Obama's 'Extraordinary Media Blitz' Begins Friday Night with Focus on

September 18th, 2009 9:21 PM
Television network journalists on Friday night marveled at President Barack Obama's planned “media blitz” for health care reform even as they, the enablers, reveled in it as they made the very “blitz” and clips from the interviews (conducted Friday afternoon for airing on Sunday morning) their top story of the day. Based on those excerpts, the Sunday hosts were most interested in getting Obama's…

Down Steeply Since Late Jan., Big 3 Evening Newscasts Stuck at Low Sum

September 17th, 2009 5:16 PM
After a summer swoon, you would think that the evening newscasts of the Big 3 networks would start to recover a bit now that many Americans are back from vacations, kids are back in school, and fall routines are getting established or re-established. So far, you would be wrong. It's early, and there's still plenty of time this fall to recover, but during the time period after Labor Day, the…

Miller Notes Gibson Quizzed Palin on Bush Doctrine, But Is Himself Obl

September 17th, 2009 4:39 AM
In light of the revelation that ABC News anchor Charles Gibson had not even heard of the recently revealed evidence of corruption by ACORN, comedian and FNC contributor Dennis Miller zinged Gibson as he alluded to the fact that the ABC anchor had famously quizzed Sarah Palin on her knowledge of the Bush doctrine during the 2008 campaign, but himself is now failing the test of keeping abreast of…

CBS and NBC Finally Catch Up to ACORN Scandal; Express Sympathy for th

September 16th, 2009 12:48 PM
In the first story on CBS since the scandal broke last week, on Tuesday’s Evening News, anchor Katie Couric reported: "The grassroots community organization called ACORN helps low-income Americans find affordable housing and gets tens of millions of dollars in government funding. But as Cynthia Bowers reports, that may be coming to an end after a scandal caught on tape."After showing undercover…

ABC: Obama Critics 'Driven By Refusal to Accept Black President'; NBC

September 15th, 2009 9:27 PM
ABC and NBC on Tuesday night joined the effort to undermine the anti-Obama tea party participants by smearing them as racists as ABC framed a story around the proposition “some prominent Obama supporters are now saying” the opposition to Obama is “driven, in part, by a refusal to accept a black President,” while NBC anchor Brian Williams touted how “former President Carter spoke up and spoke out…

CBS Skips Killing of Pro-Life Activist; ABC Sees ‘Flip Side’ to Ki

September 12th, 2009 3:08 PM
Katie Couric’s CBS Evening News on Friday omitted any mention of the murder of pro-life activist Jim Pouillon in Michigan, despite having discussed the murder of abortionist George Tiller on the June 1, June 2 and June 9 newscasts (and then referencing the killing as a recent “hate crime” in a June 10 report on the shooting at Washington, D.C.’s Holocaust Museum).Both ABC’s World News and the NBC…

Network Echo Chamber: Appalled by Ugly 'Shout Heard 'Round the World

September 10th, 2009 9:41 PM
Media minds think alike. ABC: “It was the shout heard 'round the world.” CBS: “It was the shout heard 'round the world.” NBC, slightly creative: “The outburst heard 'round the world” and the “heckle heard 'round the world.” Congressman Joe Wilson's “you lie” shout during President Obama's Wednesday address to Congress on health care animated the Thursday evening newscasts, though it at least…

ABC Rues How Conservatives and Citizen Journalists Are Derailing Obama

September 8th, 2009 9:14 PM
ABC's World News on Tuesday night bemoaned the impact of conservatives and citizen journalists in derailing President Barack Obama's agenda. Pivoting from the reaction to Obama's address to students, anchor Charles Gibson observed “today's speech was really the latest target of some conservative groups taking on the President” and “their tactics are having an impact.” Reporter Dan Harris asserted…

'Republican Right's First Scalp,' Nets Portray Van Jones as Victim of

September 6th, 2009 9:07 PM
Instead of focusing on how the Obama administration found it appropriate to hire a man who added his name to a petition asserting the Bush administration deliberately allowed the 9/11 attacks to occur -- or the incompetence displayed in not knowing about it -- ABC and NBC on Sunday night painted Van Jones as a victim, “a target for conservatives,” while “the Republican Right” claimed “its first…

Reliable Sources Gushes Over Sawyer, No Mention of GMA's Ratings

September 6th, 2009 12:08 PM
Howard Kurtz opened Sunday's "Reliable Sources" with a lovefest for the promotion of ABC's Diane Sawyer to replace Charles Gibson on "World News Tonight."Mysteriously, there was absolutely no discussion about how Sawyer's "Good Morning America" is constantly second in the ratings to NBC's "Today" show, nor was there mention of how Katie Couric regularly bested Sawyer in the morning but has been a…

Media's Coverage of 'Birthers' Greatly Outweighs Van Jones Coverage

September 5th, 2009 12:12 PM
The contrast between the virtual silence of major news outlets on Green Jobs Czar Van Jones’s belief in the Bush Administration’s complicity in the 9/11 attacks and the hubbub made about those who believe the President is not an American citizen casts light on the politicized attitudes of the mainstream media. NewsBusters has noted how the story has been ignored by the television media. Byron…

ABC & NBC Continue Van Jones Blackout, Instead Tout Obama's 'Transpare

September 4th, 2009 9:51 PM
ABC and NBC on Friday night, even after White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was forced to address the topic, continued their blackout of the radical and America-hating conspiracy views of Van Jones, the “Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation” on the White House's Council on Environmental Quality. Instead of taking up how five years ago Jones signed the 911truth.org…

Obama School Talk Push Back Framed Around Exasperation Over 'Hyper-Par

September 3rd, 2009 8:59 PM
The ABC and NBC anchors on Thursday night framed stories, on the controversy over President Obama's upcoming Tuesday address to the nations' schoolchildren accompanied by a Department of Education recommendation that teachers have their students “write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the President,” through the prism of Obama as a victim of unfair presumptions.   “It seemed…

Flashback: When Sawyer Anchored World News, She Got Giddy Over Obama P

September 2nd, 2009 12:55 PM