Nets Agitated by McCain's 'Nasty' & 'Childish' Anti-Obama 'Attack' Ad

July 30th, 2008 10:21 PM
The McCain campaign's new television ad comparing Barack Obama to shallow celebrities such as Britney Spears and Paris Hilton so upset the network news operations that they all ran full stories, with ABC and NBC leading with the “attack ad.” Though all tried to frame their stories as balanced looks at attacks against each other by both campaigns, it was the McCain ad which prompted the stories,…

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…

Nets Don't Hesitate to Properly Identify Stevens as Republican

July 29th, 2008 8:44 PM
The ABC, CBS and NBC evening shows on Tuesday night properly identified indicted Senator Ted Stevens as a Republican -- though not very creatively as they all employed the identical language in describing Stevens as “the longest-serving Republican in the U.S. Senate” -- but they weren't so eager to name the party of Democrats in trouble in recent years. ABC anchor Charles Gibson teased World News…

Ahmadinejad's New Ambassador: Brian Williams

July 28th, 2008 9:58 PM
NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams acted as a conduit for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's propaganda message of conciliation as NBC Nightly News led Monday with about seven minutes of comments from the Iranian leader's interview with Williams in Tehran, such as how “for more than 50 years now the policy of American statesmen has been to confront the Iranian people.” Williams seemed…

'Nightly News' Anchor: Pro-Obama Bias is 'In the Eye of the Beholder

July 28th, 2008 5:26 PM
Is there a pro-Obama bias in the media? Only if you at it from a certain point-of-view according to "NBC Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams. Despite allegations of just the opposite, the wall-to-wall coverage of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama's trip to the Middle East then to Europe wasn't a sign of bias - it was just the media attempting to "educate" according to…

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…

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…

NBC's Brian Williams to Interview Iran's Ahmadinejad

July 25th, 2008 8:02 PM
In the lead up to the March 2003 Iraq invasion, CBS's Dan Rather interviewed Saddam Hussein.Now, less than four months before America goes to the polls to elect a new president, NBC's Brian Williams is going to interview Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.I wonder if Williams will ask the lunatic despot who he's supporting in the coming elections?Regardless of the answer, TVNewser reported…

Can't Contain Exhilaration Over 'World Stage' for 'Messiah' Obama

July 24th, 2008 10:48 PM
Barack Obama's Magical Media Tour hit its high point Thursday night as the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts all led with Obama's speech in Berlin, with NBC's Brian Williams and Andrea Mitchell the most giddy, though ABC featured a German man who hailed Obama as “my new messiah.” ABC and NBC saw Obama on a “world stage.” Charles Gibson teased ABC's newscast: “In a city steeped in history, before…

NBC Marches in Lockstep with Gay Agenda for the Military

July 24th, 2008 2:20 PM
NBC outdid itself in promoting the pro-gay view in its Nightly News coverage Wednesday of a hearing held by the House Armed Services Committee's subcommittee on personnel. NBC served up a litany of gay "victims" of the military's ban on open homosexuality, plus pro-gay congressmen, and played up a recent poll showing most Americans wanting to overturn the ban. NBC cited only one pro-ban witness,…

NBC Nightly News: 55% Think Obama Riskier Choice Than McCain

July 24th, 2008 11:48 AM
In another sign that the bloom might be coming off the Obama rose, the NBC "Nightly News" Wednesday reported some new poll results that not only suggest this election has suddenly become "a referendum on Obama," but also that 55 percent of those surveyed felt "it's Obama that's the riskier choice." Frankly, more shocking than the results of this survey was that NBC would report them while the…

NBC News Refers to Obama's Trip as 'Tour of Duty

July 21st, 2008 10:34 AM
It's bad enough that Barack Obama's trip to the Middle East is getting an insane amount of MSM coverage (the three big network news anchors? Whoa!); now, NBC News believes it apt to compare Obama's sojourn to ... an actual military tour of duty. Yes indeed. Check out at right how anchor Lester Holt introduces last evening's Nightly News.HOLT: "Tour of Duty" as Obama visits the war zone: The fight…

Day 2 of Obama's Magical Media Tour: He Speaks of How Bush Makes World

July 20th, 2008 9:44 PM
For the second night in a row, on Sunday night the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts all led with Barack Obama's overseas trip as CBS Evening News anchor Forrest Sawyer trumpeted: “Tonight, Barack Obama on the U.S. challenge in Afghanistan, laying out the stakes in an exclusive CBS News interview.” Reporter Lara Logan set up a condensed version of her interview which had consumed the first ten…