A daily compilation edited by Brent H. Baker, CyberAlert items are drawn from daily BiasAlert posts and distributed by the Media Research Center's News Analysis Division, the leader since 1987 in documenting, exposing and neutralizing liberal media bias.
Tracking Liberal Media Bias Since 1996
Thursday July 15, 2010 @ 09:29 AM EDT1. CBS Uses Al Sharpton to Boost NAACP's Accusation Tea Party is 'Tolerating Bigotry'
A night after ABC's World News elevated the NAACP's allegation that the "Tea Party movement is a threat to the pursuit of human rights, justice and equality for all," the CBS Evening News pitched in to advance the charge from the unlabeled liberal group. Over "BIGOTRY ALLEGATIONS" on screen beneath a Tea Party sign, from New Orleans Katie Couric teased at the top of her Wednesday newscast: "The NAACP accuses the Tea Party movement of tolerating bigotry." Anchoring from New York, Harry Smith announced "the Tea Party movement has come under fire from the NAACP. The accusation: the party tolerates racism in its ranks." John Dickerson related the charge the "Tea Party tolerates racists, says the NAACP, and these signs allegedly made by Tea Party supporters, are proof." The two signs shown, "Obama's Plan: White Slavery" and "Obama, What you talkin about Willis! Spend my money?" Explaining how the NAACP's resolution calls "on Tea Party leaders to 'repudiate those in their ranks who use racist language in their signs and speeches,'" Dickerson featured expert comment from race-hustler Al Sharpton who insisted the Tea Party mission "is to reverse what civil rights did."
2. Rick Sanchez & Roland Martin Slam Limbaugh, Beck as Illegitimate, 'Racist'
CNN's Rick Sanchez returned to attacking conservative talk radio on Wednesday's Rick's List program, lamenting that "a lot of people in this country...think that Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh are legitimate news organizations." Sanchez also brought on liberal CNN contributor Roland Martin to do the same: "The Glenn Becks of the world...use the race-baiting...Rush Limbaugh and his racist language." The left-leaning CNN anchor brought on Martin and Memphis, Tennessee Tea Party founder Mark Skoda just after the bottom of the 4 pm Eastern hour to discuss the NAACP's recently-passed resolution condemning the tea party movement's "racism." As you might expect, Sanchez singled out two isolated examples of racially-tinged signs at tea party rallies: a birther tea party protester who held a "sent Obama back to Kenya" sign while carrying a stuffed monkey, and a sign from the 9/12 rally in Washington, DC in 2009 that depicted President Obama as an African witch doctor.
3. Perplexed Matthews: How Can South Carolina GOPers Vote for Indian-American But Not Support a Black President?
Chris Matthews, on Wednesday's Hardball, invited on recently defeated Republican Representative Bob Inglis to slam Matthews' favorite targets, namely the Tea Party, Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin and after he got the requisite criticisms out of the South Carolina congressman of those entities asked him if he could explain how primary voters from his own party could nominate an Indian-American like Nikki Haley, even though they've "got a problem with a black president?" Matthews, clearly not grasping the concept that perhaps voters in South Carolina could cast their ballot based out of purely ideological and not racial motives, asked Inglis the following question: "How do you figure your state out? It's pretty conservative obviously. It's Strom Thurmond country in many ways and, and it has people like DeMint pretty far over and then people like Lindsey Graham who are sort of regular conservatives. But then you nominated, your party has nominated an Indian-American woman, Nikki Haley. Obviously an attractive candidate, she knows how to present herself obviously, but what's that about? Is that just an interesting little aspect? 'It's okay to be Indian-American but we got a problem with this black president?' What's that about?"
4. MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan Froths: Wall Street Frightens 'Little Boy' Obama, Makes Him 'Bend Over'
MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan appeared on Morning Joe, Wednesday, to dismiss Barack Obama as a "little boy" in the eyes of Wall Street and to assert the President "just bends over," rather than stand up to the financial industry. The charged language surprised host Joe Scarborough who sputtered, "You know, I was so uncomfortable with a couple of the things you said and then the exclamation point at the end." Speaking of financial reform, Ratigan attacked, "...When the Wall Street guys got across the table from him and said 'Oh you going to change our tax code little boy?'" After dismissing Obama's ability to oppose Wall Street, Ratigan vulgarly claimed, "But with this guy, he just bends over every time."
