"The Obama administration couldn’t have made its cheerleaders at ABC, CBS, and NBC look any more foolish," NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell noted earlier today in reaction to a new study by the Media Research Center's (MRC) Geoff Dickens showing that 66 percent of the broadcast network news coverage of the budget sequestration that took effect on Friday advanced Obama White House talking points but failed to include any rebuttals from skeptics.
"Thanks to the bogus sequestration panic pushed by the administration and the liberal media, the American people recognize that the networks are nothing more than an adjunct of the Obama White House press office," the MRC founder added in a March 4 statement. “Like squawking parrots, ABC, CBS, and NBC mindlessly repeated the administration’s phony, over-hyped doomsday talking points during the two weeks leading up to sequestration. That a full two thirds of their stories didn’t include a shred of skepticism is an abomination." Below are just some of the most outlandish claims made on the networks:
- On CBS This Morning (March 1) co-host Charlie Rose raised the specter that U.S. "troops could pay with their lives.”
- Earlier on the February 25 CBS This Morning, Rose highlighted "the worst-case scenario" for the sequester: "Kids without vaccines; schools without teachers; and massive airport delays."
- On ABC's World News (February 24) David Kerley likened the cuts to a "disaster movie," warning of "child care canceled for tens of thousands of kids."
- Over on NBC's Today (February 25), correspondent Peter Alexander claimed the puny budget cuts would eliminate "meals for needy seniors" and deprive children of "vaccines for diseases like whooping cough and the flu."
The media's "breathless prognostications of swift, certain doom should be an embarrassment to the entire news industry," Bozell concluded.
A recent survey shows that only a paltry 6 percent view the media as very trustworthy. It's no wonder given the spectacle that the media have given us the past few weeks.
