Obama Puff Pieces Let Some Embarrassing Truth Through
January 30th, 2009 2:20 PM
The mainstream media hasn't bothered to hide its infatuation with President Obama. They get physical thrills at the sound of his voice. His inauguration caused them to reach for religious imagery. Now that he's in the White House, they want us to know us what a breath of cultural fresh air he is - more informal, healthier and family-centered. Unwittingly, though, they're also showing a man who…
Networks Skip (D) for Blagojevich as Scandal-Plagued Governor Ousted
January 30th, 2009 12:12 PM
Seven weeks after his arrest for allegedly attempting to peddle Barack Obama’s Senate seat, Rod Blagojevich was removed as governor of Illinois on Thursday. ABC, CBS and NBC all offered full reports last night and this morning, but none of the anchors or reporters provided any hint that Blagojevich was a Democrat.
Back on December 9, reporting on the then-governor’s arrest, NewsBusters noted…
Network News Embraces Obama's Wall Street-Bashing
January 30th, 2009 9:25 AM
After years of agitation over what they saw as President George W. Bush's self-righteous moral certitude, journalists on Thursday night embraced President Barack Obama's vilification of those working for Wall Street firms who got a bonus last year. “Shameful,” NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams teased his newscast, “that's how President Obama labels those Wall Street types paying themselves…
Obama's Take Out the Trash Day
January 29th, 2009 2:09 PM
Former President George W. Bush reinstated a policy in 2001 that restricted foreign countries using American dollars for abortions. CBS political consultant Craig Crawford called the action "red meat to the Bible Belt conservatives." Just three days after taking office, President Barack Obama rescinded the Mexico City Policy, a policy set into place by Ronald Reagan that prohibited American…
Brian Williams: Obama First Non 'Choice of Evils' in 'Generations
January 28th, 2009 1:52 AM
Marveling on Monday's Late Show about how people were lining up during the inauguration “to buy merchandise with any depiction” of President Barack Obama, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams expressed his pleasure at seeing so many people “that excited about our new chief executive after a line of what the ordinary voter would maybe describe as bad choices or choices of evils, for years,…
NBC: ‘Immediate Action’ Needed to Stop 1,000 Yrs of Global Warming
January 27th, 2009 6:12 PM
Uniquely among Monday’s broadcast evening newscasts, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams read a short item citing a "disheartening" report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicting that the world is in danger of suffering effects of global warming that will take 1,000 years to reverse unless "immediate action is taken to cut greenhouse gases." Williams: "The…
CBS and NBC Minimize Obama’s Abortion Funding Order; ABC Highlights
January 27th, 2009 2:56 PM
Catching up on an item from Friday night, the three broadcast evening newscasts aired virtually nothing on January 23 about President Obama’s executive order permitting federal funding of abortions, overturning orders signed by President Bush in his first week in office back in 2001. Both CBS and NBC’s White House reporters squeezed in a single sentence about Obama’s action during stories about…
Olbermann Suggests Gitmo Inspired Innocent Ex-Detainee to Become Al-Qa
January 26th, 2009 9:22 PM
If we are to believe Keith Olbermann’s latest wild theory, an innocent, mild mannered furniture salesman and humanitarian from Riyadh may have been inspired to become an al-Qaeda leader because he was falsely imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, courtesy of Olbermann’s favorite target, the Bush administration, who "created [his] reason for hating us."Even for Keith Olbermann, this takes the cake, and…
Lowery's Clueless-White Prayer: CBS Skips It, ABC, NBC, PBS Feature It
January 22nd, 2009 6:33 PM
Liberal pastor and civil rights leader Joseph Lowery’s strange benediction prayer hoping that one day "white will embrace what is right" wasn’t ignored on the Tuesday night news, but it wasn’t portrayed as at all controversial. CBS skipped over it. But ABC, NBC, and PBS’s NewsHour all featured it, often without interrupting their gauzy promotional tone. Here’s a brief tour of how it unfolded.ABC…
Pulpit Culprits: Mainstream Media Compare Inauguration to 'Spiritual
January 21st, 2009 2:20 PM
The inauguration of the first African-American president is an historic affair, one that should be properly celebrated by all. But when the so-called "objective" network anchors begin comparing a routine political ceremony to a spiritual awakening, have they gone too far? "Sacred." "Majesty." "Sacrament." "Pilgrimage." These are words loaded with religious and spiritual meaning. And they're…
NBC's Lee Cowan: Obama Inaugural Like Being in a 'Political Cathedral
January 21st, 2009 12:31 PM
On Monday's inaugural edition of the "NBC Nightly News," well known Obama fan Lee Cowan made no effort to restrain his fawning over the new president, likening the experience of watching the Democrat's speech to being in a "political cathedral." After featuring clips of people viewing the address all over the country, Cowan cooed, "In the end, though, it really didn't matter where you were as…
Mitchell: Cell Cameras 'Seemed Like Stars Shining Back' at Obama
January 21st, 2009 9:24 AM
NBC's Andrea Mitchell encapsulated the veneration for Barack Obama and what his inauguration means to the media elite as she began a Tuesday NBC Nightly News story about her day watching the festivities: “It may take days or years to really absorb the significance of what happened to America today, even for those of us who were lucky enough to have a very close up front view.” Showing a clip of…
CBS, NBC Show Plight of Israelis with ‘Siege Mentality’ from Hamas
January 12th, 2009 1:50 PM
One bright spot last week in CBS’s coverage of the war between Israel and the Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas came on Wednesday’s CBS Evening News as correspondent Richard Roth filed a story exploring Israeli life under a "siege mentality." Roth: " Spend a while in earshot of an air raid siren or cramped in a shelter, and it's hard not to have some sympathy. Or, if you want to understand what…