5. Today Show Job Search Segment Turns Into Ad for Obama Agenda
A segment that was billed as a guide to help some of Today's unemployed viewers find work, on Wednesday's show, turned into a platform for the president of the liberal National Urban League to attack those who opposed the President's plans, as he railed against those in Congress who have been filibustering extension of the unemployment benefits. Today co-anchor Matt Lauer, who hosted the segment, even prompted Morial to address how his organization was going to address the obstruction of the Democratic agenda in Congress, in the upcoming midterm elections, as he asked: "How much do you target candidates who have bad job policies...and support candidates who have good ones?"
6. Most Networks Skip Broadcast Profanity Case, Avoid or Skim Over Critics
Most networks skipped over the story of their own corporate advocacy of broadcast profanity Tuesday night when the Second Circuit Court of Appeals shredded the FCC's broadcast decency regulation. (All the major broadcast networks signed on, with Fox in the lead). NBC's Brian Williams offered 94 words, but erred in claiming "When a curse word has slipped out in the past, the FCC has imposed heavy fines on networks."
>>> NewsBusters.org, the MRC's blog you trust to expose the liberal media's bias every day, is turning 5 years old in August! Several activities are underway to celebrate this milestone, including a T-shirt giveaway. Every weekday between now and August 17, we will give away five NewsBusters T-shirts. Sign up for a chance to win one: http://www.mrcaction.org/556/petition.asp
The sooner you sign up, the more chances you'll have to win! Also, be sure to visit www.NewsBusters.org each Friday for more anniversary news and surprises. <<<
CBS Uses Al Sharpton to Boost NAACP's Accusation Tea Party is 'Tolerating Bigotry'
A night after ABC's World News elevated the NAACP's allegation that the "Tea Party movement is a threat to the pursuit of human rights, justice and equality for all," the CBS Evening News pitched in to advance the charge from the unlabeled liberal group. Over "BIGOTRY ALLEGATIONS" on screen beneath a Tea Party sign, from New Orleans Katie Couric teased at the top of her Wednesday newscast: "The NAACP accuses the Tea Party movement of tolerating bigotry."
Anchoring from New York, Harry Smith announced "the Tea Party movement has come under fire from the NAACP. The accusation: the party tolerates racism in its ranks." John Dickerson related the charge the "Tea Party tolerates racists, says the NAACP, and these signs allegedly made by Tea Party supporters, are proof." The two signs shown, "Obama's Plan: White Slavery" and "Obama, What you talkin about Willis! Spend my money?"
Explaining how the NAACP's resolution calls "on Tea Party leaders to 'repudiate those in their ranks who use racist language in their signs and speeches,'" Dickerson featured expert comment from race-hustler Al Sharpton who insisted the Tea Party mission "is to reverse what civil rights did."Following a clip of FreedomWorks' Matt Kibbe asserting they do not tolerate racism, Dickerson countered with how "sometimes it's the community's leaders who go too far. The Iowa Tea Party purchased a billboard in downtown Mason City comparing Barack Obama to Hitler and Vladimir Lenin."
Such a billboard may be stupid or counter-productive, but how is it racist? Indeed, displaying an image of Hitler and George W. Bush, Dickerson acknowledged "partisans comparing a President to Hitler is not unique to the current President."
From Tuesday night: "ABC Hypes NAACP Indictment of Tea Party as Racist, a Smear the Network Stoked."
From the Wednesday, July 14 CBS Evening News:
— Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.HARRY SMITH: Race and politics now. The Tea Party movement has come under fire from the NAACP. The accusation: the party tolerates racism in its ranks. Here's John Dickerson.
JOHN DICKERSON: The Tea Party tolerates racists, says the NAACP, and these signs allegedly made by Tea Party supporters, are proof [signs: "Obama's Plan White Slavery" and "Obama, What you talkin about Willis! Spend my money?"]. Members of the civil rights organization passed a resolution at their annual convention calling on Tea Party leaders to "repudiate those in their ranks who use racist language in their signs and speeches."
