CBS’s Wragge: Obama ‘Overexposed’ After Tonight Show Gaffe
March 23rd, 2009 5:46 PM
At the top of the Saturday Early Show, co-host Chris Wragge took a critical look at President Obama's recent media tour: "The Obama blitz, the President’s appearing everywhere but is his media tour taking attention away from his message?" In a later report, correspondent Kimberly Dozier highlighted Obama’s Tonight Show Special Olympics gaffe as evidence: "It can and did go a little bit wrong with…
NYTimes' Cooper Somehow Misses Obama 'Special Olympics' Jab
March 21st, 2009 6:00 AM
All day Friday the newspapers, TV stations, radio, and the Internet were abuzz with Barack Obama's failed joke about the Special Olympics Thursday night on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. In shades of John Kerry's failed joke about the unschooled being "stuck in Iraq," the president's apologists said he was merely joking and didn't mean to say anything disparaging about people with developmental…
NBC Buries Obama Special Olympics line; ABC Knocks 'Late Night Gaffe
March 20th, 2009 1:02 PM
NBC's "Today" show on Friday minimized and neglected a gaffe by Barack Obama that his bowling skills are on the level of the "Special Olympics or something." In contrast, ABC's "Good Morning America" and CBS's "Early Show" heavily covered the remark. GMA devoted the first two segments to the ill advised joke the President made on Thursday's "Tonight Show With Jay Leno." And although "Today"…
Will Media Notice Obama's Poor Taste Special Olympics Joke
March 19th, 2009 10:03 PM
During his appearance on NBC's "Tonight Show," President Obama made a joke that may come back to haunt him, degrading the physical abilities of participants in the Special Olympics.Obama's joke came after host Jay Leno asked him whether he had torn out the White House bowling alley given the president's past difficulties with the sport. (h/t NB reader J.H. Blair, video courtesy Ms Underestimated):
Leno and Olbermann Aren't Sure if AIG is an American Company
March 19th, 2009 5:32 PM
Did you know that AIG, aka American International Group, is an American company?Well, on NBC's "Tonight Show" Wednesday, Jay Leno didn't, and the supposedly brilliant Keith Olbermann wasn't sure.Imagine that.A company that has been a hot topic in the news for at least the past six months, and these guys not only didn't know it was American, but also thought its initials stood for American "…
'Today' Continues Trek to Discover Obama's Global Appeal
March 17th, 2009 2:45 PM
Picking up from Al Roker's puffery about Barack Obama's Irish heritage from yesterday, NBC's Meredith Vieira, on Tuesday's Today show asked Ireland's President Mary McAleese to gauge the U.S. president's popularity on the Emerald Isle as she queried, "Barack Obama, our new president...I understand much loved here...What is it about Barack Obama that instills in, in the people of…
All Three Morning Shows Skip Cheney Jab That Obama Has Made U.S. Less
March 16th, 2009 4:07 PM
All three morning shows on Monday skipped a rather serious charge made by former Vice President Dick Cheney that Barack Obama, through his actions as president, has made America less safe and more susceptible to terrorist attack. Speaking to CNN host John King on Sunday's "State of the Union," Cheney criticized some of Obama's actions, including giving the order to close Guantanamo Bay. The ex-…
NBC's Al Roker Celebrates Obama's Irish Roots on 'Today
March 16th, 2009 1:32 PM
Over a chorus of gleeful Irish pub-goers literally singing Barack Obama's praises, NBC's Al Roker, broadcasting live from Ireland on Monday's "Today" show, explored the current president's Irish roots as he observed: "As St. Patrick's Day approaches in Moneygall the townsfolk join in the chorus, determined to keep hope alive." The "Today" show weatherman began the celebratory segment by…
NBC's Vieira Refuses to Challenge Barney Frank on Wasteful Earmarks
March 16th, 2009 12:13 PM
Barney Frank was allowed, by NBC's Meredith Vieira, to go on a tear against AIG for wasting bailout money on corporate bonuses, on Monday's "Today" show, yet Vieira never once interrupted Frank to point out his own wasteful stimulus spending on earmarks going to Frank's home district, including $1 million for scallop research. Vieira also didn't interject when Frank blamed the Bush administration…
Lauer Oddly Asserts NY Media Didn't Help Put Obama in Office
March 12th, 2009 4:43 PM
Acting as if he's been living in alternate media reality for the past year NBC's Matt Lauer, interviewing Howard Fineman, on Thursday's "Today" show made the very odd assertion, that the "establishment," of "Washington insiders," and the "New York-based media," didn't help put Barack Obama "in the Oval Office." Lauer, made the head-scratching point, after reading a portion of Fineman's most…
Matthews: Limbaugh Like a Bond Villain, a 'Human Vat of Vitriol
March 9th, 2009 6:47 PM
Over the weekend, Chris Matthews compared Rush Limbaugh to a James Bond villain and claimed the radio talk show host was a "human vat of vitriol. He relishes the attention and he sells anger as a weapon." Before playing a clip from "You Only Live Twice," in which a Bond nemesis drops a victim into a piranha tank, Matthews, on his syndicated "The Chris Matthews Show," offered up the following…
