G
Charles Gibson
| Global Warming | Gulf War
II | Bryant Gumbel |
Gun Rights
Charles Gibson
Gibson highlighted a Children’s Defense Fund protest of Tom Delay’s opposition to the Senate bill meant to “restore” the child tax credit to low-income families.
(CyberAlert,
June 12, 2003)
Gibson trumpeted Hillary Clinton’s new “bombshell” of a book, reading headlines from various newspapers and quotes from the book.
(CyberAlert,
June 5, 2003)
On the Memorial Day Good Morning
America, Gibson asked Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Richard Myers if the fact that no weapons of mass destruction had yet been found in Iraq meant we might “have gone to war under false pretenses.”
(CyberAlert,
May 28, 2003)
Gibson’s “was the President really surprised?” comment in reference to Osama bin Laden’s plans for a future attack was a runner up in the 2003 DisHonors Awards “I Hate You Conservatives Award” category.
(2003 DisHonors
Awards)
Gibson pressed Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Richard Myers to concede that there weren’t enough troops in Iraq, “given the resistance that we have faced now in smaller cities like Umm Qasr and
Nasiriyah.”
(CyberAlert,
March 26, 2003)
France’s duplicity was comparable to a pro-lifer with a “deep-seated belief that abortion is wrong” trying to keep a friend from having an abortion, according to Gibson.
(CyberAlert,
March 19, 2003)
In an interview with Florida Senator Bill Nelson, Gibson would not let go of his certainty that budget cuts in NASA’s shuttle program caused a delay of safety upgrades.
(CyberAlert,
February 4, 2003)
On the 30th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, Gibson plugged an upcoming
World News Tonight story about “the battle over abortion” and how “so many states (are) making it so difficult to get one.”
(CyberAlert,
January 23, 2003)
Gibson’s charge that President Bush knew of Osama bin Laden’s plans for a future attack won first place for the Best
Notable Quotables of 2002 “General Phil “Cheap Shot” Donahue Award (for Swipes at the War on Terrorism).”
(Best of Notable
Quotables 2002)
Gibson tried repeatedly to get Minnesota’s interim Senator Dean Barkley to side with Democrats and oppose the bill to create a Department of Homeland Security because of the unrelated “special interest” provisions added by the House.
(CyberAlert,
November 20, 2002)
One of the few morning show journalists to mention the politicization of Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone’s funeral, Gibson admitting that “his family really did turn into sort of a rally for former Vice President Walter
Mondale.”
(CyberAlert
Extra Edition, October 30, 2002)
Gibson joined in the Jimmy Carter worshipping, saying he was “the unlikely President, who came out of nowhere…in the opinion of many, the greatest ex-President of modern times.”
(CyberAlert,
October 14, 2002)
A “Reality Check” examined how President Bush’s case for war with Iraq was based on some “new evidence, much of it hard to verify,” according to Gibson.
(CyberAlert,
October 9, 2002)
(Notable
Quotables, October 14, 2002)
The GMA co-host revealed his wife had anti-military spending propaganda hanging on her office wall.
(CyberAlert,
October 3, 2002)
(Notable
Quotables, October 14, 2002)
A revelation from the wedding announcement section of the
New York Times. Gibson’s daughter worked as a special assistant to the Director for Legislative Affairs in the Clinton White House at the very same time that her father was covering Clinton policies as co-host
Good Morning America.
(CyberAlert,
August 22, 2002)
Gibson introduced a story assessing the situation at Ironwood National Monument in Arizona by warning that “the national monuments...are at greater risk” because “it's not always easy to keep the miners out.”
(CyberAlert,
August 12, 2002)
On World News Tonight, Gibson introduced a story about “another blow today for prescription drug coverage under Medicare,” saying “34 million Americans are eligible for it, both parties say they want it, but the Senate today defeated not one, but two bills that would have provided it. Why?”
(CyberAlert,
July 24, 2002)
When House Republican Conference Chairman J.C. Watts announced his retirement, Gibson asked him, "But doesn't it say something, then, about the House Republican Party, which will now be all white?"
(CyberAlert,
July 10, 2002)
President Bush didn’t consult with former President Clinton during the first 100 days of his presidency and Gibson wondered why not. The quote was a runner-up in the “Good Morning Morons” category in the Best Notable Quotables of 2001.
(Best of Notable
Quotables 2001)
On World News Tonight, Gibson jumped on Democratic complaints about how Republicans were still raising soon-to-be outlawed soft money and how the pharmaceutical industry was influencing the GOP version of a patents’ bill of rights.
(CyberAlert,
June 20, 2002)
Finally picking up on conservative complaints Bush’s slide to the left with the liberal view that industry causes global warming, Gibson noted that “President Bush yesterday caught some fierce fire...from the conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh.”
