ABC, NBC uncritically reported Bush's latest Iraqi troop readiness goal
The January 9 broadcasts of ABC's World News and NBC's Nightly News reported that President Bush will announce a goal in his January 10 speech of having Iraqi security forces in control of, or leading combat operations in, all of Iraq's provinces by the end of 2007. Neither ABC nor NBC questioned the feasibility of this reputed goal or reminded viewers that Bush failed to meet his previous goal of having the Iraqi security forces control more territory than the U.S.-led coalition by the end of 2006. Read more
To support his assertion that Democrats who oppose President Bush's possible plan to increase U.S. forces in Iraq risk "sound[ing] like ill-informed dilettantes," Joe Klein attacked The New York Times' Paul Krugman for not mentioning, in a recent column, that retired Gen. Jack Keane, among others, supports a troop increase. However, Keane recently appeared to support plans to send "[a]n additional 20,000 troops" to Iraq, despite having asserted, less than two weeks earlier, that adding "at least 30,000 combat troops" was the "only" option to "[b]ring security to Baghdad." Read more
Bash: Bush "very, very popular" in Montana
On the January 10 edition of CNN Newsroom, CNN congressional correspondent Dana Bash, discussing senators who have recently expressed opposition to President Bush's expected proposal to increase troop levels in Iraq, baselessly asserted that "the president is still very, very popular" in the "red state" of Montana. In fact, the latest Survey USA tracking poll for Montana, conducted November 9-11, 2006, reported that 45 percent of Montana respondents approved of "the job" Bush "is doing as president" and 51 percent disapproved (with a +/- 4.1-percent margin of error). In Survey USA's November polls, Bush had a higher approval rating than disapproval rating in only Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming. Prior to the November 2006 elections, Media Matters for America documented a pattern in the media of falsely characterizing states that Bush won in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections as "pro-Bush" states currently. Read more
MSNBC graphics call troop increase a "surge" even as host says the opposite
During the January 10 edition of MSNBC Live at 11 a.m. ET, onscreen captions continually used President Bush's favored term -- "surge" -- to describe the president's plan to increase the number of troops in Iraq, even though that hour's host, NBC News chief White House correspondent David Gregory, stated that the term "surge" is a "misnomer" and that "it's important to point out that ... it's not a surge, [because] it's going to take several months" to bring in the additional 20,000 troops. Read more
NY Times reported solely on Dems' use of "escalation," ignored political significance of "surge"
A New York Times article on the semantic debate surrounding President Bush's expected call for a troop increase in Iraq focused entirely on "escalation" as language favored by Democrats and other opponents of the forthcoming proposal. But the article ignored the roots of the term "surge" -- which offers potential political advantage to supporters of a troop increase and has been used by Bush, the Pentagon, and various advocates of sending more troops to Iraq. Read more
During MSNBC's January 10 coverage previewing President Bush's upcoming speech on Iraq, host Lester Holt asked Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, "[I]f the troops come home short of [Bush being] able to go ahead with his new way forward, is that a defeat?" Discussing whether Democrats should "consider[] cutting funding, or reducing funding, or capping the president's ability to add troops," Holt stated that "this is an emotional issue that often gets reduced to labels. Some say Republican supporters of the president's plan [to increase the number of U.S. combat troops in Iraq] are delusional; others say Democrats such as yourself are defeatist." He then asked Rangel: "[D]o you think we have been defeated in Iraq, and if the Army comes home, will they have come home in defeat?" Read more
CNN, MSNBC reported on poll regarding "temporary" troop increase without evidence it's "temporary"
The January 10 editions of CNN's The Situation Room and MSNBC's Tucker featured reports on a January 5-7 USA Today/Gallup poll indicating that 61 percent of Americans oppose the "temporary but significant increase in the number of U.S. troops in Iraq" that the Bush administration is "considering," while 36 percent support it. Neither report, however, noted that there has been no indication from the White House or the Defense Department that the increase in troops will be "temporary." Indeed, news reports have indicated that the troop increase will be sustained for well over one year, and White House press secretary Tony Snow said that Bush will avoid using the term "surge" in reference to the troop increase because it implied a "rush hour" approach. Read more
Broadcast networks ignored Democratic response to Bush's address
