The Blue Site

No Liberal Bias in the Media? Funny.

Some clear examples of bias in the media (almost always a liberal bias) from MRC (Media Research Center). I always enjoy reading these cyber alerts they put out. The one guy said that Bush looked terrible, but Ted (I want to steal billions for the big dig and take all your money in taxes) Kennedy (who acted like a child during the speech) looked great, like he's ready to be on Mt. Rushmore? Now THAT is scary.

I also like how the CNN anchor seemed to treat the weatherman like he was an idiot for countering the nonsense that they're pushing about the tax cuts and how it'll mean more deficits. Nice job from Chad Myers, getting his point across, even tho he was being talked down to by some anchor who has a job a monkey could do.

***Media Research Center CyberAlert***
12pm EST, Thursday January 22, 2004 (Vol. Nine; No. 11)
The 1,648th CyberAlert. Tracking Liberal Media Bias Since 1996

> ABC: Bush's $250 Million for Job Training "Not Nearly Enough"
> CNN Features Angry Reaction from Europe and Iraq to Bush Speech
> Now and 15 Years Ago CBS's Smith Sees Only Economic Dark Side
> ABC & NBC Morning Shows Express Hostility to Extending Tax Cuts
> Unusual Source Defending How Tax Cuts Work: CNN's Meteorologist
> Tom Shales: Bush, "Scary"; Ted Kennedy Worthy of Mount Rushmore
> "Top Ten Reasons I'll Make a Good Talk Show Host"

#### Distributed to more than 14,000 subscribers by the Media
Research Center, bringing political balance to the news media
since 1987. The MRC is the leader in documenting, exposing and
neutralizing liberal media bias. Visit the MRC on the Web:
http://www.mediaresearch.org. CyberAlerts from this year are at:
http://www.mediaresearch.org/archive/cyber/welcome.asp
For 2003: http://www.mediaresearch.org/archive/cyber/archive03.asp
Subscribe/unsubscribe information, as well as a link to the
MRC's PayPal donation page, are at the end of this message.
When posted, this CyberAlert will be readable at:
http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2004/cyb20040122.asp ####

1) After Peter Jennings on Wednesday night declared that "as
everybody in the country knows, the Bush administration has
struggled with its economic policy" since "eight and a half
million people are unemployed," ABC reporters complained that
Bush's job training program won't spend enough. In two stories,
ABC never allowed anyone to suggest the program is too big or
beyond the proper role of government. "The plan," ABC's Dean
Reynolds explained, "would devote $250 million to create
partnerships between community colleges and employers," but,
Reynolds stressed, "critics say the money is not nearly enough."
Terry Moran denigrated the effort: "$250 million amounts to small
change in the government's trillion-dollar budget."

2) Though Bush's State of the Union speech occurred at 3am in
Britain and 5am in Iraq, on Wolf Blitzer Reports on Wednesday
afternoon CNN correspondents had no problem finding Britons and
Iraqis angry about it. "Europeans find the President's talk about
God and good and evil very scary," sniffed Walter Rodgers before
trumpeting how "analysts here say that alienation is not going to
change until Mr. Bush leaves the White House." Rodgers insisted
that the alliance "has been badly shattered by this President, and
by the unilateralist policy." From Baghdad, Michael Holmes
relayed: "The attitude very much, we don't know what the President
said, and quite frankly, we don't care." Nonetheless, Holmes
proceeded to convey the views of three Iraqis angry at Bush. One
declared: "The President speaks of freedom in Iraq, but we are not
free, we are occupied today by another country."

3) Harry Smith's consistently hostile agenda spans 15 years. On
Wednesday's Early Show on CBS, Smith rejected any notion of a good
economy as he lectured White House Chief-of-Staff Andy Card about
how "there's a $500 billion deficit, 43 million Americans without
health insurance, 12 million American children living in poverty,
record numbers of personal bankruptcies." Fifteen years ago, a
week before President Reagan left office in January of 1989, he
told Reagan's daughter, Maureen, that her father's real legacy was
"one out of five babies born in the United States are born into
poverty. There are hundreds of thousands of people in this country
now that are homeless, have no place to live."

