CBS Mocks Palin: ‘Resign from Office? You Betcha

July 4th, 2009 1:17 PM
On the Saturday Early Show on the morning of July 4, CBS anchor Priya David mocked Sarah Palin’s famous phrase, "You betcha," as she introduced a report by correspondent Nancy Cordes on the Alaska governor’s decision to resign from office. David: "Resign from office? You betcha. Alaska Governor Sarah Palin dropped a political bombshell Friday, announcing that she's leaving her post, but her…

ABC Hits Reverse Discrimination Case From Left; CBS Skips It Entirely

June 30th, 2009 2:38 PM
Following up on Monday’s Supreme Court ruling in favor of New Haven firefighters who were denied promotion after no black applicants passed a written exam, ABC’s Bob Woodruff on Tuesday’s Good Morning America approached the decision from a liberal perspective, wondering if “the ruling really make future workplace discrimination harder to prove” — as opposed to wondering whether the ruling will…

CBS’s Smith Calls Middle America-hating Megan Fox a ‘Nice Person

June 30th, 2009 12:01 PM
Teasing an upcoming interview with actress Megan Fox on Tuesday’s Early Show, co-host Harry Smith gushed: "...this woman has jumped from virtual unknown to Hollywood A-lister. It doesn’t hurt she is one of the most beautiful women on the planet...And a very nice young person." Smith failed to make any mention of the "Transformers" star’s controversial comments in a June 5 interview, in which she…

Morning Shows Devote Almost an Hour to Hyping Sanford Story

June 26th, 2009 3:14 PM
The three network morning shows on Thursday devoted a staggering 18 segments to the revelation that South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford was having an affair with a woman from Argentina, adding up to over 54 minutes of coverage. NBC's Today show spent the most time on the subject, highlighting the infidelity with six segments and 25 minutes of air time. Co-host Matt Lauer even talked to disgraced…

NBC, CBS, and ABC Highlight Sanford’s GOP Label; Downplayed Label Fo

June 25th, 2009 12:38 PM
In the wake of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford’s admission to having an affair, evening and morning newscasts on NBC, CBS, and ABC all immediately identified him as a Republican. In contrast, in March of last year, the networks rarely identified disgraced New York Governor Eliot Spitzer as a Democrat in the wake of his affair with a prostitute. In a 2008 study of evening and morning network…

Smith Scolds Romney For Raising Obama's Un-Reaganesque Iran Response

June 24th, 2009 8:00 AM
When Harry Smith interviewed Pres. Obama earlier this week, I noted that his idea of "speaking truth to power" was to suggest Bo the dog was out of control.  But when Smith had a Republican in his sights this morning, the mild-mannered Early Show host suddenly went Rambo.  Raising his finger, Smith scolded Mitt Romney for pointing out that Pres. Obama's response to the Iranian repression fell far…

CBS’s Schieffer: Media Bias ‘Irrelevant,’ Can Get News ‘Anyway

June 23rd, 2009 6:14 PM
Appearing on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal Tuesday, CBS Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer dismissed the notion of liberal media bias: "...there is so much media out there now that the idea of bias in the media, it’s almost become irrelevant. I mean, we’re in this age of opinion journalism, where you can get the news served up almost anyway you want it."Schieffer went on to compare biased media…

CBS’s Smith: Cheney and Bush See Obama As ‘Treacherous

June 22nd, 2009 6:09 PM
During an interview with President Obama, Harry Smith asked about recent criticism by Dick Cheney and President Bush: "Leon Panetta intimated that the former Vice President was playing politics with national security issues. The former President has intoned his own displeasure with some of your policy changes. I think they feel like some of the things that you've done, in fact, are treacherous."…

CBS’s Smith to ‘Father-in-Chief’ Obama: ‘Where Did You Learn t

June 22nd, 2009 3:31 PM
In an interview with President Obama on Friday, CBS’s Harry Smith asked the "father-in-chief" about growing up without his own father: "In this fatherless world, where did you learn to love?" [audio available here] The first part of the interview, which aired on Father’s Day on CBS’s Sunday Morning, focused on Obama’s role as "First Dad" as Smith declared: "Maybe it was on election night when we…

Early Show Displays Obamacized Neda Poster

June 22nd, 2009 8:09 AM
Obama and Neda: same struggle!Who says Pres. Obama isn't backing the Iranian uprising strongly enough?  Why, supporters of the struggle have chosen to immortalize Neda, the young student reportedly slain by the current regime, by creating a poster of her in the style of the iconic Obama poster made famous during his presidential campaign.Might that have been CBS's subliminal message this morning…

CBS Wonders About Possible John Edwards Comeback

June 19th, 2009 11:11 AM
CBS Early Show co-host Maggie Rodriguez wondered on Friday: "Lots of politicians get caught having affairs, as you know. The trick, though, is making a comeback. It’s happened before, but the question is does John Edwards have a political future?"Rodriguez later introduced the segment by citing Edwards’ recent comments about his political future in a Washington Post interview: "Newt Gingrich and…

‘Far Left’ Label on CBS First in More than Two Years

June 18th, 2009 3:50 PM
As my colleague Mark Finkelstein noted this morning, now that gay activists are unhappy with Barack Obama, CBS has dusted off the “far left” label and used it to describe those who are upset that the President has not done more to advance the gay agenda. Co-host Harry Smith on Thursday: “President Obama gets some pressure from an unlikely source, the far left....”So when was the last time CBS…

When Are Gay Rights Groups 'Far-Left'? When They Criticize Obama

June 18th, 2009 8:47 AM
During the Bush administration, do you recall the MSM ever describing a gay rights group such as the Human Rights Campaign as "far-left"?  Neither do I. To the contrary, such organizations were sympathetically portrayed as proponents of mainstream values.But let such groups criticize Pres. Obama and—what do you know?—the MSM suddenly decides they're "far-left."  That's Joe Solomnese, head of the…

ABC, CBS Grill Obama Aide on Health Care and Regulations

June 17th, 2009 3:05 PM
ABC and CBS's morning shows on Wednesday both provided surprisingly tough questioning to Christina Romer, one of Barack Obama's economic advisors. On the issue of health care, Good Morning America co-host Diane Sawyer compared the costs of Medicare to the new health care plan and pointed out past government inaccuracies when it came to accessing cost.She grilled, "You know, in 1965, everyone was…