(CyberAlert,
June 5, 2002)
Gibson pounded Attorney General John Ashcroft from the left on new FBI guidelines that “give the FBI much more muscle to spy on any American in the search for terrorists.”
(CyberAlert,
June 5, 2002)
Gibson celebrated the rise of Senator John Edwards, whom, he helpfully pointed out,
People magazine calls “America's sexiest politician.”
(CyberAlert,
May 6, 2002)
GMA guests William Kristol and Gary Bauer were labeled “conservative” three times in a matter of seconds by Gibson.
(CyberAlert,
April 23, 2002)
Gibson railed against President Bush’s policy, which showed sympathy for the victims of terrorism over its perpetrators. Gibson reported from Israel that one Palestinian told him it was “criminal” that President Bush had not been more involved in trying to defuse such a high-tension situation.
(CyberAlert,
April 2, 2002)
President Bush had been "saber rattling" with his "axis of evil" characterization of Iraq, Iran and North Korea, according to Gibson.
(CyberAlert,
February 19, 2002)
Gibson interpreted the Bush administration’s statement that it would not participate in public hearings on why intelligence missed signals about September 11 as a “threat” to Senate Majority Leader Tom
Daschle.
(CyberAlert,
January 31, 2002)
Global Warming
The New York Times accused the administration of using “junk science” because the language in a short passage in an EPA report had been changed. ABC, CBS, CNBC, CNN and NBC followed suit, treating the change as a major scandal worthy of full stories on their evening newscasts, assuming that global warming is sacrosanct and only those who challenge it are playing politics.
(CyberAlert,
June 20, 2003)
NBC’s David Gregory reported that Bush’s critics “contend the President has ignored the threat of global warming to appease corporate polluters opposed to more environmental regulation.”
(CyberAlert,
June 20, 2003)
NBC’s Robert Hager assured viewers that early 2003’s frigid temperatures in no way undermined the liberal truth of global warming: “It's because, scientists says, weather will always come in sporadic bursts of hot and cold. The majority says it's the average that counts.”
(CyberAlert,
January 24, 2003)
New York Times’ Thomas Friedman won the MRC’s Best
Notable Quotables of 2002 “Begala and Carville War Room Award for Bush Bashing” for his assertion that Exxon-Mobile has funded “all the anti-global-warming propaganda out there in the world. And Bush is just not going to go against guys like that.”
(CyberAlert,
December 26, 2002)
(Best of Notable
Quotables 2002)
(Notable
Quotables, October 14, 2002)
(CyberAlert,
October 9, 2002)
PBS’s Bill Moyers claimed President Bush’s core supporters – the religious right, conservative activists and big companies like ExxonMobil – wrote the President asking him not to go to the summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, and “to make sure American officials...keep the issue of global warming off the table.”
(Best of Notable
Quotables 2002)
(CyberAlert,
December 30, 2002)
(Notable
Quotables, September 2, 2002)
When the Evangelical Environmental Network unveiled its “What Would Jesus Drive?” TV ad campaign that charged SUVs and trucks contribute to global warming, the cable networks and ABC swooned.
(CyberAlert,
November 21, 2002)
On NBC’s drama The West
Wing, the fictional President Bartlet (played by Martin Sheen) claimed it was “lunacy” for “a nation of SUVs” to tell “a nation of bicycles” that they have to change their ways “before we’ll agree to do something about greenhouse emissions.”
(CyberAlert,
September 26, 2002)
An MRC Reality Check, “Trying to Make Green Ideology Mainstream,” revealed Time magazine’s campaign to spread liberal environmental propaganda, like the assertion that it is common knowledge that global warming “threatens to cause chaos with the world’s climate.”
(Media Reality Check,
August 21, 2002)
On CNN’s Capital Gang, the
Wall Street Journal’s Al Hunt ridiculed a claim made by Patrick Michaels, the Virginia state climatologist, that global warming has been minimal and will be in the future.
(CyberAlert,
August 19, 2002)
In pieces on California’s new law that would force the car manufacturers to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, both ABC and CBS announced as fact that car exhaust and global warming were directly related.
(CyberAlert,
July 9, 2002)
CBS’s Mark Phillips vilified President Bush for putting American economic interests before the environment in rejecting the Kyoto treaty, which was designed to fight global warming.
(Best of Notable
Quotables 2001)
CBS’s Bryant Gumbel, Mark McEwen, Jane Clayson and Julie Chen are all believers in global warming, and their on-air group confession won first place for the Best
Notable Quotables of 2001 “Good Morning Morons Award.”
(Best of Notable
Quotables 2001)
NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw congratulated the Bush administration for “acknowledging that global warming is caused by human pollution.”
(Notable
Quotables, June 10, 2002)
After President Bush tried to distance himself from an EPA report that adopted the most dire predictions of global warming, NBC’s David Gregory blamed Bush’s decision on the fact that he had “received a lot of political flak from conservatives” over the report.