4) The morning after President Bush's State of the Union address,
hosts on ABC and NBC expressed hostility toward Bush's wish to
make the tax cuts permanent, a move which would prevent a series
of tax hikes over the next few years. ABC's Charles Gibson
contended that such a move would be "making deficits in the
hundreds of billions of dollars permanent." NBC's Matt Lauer
recited the content of a left-wing New York Times editorial which
claimed: "His insistence on huge tax cuts for the wealthy has
robbed the country of the money it needs to address its problems
and has threatened its long term security." And he's only doing it
because "the wealthy donors helping underwrite his campaign expect
that he will."

5) A defense of tax cuts from an unusual source: A CNN
meteorologist. When CNN Daybreak anchor Carol Costello read an e-
mail from a viewer who wanted to know where the money would come
from to pay for making the tax cuts permanent, meteorologist Chad
Myers piped up and suggested it won't increase the deficit if the
economy grows.

6) Bush: "Scary," Ted Kennedy worthy of Mount Rushmore. Reviewing
President Bush's State of the Union address, nationally syndicated
Washington Post television reviewer Tom Shales complained that
"Bush had too many moments of cockiness" and fretted about how
"the fact that Bush appeared to be so happy, so elated, so giddily
primed for another political slugfest was a little bit
disheartening, and even a little bit scary." But citing Senator
Ted Kennedy's head-shaking, eye-rolling dismissive reactions to
Bush, Shales gushed: "Kennedy looked great, like he was ready to
take his place next to Jefferson on Mount Rushmore."

7) As presented by John McEnroe who will soon have a prime time
talk show on CNBC, Letterman's "Top Ten Reasons I'll Make a Good
Talk Show Host."

> 1) After Peter Jennings on Wednesday night declared that "as
everybody in the country knows, the Bush administration has
struggled with its economic policy" since "eight and a half
million people are unemployed and more than 300,000 others stopped
actively looking for work last month," ABC reporters complained
that Bush's job training program won't spend enough. In two
stories, ABC never allowed anyone to suggest the program is too
big or beyond the proper role of government.

"The plan," ABC's Dean Reynolds explained, "would devote $250
million to create partnerships between community colleges and
employers in such high-demand fields as computer engineering and
health care, but critics say the money is not nearly enough."
Terry Moran dismissed the effort, insisting that the "$250 million
amounts to small change in the government's trillion-dollar
budget."

If it were a $250 million tax cut, you can bet ABC wouldn't
mock its small size.

On the January 21 World News Tonight, Moran reported on Bush's
trip to Toledo to tout his proposed job training program. Moran
mocked the small size of Bush's spending ideas: "That $250 million
amounts to small change in the government's trillion-dollar
budget, but was the biggest ticket item in the President's speech,
which was marked by relatively minor but politically appealing
initiatives: $23 million for drug testing in schools, $135 million
for abstinence education, $300 million for post-release
assistance to ex-convicts and a call to end steroid use in pro
sports, which cost nothing."
Bush in State of the Union address: "Get rid of steroids now."
Stephen Hess, Brookings Institution: "A lot of these programs
almost sounded as if the President was going to be the nanny-in-
chief. There's not much money there, you have to propose
something, you put together a bunch of small programs."
Moran: "The White House is planning a feel good re-election
campaign this year and this trip and the scattering of small items
the President laid-out last night, are part of their emerging
strategy: Don't rock the boat. Bet on the economy to provide a lot
of job growth this year and urge voters to stay the course.
Here in hard-hit Ohio, which has lost 249,000 jobs since the
President took office, a few hundred protestors, many union
workers braved zero degree temperatures and vented frustrations at
the President's economic policies. As usual, police made sure Mr.
Bush never saw or heard them."

Jennings next introduced a closer look at the jobs program:
"Well as everybody in the country knows, the Bush administration
has struggled with its economic policy. Eight and a half million
people are unemployed and more than 300,000 others stopped
actively looking for work last month. In this election year, Mr.
Bush's proposal to finance more job training certainly seems
designed to deal with a potential area of vulnerability."

