David Gregory, host of NBC's "Meet the Press," told this week's Parade Magazine, "I don't accept the proposition that I have an ideological point of view that comes through. I work very hard to avoid that."
Gregory must have adopted a new attitude toward his work after taking over "Meet the Press" following the death of his colleague, Tim Russert.
As Newsbusters has documented, Gregory indeed has a habit of letting his bias "come through."
On September 3, 2008, my colleague Rich Noyes pointed out the discrepancy of Gregory's convention coverage:
On Wednesday's Today, NBC's David Gregory had the GOP taking "swipes at Senator Obama's limited experience" and described Fred Thompson's speech as a "hard-edged attack on Senator Obama."
But a week earlier, Gregory described Hillary Clinton's speech as "rousing" and "playful," and offered no negative adjectives as he replayed soundbites of Clinton attacking John McCain:
GREGORY: Republicans are working to court Clinton supporters this week by reminding them of her attacks against Obama during the primaries....But Senator Clinton made her wishes clear.
CLINTON: No way, no how, no McCain.
GREGORY: She argued that a President McCain would represent more of the Bush years. More war, more job losses, more inadequate health care coverage.
CLINTON: It makes perfect sense that George Bush and John McCain will be together next week in the Twin Cities, because these days they're awfully hard to tell apart.
But Gregory's biased reporting was evident long before the 2008 conventions. The analysts in the MRC's News Analysis Division noted these incidences of ideological bias in a December 8, 2008 Media Reality Check:
- May 18, 2006, MSNBC's "Hardball" to President George W. Bush: "In the most recent survey, your disapproval rating is now one point lower than Richard Nixon's before he resigned the presidency....Do you think it's possible that, like Nixon and Watergate, that the American people have rendered a final judgment of disapproval on you and your war in Iraq?"
- September 1, 2004, NBC Convention Coverage: "One of the obstacles for Dick Cheney tonight is the fact that he has become a dark figure....There are those who believe that Dick Cheney has led this administration and this President down a path of recklessness, that maybe his approach, his dark approach to this constant battle against another civilization, is actually the wrong approach for ultimately keeping America safe."
- August 9, 1999, CNBC's "Rivera Live" to Whitewater counsel Robert Ray: ""If this trail is cold and nothing adds up to indictment, does this become anything but a smear job against Hillary Clinton at the worst possible moment for her politically?"
These are a just a few examples of Gregory "work[ing] very hard to avoid" allowing an "ideological point of view" to shine in his reports