AL SHARPTON: The Tea Party, as a political philosophy, is to reverse what civil rights did and that is saying the federal government must protect people.
DICKERSON: The NAACP also claims activists shouted a racial slur at Congressman John Lewis during a health care protest last March. On her Facebook page, Sarah Palin, a supporter of the movement, called the charge "false, appalling, and a regressive and diversionary tactic." Organizers of the anti-tax, anti-government Tea Party movement, like Matt Kibbe, say they have already made it clear they do not tolerate racism.
MATT KIBBE: We will not tolerate any kind of hate in our groups and that if you see it in the community, you need to call them out.
DICKERSON: But sometimes it's the community's leaders who go too far. The Iowa Tea Party purchased a billboard in downtown Mason City comparing Barack Obama to Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. The group has since covered it up, saying it was counterproductive. But partisans comparing a President to Hitler is not unique to the current President [Hitler and George W. Bush image]. Tea Party activists say the NAACP is making this incendiary charge for political reasons.
KIBBE: They're trying to mobilize voters in an election that looks very bad for Democrats.
DICKERSON: The core supporters of both political parties are now in a battle with each other over race, one of the country's most sensitive issues. And now an already contentious election year has gotten more so.
Rick Sanchez & Roland Martin Slam Limbaugh, Beck as Illegitimate, 'Racist'
CNN's Rick Sanchez returned to attacking conservative talk radio on Wednesday's Rick's List program, lamenting that "a lot of people in this country...think that Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh are legitimate news organizations." Sanchez also brought on liberal CNN contributor Roland Martin to do the same: "The Glenn Becks of the world...use the race-baiting...Rush Limbaugh and his racist language" [audio clips available here].
The left-leaning CNN anchor brought on Martin and Memphis, Tennessee Tea Party founder Mark Skoda just after the bottom of the 4 pm Eastern hour to discuss the NAACP's recently-passed resolution condemning the tea party movement's "racism." As you might expect, Sanchez singled out two isolated examples of racially-tinged signs at tea party rallies: a birther tea party protester who held a "sent Obama back to Kenya" sign while carrying a stuffed monkey, and a sign from the 9/12 rally in Washington, DC in 2009 that depicted President Obama as an African witch doctor.
Martin treated Skoda in a confrontational manner from almost the beginning. The Memphis tea party leader brushed aside Sanchez's citation of a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll which apparently found that "49 percent of Americans saying that they believe the tea party movement is based in some part on racial prejudice." The pro-Obama contributor then pounced: "Well, actually, he didn't actually answer your question. He danced around your question because I don't- he obviously did not want to answer it. So I will let him have a second opportunity, Rick, to actually answer the question."
Sanchez agreed to Martin's point and asked, "Would you like another chance to answer the question?" Skoda replied, "Sure, I'd be happy. First of all, I don't know the statistics, and certainly, what the sampling size of this poll." Both Sanchez and Martin interrupted at this point, repeating it was an ABC News/Washington Post poll, with the anchor adding, "a very legitimate organization- very legitimate polling data."
The CNN anchor returned to the idea of the supposed legitimacy of the mainstream media versus conservative talk radio near the end of the segment as he and the pro-Obama contributor blasted Beck and Limbaugh:
SANCHEZ: Roland, you get the last word.MARTIN: I...think part of the problem here is that when you look at the people who I think some tea parties- tea party folks look to, the Glenn Becks of the world, who say the President's a racist, and they use the race-baiting, when you look at Rush Limbaugh and his racist language as well- that's what you have here, and at the end of the day, if it's about rights, fine, but reject the people who want to bring race into the rally, into the party. So, I salute those who do that. They're the righteous folks. But not all tea party leaders are willing to do that, and I think the NAACP is simply saying, remove the racist elements from your existence because they're the ones who are hindering your message.Martin also attacked Limbaugh during an October 20, 2008 segment with CNN's Campbell Brown, using the cliched "fat idiot" insult against him.
SANCHEZ: Well, unfortunately, there's a lot of people in this country that look at legitimate news organizations like The Washington Post and scoff, and actually think that Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh are legitimate news organizations.
