SOTU Run-Up: ABC’s Sawyer Lobs Softballs to Rahm Emanuel; CBS’s Co
January 27th, 2010 9:20 PM
Both ABC’s Diane Sawyer and CBS’s Katie Couric interviewed White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel as part of their networks’ run-up to tonight’s State of the Union address, but the contrast was stark. While Sawyer attempted to feel Emanuel’s pain over the setbacks for health care legislation (“Two times you have rolled the health care rock up the hill....and two times you have seen it crash back…
Study: Only Fox News Offered Obama Historically Normal Scrutiny in
January 26th, 2010 3:44 PM
The Washington Times’s Jennifer Harper picked up on a new study from the non-partisan Center for Media and Public Affairs showing President Obama getting much more flattering news coverage from ABC, CBS and NBC (46% positive vs. 54% negative) during his first year in office than did Presidents Reagan, Clinton and George W. Bush, all of whom received roughly three times more bad press than good…
Sawyer Asks Obama to Time Travel: What Would You Say to the Obama of a
January 25th, 2010 8:08 PM
Diane Sawyer's interview with President Barack Obama wasn't nearly as sycophantic as the one conducted last Wednesday by George Stephanopoulos, with Sawyer posing mostly informational inquiries about the direction he'll set out in the State of the Union speech as she also raised the huge deficits and whether all future meetings about health care will “be on C-SPAN” as he had pledged? But she…
Nets Decry Campaign Finance Ruling, Fail to Hail Victory for Freedom o
January 21st, 2010 8:52 PM
The unencumbered ability to sway voters is great for the news media, but journalists are outraged others could re-acquire the same First Amendment rights. Instead of painting a victory for free speech in the Supreme Court's ruling that corporations, non-profit groups and unions can spend money to influence elections, the Thursday broadcast network evening newscasts feared a ruinous future: “…
Stephanopoulos Frets Obama Too Ambitious, Seeks Confirmation He's Had
January 20th, 2010 8:15 PM
The day after President Barack Obama's policies were rebuked by the voters of one of the most liberal states when Massachusetts picked a Republican to replace Ted Kennedy, the White House turned to former Democratic operative George Stephanopoulos as their preferred vehicle to forward their spin as Obama sat down for an interview with the ABC News journalist. An accommodating Stephanopoulos, in…
ABC Empathizes with White House: Coakley Loss ‘Shakespearean
January 19th, 2010 3:15 AM
ABC on Monday night again empathized with the Obama White House’s disbelief that they could lose “Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat” -- and thus ObamaCare -- if Republican Scott Brown beats Democrat Martha Coakley in Tuesday’s special election in Massachusetts. George Stephanopoulos saw a “Shakespearean” tragedy just over a week after PBS’s Judy Woodruff, on ABC’s This Week, described such a scenario as…
Flashback: Nets Repeated Charges of Israeli War Crimes in Gaza, Less A
January 14th, 2010 4:31 AM
It was a year ago this weekend that the Israeli military halted its three-week campaign, Operation Cast Lead, against Hamas militants in Gaza, during which Israel had responded to thousands of rockets and mortars launched from Gaza over several years. During Israel’s military campaign, on a number of major stories, many American television newscasts were more inclined to report accusations made…
'World News' Plays Populism Card: Bashes Wall St. Bonuses; Ignores Fan
January 11th, 2010 12:21 PM
Just in time for what they call "bonus season," ABC's "World News" treated its viewers to a little anti-Wall Street populism Sunday night. On "World News" Jan. 10, weekend anchor Dan Harris explained there was "backlash" against Wall Street for bonuses that haven't even been paid out yet. But the ABC report made no mention of bonuses paid to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives. "This week on…
ABC Profiles Campaign Urging Folks To Move Money From Big Banks
January 9th, 2010 3:21 PM
It goes without saying that what America's struggling banking industry doesn't need is for all of its depositers to withdraw their funds.Regardless of this seemingly obvious truth, the folks at ABC and "World News with Diane Sawyer" actually did a report Friday profiling a campaign started by the far-left website the Huffington Post to get people to pull their money from the larger national banks…
Media Reported UN Accusation Israelis Killed Truck Driver, Ignored Isr
January 8th, 2010 11:44 PM
A year ago today, when U.N. officials accused the Israeli military of killing the driver of a vehicle delivering relief aid to Gaza during the Israeli campaign against Hamas, all the broadcast and news networks reported the accusation on January 8, 2009, noting the U.N.'s resulting cessation of relief aid deliveries. But, after the Israeli military conducted an investigation and charged that…
Cold Can't Shake Global Warming Faith of ABC's Blakemore
January 8th, 2010 3:21 PM
As global warming alarmists get more desperate, they’re turning to allies in the mainstream media to help promote increasingly strident protests that the world really is warming.Nobody is happier to oblige than ABC News. On Jan. 8, “World News” anchor Diane Sawyer and weatherman Sam Champion worried that the cold weather engulfing much of the world just may be the result of climate change.Then…
ABC Again Spins for Obama: 'Intelligence Professionals' Failed Obama J
January 8th, 2010 11:49 AM
For the second time in two days, ABC attempted to exonerate Barack Obama from responsibility for a failed Christmas Day airline bombing. On Friday’s Good Morning America, Brian Ross spun, "Well, like another young president almost 50 years ago, Barack Obama found the so-called intelligence professionals, the veterans, the old hands, failed him and failed the country." [Audio available here.]…
ABC Profiles Tea Party & Cites Fmr Obama Supporters, Finds Moderates
January 8th, 2010 6:11 AM
On Thursday’s World News, ABC correspondent Kate Snow filed a report that avoided portraying Tea Party activists as extremists, instead conveying the movement’s growing appeal and the fact that even some former Barack Obama supporters have signed on. Snow: "The majority of supporters are long-time Republicans like Danita, but there are growing numbers of independents, and even some former Obama…
ABC’s Sawyer Hails Obama: ‘Buck Stops Here’ an ‘Echo of Anothe
January 8th, 2010 2:24 AM
Two quick items from Thursday’s World News. ABC anchor Diane Sawyer heard “an echo of another young President in another time” in President Obama’s “the buck stops here” taking of responsibility for the failed Christmas Day terrorist plot as George Stephanopoulos explained her reference: “John Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs....The President took responsibility, his popularity shot up. The White…