CBS Skips How Own Poll Finds Many More Think Spending Cuts Too Small O

August 5th, 2011 8:22 AM
Running through the findings of a new CBS News/New York Times poll, on Thursday’s CBS Evening News Chip Reid highlighted how, after weeks of media hostility the Tea Party has lost popularity, as he also located people to illustrate how more wanted, and still want, taxes raised over spending cuts alone. Reid ignored, however, how far more – Republicans, independents, and even Democrats –…

ABC Notes Dem Refusal to Budge on Medicare, CBS Gives Impression Dems

July 16th, 2011 5:12 AM
 On Friday’s World News on ABC, correspondent Jonathan Karl took a moment to go beyond the budget debate between House Republicans and President Obama with the GOP unwilling to support a tax increase, and noted that House Democrats have also been just as resistant to voting for cutting the growth of Medicare spending. But the same night's CBS Evening News focused on Republican reluctance to…

Media Softballs to Obama: Why Won't Republicans 'Budge' on Tax Increas

July 11th, 2011 5:10 PM
Six out of seven reporters, called on by Barack Obama at today's press conference, asked a question of the President that came from the left and/or blamed Speaker John Boehner and the Republicans for standing in the way of a deal on the debt ceiling. Ben Feller of the AP, began the trend of questioning when he asked how Obama was going to deal with Republicans who were "adamantly" opposed to…

CBS Omits How Obama Broke Campaign Promise on Tax Hikes

July 1st, 2011 6:42 PM
On Thursday's CBS Evening News and Friday's Early Show, CBS glossed over President Obama's aim to break a campaign promise with a proposal to raise taxes on people who make less than $250,000 a year. Both Chip Reid and Bill Plante noted that "the White House is also insisting on...a limit on deductions for people...making more than $200,000 a year," but didn't reference the Democrat's 2008 tax…

ABC Spins Soaring Gas Prices as a Weapon to Bash the GOP, Ignores Pote

April 22nd, 2011 12:33 PM
While the morning show hosts on NBC and CBS showcased the looming political threat of high gas prices for Barack Obama, ABC, Friday, simply repeated White House talking points and explained how the President will try and blame Republicans. Reporter Bianna Golodryga noted that Obama "wasted no time" in going after the GOP. She parroted, "During his speech in Reno, President Obama argued that…

CBS Validates and Rationalizes Obama’s Strategy to Defeat ‘Controv

April 13th, 2011 2:12 AM
“Critics say it’s about time” for President Barack Obama to offer his plan to reduce the deficit, CBS’s Chip Reid acknowledged Tuesday night before he proceeded to rationalize Obama’s disengagement, validated by CBS’s in-house political analyst. Reid asserted: “Political analysts say the President had good reason to wait. He wanted the Republicans to go first and they did last week when…

Video: Media Fawn Over 'Grown Up,' 'Adult' Obama vs. 'Childish' Tea Pa

April 8th, 2011 11:16 AM
Prior to this week, President Obama had been so detached from the budget debate that some in his own party have openly criticized him. Obama, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin declared in early March, has “failed to lead this debate or offer a serious proposal for spending and cuts that he would be willing to fight for.” Yet when the President chose to parachute into the budget talks earlier…

NPR's Block Hounds 'Intransigent' Freshman GOP Congressman

April 6th, 2011 7:51 PM
On Tuesday's All Things Considered, NPR's Melissa Block grilled Congressman Joe Walsh, a newly-elected member of the House Tea Party Caucus, on the impasse over the federal budget. Block questioned Rep. Walsh if there was any "middle ground" on the issue, and pressed him with the Democratic caucus's label that the Republicans' budget proposals are "out of whack and unreasonable." The host…

CBS Applauds Obama's 'Strong Words' on Libya While Even MSNBC is Not I

February 24th, 2011 5:26 PM
At the top of Thursday's CBS Early Show, co-host Chris Wragge touted President Obama's statement on the violence in Libya: "...making his first public statements on the situation there with some very strong words." However, moments after Obama's Wednesday comments, liberal MSNBC host Chris Matthews admitted: "...that was pretty tame language given the horror that's going on in Tripoli." On…

ABC, CBS Provide Skeptical Looks at Obama's Plan to Spend More, Cut th

January 27th, 2011 12:57 PM
Of the three evening newscasts, only NBC's Chuck Todd on Wednesday offered no critical analysis of Barack Obama's call for both new spending and deficit reduction. ABC's Jake Tapper actually investigated the proposed plans and concluded, "...It almost looks like a wash between his new ideas for cutting and his new ideas for spending." CBS's Chip Reid also highlighted Republican opposition and…

CBS Blames Sarah Palin For Injecting 'Politics and Controversy' Into T

January 13th, 2011 1:26 PM
At the top of Wednesday's CBS Evening News, anchor Katie Couric lamented: "The President tries to comfort a nation in mourning, but even on a rare day of unity, politics and controversy intervene." A clip was then played of Sarah Palin's Facebook video reaction to the Tucson shooting and media finger-pointing: "Journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel." Later,…

Nets Paint GOP as Obstinate, Highlight Failure to Offer ‘Mea Culpa

November 30th, 2010 10:01 PM
Covering President Barack Obama’s White House meeting with congressional leaders, ABC and CBS portrayed incoming House Republicans as the ones obstinate about tax rates, refusing to compromise – meaning agreeing to Obama’s wish to raise income tax rates on many – or match Obama’s conciliatory tone, though NBC’s Chuck Todd pointed out how Obama “seemed unwilling” to even agree with a Democratic…

CBS, ABC Excited Over Barack Obama's Bid to Recapture His 'Glory Days

September 29th, 2010 12:12 PM
Both ABC and CBS on Wednesday played up Barack Obama's attempt to reignite his Democratic base and defeat surging Republicans. Good Morning America host George Stephanopoulos labeled the President's trip to Madison, Wisconsin a "glory days tour." On CBS's Early Show, Chip Reid used nearly identical language, claiming the President was "recalling his glory days on the 2008 campaign trail." The two…

CBS: Despite Unpopularity, Obama Still 'Raking in Millions' for Dems

August 17th, 2010 12:26 PM
While teasing an upcoming report on President Obama campaigning for Democrats on Tuesday's CBS Early Show, fill-in co-host Chris Wragge touted: "...plunging poll numbers haven't stopped the President from raking in millions at fund raisers across the country." Later, White House correspondent Chip Reid observed: "You know, the President's approval rating is only 44%, but he is still quite popular…