From Chicago, Dean Reynolds began with an anecdote about a
man, who is delivering pizza after spending 20 years in
telecommunications, and doesn't think he has time for job
training. Reynolds outlined the Bush plan, but featured a
complaint about how it's not big enough: "The President's 21st
century jobs proposal is an about face after years in which his
administration cut spending on training. The new plan would devote
$250 million to create partnerships between community colleges and
employers in such high-demand fields as computer engineering and
health care, but critics say the money is not nearly enough."
Professor Tom Kochan, MIT Sloan School of Management: "This is
a nice symbolic gesture, but we have a much, much bigger job to do
than this amount of money will ever achieve."

Without bothering to allow anyone to question why the
government should spend a dime on training, Reynolds moved on to a
second anecdote about a woman in Dallas in training in the health
care field, but she fretted about how employers want experience
and then Reynolds closed on the downbeat by noting how the pizza
delivery guy has few better job prospects.

This was the second time in less than two weeks that Reynolds
put anecdotes before any statistics or proof. As recounted in the
January 15 CyberAlert: Dour emotion over statistical reality. On
Saturday, January 10, the day after the Labor Department announced
that the unemployment rate had fallen by two-tenths of a percent
to 5.7 percent in December, a 14-month low, ABC devoted a story to
how, as anchor Dan Harris put it, "behind these upbeat numbers are
millions of workers who've had to downsize their paychecks and
their dreams." Reporter Dean Reynolds, without citing a single
source or statistic, other than "one analyst" who remained
unidentified, rued as he cited a couple of anecdotes: "There's
been a lot of talk on Wall Street lately about the economic
recovery, but on the streets where these workers live, there is
precious little sign of it." For details:
http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2004/cyb20040115.asp#3

ABC wasn't the only network on Wednesday night to ignore the
booming GDP and rising stock market. Dan Rather opened the CBS
Evening News: "President Bush cris-crossed the country today,
campaigning for re-election. His main theme is that he's done a
good job leading the battle against terrorism, including the war
in Iraq. Behind that, his record on the economy, with soaring
deficits and nagging unemployment, may be a tougher sell."

> 2) Though Bush's State of the Union speech occurred in the
early morning hours in Britain (3am) and Iraq (5am), on Wolf
Blitzer Reports on Wednesday afternoon CNN correspondents had no
problem finding Britons and Iraqis angry about it. "Europeans find
the President's talk about God and good and evil very scary,"
sniffed Walter Rodgers from London before trumpeting how "analysts
here say that alienation is not going to change until Mr. Bush
leaves the White House." Rodgers insisted that "the old North
American alliance with Europe has been badly shattered by this
President, and by the unilateralist policy." Specifically, Rodgers
maintained, Europeans "got stiffed by President Bush last night."

From Baghdad, Michael Holmes relayed: "The attitude very much,
we don't know what the President said, and quite frankly, we don't
care." Nonetheless, Holmes then proceeded to convey the views of
three Iraqis: The first complained about how Bush bombed "our
houses and farms with missiles," the second asked, "How I can
watch the speech when I have no power at my house?" and the third
declared: "The President speaks of freedom in Iraq, but we are not
free, we are occupied today by another country."

Wolf Blitzer set up the January 21 segment: "Looking at the
state of European Union, but across the Atlantic there is plenty
of interest in the President's speech. On the other hand, while
the President focused much of his attention on Iraq, Iraqis
apparently are not necessarily reciprocating. A look now at how
some of the international reaction is unfolding beginning with our
senior international correspondent Walter Rodgers, he's joining us
in London, Walt?"
Rodgers, from inside a studio: "Hello, Wolf. There was a
collective sigh of relief in Europe after the President's State of
the Union address. Partially because this time there was no talk
of new American military action anywhere, unlike two years ago
when he scared Europeans with his talk about the axis of evil and
unlike last year when Mr. Bush was about to unleash war on Iraq.
"Still, Europeans find the President's talk about God and good
and evil very scary, so there wasn't much President Bush could say
to ingratiate himself to Europeans, that is how badly he has
alienated America's traditional allies and analysts here say that
alienation is not going to change until Mr. Bush leaves the White
House.
"Europe is also not buying into the President's claim that the
American economy is improving. One funds manager with whom we
spoke told his clients to invest in euros and British sterling.
That's a vote of no confidence in the Bush economic policy. So
generally Europe has written off the State of the Union address as
the President's bid for re-election and not much more, Wolf."

