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CNBC's Harwood Reacts to MRC Study, Excuses Media Silence on Midterms

On Thursday's Squawk Box on CNBC, host Joe Kernen cited the Media Research Center's latest study showing the Big Three network evening newscasts have barely noticed the anti-Obama midterm election of 2014 but provided wall-to-wall coverage in 2006: "...they breathlessly reported the Democratic takeover of Capitol Hill in the anti-Bush election of 2006....the coverage of this current situation, 6…
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Study: Nets Filibuster for Wendy Davis

Katie Yoder and Matt Philbin
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. In June 2013, when then Texas State Sen. Wendy Davis staged an 11-hour filibuster against a bill restricting late-term abortions, the national media claimed they’d found a rising liberal superstar, and they’ve been campaigning for her ever since. Davis has few more enthusiastic backers than ABC, CBS and NBC. From the beginning, Davis’ network fans were…

NBC Covers UNC Academic Scandal, Yet Skipped Plagiarist Montana Dem

On July 24, it was discovered that Senator John Walsh (D-Mont.) had plagiarized his thesis statement as part of earning a master’s degree from the United States Army War College and led to the College revoking his degree on October 10. Back on August 7, Walsh announced that he would not be seeking reelection (as he originally planned) and would leave office after his term ends.  Throughout the…

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CBS, NBC Ignore Results of Michael Brown's Autopsy

On Wednesday, the results of the St. Louis County autopsy of 18-year-old Michael Brown, who died after being shot by Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson on August 9, were leaked to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper and largely supports Wilson’s claims that he had a physical altercation with Brown inside his police SUV.  When it came to the major broadcast networks offering any…
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O'Reilly on 'Today': Obama Administration 'Blew It' on Ebola Response

On Wednesday, Today co-host Matt Lauer began an interview with Bill O'Reilly by citing liberal New York Times columnist Frank Bruni actually criticizing the Obama administration's handling of the Ebola crisis: "One dimension of the disease's toll is clear. It's ravaging Americans' already tenuous  faith in the competence of our government and its bureaucracies." O'Reilly agreed with Bruni's "…
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Nets Yawn at Midterms, 'Love' 'Cute' Story of Obama Teasing a Voter

With the Democrats facing bad news in the coming midterms, the networks have largely been ignoring the possible electoral wave. Yet, NBC and CBS couldn't resist the "cute" story of Barack Obama bantering with a woman and her boyfriend on Monday. As the President was getting ready to do early voting in Chicago, a man walked by and told him, "Don't touch my girlfriend." 
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Maddow Slams Hagan's Debate No-Show, But 'Fangate' Networks Ignore

Senator Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) and her Republican opponent, North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis, are currently locked in a close Senate race but with less than two weeks until Election Day Senator Hagan declined to participate in a debate Tuesday night. Despite Senator Hagan’s absence, all three network morning shows ignored the story on their Wednesday morning broadcasts. 
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NBC: If GOP Wins Senate, They'd Better Not Oppose ObamaCare

At the end of Sunday's NBC Meet the Press, moderator Chuck Todd led his panel of guests in warning Republicans against any effort to oppose ObamaCare if they win the Senate majority in the upcoming midterm election: "...the biggest, I would argue, false promise of the...midterm campaign has been about [repealing] the Affordable Care Act....[Mitch McConnell's] never gonna have the ability to do it…

Media Hyped Anti-GOP News in '06, Ignore This Year's Anti-Obama Wave

In less than two weeks, voters head to the polls in midterm elections that seem certain to yield strong Republican gains, if not outright control of the U.S. Senate. Such a political sea change is big news, but a new Media Research Center study finds that, in contrast to their enthusiastic coverage of the 2006 midterms when Democrats made big gains, the Big Three broadcast evening newscasts are…
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With Just Two Weeks Before Election, ABC, NBC Fail to Mention Midterms

On Tuesday, ABC and NBC made no mention of the upcoming midterm elections, which were two weeks away from Tuesday and include numerous Senate races that will decide whether Republicans or Democrats control the U.S. Senate. ABC’s Good Morning America, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir, NBC’s Today, and NBC Nightly News made no mention of the midterm elections in their evening newscasts while…
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As Lewinsky Returns, ABC and CBS Gloss Over Clinton Culpability

All three networks on Tuesday hyped the return of Monica Lewinsky in the form of a speech on Monday, but ABC and CBS mostly glossed over connecting the embarrassing of Bill Clinton's role in the affair. Good Morning America kept the focus on the former White House intern and it was only at the very end of the segment that Jon Karl allowed: "Lewinsky's campaign against cyber-bullying just happens…

Networks Barely Notice White House 'War on Women’s Pay'

Obama has been a champion of equal pay for women, at least according to his administration and the network news media. The broadcast networks boosted his image on the subject throughout his presidency, from the first bill he signed into law in 2009 to a September 2014 speech mentioning “equal pay.” ABC said Obama waged an “assault” on the pay gap with an executive order over salary disclosures,…

Networks Fail to Cover Gaffes from Dems Wendy Davis and Mark Udall

With the midterm elections two weeks away from Tuesday, the major broadcast networks on Monday night ignored gaffes from Democratic Senator Mark Udall of Colorado and Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis as both seek to make up deficits against their Republican opponents Cory Gardner and Greg Abbott, respectively.
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Mitchell on Lewinsky's Speech: 'Timing Couldn't be Worse' For Clintons

On Monday night, ABC and NBC offered segments on Monica Lewinsky’s first public comments in years that came during a conference in Philadelphia for millennials by Forbes and explained how she was the first victim of cyberbullying during her affair with then-President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s.  During the segment that aired on NBC Nightly News, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell declared that the “…