Guantanamo Bay
NBC's 'Today': Not Fair to Pit Deeply Disliked Cheney Against Popular
May 21st, 2009 12:17 PM
"Today" reporter Chuck Todd on Thursday spun the dueling speeches of President Barack Obama and former Vice President Dick Cheney as not "a fair fight." Speaking of the two May 21 addresses on the subject of terrorism, the NBC correspondent proclaimed, "Our latest poll indicates it's the most popular member of the Democratic Party facing off against one of the most unpopular members of the…
Gibson: 'We Have Terrorists in U.S. Prisons, So Why Not the Guys from
May 20th, 2009 9:15 PM
ABC, CBS and NBC all led Wednesday night with the Senate's overwhelming 90 to 6 bi-partisan vote to withhold funding for the closing of Guantanamo and block any detainees from being moved to the U.S., but ABC anchor Charles Gibson was uniquely flummoxed: “What's the problem here?...We have terrorists in U.S. prisons, so why not the guys from Guantanamo?”Gibson alluded, in setting up his question…
CBS’s Smith Parrots ACLU Talking Points on Face the Nation
May 18th, 2009 6:05 PM
Filling in for Bob Schieffer on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday, host Harry Smith helped finish the sentences of ACLU executive director Anthony Romero, while grilling New York Republican Congressman Peter King during a discussion on recent national security decisions by the Obama administration. Smith began by asking Romero about the Obama administration’s decision to reinstate military…
CBS’s Smith Hits Obama From Left On Military Tribunals
May 15th, 2009 11:50 AM
On Friday’s CBS Early Show, co-host Harry Smith took a critical tone against the Obama administration’s decision to reinstate military tribunals for terror suspects: "President Obama will resume the controversial military tribunals for some terror suspects." Smith later discussed the decision with John Dickerson from Slate.com and wondered what the hard left would think: "Let's talk about this…
CBS ‘60 Minutes’ Touts Saudi Terrorist Rehabilitation Program
May 4th, 2009 1:14 PM
On Sunday’s 60 Minutes on CBS, correspondent David Martin reported on the "soft approach" to terrorism in Saudi Arabia: "Each time the United States releases Saudis from the prison at Guantanamo, the kingdom dispatches a 747 to Cuba to pick them up...the Saudi government is paying for cars, homes, even marriages for these reformed jihadists." After explaining that "...more than half the so-called…
Ed Schultz Exploits Death of Daniel Pearl for Sake of Bogus Gitmo Abus
April 30th, 2009 10:10 AM
Back on April 9, radio host Ed Schultz boasted of his high regard for accuracy while telling listeners about his new television show on MSNBC --Where I work, they don't put stuff on the air unless it's accurate and they differentiate between opinion and fact. And in my world I think that's kind of important. On The Ed Show (Schultz's program on MSNBC), I'm not going to tell you something that I…
Newsweek’s Alter: ‘Not Patriotic’ for ‘Sick’ Cheney to Call
April 26th, 2009 5:30 PM
On Friday’s Countdown show, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann and Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter seemed to take turns reining in each other’s conspiracy theories as the two discussed the latest on former Vice President Cheney’s request for the release of classified information regarding the results of waterboarding al-Qaeda detainees. Alter charged that former Vice President Cheney is attacking President…
CBS ‘Early Show’ Links Terror Interrogations to Abu Ghraib...Again
April 24th, 2009 3:26 PM
In a news brief on Friday’s CBS Early Show, co-host Russ Mitchell implied a link between the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal and Bush administration approval of tough interrogation tactics on suspected terrorists: "Soon we will see more pictures of U.S. personnel allegedly abusing prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. The photos, like these from Abu Ghraib, are being released next month, following…
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough Slams Misinformation Spread on 'Hardball
April 23rd, 2009 2:58 PM
"Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough on Thursday attacked misinformation spread by a guest during a segment on the previous day's "Hardball." Ex-CIA agent Bob Baer appeared on Chris Matthews' program on Wednesday to claim that no information was gained from waterboarding and that using the practice on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed left the terrorist "almost brain dead." Scarborough derided this kind of…
CBS’s Smith to McCain: Shouldn’t Bush Officials Face ‘Recriminat
April 23rd, 2009 12:16 PM
While discussing the possible prosecution of Bush administration officials over interrogation methods used against terror suspects, on Thursday’s CBS Early Show, co-host Harry Smith asked Senator John McCain: "You fought a long battle with the [Bush] White House over this issue, said they ought to follow the Army manual, which the -- the White House refused to...Why do you feel so strongly that…
CBS’s Smith: Bush Interrogation Methods Caused Abu Ghraib
April 22nd, 2009 11:35 AM
On Wednesday’s CBS Early Show, co-host Harry Smith resurrected the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, connecting it to the current debate over interrogation methods used toward terror suspects under the Bush administration: "Torture on trial. In a major shift, President Obama now says he is open to investigating Bush administration officials for crimes related to torture...We'll talk to the former…
Maddow Ignores Inconvenient Element to Gitmo Prisoner Calling Al Jazee
April 17th, 2009 12:01 PM
This journalism "thingy," a word used with cloying frequency by MSNBC political analyst Rachel Maddow, is proving problematic for the former Air America Radio host.On her cable show Tuesday night, Maddow informed viewers of "breaking news" that a terrorist suspect imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay had somehow called the Qatar-based Al Jazeera network on a cell phone.Here's how Maddow described it…