Blitzer at least challenged Rodgers a bit: "Walter, some
administration officials insisting as the Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld did earlier last year, there's a difference in Europe
between the old Europe, France let's say, and the new Europe, of
the central European, eastern European nations, the emerging
democracies, is there a change in their reaction as far as you
could tell today?"
Rodgers: "Well, Secretary Rumsfeld is correct. There is an old
Europe, and there is a new Europe, but there are still the
traditional American allies, the British, the French, the Germans,
the Italians, the Spanish and so forth. And that alliance, the old
North American alliance with Europe has been badly shattered by
this President, and by the unilateralist policy. The Europeans
were looking for some indication that Mr. Bush might return to
acting in concert with the United Nations, might consider
consulting with them, they got stiffed by President Bush last
night, Wolf."

Blitzer moved on to Iraq: "Walter Rodgers in London, mincing
no words. Thank you very much for that report. Let's go to Baghdad
right now, see how the Iraqis are reacting to the president's
State of the Union address. Here's CNN's Michael Holmes in
Baghdad."

From an outside location, Holmes confirmed: "I'm Michael
Holmes in Baghdad. Reaction to the President's speech here in Iraq
was really a non-reaction. The attitude very much, we don't know
what the President said, and quite frankly, we don't care. We went
out and about in Baghdad today, we went on the streets, we went
into cafes to gauge the reaction. Nearly everyone knew about the
State of the Union speech but there was marked disinterest.
Cynicism, too. Here's what some people told us."
Older man, through translator: "As for Bush, he brought us
freedom and democracy by bombing our houses and farms with
missiles."
Younger man, through translator: "You ask me about the speech?
How I can watch the speech when I have no power at my house?"
Holmes: "One university professor added, 'the President speaks
of freedom in Iraq, but we are not free, we are occupied today by
another country.' The speech was shown here on satellite
television, but it was 5am and few people got up to watch it. The
newspapers, well, it was too late for them, too. So no editorial
reaction so far. We expect that tomorrow. Arabic language
television did report on the speech, but in the area we were in
today, the power was off so nobody could watch it even if they
wanted. It was a tough crowd for President Bush, at least here in
Baghdad."

University professors are on the left the world over.

> 3) Harry Smith's consistently hostile agenda spans 15 years.
On Wednesday's Early Show on CBS, Smith rejected any notion of a
good economy as he lectured White House Chief-of-Staff Andy Card
about how "there's a $500 billion deficit, 43 million Americans
without health insurance, 12 million American children living in
poverty, record numbers of personal bankruptcies." Fifteen years
ago, a week before President Reagan left office in January of
1989, he told Reagan's daughter, Maureen, that her father's real
legacy was "one out of five babies born in the United States are
born into poverty. There are hundreds of thousands of people in
this country now that are homeless, have no place to live."

On the January 21 Early Show, as caught by MRC analyst Brian
Boyd, Smith challenged Card: "Let's talk about the economy because
that was a big subject last night. The President says the economy
is in recovery. Let's look at the numbers: There's a $500 billion
deficit, 43 million Americans without health insurance, 12 million
American children living in poverty, record numbers of personal
bankruptcies. Is that really an economic recovery?"

Fifteen years ago, on the January 12, 1989 CBS This Morning,
the day after Ronald Reagan's farewell address, Smith lectured the
late Maureen Reagan about her father's record: "He talked about
being proud of what's happened with the economy, about the
millions of new jobs that have been created. And as I listened to
that, I also thought one out of five babies born in the United
States are born into poverty. There are hundreds of thousands of
people in this country now that are homeless, have no place to
live. I wonder, how does your father reconcile that in his mind?
How does he reconcile those two things?"

