Flashback to July 2007: ABC Coos Over ‘Presidential Nominee’ John

August 8th, 2008 4:09 PM
On Tuesday’s "Good Morning America," anchors Robin Roberts and Diane Sawyer touted the marital relationship between Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards and his wife. Co-host Robin Roberts recounted the often repeated story of how the Edwards couple spend their wedding anniversary, including their recent 30th, at the restaurant Wendy’s. Roberts, perhaps in a Freudian slip, even…

Again This Morning, No (D) for Incarcerated Detroit Mayor

August 8th, 2008 2:43 PM
The Big Three networks continued to ignore the party affiliation of the now-incarcerated Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick on Friday morning, just as they had done in their evening news programs the previous night. The Early Show on CBS chose to ignore the story of Kilpatrick’s arrest on a bail violation entirely, while ABC’s Good Morning America devoted one 16-second news brief to the story near…

Mika Warns: 'We'll Get a Call' for Mocking Olympics

August 6th, 2008 7:42 AM
Could the NBC honchos be a tad touchy about criticism of the Beijing Olympics—especially when it comes from its own talent pool?  Was there a kernel of truth in Mika Brzezinski's light-hearted warning that MSNBC's Morning Joe crew would "get a call" if it persisted in its mocking of the games for whose broadcast rights the Peacock Network has over the years paid billions?When the subject of the…

Matt Lauer from Beijing: Chinese Happier Than Americans

August 5th, 2008 1:37 PM
Update at bottom of post.In a pre-taped segment, delivered from the Forbidden City in Beijing, NBC's Matt Lauer pointed out a poll that showed the Chinese are happier than Americans and repeated his line that protestors could be seen as "party crashers," on Tuesday's "Today" show.During an interview with NBC News China analyst, Joshua Cooper Ramo, Lauer made the following observation: LAUER:…

'Today' Promotes Author Who Calls Pre-War Runup 'Worse Than Watergate

August 5th, 2008 11:13 AM
NBC's Meredith Vieira, at the top of Tuesday's "Today" show, greeted viewers with the following teaser and jarring charge that "A scathing new book...claims the Bush administration's case for war...wasn't a mistake but deliberate deception...It is worse than Watergate." Vieira, in the 7am half-hour interviewed journalist/author Ron Suskind about his new book, The Way of the World, and his claim…

Andrea Mitchell: 'MSNBC Helping Preserve the NBC News Brand

August 5th, 2008 10:35 AM
This will give you an idea of just how far to the left NBC's Andrea Mitchell is.Although many industry insiders and media watchers on both sides of the aisle view the cable network MSNBC as being a journalistic disgrace as a result of its blatantly obvious liberal bias, Mitchell says, "Nothing could be more important to our future." And that's not all. For those with strong stomachs, here's…

NBC’s Matt Lauer: Opponents of China During Olympics are ‘Party Cr

August 4th, 2008 4:26 PM
NBC’s Matt Lauer, broadcasting live from the Great Wall of China on Monday’s "Today" show, referred to the "double-edged sword" of the world’s attention being on China for the Summer Olympic Games and asked a Chinese professor about how that "spotlight" might be "co-opted by party crashers who have a bone to pick with this country. He then asked the professor, "How worried are the people here…

Time to Kick GSE’s in the Fannie

August 4th, 2008 3:28 PM
Now that the government has signed off on a $25-billion bailout of home mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the obvious question is: What next?Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine, thinks breaking up is hard to do, but necessary. "The Bush Administration should vigorously push to have Fannie and Freddie recapitalized and broken up into 10 to 12 companies, with their ties to…

Matthews: Women Have 'Fears' McCain to Appoint 'Hawkish' Pro-lifers

August 4th, 2008 11:31 AM

GOP House Revolt Over Oil Drilling Gets Ignored or Buried

August 2nd, 2008 12:12 PM
On Friday, NewsBusters wondered how much attention media would pay to the Republican revolt that occurred after Speaker Pelosi adjourned the House for a five week vacation without allowing a vote on offshore oil drilling.It turns out that if you rely on the evening news programs of the three broadcast networks, you didn't hear about this extraordinary event at all (photo courtesy AP). And, if you…

The Britney Effect: Oops, The Media Did It Again -- GDP Up

July 31st, 2008 10:15 AM
Keeping with the tone of the political campaign, the media are in full Britney Spears mode. To quote the pop tart, "Oops, they did it again." It, this time, is the economy. The mainstream media continue to be wrong about the U.S. economy. The 2nd Quarter Gross Domestic Product numbers came out Thursday morning and the economy continued to grow, this time at a stronger pace than last quarter - 1.9…

'McCain Should Be Dancing on Ted Stevens's Political Grave

July 30th, 2008 9:15 AM
Chuck Todd has some advice for John McCain: embrace Ted Stevens' demise. The NBC News political director made his suggestion in the course of kibitzing McCain campaign strategy with Joe Scarborough on today's Morning Joe.CHUCK TODD: Joe, why isn't McCain jumping on this Ted Stevens thing?  He hated Ted Stevens.JOE SCARBOROUGH: He did!TODD:  He should be dancing on this guy's political grave today…

NBC Comedians Crash MSM Wall of Silence to Tell John Edwards Jokes

July 30th, 2008 7:41 AM

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…