MARTIN: Well, they make up stuff. They're not legitimate to me at all.
SANCHEZ: Sad as that may be- gentlemen, we'll have to leave it there.
Earlier in the segment, the tea party leader noted that he and his organization had "repudiated racism at every chance," and added a critique of the media's coverage of the New Black Panther Party: "On the other hand, I didn't hear too much being said when Shabazz suggested that white cracker babies and police should be murdered, and that is, far and away, extreme, versus a sign that might be carried at such an event."
Martin brushed aside this critique and attacked Fox News to the apparent amusement of Sanchez:
MARTIN: Media Matters has an interesting take on that, and that Fox News has actually put the New Black Panther Party on the network more than anybody else in the past 10 years. So maybe they're the ones pushing that story he's talking about, so maybe they should answer why they are giving them a platform to espouse their views. (Sanchez laughs) That's one thing they should answer....CBS had a poll, as well, of tea party members where more than a quarter said they believed this president was doing more for blacks than anybody else- not based upon any real data, just simply a particular view. And so, I can understand why people hold a view. But the tea party should be saying, if you come with your racist rhetoric and your signs, you are not welcome- get out of here. That's the right response.The CNN anchor then used a liberal talking point about the tea party movement in his next question to the tea party leader: "How much of this do you think, Mark, has to do with the fact that the tea party has come to fruition at a time when we have our first African-American president in the history of the United States, and it's almost impossible to look at those two without seeing them together?"
Sanchez has attacked conservative talk show hosts on several occasions. On July 9, the anchor hinted they were uneducated: "Many...don't even have a college degree." Earlier in 2010, the CNN personality repeatedly insinuated that "crazy talk show hosts that are so right wing" were to blame for ten congressman requesting extra security just before ObamaCare was passed.
Back in 2009, Sanchez had to apologize for running a fake quote attributed to Limbaugh in October. Two months earlier, he accused anti-ObamaCare activists of spreading lies, attributing this to the protesters relying "exclusively [on] right-wing media and right-wing television channels." The CNN anchor also hinted on June 11, 2009 that the white supremacist who killed a guard at the U.S. Holocaust Museum, might have been "motivated to move by right-wing pronouncements...on some TV and radio outlets." Sanchez went beyond hinting during an April 8, 2009 segment about the murder of three Pittsburgh police officers: "That weekend tragedy involves a man who allegedly shot and killed three police officers in cold blood. Why? Because he was convinced, after no doubt watching Fox News and listening to right-wing radio, that quote, 'Our rights were being infringed upon.'"
—Matthew Balan is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here.
Perplexed Matthews: How Can South Carolina GOPers Vote for Indian-American But Not Support a Black President?
Chris Matthews, on Wednesday's Hardball, invited on recently defeated Republican Representative Bob Inglis to slam Matthews' favorite targets, namely the Tea Party, Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin and after he got the requisite criticisms out of the South Carolina congressman of those entities asked him if he could explain how primary voters from his own party could nominate an Indian-American like Nikki Haley, even though they've "got a problem with a black president?" Matthews, clearly not grasping the concept that perhaps voters in South Carolina could cast their ballot based out of purely ideological and not racial motives, asked Inglis the following question:
How do you figure your state out? It's pretty conservative obviously. It's Strom Thurmond country in many ways and, and it has people like DeMint pretty far over and then people like Lindsey Graham who are sort of regular conservatives. But then you nominated, your party has nominated an Indian-American woman, Nikki Haley. Obviously an attractive candidate, she knows how to present herself obviously, but what's that about? Is that just an interesting little aspect? "It's okay to be Indian-American but we got a problem with this black president?" What's that about? [audio available here]Before Matthews ended his show on that stumper of a question, he egged on the soon to be former Representative Inglis to attack the Tea Party, Limbaugh and Palin, as seen in the following exchanges that were aired on the July 14 Hardball:
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Well, the Tea Party has racked up big wins already in 2010. They scared Senator Arlen Specter out of the Republican primary and watched him lose as a Democrat. Former Alabama Democratic Congressman Parker Griffith did the exact opposite. He jumped into the Republican primary and lost down there. Tea Partiers ousted Senator Bob Bennett at the Republican state convention out in Utah. They ran Governor Charlie Crist right out of the Republican Senate primary in Florida. And the latest victim of the Tea Party is South Carolina congressman Bob Inglis who lost a Republican runoff just last month after getting hammered in town halls for voting for TARP and knocking down false rumors about death panels. He joins us right now. Congressman Inglis, I want to make sure everybody knows you're not a RINO. You've got an 85 percent conservative record, you've got a five percent liberal record. You're a conservative, right?—Geoffrey Dickens is the Senior News Analyst at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here
REP. BOB INGLIS: Right, I think it's actually 93 percent ACU rating. Yeah, yeah.
