The NewsBusters Weekly Recap: October 13 to 19 (Al Gore Edition
October 20th, 2007 10:21 AM
Al Gore: He Speaks for Us AllIt would be quite the understatement to say that members of the media approved of Al Gore's Nobel Prize win. Sam Donaldson lauded Gore for doing something "very important." Cokie Roberts justified the former vice president's inaccuracies by claiming that even if it was propaganda, Gore made an important issue popular. Over on CNN, reporter Miles O'Brien, once again,…
Environmental Hysteria Special on CNN Next Week: ‘Planet in Peril
October 19th, 2007 1:20 PM
It seems these days you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a major media special presaging imminent planetary doom at the hands of that awful species homo sapiens. Next on the docket leading you to commit seppuku is CNN's four-hour special appropriately named "Planet in Peril." Makes you want to hide in your cellar with a few Friedrich Nietzsche books and a pint of hemlock, doesn't it?…
CNN’s Cafferty Slams Bush’s Anti-Birth Control ‘Twilight Zone
October 18th, 2007 7:15 PM
CNN’s Jack Cafferty, in his regular "Cafferty File" segment on Thursday’s "The Situation Room," disdainfully criticized the appointment of a birth control skeptic to head a "family planning" agency at the Department of Health and Human Services by President Bush. "The question this hour is -- how much does it matter if the Bush Administration's appointee to head family planning programs has -- (…
CNN’s Martin Dismisses Farrakhan’s Call for Violence as Mere ‘Rh
October 18th, 2007 5:02 PM
CNN contributor Roland Martin, in an interview on Thursday’s "American Morning" about Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan’s apparent threat against law enforcement officials in a recent speech, tried to explain away the comments as "rhetoric," and tried to put them in the context of "the history of the Nation of Islam." "It is not like it is a surprise when you actually hear the kind of…
‘Planet in Peril’ Thanks to CNN Marketing Team
October 17th, 2007 4:21 PM
Last night on the Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert took CNN's marketing team to task, pointing out the hypocrisy of putting a "six foot square poster in each of the 2.3 million copies of today's the USA Today. That's 13.8 million square feet of ‘Planetary Peril.'" Planet in Peril a program airing next week on CNN. Colbert who could barely keep himself from laughing went on to say, "Now the…
CNN’s ‘The Situation Room’ Wheels Out Aging Rockers Against Bush
October 17th, 2007 11:05 AM
Tuesday’s "The Situation Room" featured two segments with aging rockers who voiced their opposition to Bush administration policies - the first with Crosby and Nash (but not Stills), and the second with Paul Simon. In the first segment, CNN correspondent Carol Costello interviewed the two hippie icons, who compared the Bush administration to a "junta." In the second, host Wolf Blitzer asked Simon…
CNN's O'Brien Defends Gore Movie, Global Warming Debate Over
October 15th, 2007 1:24 AM
CNN viewers on Friday saw a relatively rare acknowledgement of those who are skeptical of Al Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth," including a British judge who recently ruled that there are nine inaccuracies in the movie. But CNN's Miles O'Brien dismissed the views of dissenters, and downplayed the importance of the errors cited by the judge. As he made several appearances on various CNN shows on…
CNN's Lemon Surprised By Boot-Camp Acquittal: 'Tape Just Sort of Screa
October 12th, 2007 2:25 PM
Reacting to the not-guilty verdicts in the Florida boot camp case involving the death of a 14-year old African-American boy, CNN anchor Don Lemon found the result "surprising." And both he and CNN reporter Susan Candiotti made clear that they bought into the prosecution's portrayal of the videotape of the incident.Just before the verdicts came down, there was this exchange [emphasis added].DON…
CNN’s Blitzer Asks Carter Which GOP Candidate Scares Him the Most
October 11th, 2007 5:59 PM
Wolf Blitzer’s interview of former president Jimmy Carter on Wednesday’s "The Situation Room" demonstrated the CNN host’s catering to prominent liberals. In one question to the former president, Blitzer asked about the ongoing presidential campaigns. "Do any of these candidates, presidential candidates, scare you?" After Carter answered that none of the Democrat candidates scared him, Blitzer…