Nets Trumpet Obama's Efforts to 'Protect Consumers' from Credit Card C

April 23rd, 2009 9:24 PM
Instead of providing any suggestion President Barack Obama's hectoring of credit card company executives, with the not-so-subtle threat of further regulation, is an improper strong-arm tactic, the network evening newscasts on Thursday night hailed Obama's efforts to “protect consumers” -- in stories each complete with a sympathetic victim of jacked-up interest rates, but barely any time, if any,…

Mitchell Cites Blair on Value of 'Harsh' Interrogations, But Calls Vie

April 23rd, 2009 3:46 AM
NBC's Andrea Mitchell on Wednesday night mentioned how the “Obama administration's own Director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, wrote his employees last week” about how, what NBC described as “harsh” interrogation techniques, “produced 'high-value information,'” a view from an Obama insider left out of stories on ABC and CBS. But Mitchell described Blair's assessment as conveying “…

Networks Use Misleading Gun Statistic in Reporting on Mexican Drug War

April 17th, 2009 3:05 PM
While reporting on the ongoing drug war in Mexico, CBS, NBC, and ABC have all cited a dubious statistic that claims that 90% of the guns being used in the violence are from the United States. On Thursday’s CBS Evening News, correspondent Bill Plante reported: "Mexican drug gang violence spilling into the U.S. is the urgent issue of President Obama's visit...A major sore point -- more than 90% of…

ABC Upset 'Chilling' Memos Reveal Zubaydah 'Tortured with an Insect

April 16th, 2009 8:48 PM
ABC's Charles Gibson, Jan Crawford Greenburg and George Stephanopoulos all stressed Thursday night how, Bush administration Justice Department memos clarifying what techniques interrogators could use with suspected terrorists, included what Stephanopoulos described as “torture with an insect” -- a method ABC failed to note was not ever employed. “Tonight, secret memos,” anchor Charles Gibson…

ABC, CBS and NBC Try to Discredit 'Tea Party' Protests

April 16th, 2009 3:22 AM
The broadcast network evening newscasts on Wednesday provided prominent coverage of the “Tea Party” rallies across the nation with time for the views of participants, but they tried to discredit the protests as a front for “corporate interests” or a “fistful of rightward leaning Web sites” -- a concern for motives and hidden agendas the same programs lacked when championing the 2006 pro-illegal…

Just When You Think the Big 3 Evening Newscasts Can't Sink Any Lower

April 14th, 2009 11:56 PM
I could of course be commenting on the poor quality of the alleged journalism. But in this case I'm talking about their ratings, which is of course largely caused by said poor journalism. Three weeks ago (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), I noted that the Big 3 networks' evening newscasts' combined ratings had dropped about 17% since the collective high they achieved during the week of January 26,…

Guthrie Decides Obama Gave a Great Speech -- On MSNBC My Boss Told Me

April 14th, 2009 9:31 PM
The insular world of NBC News and MSNBC. In her Tuesday NBC Nightly News story on President Barrack Obama's status of the economy speech, reporter Savannah Guthrie emphasized how “the White House billed today's speech as a 'major' one” and so it was “carried live on cable” where “analysts said it was short on rhetoric and long on policy.” Guthrie's expert “analysts” turned out to be one analyst,…

Only 'Dwindling Number' of the 'Very Hard Line' Oppose Changing Cuba P

April 13th, 2009 8:56 PM
It may well be that a growing share of the American public favor expanding interaction with Cuba, but in reporting President Barack Obama's decision to allow Cuban-Americans unlimited travel and money transfers to the island, ABC's Jeffrey Kofman and NBC's Andrea Mitchell characterized opponents in a belittling manner -- while Mitchell also advanced complaints Obama did no go far enough. “With…

NBC Brings Back Polar Bears and Penguins for Global Warming Alarmism

April 7th, 2009 10:07 AM
Between the very cold winter in many places and everyone including Vanity Fair focused on the economic downturn, many in the news media took a vacation from global warming alarmism. But on April 6, NBC brought the hype back with yet another story about the threat of melting ice caps. Anchor Brian Williams introduced an "Our Planet" segment by reminding viewers that the Obama administration was…

NBC Hails Obama's Turkey Visit as 'Shrewd', CBS: Highest-Ever Approval

April 6th, 2009 8:23 PM
Giving a warm wind-up to President Barrack Obama's overseas trip as it comes to an end in Istanbul, NBC's Chuck Todd declared Monday that the decision to make Turkey the last stop “could prove to be one of the shrewder early moves in this young presidency.”On CBS, anchor Katie Couric highlighted how a new CBS News/New York Times poll pegged Obama's approval at 66 percent, the highest ever in that…

NBC: One Gunman ‘Loved Guns and Hated America,’ Other ‘Passionat

April 5th, 2009 5:03 PM
For both the Binghamton, New York, shooting spree, and the Pittsburgh case, Saturday's NBC Nightly News made a point of relaying word that the gunman either had a love of guns or was "passionate" about supporting gun rights. During a report on Jiverly Voong, who attacked the immigration center in Binghamton, correspondent Ron Allen referred to "some reports" that Voong "loved guns and hated…

'Inspirational' Michelle 'Mega-Star' Obama; Press Corps 'Begged' to Qu

April 2nd, 2009 9:23 PM
The broadcast networks continued their infatuation Thursday night with Michelle Obama as ABC anchor Charles Gibson teased: “Center stage. With substance and style, the First Lady steps onto the world stage, becoming something of a mega-star.” He soon equated her popularity with Jacqueline Kennedy, the last First Lady to so enchant the press. On NBC, Dawna Friesen trumpeted how “she has dazzled…

TV Journalists Enchanted by Obamas: 'America's Unofficial Royalty

April 2nd, 2009 8:06 AM
“There is so much to cover on this day,” ABC anchor Charles Gibson announced Tuesday night from London as the network anchors and reporters reflected their awe over how, as NBC anchor Brian Williams put it, “In a marathon, the President meets with the leaders of Britain, Russia, China, then the Queen, and the summit hasn't started yet.” NBC's Chuck Todd then admired how “the President was able to…

ABC & NBC Relay Phony Claims of Israeli War Crimes, Fail to Retract

March 31st, 2009 8:28 PM
In recent weeks, both the NBC Nightly News and ABC’s World News with Charles Gibson repeated charges that Israeli troops had witnessed the deliberate killing of Palestinian civilians by fellow troops during the Gaza War. In recent days, the New York Times has informed its readers that, after investigation, the Israeli military concluded that the incendiary claims were untrue and that the soldiers…