> 4) Hostility in the morning to tax cuts. The morning after
President Bush's State of the Union address, hosts on ABC and NBC
expressed enmity toward Bush's wish to make the tax cuts
permanent, a move which would prevent a series of tax hikes over
the next few years as rates and exemptions return to their
previous levels.

On ABC's Good Morning America on January 21, Charles Gibson
contended to White House Chief-of-Staff Andy Card: "On the
domestic front, the President last night called for making the tax
cuts permanent. Is that, in a sense, making deficits in the
hundreds of billions of dollars permanent?"

Over on NBC's Today, MRC analyst Geoffrey Dickens observed,
Matt Lauer recited to Card the content of a left-wing New York
Times editorial: "Let me talk about the economy. Let me ask you
about the economy. He said he wants his tax cuts made permanent.
The New York Times in an editorial responded this way, and
probably not surprising to you. 'The President's domestic policy
comes down to one disastrous fact. His insistence on huge tax cuts
for the wealthy has robbed the country of the money it needs to
address its problems and has threatened its long term security.'
It goes on to say, 'Mr. Bush, why would Mr. Bush be so determined
to do the wrong thing? Because congressional majorities mean he
probably can and because the wealthy donors helping underwrite his
campaign expect that he will.' What's your response to that?"

Lauer followed up: "The tax cuts, they come with a cost
though. Even conservatives are now saying this deficit is, is a
problem, some $500 billion. And of course Democrats are saying the
same thing. I guess, I'm curious, is the President okay with that
level of deficit?"

In his next question, Lauer at least got to the spending side:
"A caucus of conservatives in the House has urged the President to
offset the cost of any new spending with cuts in spending
elsewhere. Will he go along with that?"

> 5) A defense of tax cuts from an unusual source: A CNN
meteorologist. When CNN Daybreak anchor Carol Costello read an e-
mail from a viewer who wanted to know where the money would come
from to pay for making the tax cuts permanent, meteorologist Chad
Myers piped up and suggested it won't increase the deficit if the
economy grows.

MRC analyst Ken Shepherd caught this exchange from about
6:11am EST on January 21, the morning after President Bush's State
of the Union address:

Carol Costello: "Rich in Maryland says, 'Once again Bush talks
about a bunch of great programs, yet fails to communicate how
those programs will be funded.' I guess that was a negative one,
sorry."
Chad Myers: "Well, maybe, yeah, but you know he only had so
many minutes to talk about that. You can't put the plan, the
syllabus, and every working piece all the way down from everything
he talked about either, so-"
Costello: "Well, I think the viewer was really commenting to
the fact that he wants the tax cuts to become permanent, the
deficit is huge, so people are wondering where the money is going
to come from. It's a question-"
Myers: "Well, if we grow the-"
Costello: "-maybe that will be answered soon by the
President."
Myers: "-if we grow the economy, I mean it's the same old back
and forth."
Costello: "Oh, let's not get into a political argument!"
Myers: "If we grow the economy, we'll get more money and blah,
blah, blah, you know the story, you know the rules."
Costello: "Thank you, Chad."
Myers: "You're welcome."

For CNN's profile of Myers:
http://www.cnn.com/CNN/anchors_reporters/myers.chad.html

> 6) Bush: "Scary," Ted Kennedy worthy of Mount Rushmore.
Reviewing President Bush's State of the Union address, nationally
syndicated Washington Post television reviewer Tom Shales
complained that "Bush had too many moments of cockiness" and
fretted about how "the fact that Bush appeared to be so happy, so
elated, so giddily primed for another political slugfest was a
little bit disheartening, and even a little bit scary." But citing
Senator Ted Kennedy's head-shaking, eye-rolling dismissive
reactions to Bush, Shales gushed: "Kennedy looked great, like he
was ready to take his place next to Jefferson on Mount Rushmore."

