CBS’s Couric: Obama Calls on China to ‘Tear Down That Firewall

November 17th, 2009 5:09 PM
At the top of Monday’s CBS Evening News, anchor Katie Couric teased a story on the President’s trip to China by casting him as Reaganesque: “Mr. Hu, tear down that firewall. President Obama challenges China’s government to allow unfettered access to the internet.”Couric introduced the segment that followed by continuing to play up the idea that Obama took a hard line on Chinese censorship: “In…

CBS: Obama 'So Thoroughly Researching Critical' Afghanistan Decision

November 12th, 2009 9:52 PM
News that President Barack Obama is demanding new Afghanistan options and answers, after months and eight meetings with top officials on General Stanley McChrystal's request for more troops, led ABC anchor Charles Gibson to express exasperation Thursday night: “What new questions are there to be asked after all this time?” CBS and NBC, however, weren't so dubious. Though Katie Couric painted “a…

'Noisy Rally' By 'a Few Thousand' Matched by 'Powerful' AARP and AMA E

November 6th, 2009 9:41 AM
Despite the mass shooting at Fort Hood, the ABC, CBS and NBC newscasts Thursday night squeezed in full stories pegged to a “kill the bill” anti-Pelosi/ObamaCare rally outside the U.S. Capitol attended by “angry protesters” as all the stories also stressed how President Obama got a “boost” from “big,” “powerful” “key” and “major” endorsements from the AARP and AMA. NBC's Brian Williams contrasted…

CBS Says White House Is Fudging Stimulus Jobs Numbers

October 30th, 2009 11:53 AM
When Katie Couric and the folks at CBS start doubting what the Administration says about how effective February's economic stimulus package was, you know President Obama is in trouble.Consider that on Thursday's CBS "Evening News," Chip Reid began a segment with the following startling statement about a jobs report card to be released by the White House Friday:Well, Katie, that report is going to…

CBS Highlights Anti-Obama Complaints in New Orleans

October 16th, 2009 9:14 AM
All three broadcast network evening newscasts on Thursday informed viewers of President Obama’s trip to New Orleans – including criticism he received for only staying a few hours. But correspondent Chip Reid of the CBS Evening News uniquely played up the fact that, even though President Obama had complained about President Bush’s handling of Hurricane Katrina rebuilding, the Obama administration…

Obama a 'Figure of Hope' to World in Winning 'One of the Last Towering

October 9th, 2009 9:09 PM
ABC, CBS and NBC all led Friday night with the “surprise” pick of President Barack Obama for the Nobel Peace Prize after less than a year in office and acknowledged the choice was meant as a slap at former President George W. Bush, but that didn't prevent the network journalists from touting the honor of the selection and, in one case, worrying about how critics will use the award against him. “…

CBS: Obama International ‘Darling,’ But Hasn’t Accomplished Anyt

September 23rd, 2009 1:33 PM
In a somewhat schizophrenic report on Tuesday’s CBS Evening News, White House correspondent Chip Reid proclaimed President Obama is: "still the darling of the international community. Warmly welcomed by a world that grew weary of President Bush’s brash go-it-alone style." But also admitted: "But with scant progress on a long his of issues, the question now is what does he have to show for it?"…

Obama Disappoints NBC By 'Falling Short' on 'Climate Change,' Fret Exp

September 22nd, 2009 10:23 PM
A lover's quarrel emerged Tuesday night in the media's love affair with President Barack Obama. He disappointed NBC by failing, at the UN's “Summit on Climate Change,” to go far enough on global warming. “President Obama's being accused of falling short on the environment today with the whole world watching,” Brian Williams teased NBC Nightly News. Williams framed his lead story through the prism…

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…

CBS Touts 12-Point Health Approval Jump for Obama; NBC: Wilson 'Contin

September 11th, 2009 9:14 PM
President Obama's address before a joint session of Congress “to rescue health care reform” caused “a 12-point improvement from last week” so “52 percent now approve of the way he's handling health care,” Katie Couric announced at the top of Friday's CBS Evening News in touting how a new CBS News poll discovered that “among those who say they watched the speech” -- a group she failed to point out…

CBS: Obama Merchandise ‘Selling Like Crazy’ On Martha’s Vineyard

August 24th, 2009 5:56 PM
Reporting on the First Family vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard, CBS reporter Chip Reid excitedly exclaimed: "One thing that’s going to give a huge boost to the economy is all the Obama paraphernalia...t-shirts, it’s baseball caps and magnets and coffee mugs and glasses. And restaurants are selling the ‘Baracko Taco.’ Bars are selling ‘Ale to the Chief.’ And all of it is selling like crazy."…

CBS Describes Democrats as ‘Orchestrating’ Pro-Obama Town Hall in

August 15th, 2009 5:31 AM
On Friday’s broadcast network evening newscasts, the CBS Evening News uniquely noted that Democrats in Montana had "orchestrated" a friendly environment for President Obama at a Montana town hall event as many Democrats arrived early to secure tickets. After CBS correspondent Chip Reid filed a report in which he relayed that "this crowd was on [Obama's] side," and that "the questions were mostly…

Nets Disparage Protests: Getting 'Ugly' and 'Unruly,' Scold Limbaugh B

August 9th, 2009 6:08 PM
The ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts in near-unison on Friday night disparaged the anti-ObamaCare protests at town meetings held by Members of Congress as “unruly,” “nasty” and “getting ugly,” while CBS and NBC targeted Rush Limbaugh -- NBC's Kelly O'Donnell charged “some anger...gets stoked by the provocative megaphone of Rush Limbaugh, who went so far as accusing Democrats of wanting the…

Bad Polls for Obama; CBS Finds Bright Spots, NBC Skates Over Devastati

July 29th, 2009 10:36 PM
CBS and NBC released new polls Wednesday night which illustrated how the public is moving against President Barack Obama on health care as his overall approval, at least in the NBC survey, fell to its lowest-ever level. But while both networks conveyed the bad news for Obama, NBC's Chuck Todd failed to point out how more now disapprove than approve of Obama's handling of health care, a…