CBS: McCain ‘Drawing First Blood’ With Campaign Ad

July 31st, 2008 1:13 PM
On Thursday’s CBS "Early Show," co-host Maggie Rodriguez teased an upcoming segment on John McCain’s latest ad criticizing Barack Obama declaring: "War of words...The race for the White House gets ugly as John McCain and Barack Obama spar over negative ads." When Rodriguez later introduced the segment, she specified who was "getting ugly": "The race for the White House has officially turned…

The Britney Effect: Oops, The Media Did It Again -- GDP Up

July 31st, 2008 10:15 AM
Keeping with the tone of the political campaign, the media are in full Britney Spears mode. To quote the pop tart, "Oops, they did it again." It, this time, is the economy. The mainstream media continue to be wrong about the U.S. economy. The 2nd Quarter Gross Domestic Product numbers came out Thursday morning and the economy continued to grow, this time at a stronger pace than last quarter - 1.9…

CBS’s Schieffer: Bush Like ‘Queen of Hearts From Alice In Wonderla

July 30th, 2008 5:59 PM
In a bizarre rant against President Bush at the end of Sunday’s "Face the Nation," CBS host Bob Schieffer made an odd analogy between the president and the fairy tale villain in reaction to the Bush Administration’s opposition to providing the Food and Drug Administration with more regulatory power over the tobacco industry: "The administration, incredibly, in my opinion, opposes it for a reason…

Katie Couric Quotes 'Sex and the City' to Face 'Sexism

July 30th, 2008 2:26 PM
Couric uses "Sex and the City" as a way to handle the alleged sexism she frequently faces, at least her 12-year old daughter’s take on "Sex and the City." Appearing on the July 30 edition of "The View" to promote awareness for cancer research, Couric first took questions about her career and recent allegations of sexism in the media and politics. When Joy Behar asked how she deals with such…

Obama's Overseas Adventure Does Little for Evening News Ratings; Long

July 30th, 2008 1:48 AM
So the Big 3 networks sent their evening news anchors on the road to follow Barack Obama around last week on his Excellent Overseas Adventure. If the nets' managements harbored any hopes that doing so might significantly increase their overall audience, or meaningfully increase the number of viewers in the key 25-54 demographic, those hopes were dashed when last week's ratings were released…

FNC's Hume Reports Al-Jazeera Throws Birthday Party for Terrorist

July 29th, 2008 3:32 PM

CBS Hypes Warren Buffett’s Call For Higher Taxes...Again

July 29th, 2008 1:28 PM
Following a segment on Monday’s CBS "Evening News," on Tuesday’s CBS "Early Show," correspondent Chip Reid again touted Obama economic advisor Warren Buffett calling for more taxes on the rich: "Barack Obama met with his team of economic advisers Monday...But there's one who couldn't make it and had to put in his two cents by phone...Warren Buffett, the richest man in the world. Despite his…

Networks Tilted 10-to-1 In Favor of Obama World Tour

July 29th, 2008 11:07 AM
The Big Three broadcast networks lavished an incredible amount of attention on Barack Obama's tour of the Middle East and Europe last week. Compared to a very similar trip by John McCain last March, the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts gave Obama more than ten times the coverage — 92 minutes for the Democrat's eight-day trip, compared to just eight and a half minutes for the Republican's…

Essay: It’s the Media, Stupid

July 28th, 2008 4:34 PM
The networks suggest Obama is driving the narrative, but it's the liberal press themselves doing the driving for Obama (Editor's Note: This essay originally appeared today in Human Events.) Just Another Clown Delivering the News The Big Three networks just foisted a week long Obamathon upon the American people, a political, "journalistic" perversion of Jerry Lewis's annual televised good…

CBS ‘Early Show’: ‘Nasty’ McCain Ad Shows ‘Gloves Are Off

July 28th, 2008 12:38 PM
At the top of Monday’s CBS "Early Show," co-host Russ Mitchell teased a segment about a new McCain campaign ad criticizing Barack Obama for not visiting wounded American soldiers in Germany: "...it is 99 days until election day and John McCain this weekend took off the gloves off with an ad criticizing Barack Obama for among other things, going to the gym while on his trip overseas last week."…

Couric: ‘Glimmer of Hope’ in Israel’s Agreement to Release Terro

July 27th, 2008 7:14 PM
When the Israeli government and the terrorist group Hezbollah carried out a prisoner release agreement in which Israel released five Lebanese prisoners while Hezbollah released the bodies of two Israeli soldiers who had been killed, there was a substantial contrast in the way the broadcast network evening newscasts reported the story. While ABC’s Charles Gibson and Simon McGregor-Wood reported on…

A Week with No US Troop Deaths In Iraq

July 26th, 2008 10:54 AM
On July 16, Andrew Malcolm at the Los Angeles Times's Top of the Ticket Blog wrote the following (bold is mine): When President Bush ordered the surge in January 2007, (Barack) Obama said: "I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq is going to solve the sectarian violence there. In fact, I think it will do the reverse," a position he maintained throughout 2007. This year he…

'Early Show' Fuels Granite Countertop Radiation Fears

July 25th, 2008 1:21 PM
Just when you thought it was safe to cook in your kitchen, it turns out your kitchen might be cooking you. At least that is what CBS's "The Early Show" led viewers to believe on July 25. Co-host Harry Smith warned viewers about what might be "lurking inside" granite countertops - radioactivity. "There's granite all over the place in modern kitchens, sometimes you have a little breakfast nook…

CBS: Obama’s Berlin Speech ‘Confirmed His Rock Star Status

July 25th, 2008 12:23 PM
A report by correspondent Mark Phillips on Friday’s CBS "Early Show" gave a glowing review of Barack Obama’s speech in Berlin on Thursday: "...there is a bit of a morning after feeling here in Berlin after what they're calling the 'Obama show.' But if the intent of this trip was to raise Barack Obama's foreign profile, it could hardly have been raised any higher...The stage could not have been…