An excerpt from "State of the Union: Long on Long, Short on
Lofty," the review by Tom Shales in the January 21 Washington
Post:

We like a confident president, but we don't like a cocky
president, and George W. Bush had too many moments of cockiness
last night as he delivered his third State of the Union address to
both houses of Congress and the viewing nation. Often the words of
the speech were written to sound lofty, but Bush had such a big
Christmas-morning grin on his face that they came out sounding
like taunts -- taunts to the rest of the world or taunts to
Democrats in the hall....

The speech was pretty much so-so, and Bush's gung-ho delivery --
something approaching the forced jollity of a game show host --
lacked dignity and certainly lacked graciousness. Bush has never
been big on those things anyway.

Dan Rather of CBS News, who sometimes goes out of his way not to
upset the Bush people -- since they are all ready to pounce on him
for what they perceive (or claim to perceive) as a bias against
their exalted glorious potentate -- said afterward that Bush's was
"a strong speech, strongly delivered." It was one of the few times
Rather sounded less than astute.

Over on the Fox News Channel, Fred Barnes, sounding as if he had
walking pneumonia, allowed as how he'd heard George W. Bush
deliver many an important and eloquent speech over the years, "and
this was not one of them." It takes courage to say something like
that on the Fox News Channel, normally a Bush cheering section.
Someone noted that Bush is considered a master of the half-hour
speech and State of the Union 2004 had dragged on for twice that
length....

The best reaction shots were those of Ted Kennedy, whose stature
seems to grow right along with his nose year after year after
year. Kennedy has now reached a grand moment in the life of a
senator; he looks like Hollywood itself cast him in the role.
Seriously. With that waving mane of bright white hair, he evokes
memories of Claude Rains looking distinguished as all get-out in
Frank Capra's once- controversial, now-classic movie "Mr. Smith
Goes to Washington." Never mind that the senator played by Rains
had some shady dealings in his repertoire.

Kennedy looked great, like he was ready to take his place next to
Jefferson on Mount Rushmore. He gives off the kind of venerable
vibes that some of us got from an Everett Dirksen way back when,
or a Charles Laughton -- oh wait, Laughton was a make-believe
senator, too (in "Advise and Consent")....

One of the bigger surprises of the night was instantly evident,
even as Bush made his tedious way down an aisle before delivering
the speech. Though he's favored blue ties (sometimes baby blue)
throughout his presidency, Bush wore a red necktie last night.
Could this signify a change in terrorism alert status? Or maybe
just the fact that Bush is now in full ramming mode, not merely a
president but a politician again, up to his collar in the rigors
of an election year?

It was obviously the latter, and the fact that Bush appeared to be
so happy, so elated, so giddily primed for another political
slugfest was a little bit disheartening, and even a little bit
scary.

END of Excerpt

For the Shales review in full:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33872-2004Jan21.html

> 7) From the January 19 Late Show with David Letterman, as
presented by John McEnroe who will soon have a prime time talk
show on CNBC, the "Top Ten Reasons I'll Make a Good Talk Show
Host." Late Show home page: http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/

10. "You never know when I'll go nuts and beat a guest with a
tennis racquet"

9. "America is starving for anecdotes about 20-year-old Wimbledon
quarterfinal matches"

8. "It's on CNBC -- If they get ten viewers, they're happy"

7. "Bush is an idiot and he's President, so anything's possible"

6. "There's nothing more entertaining then watching me bully
people until they cry"

5. "Uhh, you may recall a little hit show I hosted on ABC called
"The Chair""

4. "You won't know this at home, but the studio is going to smell
like a fresh can of tennis balls"

3. "How many grand slams has Oprah won"

2. "I've gotten some great advice from my idol, Jay Leno"

1. "I'm also willing to have a baby to boost ratings"

# Reminder: Dennis Miller is scheduled to appear tonight,
Thursday, on NBC's Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Miller's new
nightly program debuts Monday on CNBC at 9pm EST/6pm PST.

-- Brent Baker

Posted by Josh at January 22, 2004 11:40 AM | TrackBack