New CMI Study Reveals Three Major Media Narratives about Sarah Palin
October 29th, 2008 9:00 AM
In a just released study, "A Study in Character Assassination: How the TV Networks Have Portrayed Sarah Palin as Dunce or Demon," CMI analysts found that ABC, CBS and NBC are airing 18 negative stories for every one positive story on Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential candidate. Is it any wonder that polls revealed a 17 percent increase in Palin's unfavorability ratings in just one…
MRC's Worst of the Week: Brian Williams's Liberal Double Standard
October 28th, 2008 9:55 AM
Both in January and in May, "NBC Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams conducted softball interviews with Barack Obama, holding up a favorable news magazine and asking how his loved ones, like his late mother, would feel about the slobbery covers. In January, he asked: "How does this feel, of all the honors that have come your way, all the publicity?" In May, it was: "Last time we were together, I…
CBS Evening News Spikes Newly Found Obama 'Redistributive' Audio
October 27th, 2008 9:57 PM
YouTube postings over the weekend divulged a 2001 radio interview in which Barack Obama regretted that “the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth, and sort of more basic issues of political and economic justice in this society,” but though John McCain on Monday cited this new evidence of Obama's long-standing advocacy of redistributing wealth, the CBS Evening…
NBC's Williams Hits Palin With 'Abortion Clinic Bomber' Stereotype
October 26th, 2008 8:05 PM
NBC's Brian Williams surely made the abortion lobby smile this week when he asked Sarah Palin in an interview, "Is an abortion clinic bomber a terrorist?" There's few things that abortion defenders love more than painting pro-lifers as violent bombers, arsonists, and assassins. But reality paints a different picture. The facts (pdf):There have been zero murders of abortionists and abortion clinic…
Williams Piles on Palin: Confused, Wardrobe, Unqualified, Deposition
October 24th, 2008 9:17 PM
Friday's NBC Nightly News carried the third excerpt from Brian Williams' time Wednesday with John McCain and Sarah Palin and, unlike his challenging approach to basic McCain-Palin premises in segments aired Wednesday and Thursday night, Williams kept it light as he asked how she's “liking” the campaign trail, wondered, when she cited “lies” about her, if there's “anything you want to correct the…
Williams Pushes McCain & Palin on Ayers, Avoid Wright, Define 'Elite
October 23rd, 2008 9:22 PM
In the second excerpt of his interview with John McCain and Sarah Palin, NBC's Brian Williams continued, for the second night, to challenge the premises of the McCain-Palin campaign as he pushed back at describing William Ayers as a “domestic terrorist” since “it give it a vaguely post-9/11 hint” by associating terrorist with “domestic crimes,” so “is an abortion clinic bomber a terrorist?”…
CBS Scolds McCain's Tactics, Sees Hypocrisy in Palin's 'Six-Figure War
October 22nd, 2008 9:55 PM
Consistency on the CBS Evening News: Wednesday night Dean Reynolds concluded his piece on Barack Obama's campaign day by asserting “McCain's campaign tactics...have drawn criticism even from some Republicans” and next Chip Reid ended his story on John McCain's day on the trail by highlighting how “Gordon Smith of Oregon,” otherwise unidentified, “today became the fourth Republican to urge John…
Bully-boy Matthews on Anti-Palin Warpath
October 22nd, 2008 8:59 PM
How over-the-top was Chris Matthews in his vituperation against Sarah Palin and McCain adviser Nancy Pfotenhauer this evening? So much so that:Matthews twice berated an Obama representative for being insufficiently aggressive in going after Palin; Brian Williams, in the subsequent segment, chided Matthews on his emotionalism.The Hardball host was infuriated by Palin's description, in answer to a…
Drudge Notes Network News Nosedive
October 22nd, 2008 9:36 AM
Matt Drudge, with some apparent glee, given the black and white picture he used, reported something yours truly has followed for some time: The Big Three networks' evening newscasts continue to lose viewers.He reports that the numbers, even in a presidential election year, are down from last year: ELECTION REJECTION: NETWORK NEWS SLUMPS; VIEWERSHIP FADES ..... All 3 evening news shows experienced…
NBC Nightly News Trumpets Slight Hike in View Palin 'Unqualified
October 21st, 2008 10:31 PM
After seven weeks of the news media deriding Sarah Palin, Brian Williams and Andrea Mitchell on Tuesday night seemed to delight in emphasizing how, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll which led the NBC Nightly News, Palin is hurting McCain as Obama surges ahead. And Williams touted Colin Powell's Sunday endorsement of Barack Obama as “the shot heard 'round the world.” After…
Nearly Halftime of Round Three of the MRC's Sweet-On-Obama Sixteen
October 21st, 2008 3:34 PM
We are almost at halftime of Round Three of the MRC's Sweet-On-Obama Sixteen Media Bias Tournament. Only the Infatuated Four remain. If you haven't yet voted, by all means do so now.And if you have, check back often to see how your selections are faring. And as biased as they all are, much like the 1980's cinematic classic says, "There can be only one."No, not that one.
CBS and NBC Refuse to Scold Obama’s False Slam on McCain
October 21st, 2008 3:15 PM
Over the past few days, the Obama campaign has been claiming — both in ads and in statements by Barack Obama himself — that John McCain would “cut” Medicare benefits by “$882 billion,” a charge that the Associated Press called “shaky” and that FactCheck.org bluntly dismissed as “bogus” and “false.”Yet of the three broadcast networks, only ABC News has thus far joined the condemnation of Obama’s…
ABC Counters Palin SNL Success with How She's 'Damaged Carrier
October 20th, 2008 10:31 PM
Twisting in the knife. While Barack Obama gets gushing coverage (ABC's Jake Tapper marveled on Monday's World News over Obama's “rather unbelievable weekend where he had his largest campaign crowd ever -- 100,00 in St Louis -- he announced record-breaking fundraising, $150 million in September and, of course, he secured the endorsement of that Republican Secretary of State, retired General Colin…