MATTHEWS: Well I looked, I looked at it a couple years ago. So you're up to date at ninety, ninety-what?
INGLIS: Ninety-three percent.
MATTHEWS: So you're not conservative enough for South Carolina.
INGLIS: I needed that extra seven.
MATTHEWS: Oh my God! Well you told the Associated Press, quote, "I think we have a lot of leaders that are following those television and talk radio personalities and not leading us." We've had a little contest here, as you know, waiting for somebody. Well, you're a lame duck now but maybe you count. But we've been waiting for somebody to say "I'm not really a ditto head. I don't really follow Rush Limbaugh's thinking. He's not my leader." Are you ready to be the first?
INGLIS: Well I'll tell ya-
MATTHEWS: Or are you still gonna hold back?
INGLIS: I don't, I don't follow Rush Limbaugh's lead. You know, when, when I found out I didn't? I was in six years and I was out of Congress for six years and I was listening to him one day and he's making fun of people in cars who get high fuel efficiency and I thought, you know, Rush, that's it. I turned the radio off.
MATTHEWS: Yeah.
INGLIS: Because it didn't fit with my dad who's 87 years old. He's my idea of conservative. He used to tell us, "Now, we gonna let off the gas at the Tarvers' and you coast to our driveway," because he's a conservative.
MATTHEWS: Well what happened to Teddy Roosevelt? Wasn't he a great conservative in the Republican Party?
INGLIS: Yeah, absolutely.
MATTHEWS: A conservationist.
INGLIS: Yeah and so my, yeah and so my thought was, you know, listen, conservatism is saving resources, and, and what Rush was further making fun of is people driving electric cars with regenerative braking. I'm thinking, if I make the investment to get up the hill with my gas, why wouldn't I want to generate electricity coming down the hill? I'm a conservative.
MATTHEWS: Rush, by the way, says a lot of things. He makes fun of anybody who tries to deal with conservation issues, which are traditionally conservative issues. He makes fun of all kinds of things.
...
MATTHEWS: You, you sir, strike me, as I hate to use the word, as someone who's well-educated. I know you went to UVA Law School. Is that hurting you? Is - no I'm dead serious about this. Do you get hurt in the Republican Party now for having had a fine education? Do people think, look askance at you and say, "Oh he's an egghead, he's got a good degree from UVA" Is that a problem now, it's better to be a yahoo? Well I mean to be really uneducated like Palin, to really be proud of the fact you don't know anything?
INGLIS: There, there is a sense out there that ignorance is strength. But you know ignorance really is not strength.
MATTHEWS: Where did that come from? Where did that come from?
INGLIS: And here's my view. I'm ignorant of a lot of things. There are a lot of things I need to know but if I choose to remain ignorant of those things, that's when, that's quite a different matter. So I have a sense of how much I don't know and I need to find out a lot of information. I think that's what education gives you is a sense of how much you don't know and let's go find it out.
MATTHEWS: Well, what do you make of Palin's -- without getting -- she seems like, I guess a nice person as a human being but the question is, is she selling herself as someone - she calls it common sense. But I think what she's really selling is "I don't read books. I don't read newspapers, Katie Couric. I don't read magazines. I don't need information. I have common conservative sense." What does that mean? To say you know things without having read it or learned anything? What do people know naturally?
...
MATTHEWS: Well, that fear that led people like Rick Perry of Texas to talk about secession, those old scare terms about race. I mean race is always an issue in America but to go back and rip that scab off? What's that about? Why are people doing that? Is it their fear, fear of change or is it just anger or what?
