Today Guest Uses 'Avatar' To Guilt Viewers About Their Over-consumptio
Thanks to James Cameron's "Avatar," environmentalists have a whole new way to preach to audiences about their over consumption. Invited on Wednesday's Today show to showcase endangered species, Sea World and Busch Garden's animal ambassador Julie Scardina played on the guilt of viewers as she asked the Today cast if they had seen Avatar and warned them: "You know our world is as amazing and…
Misappropriating Ronald Reagan: Liberals Use Icon to Promote Agenda fr
Once upon a time, liberals didn't much like Ronald Reagan - his policies, his ideology or even just because they thought he was a lousy executive and an "amiable dunce." "The Tower commission did not find Reagan a lousy orator; they found him a lousy president," Rep. Barney Frank said of Reagan to Time magazine in the aftermath of the Iran-Contra Affair in 1987. And more recently, those on the…
Media: Pope Benedict Guilty Until Proven Innocent
The broadcast networks couldn't ignore Holy Week, the pinnacle of the Christian calendar, so instead they used it this year to smear the Catholic Church as a harbor for abusive priests. ABC, CBS and NBC featured 26 stories during Holy Week about Pope Benedict's perceived role in the sex abuse scandal the Catholic Church is now facing. Only one story focused on the measures the church has…
CBS, NBC Skip Conservative Outrage Over Obama Nuke Policy, Today's Mik
Of the three network morning shows, only Good Morning America has highlighted conservative outrage over Barack Obama's decision to limit the situations in which the America can use nuclear weapons. CBS's Early Show has mostly ignored the development. On Wednesday's Today, reporter Mike Viqueira enthused, "...It was Prague about a year ago when the President made a speech outlining his vision for…
Evening News Audience For Week of March 29 Falls Below 20 Million
After a bit of a respite primarily due to NBC's coverage of the Winter Olympics, the audience desertion from the Big 3 networks' evening news broadcasts has again resumed. Not that the first quarter of 2010 was all peaches and cream. Last week, Media Bistro noted that ABC's "World News Tonight" had "its lowest-rated first quarter ever." But the results for the first week of the second ratings…
NBC Promotes 'Safe Schools Czar' Kevin Jennings and His Big-Money Anti
Kevin Jennings, the controversial gay-left activist appointed by Obama to be the "safe schools czar" at the Department of Education, has been completely omitted by ABC, CBS, and NBC -- until last Saturday.The networks ignored Jennings' controversial record -- how he wrote about counseling a teenaged boy to use a condom before meeting an adult man in a bus stop restroom, and how his group the Gay…
NBC's Curry Quotes Obama-loving Frank Rich to Rachel Maddow
Talk about tossing a softball. NBC's Ann Curry, on Monday's Today, quoted the New York Times' Frank Rich, essentially comparing Barack Obama to Superman to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow. After citing Rich claiming "Not since Clark Kent changed in a phone booth has there been an instant image makeover to match Barack Obama's, in the aftermath of his health care victory" Curry asked Maddow how Obama will…
Chris Matthews and Panel Make Excuses For Obama's Lack of Press Confer
It's been more than nine months since President Obama has held a prime time press conference, and you would think those that cover him would be outraged by it.Well, think again, for that's certainly not what came out of a panel discussion about this issue during this weekend's syndicated "The Chris Matthews Show."Quite the contrary, rather than criticize the Commander-in-Chief for refusing to…
HuffPo Columnist: Media Didn't Do Enough to Shill for Health Care
A lefty columnist for the Huffington Post believes that the media's coverage of the health care debate was sorely lacking. NewsBusters wholeheartedly agrees. Yes, we agree with the Huffington Post.You see, we were under the impression that columnist Allison Kilkenny was less than honest after she used the staged homicide of a census worker to claim that conservatives were fomenting violence. In…
Couric and Sawyer's Ratings Plummet as Williams' Rise
The folks at ABC and CBS News are certainly not humming Helen Reddy's "I Am Woman" this morning given the plummeting ratings of their respective evening anchors Diane Sawyer and Katie Couric.Adding insult to injury, Brian Williams' numbers continue to climb.So reported the New York Times Friday in a piece destined to raise some liberal media eyebrows:
On NBC, Boy Scout Scandal Merits Story, But Club's 100th Anniversary D
When it comes to socially-conservative groups media outlets like to cover the scandals instead of the celebrations. That's exactly what NBC did to the Boy Scouts of America which had its 100th anniversary Jan. 25. NBC "Nightly News" completely ignored the anniversary, but did remember to cover Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day during that broadcast. But NBC will find time for scandal. On April 1, NBC'…
NBC's Brian Williams Knocks 'Hatred,' 'Venom' in Health Care Fight, To
NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams appeared on the BBC podcast Americana on Sunday and asserted that "hatred" and "venom" were part of the health care debate. He then hyperbolically claimed, "I would sooner jab my hand into a food processor than take a side." [MP3 Audio available here.] The NBC journalist seriously trumpeted, "In my line of work I never engage in opinions, anyway." BBC…
Media Then and Now: Rep. John Lewis Given Pass for House Floor Nazi Re
Since Obama's health care legislation has been signed into law, the media have been in overdrive about the backlash - whether it's been former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's "reload" metaphor "targeting" certain congressional districts or how Republican lawmakers have supposedly encouraged violence by their floor rhetoric. Media personalities and Tea Party movement detractors have been agog - saying…
Not Interested: NBC, CBS Skip Arrest of Man Plotting to Kill Eric Cant
CBS's Early Show and NBC's Today on Tuesday ignored the arrest of a man who was plotting to kill Republican Congressman Eric Cantor. ABC's Good Morning America mentioned the story only in a news brief in the 8am hour. Last week, however, GMA highlighted threats against Democrats and worried about "angry talk" from Sarah Palin. The Early Show may have ignored the story of Norman Leboon and the…