NBC's Holt to Steele: 'Do You Want To Be In a Position of Taking Somet

March 23rd, 2010 10:51 AM
NBC's Lester Holt, substitute hosting for Matt Lauer on Tuesday's Today show, questioned Michael Steele about the GOP taking a risk in its opposition to Obamacare as he explained a lot Americans have looked at the bill and found things they liked and pressed the RNC chairman: "Do you want to be in a position of taking something away?" For his part Steele fired back: "I disagree with your premise…

Vieira Repeats Democratic Line of the Day

March 22nd, 2010 11:16 AM
NBC's Meredith Vieira opened Monday's Today show declaring, "Good morning. It passed. Congress approves historic legislation to reform health care" and then a few seconds later noted, "Democrats are using words like 'historic' to describe the sweeping overhaul that was approved." Interesting to see the Today co-anchor acknowledge the Democratic theme and still use it, something that was done…

Supposedly Apolitical 'Today' Guest Is HuffPo Blogger Who Urged Reade

March 21st, 2010 9:39 AM
Jenna Wolfe's introduction of her guest on health-care on this morning's Today would surely have led viewers to believe he was an objective, apolitical voice.  What Wolfe didn't tell viewers is that Andrew Rubin is a HuffPo blogger and such an avid ObamaCare advocate that he urged his readers to call Congress to lobby for it. Here was Wolfe's intro: "The politics surrounding the health-care bill…

NBC Reporter's Idea of Balance: Dem Voices Outnumber GOP 4 to

March 15th, 2010 11:06 AM
NBC's Savannah Guthrie gave little time to the GOP view on health care, on Monday's Today, as the reporter offered only one soundbite to a Republican compared to four Democrats in favor of the health care bill. In a report headlined: "One More Last Chance, Will Democrats Pass Health Care Reform This Week?" Guthrie began the piece: "Well we've said it before, but this is it. The White House press…

CMI Video: Five Offensive Attacks on Conservative Women

March 15th, 2010 9:39 AM

'Today' Praises Bank of America's New Overdraft Policy, Fails to Explo

March 12th, 2010 5:18 PM
NBC's "Today" gave backhanded praise to Bank of America (BofA) on March 11 because of its decision to stop charging overdraft fees for debit-card transactions. "This is clearly an effort by Bank of America to repair its battered image," senior investigative correspondent Lisa Myers said. "But it's also a meaningful step that will save consumers money and keep families from spending more than…

Scarborough Sex Scandal Double Standard On Hastert vs Pelosi

March 12th, 2010 1:43 PM
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, on Friday's Today show, remarked how similar the Eric Massa case was to the Mark Foley sex scandal in 2006, and back then Scarborough went with Matt Lauer's premise that Hastert should be "Thrown under the bus" - a point some Republicans and conservatives agreed with then. However when NBC's Meredith Vieira questioned if Pelosi needed to testify, let alone resign, over…

E! Talk Show Host Chelsea Handler Calls Sarah Palin 'Really Stupid

March 9th, 2010 4:05 PM
Late night talk show host and author Chelsea Handler was invited on Tuesday's Today show to plug her new book Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang and couldn't leave the show without taking a dig at earlier guest Karl Rove, as well as Sarah Palin who she called "Really stupid." When asked by 10:00am hour Today host Hoda Kotb how she felt about having her book released at the same time as the former White…

NBC's Curry Prompts Ventura to Claim Bush Admin Knew About

March 9th, 2010 3:34 PM
NBC's Ann Curry invited former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura to promote his new book of conspiracy theories, on Tuesday's Today show, and pressed the former professional wrestler to throw out the loony charge that the Bush administration had foreknowledge of 9/11. On to promote his book American Conspiracies, Ventura charged that the CIA was involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy and…

Matt Lauer Gets Combative with Karl Rove on Today

March 9th, 2010 11:28 AM
In the final and easily most combative portion of Matt Lauer's three-part exclusive interview with Karl Rove, the Today co-anchor assaulted the former White House advisor, on Tuesday's Today, with accusatory charges on the run-up to the war in Iraq to the handling of Hurricane Katrina, to his role in the CIA leak scandal. The most volatile moments came during the Iraq and Katrina topics where…

Dan Rather: 'Articulate' Obama Couldn't Even 'Sell Watermelons

March 8th, 2010 2:41 PM
HDNet's Dan Rather stepped on one mine after another in the racial minefield that exists when talking about the nation's first black President as the former CBS anchor, on the syndicated Chris Matthews Show over the weekend, uttered the following take on the President's ability to get health care passed and how the GOP and independents would view it. [audio available here]DAN RATHER: Part of the…

Karl Rove Calls Out Stupid Journalists Who Believed the Worst About Hi

March 8th, 2010 11:53 AM
In part one of his exclusive interview with Karl Rove NBC's Matt Lauer, on Monday's Today, plucked out a page from the former White House adviser's new memoir where Rove went after journalists that called his tactics "'fear-based" that played on a stupid electorate, to which Lauer questioned, isn't that "somewhat true?" During the interview Lauer also threw out some of the most salacious charges…

Lauer Previews Exclusive Sitdown with Karl 'The Divider' Rove on Today

March 5th, 2010 11:34 AM
On Friday's Today show NBC's Matt Lauer offered viewers a sneak peak of next week's exclusive interview with Karl Rove and if today's segment is a suggestion of what's to come expect a lot of shots taken at his former boss's intelligence and blaming of Republicans and not Democrats for a divided country. In a highlighted portion of the interview Lauer asked Rove if he was pleased by the nickname…

Sex, Violence and Hate: The Top 10 Most Disgusting Attacks on Conserva

March 5th, 2010 11:06 AM
March is Women's History Month, in which we acknowledge the accomplishments and contributions of women in history and in society today. But for a select group of women - conservative women - their accomplishments and contributions are rarely celebrated but often demeaned and mocked in sexist - and crassly sexual - ways. The Culture & Media Insitute looked back at what the media had to…