CBS's Pelley Glowingly Wonders How the Pope 'Inspired' Obama; Omits Re
March 29th, 2014 2:22 PM
Friday's CBS Evening News featured a previously unaired portion of Scott Pelley's softball interview of President Obama on his recent meeting with Pope Francis. The Vatican noted on Thursday that "there was a discussion on questions of particular relevance for the Church...such as the exercise of the rights to religious freedom, life and conscientious objection" – a reference to the Catholic…
Networks Ignore Ultra-Low Support For ObamaCare; CBS Hypes 'Surging' W
March 28th, 2014 8:49 PM
Friday's CBS Evening News picked up where the Big Three morning shows left off earlier in the day and trumpeted how "visitors have been surging to [HealthCare.gov] – about one-and-half million a day." Scott Pelley did give a bit of slightly bad news during his 16-second news brief, noting that "today, the ObamaCare website was taken down for about 20 minutes, to fix a problem that affected log-…
NewsBusted: Al Gore, America's Original Weather Drone
March 28th, 2014 6:43 PM
"The Navy has come up with a drone that can predict the weather several months in advance. Which is not to be confused with Al Gore -- a drone who says he can predict the weather a hundred years in advance."
Chris Christie, Hillary Clinton, illegal immigrants on ObamaCare, and a drunk-driving Capt. Kirk also made Jodi's strike list for this Friday's NewsBusted, NewsBusters's own original…
Scott Pelley Tosses Softballs to Obama: You Wish You Could Live Low Ke
March 28th, 2014 12:30 PM
CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley scored an exclusive interview with Barack Obama on Friday. Much of the conversation centered around the President's meeting with Pope Francis. But rather than highlight the Pope's strong disagreements on issues like abortion, gay marriage and the contraception mandate in the health care law, Pelley appeared on CBS This Morning to wonder if the President,…
ABC Touts 'Bond' Between Obama and Pope; Forgets the Administration's
March 27th, 2014 10:54 PM
All the networks gave positive coverage on Wednesday evening to President Obama's meeting with Pope Francis, but ABC left out the elephant in the room, the massive conflict between the Obama administration and the U.S. Catholic Bishops over the birth control mandate. Each network reported a happy meeting; both ABC and NBC called it "historic." All the networks highlighted the consensus between…
BBC Photo Caption References 'Pope Francis (R)' Meeting President Obam
March 27th, 2014 10:20 PM
Earlier today, the Facebook page for BBC World News posted a captionfest item featuring a photo of President Obama and Pope Francis shaking hands. Curiously, the photo caption begins, "Pope Francis (R) and US President Barack Obama shake hands after exchanging gifts during a private audience on March 27, 2014 at the Vatican." [see screen capture -- taken around 10 p.m. Eastern -- below page…
Harry Reid Once Again Runs Afoul of Campaign Finance Rules; Will Media
March 27th, 2014 5:19 PM
Imagine it's March 2006, some eight months before the midterm elections in an unpopular President Bush's second term, and the Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has this nasty habit of running afoul of the Federal Election Commission over pricey gifts for campaign donors. The media would most certainly have a field day with the revelations.
But alas, it's March 2014 and it's Sen.…
NBC and CBS Hope Pontiff's Popularity Rubs Off On Obama
March 27th, 2014 3:51 PM
During coverage of President's Obama meeting with Pope Francis on Thursday, both NBC's Today and CBS This Morning hoped the papal visit would boost the commander-in-chief's sinking poll numbers. Today co-host Matt Lauer wondered: "The Pope, enormously popular....Is there something in just rubbing elbows with the Pope for President Obama?" [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump…
Networks Hype Obama's 'Special Bond' With the Pope, Downplay Disagreem
March 27th, 2014 2:45 PM
Thursday's network morning shows tripped over themselves in their rush to fawn over President Obama meeting Pope Francis for the first time at the Vatican. At the top of ABC's Good Morning America, co-host Robin Roberts touted how the President "feels a special bond with the Pontiff." On NBC's Today, chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd spoke of an "ideological comfort level" between the…
As Obama Meets Pope, Media Mum on Biden's Slam of 'Bizarre,' 'Barbaric
March 27th, 2014 9:04 AM
As the media boosted President Obama's meeting with Pope Francis on Thursday morning, none have noticed how the reportedly weekly-Mass-attending Vice President Joe Biden made remarks in Los Angeles at a "Human Rights Campaign" event last Saturday night. Biden expressed disbelief and outrage that anyone's still taking Catholic teaching on sexuality seriously in this modern age.
The gay…
Pew Report: MSNBC Lost More Viewers, Revenue in 2013 Than Fox News, CN
March 26th, 2014 11:00 PM
According to a new report released on Wednesday by the Pew Research Center, the liberal MSNBC channel's prime-time audience fell 24 percent to 619,500 during the last calendar year, more than the Cable News Network -- which dropped 13 percent to a viewership of 543,000 – and the Fox News Channel, which lost 6 percent but still easily held onto first place with 1.75 million viewers.
As if…
Politico: Obama Wants 'Halo Effect' From Pope Francis, 'Whose Cool Fac
March 26th, 2014 10:54 PM
Someone needs to tell the Politico's Carrie Budoff Brown that it isn't 2008 any more. While they're at it, that person also needs to inform her that the Pope Francis, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, could give a rip about whether or not he is perceived as "cool," and certainly isn't Obama's "replacement."
Budoff Brown wrote tonight that President Barack Obama's meeting tomorrow with…
WashPost, NYT Uncritically Hail ObamaCare Delay, Omit Sebelius's Pledg
March 26th, 2014 4:28 PM
"More time for health sign-up" cheered the Washington Post front-page headline for Amy Goldstein's March 26 story on the administration's latest ObamaCare delay, this time for the individual mandate which requires Americans to be insured so as to avoid paying a "tax" penalty. In an amazing dereliction of her journalistic duty, Goldstein utterly failed to mention that just two weeks earlier HHS…
Limbaugh, Palin Defend Drudge's Payment of ObamaCare 'Liberty Tax
March 26th, 2014 3:19 PM
Ever since Friday afternoon, when Matt Drudge tweeted that he had just paid the “ObamaCare penalty for not getting covered” and called it a “Liberty Tax,” that post by the editor of the Drudge Report website has been slammed as a “flat lie” and “bad press” for the approaching March 31 enrollment deadline of the Affordable Care Act.
However, during Monday's edition of Rush Limbaugh's weekday…