INGLIS: Yeah well, I think that we, what we're finding out here that in 2010 we have not fought the final fight against the scent of racism and won. We're still in it. We're still dealing with that problem. We always will be, but we need to extend grace to one another and have some honesty about it, understand that we are different, but let's find a way to extend grace and get through it, and that's - rather than womp up those fears and drive with misinformation reactions against people because of their party or their ethnicity. That's a real problem and it-
MATTHEWS: How do you figure your state out? It's pretty conservative obviously. It's Strom Thurmond country in many ways and, and it has people like DeMint pretty far over and then people like Lindsey Graham who are sort of regular conservatives. But then you nominated, your party has nominated an Indian-American woman, Nikki Haley. Obviously an attractive candidate, she knows how to present herself obviously, but what's that about? Is that just an interesting little aspect? "It's okay to be Indian-American but we got a problem with this black president?" What's that about?
MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan Froths: Wall Street Frightens 'Little Boy' Obama, Makes Him 'Bend Over'
MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan appeared on Morning Joe, Wednesday, to dismiss Barack Obama as a "little boy" in the eyes of Wall Street and to assert the President "just bends over," rather than stand up to the financial industry. [Audio available here.]
The charged language surprised host Joe Scarborough who sputtered, "You know, I was so uncomfortable with a couple of the things you said and then the exclamation point at the end."
Speaking of financial reform, Ratigan attacked, "...When the Wall Street guys got across the table from him and said 'Oh you going to change our tax code little boy?'" After dismissing Obama's ability to oppose Wall Street, Ratigan vulgarly claimed, "But with this guy, he just bends over every time."
Today Show Job Search Segment Turns Into Ad for Obama Agenda
A segment that was billed as a guide to help some of Today's unemployed viewers find work, on Wednesday's show, turned into a platform for the president of the liberal National Urban League to attack those who opposed the President's plans, as he railed against those in Congress who have been filibustering extension of the unemployment benefits. Today co-anchor Matt Lauer, who hosted the segment, even prompted Morial to address how his organization was going to address the obstruction of the Democratic agenda in Congress, in the upcoming midterm elections, as he asked: "How much do you target candidates who have bad job policies...and support candidates who have good ones?" [audio available here]
NBC's Ann Curry, at the top of the 8:30am half hour of Today's July 14 show, teased viewers that "Americans, on average, took about 17 weeks to find a job. Well today the number has actually doubled. It's twice that. So the question is where should you be looking for work? We've got some answers this morning." However when viewers tuned in for those answers they also got a not so veiled anti-Republican diatribe from the National Urban League's Marc Morial as he chastised those who opposed Democratic measures.
MATT LAUER: Marc, let me start with you. I mean 9.5 percent, that's where the unemployment rate stands right now. It's been stubborn, it's not going down nearly fast enough and apparently this job crisis is not an equal opportunity unemployer. It's striking minorities much harder, isn't it?Lauer then turned to Today's financial editor Jean Chatzky who, finally, did offer the job seeking advice teased at the top of the half-hour, as she highlighted the best cities to look for new jobs. However Lauer then quickly returned to Morial who finished the segment with a pitch for the National Urban League and its efforts to help elect candidates in the midterms who will help advance the President's agenda.
MARC MORIAL: African-Americans, the, the rate is more like 16 percent, for Latinos it's 12 percent. There is no doubt that this recession has been tough for everyone but it's been especially tough for communities of color. People are hurting. They're hurting in a very significant fashion and many, many people who've worked their entire lives find themselves without work. The new unemployed, it's a lavender recession. It's white collar, blue collar, pink collar, it's across the board, Matt, but especially tough for people of color.
LAUER: When you talk about minority communities and you talk to the people in those communities, are you telling them you think the jobs are coming back or are they gone for good?
MORIAL: We're saying that steps have to be taken. And I think our message has been consistent throughout the year that it's not gonna happen serendipitously. There's gotta be public policy steps. There's gotta be a concerted effort. In this nation we can't tolerate the new normal of a nine percent unemployment rate. That's not, that's not acceptable. And right now Congress has been stalling, really the Senate through the use of the filibusters, been stalling an up or down vote on the extension of unemployment benefits, an expansion of the home purchase tax credit, summer jobs.
