Anthony Mason declared: “It's the government that's going to have to pull us out of this recession.” (On ABC's World News, Betsy Stark similarly saw salvation in the…
CBS ‘Evening News’: Obama’s Gray Hair ‘Equals Gravitas
March 6th, 2009 12:35 PM
At the end of Thursday’s CBS Evening News correspondent Chip Reid reported important breaking news about President Obama's graying hair: "...the rate at which President Obama is adding salt to his pepper is what’s surprising, even if his inner circle says ‘no big deal.’" Axelrod observed: "The gray seemed to be on him from the moment he took the oath. There was talk during the campaign that maybe…
Friendly TV Reception for Obama's Health Care 'Fix
March 6th, 2009 10:43 AM
President Obama's health care summit at the White House played into receptive television news hands Thursday night as NBC displayed “Fixing Health Care” on screen before reporter Chuck Todd appropriated the coach who inspired “win one for the Gipper” by touting how “the President's drive to pass health care got a Knute Rockne-like boost with a surprise appearance” by Senator Ted Kennedy, while…
Obama Names Abortion Extremist to HHS; Media Silent
March 4th, 2009 4:23 PM
Back during confirmation hearings in 2001 for former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson Dan Rather reminded Evening News viewers of Thompson's "hardline anti-abortion stand." Eight years later, there's a whitewash of President Barack Obama's HHS' nominee abortion record. As a Democratic governor in red-state Kansas, Kathleen Sebelius has vetoed several bills that would…
CBS: Obama Repairing U.S.-Russia Relations Wrecked By Bush
March 4th, 2009 1:03 PM
On Tuesday’s CBS Evening News, correspondent Lara Logan reported on the Obama administration’s effort to improve relations between the United States and Russia by abandoning a missile defense system proposed under the Bush administration: "It's become one of the most contentious issues dividing the U.S. and Russia. American plans to deploy a missile defense system on Russia's doorstep...The Obama…
National Media Avoid Identifying Levy Murder Suspect as an Illegal
March 4th, 2009 2:44 AM
CBS, CNN, FNC and the AP on Tuesday all failed to identify Ingmar Guandique, for whom an arrest warrant was issued for the 2001 murder of Chandra Levy, as an illegal alien. In a full story on the CBS Evening News, reporter Bob Orr described him simply as a “Salvadoran immigrant.” During CNN's Situation Room, Zain Verjee benignly called him “a laborer from El Salvador” and later, on Anderson…
CBS: Michelle Obama ‘Feeling Right At Home’ In White House
February 27th, 2009 12:57 PM
Teasing a fawning segment on First Lady Michelle Obama on Thursday’s CBS Evening News, anchor Katie Couric declared: "And the lady of the house feeling right at home." Couric later introduced the segment: "And finally tonight, ever since Abigail Adams moved into the White House in 1800, every First Lady has brought her own personal touch to the executive mansion, and the city of Washington. As…
CBS: School Mentioned in Obama Speech ‘Shares the Audacity of Hope
February 26th, 2009 6:08 PM
At the end of Wednesday’s CBS Evening News, anchor Katie Couric introduced a segment on Tysheoma Bethea, a 14-year-old girl who attended Obama’s address to Congress: "President Obama has said one of the biggest adjustments of his new job is living in a bubble. Now, to combat that problem, he started to read a handful of letters everyday from average Americans. One letter, written by an eighth…
Couric Pushes 'Out of Touch' GOP to Be 'More Supportive' of Obama
February 24th, 2009 8:37 PM
Obama senior adviser David Axelrod made the rounds of the broadcast network evening newscast anchors on Tuesday to discuss President Obama's address to a joint session of Congress, but CBS's Katie Couric, in uniquely offering some balance by matching Axelrod with a segment featuring House Minority Leader John Boehner, only served to expose her impatience toward GOP opposition. With Axelrod, she…
Nets Presume Obama's Tax Hike Will Increase Revenue
February 23rd, 2009 10:06 PM
ABC, CBS and NBC reporters over the past two days have relayed how the Obama administration proposes to cut the annual federal deficit from $1.3 trillion to $533 billion in four years by cutting spending on the war in Iraq and raising the income tax rate for those earning more than $250,000. Not considered: How since the Bush tax cuts the revenue paid by the richest -- and their share of total…
CBS: ‘Hardline’ Netanyahu May ‘Dim Hopes for Peace’ in Israel
February 20th, 2009 4:09 PM
On Friday’s CBS Early Show, correspondent Jeff Glor reported on conservative leader Benjamin Netanyahu being chosen as Israel’s prime minister: "Israel's president chose hardline Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu today to form a new Israeli government. As prime minister, Netanyahu will try to cobble together a coalition of right-wing parties. Such a government might dim hopes for peace with the…
Couric: Bank Nationalization Will Provide 'Big Dose of Confidence
February 19th, 2009 8:56 PM
Katie Couric concluded a Thursday night look at the pros and cons of nationalizing banks by seeing the federal government as a comforting security blanket: “Nationalization may have a psychological impact as well, and Uncle Sam wrapping his arms around failing banks in this country might provide a big dose of confidence for the American consumer.” Building to her pro-nationalization conclusion,…
Katie Couric on Bush: 'A Lot More Facile With Information' Than Americ
February 19th, 2009 4:25 PM
"CBS Evening News" Anchor Katie Couric asserted in a Daily Beast interview on Thursday that former President George W. Bush "felt a lot more relaxed and was a lot more facile with information and details and policy than I think probably the American people gave him credit for and were exposed to." (The journalist was referring to lunches that she attended prior to Bush announcing the troop surge…