Following President Bush's January 10 prime-time address announcing his decision to deploy more than 20,000 additional U.S. troops to Iraq, Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-IL) delivered a brief Democratic response from Capitol Hill in which he stated, "Escalation of this war is not the change the American people called for in the last election. Instead of a new direction, the president's plan moves the American commitment in Iraq in the wrong direction." But ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox Broadcasting Co. all declined to air Durbin's remarks. ABC, NBC, and CBS returned to their regular programming. Fox, meanwhile, held a post-speech discussion with National Review editor Rich Lowry and Democratic strategist Kirsten Powers, followed by an interview with Fox News military analyst retired Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney, instead of cutting to Durbin. Read more
CBS mischaracterized own poll to declare Americans are "split on troop 'surge' "
A CBSNews.com article misrepresented the findings of the network's own poll to claim that "45 percent are in favor of the so-called troop 'surge,' while 48 percent are opposed." The poll question resulting in the 45 percent-48 percent split did not address President Bush's expected proposal for an increase of U.S. troops in Iraq. Read more
On Scarborough, body language analyst found that O'Reilly exhibited "typical primate behavior"
On the January 9 edition of MSNBC's Scarborough Country, media psychologist Caryn Stark watched a clip of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor to analyze the body language of host Bill O'Reilly and determined that, during that particular show, O'Reilly exhibited "typical primate behavior" and "ma[de] a lot of noise and a lot of fury about nothing." Host Joe Scarborough introduced the segment by saying that O'Reilly "has been on an absolute rampage against NBC, MSNBC, and all things peacock recently." He also stated that, on the January 5 edition of the Factor, O'Reilly "tried to get [NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell] to confess to NBC's deep-rooted Bush-hating." He then showed a clip of the January 9 edition of the Factor, during which O'Reilly asked body language expert Tonya Reiman to analyze Mitchell during her appearance on the show January 5. Scarborough explained: "[W]e decided to bring our own expert in ... to analyze Bill O'Reilly's body language and figure out what's behind his obsession with NBC. This is what we learned." Read more
More Scarborough Country on "Bill O'Reilly's strange obsession with NBC"
Media Matters for America senior fellow Paul Waldman appeared on the January 8 edition of MSNBC's Scarborough Country to discuss, as host Joe Scarborough called it, "Bill O'Reilly's strange obsession with NBC." Other participants in the discussion included attorney and author Bob Kohn, and Congressional Quarterly columnist and MSNBC analyst Craig Crawford. Read more
Fox & Friends' Kilmeade: Media "pulling for Hillary" to win presidency
On the January 10 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, co-host Brian Kilmeade claimed that "all you have to do is pick up the newspaper to understand" that "most of the media is pulling for [Sen.] Hillary [Rodham Clinton (D-NY)] to get to the White House." Kilmeade was discussing the 2008 presidential election with former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX). Read more
Fox & Friends' Kilmeade joked about alleged police shooting threat, called it a "great tactic"
On the January 9 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, co-host Brian Kilmeade stated that it was a "great tactic" for police to threaten to shoot a man who was driving a van holding 14 Guatemalan nationals. Kilmeade said, "To me, that works perfect," adding, "I wouldn't be surprised if they teach it in the academies." Read more
Savage on Pelosi: "[Y]ou little weasel, you. You harridan, you"
On the January 8 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage called Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) a "weasel," a "harridan," and a "lying little witch." Savage also asked of Pelosi: "How many different Botox treatments do you have to get till you realize that nobody believes you?" He then shifted his attention to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), suggesting that the reported "stink in New York" happened because "Barbara Boxer and her family had visited New York and opened up the bedroom door." Read more
Beck allowed misinformation on minimum wage hike
On his CNN program, Glenn Beck allowed the Cato Institute's James Dorn to repeat a much-circulated myth that the minimum wage increase proposal would benefit "typically your part-time ... young workers that are making minimum wage," adding that [m]ost of these workers are in families that have incomes in the middle income or even higher middle-income families." Read more
CNN failed to inform viewers that GOP critics of anti-terrorism bill later voted for it
During a report on the House bill to implement the 9-11 Commission recommendations, CNN congressional correspondent Andrea Koppel pronounced the bill a product of "political calculation" after interviewing three Republican representatives who criticized the bill. In its rebroadcast of Koppel's report, CNN did not inform viewers that two of the three Republicans -- Reps. Peter King (NY) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL) -- voted for the bill after blasting Democrats on CNN. Moreover, Koppel presented no substantive defense of the bill from Democrats, while Situation Room host Wolf Blitzer repeatedly suggested the bill was a "political stunt." Read more
No comments:
Post a Comment