ABC Touts ObamaCare's Popularity, While NBC Reports Website Problems

December 24th, 2013 12:03 PM
For the second straight morning, ABC's Jonathan Karl was merely a White House stenographer when reporting on ObamaCare's year-end deadline, touting enrollment numbers and parroting White House talking points. Tuesday's Good Morning America framed the latest ObamaCare delay as a result of the law's popularity, as opposed to NBC reporting that it was, at least in part, due to website issues. "…

NBC Goes Easy on ObamaCare, Downplays Gov't Coercion of Insurers

December 23rd, 2013 2:42 PM
NBC's Today softened any criticism of ObamaCare on Monday at the deadline to purchase health coverage for the new year. White House correspondent Peter Alexander framed long wait times on the Washington, D.C. health exchange as evidence of "a last-minute spike in demand." And even though he reported that current enrollment numbers are "far shy" of what the administration hoped for, Alexander…

Year-End Awards: The ‘Gunning for the Second Amendment Award

December 23rd, 2013 9:11 AM
Last week, the Media Research Center announced our “Best Notable Quotables of 2013,” reviewing the worst media bias of the year as selected by the 42 expert judges who reviewed dozens of quotes. During the first half of 2013, liberals hoped they could leverage the tragedy of last year’s horrible shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, to push through their long-sought wish list of new federal gun…

No Mentions of Conservatives/GOP in Networks' Coverage of Latest Obama

December 20th, 2013 5:01 PM
ABC, CBS, and NBC all devoted air time to the Obama administration's latest "fix for the botched health care rollout"on their Friday morning newscasts, but failed to include any conservative or Republican reaction to this development. Good Morning America minimized their coverage, airing just two news briefs on "the White House offering relief now for people who lost their health insurance…

NBC's Lauer Urges U.S. Olympic Athlete to Stage Gay Protest During Soc

December 20th, 2013 11:17 AM
While interviewing openly gay U.S. women's hockey team player Caitlin Cahow on Thursday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer hoped for controversy during the games over Russia's "anti-gay laws": "[Openly gay former tennis player] Billy Jean King said that perhaps it is time for a 'John Carlos moment'....that moment in 1968 in Mexico City [Olympics] when [U.S. runners] John Carlos and Tommy Smith…

Flashback: Terry Bradshaw on Duck Dynasty’s Robertson: ‘That Guy K

December 20th, 2013 1:40 AM
In the wake of Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson’s anti-gay remarks published in GQ magazine, the liberal media are predictably hunting for his hide. What most people don’t know is that Robertson was a football star in college so talented that back in October, NFL Hall of Famer Terry Bradshaw told NBC Tonight Show host Jay Leno, “That guy with that beard kept me on the bench for two years” (…

Israeli Journalist Bemoans 'Alliance Between Tea Party Israel and Tea

December 19th, 2013 12:53 PM
Talking to NBC's David Gregory for the Meet the Press web-based feature Press Pass on Sunday, Israeli journalist Ari Shavit launched into a rant against the strong bond between conservatives in Israel and the United States: "In recent years, we've seen too much of an alliance between Tea Party Israel and Tea Party America. I want to bring back that alliance between progressive America and…

Big Three Networks Out to Lunch on Benefits Cuts To Disabled Military

December 18th, 2013 1:20 PM
ABC, CBS, and NBC's morning and evening newscasts, which hyped the sequester's "deep, across-the-board spending cuts" earlier in 2013, have largely been silent about the reductions in the annual cost of living increases for military veterans – part of the budget deal proposed by Republican Congressman Paul Ryan and Democratic Senator Patty Murray. But more egregiously, these programs have…

Only NBC Does Full Report on EPA Official Sentenced for Million-Dollar

December 18th, 2013 1:00 PM
On Wednesday, only NBC's Today devoted a full segment to the upcoming sentencing of top Environmental Protection Agency official John Beale for "bilking the government out of nearly $1 million by claiming he that he worked undercover for the CIA." ABC's Good Morning America only offered a 25-second news brief on the story while CBS This Morning ignored it completely. [Listen to the audio or…

Networks’ Discussions of Fed Stimulus 91 Percent Positive

December 18th, 2013 10:54 AM
After spending about $2.3 trillion in stimulus since 2008, the Federal Reserve’s controversial quantitative easing (QE) strategy’s days may be numbered. MarketWatch expected a decision on the policy from the Fed on Dec. 18, following their two-day meeting. The policy has many critics including the former Fed employee who lashed out at it in a “Confessions of a Quantitative Easer” op-ed.…

NBC: 'Escalating Battle' Between White House and Press Corps Over Obam

December 17th, 2013 6:00 PM
Getting a glimpse of the kind of real reporting that can occur on NBC Nightly News when Brian Williams isn't in the anchor chair, on Sunday's edition of the program, weekend anchor Lester Holt informed viewers that "official photo releases" from the Obama administration were "at the center of an escalating battle between the White House and the news media over access and image control." [Listen…

'Today' Also Downplays and Truncates Obama's Admission of False 'Keep

December 17th, 2013 1:14 PM
Earlier this morning (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), in a post primarily about the Associated Press's whitewashing of President Barack Obama's quote of the year acknowledging that his multi-year guarantee — "If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health clinic care plan, period" — was, ahem, "not ... accurate" (Obama's words), I noted that the related web page for NBC's "Today"…

NBC's 'Nightly News' Avoids Obama in 'Serious Legal Blow' to NSA Spyin

December 17th, 2013 12:54 PM
  All three networks on Monday night and Tuesday morning covered the "major blow" a judge delivered by ruling that the National Security Agency's massive data collection is likely unconstitutional. Yet, NBC's Nightly News managed to mention the President only once in passing. Instead, anchor Brian Williams kept the nearly three and a half minute segment politically vague: "Privacy violation:…

AP Headlines Obama's 'Health Care Promise' As Year's Top Quote, Trunca

December 17th, 2013 9:18 AM
In what appears to be a deliberate watering down of the significance of the statement a Yale University librarian has identified as the year's top quote in his eighth annual list, the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, used the following headline in its Sunday morning "Big Story" coverage: "OBAMA'S HEALTH CARE PROMISE IS 2013 TOP QUOTE." Uh, no. The statement tagged as 2013's…