LAUER: Right.
MORIAL: These measures, while small, could help many, many people.
LAUER: And you know Marc, let me ask you this. I mean we're coming up to midterm elections here in a couple of months. How political does the National Urban League get with this? How much do you target candidates who have bad job policies, in your opinion, and support candidates who have good ones?—Geoffrey Dickens is the Senior News Analyst at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here
MORIAL: I think we've got to highlight that there's been a lot of stalling. The use of the filibuster in the Senate troubles me the most because what it's done, it's blocked legislation that would help the economic picture, while on the same time, the very same people who use the filibuster accuse the President and others of not doing enough. So we've got to highlight the fact that there's sort of an inconsistency in that type of message. And jobs, jobs, jobs, are the most important issue we think this fall.
LAUER: Marc Morial, Jean Chatzky. Folks thanks very much.
Most Networks Skip Broadcast Profanity Case, Avoid or Skim Over Critics
Most networks skipped over the story of their own corporate advocacy of broadcast profanity Tuesday night when the Second Circuit Court of Appeals shredded the FCC's broadcast decency regulation. (All the major broadcast networks signed on, with Fox in the lead). NBC's Brian Williams offered 94 words, but erred in claiming "When a curse word has slipped out in the past, the FCC has imposed heavy fines on networks." There were no fines for NBC when Bono said "f—ing brilliant" at the 2004 Golden Globes, nor were their fines for Fox when Cher and Nicole Richie for profanity at (respectively) the 2002 and 2003 Billboard Music Awards.
ABC and CBS aired nothing. Fox News had no story in the transcripts offered to Nexis for searching. Fox's corporate brethren at The Wall Street Journal had a story, but reporters Amy Schatz and Jess Bravin wrote a 727-word article with absolutely zero space for critics of the judges' decision (including the Brent Bozell-founded Parents Television Council).
The story did make explicit that Fox "led the case against the FCC and that "Fox is a division of News Corp., which also owns The Wall Street Journal."
Other newspapers offered small scraps for anti-profanity groups. The Washington Post's front-page story by Cecelia Kang offered 50 words out of 771, in paragraph eight:
The Parents Television Council called the decision a "slap in the face," and Concerned Women for America, an advocacy group for indecency rules, urged the agency to appeal, lest broadcast television be open to the sexually explicit content and language of cable programs such as "The Sopranos" and "True Blood."The New York Times story by Edward Wyatt put the anti-profanity spokesman in the very last paragraph (of a 17-paragraph story), with just 75 words out of 940:
Ted Lempert, president of Children Now, said that while the court's decision was troubling, it also emphasized the need for clarity about broadcast standards. ''It's of concern because the F.C.C. has been a critical protector of children's interests when it comes to media,'' he said, adding that he expects that the commission will try to construct a more targeted approach to keeping indecency off the airwaves at times when children are likely to be watching.National Public Radio reported the story on Tuesday night's All Things Considered by getting a rundown and analysis of the court case from legal reporter Nina Totenberg, but she offered zero reaction to the decision from anti-profanity groups. But on Tuesday's Morning Edition, NPR offered another story on FCC regulatory policy – on the proposed NBC-Comcast merger – and NPR found air time for several critics gainst the media companies on the antitrust front. (And Totenberg did a story in that program on the Supreme Court year in review, with former Totenberg intern Tom Goldstein insisting there are not really any liberals on the court.)
The networks are obviously terrible at covering themselves when they were brazen enough to go to court and argue that they should have the right to broadcast profanities of any kind at any time of the day. That is the effect of the 2nd Circuit's decision. At the very least, they ought to be willing to air critics of ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox (and CW, if anyone cares). Censoring the story and the dissenters is a cowardly act. Remember this the next time they bray about the "public's right to know."
—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Fwd: MRC Alert: CBS Uses Al Sharpton to Boost NAACP's Accusation Tea Party is 'Tolerating Bigotry'
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