(CyberAlert,
June 5, 2002)
ABC finally recognized what conservatives had noticed for months – President Bush’s slide to the left on some issues – after Bush’s EPA adopted the liberal view that industry causes global warming.
(CyberAlert,
June 5, 2002)
The broadcast networks cheered how the Bush administration had “acknowledged” and “conceded” that global warming is real and is being fueled by industry. The overwhelming majority of stories on those networks ignored scientists who were skeptical of global warming.
(CyberAlert,
June 4, 2002)
A CyberAlert highlighted a story by CNSNews.com, which reported that “a team of international scientists...said climate models showing global warming are based on a 'fairy tale’ of computer projections.” In addition, 17,000 scientists signed a petition announcing: “There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gasses is causing… catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate.”
(CyberAlert,
June 4, 2002)
A Media Reality Check, “Demanding Further Concessions from Bush” documented how none of the networks even hinted at the wide array of scientists who reject the premise that global warming is real and is caused by human activity.
(Media Reality Check,
June 4, 2002)
A week and a half after CBS warned that global warming could bring colder temperatures, the network was back to raising fears of higher temperatures. Dan Rather cited new satellite images that showed another iceberg had broken off of the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica.
(CyberAlert,
May 10, 2002)
CBS reporter Randall Pinkston relayed the theory of researchers who are “increasingly sounding a new alarm, a paradox, that global warming could produce an abrupt climate change and cooler temperatures, very soon.”
(CyberAlert,
April 29, 2002)
(Notable
Quotables, May 13, 2002)
NBC’s Brian Williams reported that the first theory that “emissions from coal burning would lead to global warming” arose “way back in 1896….And here we are 106 years later still fighting about it.”
(CyberAlert,
April 23, 2002)
(Notable
Quotables, April 29, 2002)
ABC’s Peter Jennings announced that the cherry blossoms in Japan were blooming two weeks early and that, since that hadn’t occurred since 1973, scientists were “suggesting global warming.”
(CyberAlert,
March 25, 2002)
A New York Times reporter all but blamed global warming for the break-up of an ice shelf in Antarctica, while a
Washington Post reporter drew the opposite conclusion.
(CyberAlert,
March 21, 2002)
A CNN.com story warned that global warming might slow the earth’s spin by exactly “11 extra microseconds every 10 years.”
(CyberAlert,
February 20, 2002)
President Bush’s plan to combat global warming through tax credits and the trading of emission allotments was unsatisfactory to both liberals and conservatives, but ABC’s Terry Moran relayed only liberal criticism, relaying Al Gore’s concerns.
(CyberAlert,
February 15, 2002)
CBS’s Early Show crew all agreed that global warming was to blame for the lack of snow in New York City. The on-air consensus was a runner-up for the Best
Notable Quotables of 2002 “Good Morning Morons Award.”
(Notable
Quotables, February 18, 2002)
(CyberAlert,
February 8, 2002)
(Best of Notable
Quotables 2002)
(CyberAlert,
December 30, 2002)
Gulf War II
A collection of MRC’s products on the war with Iraq. Also includes coverage and commentary on the media’s coverage in the months prior to the war.
Gulf War II Resource Page
Media War Watch was an extensive compilation of MRC analysis on Gulf War II, its prelude and its immediate aftermath. Includes more than 300 items from August 2002 through early May 2003.
Media War Watch
Celebrities on Politics and War was a collection of celebrity comments on terrorism, the 2002 congressional elections and the war. Time frame is September 2002 through early May 2003.
Celebrities on Politics and
War
Special Report: Grading TV’s War News. A report card on the media’s performance during Gulf War II. Fox, CBS and embedded reporters did well, ABC didn’t.
Executive Summary
| Complete Report | Press Release
Peter’s Peace Platoon: ABC’s Crusade Against Arrogant American
Power, March 18, 2003. The MRC reviewed 234 stories on ABC’s World News Tonight from January 1 to March 7, 2003 and found that ABC News had failed to serve as an independent and objective observer.
Special Gloat and Quote CyberAlert. A compilation of the woefully incorrect statements and predictions about the war from the nation’s leading journalists. Issued the day Baghdad fell.
(CyberAlert
Extra Edition, April 9, 2003)
A special edition of the bi-weekly Notable Quotables focused solely on the war in Iraq.
(Notable
Quotables, March 31, 2003)
Bryant Gumbel
Bryant Gumbel’s departure from the CBS Early Show in 2002 created a nostalgic moment for the MRC. Several earlier reports on the former
Today host were pulled into one document.
Bryant Gumbel Set to Retire
A review of Gumbel’s time at CBS…
Gumbel on CBS
Gumbel
on NBC
Plus, a video tour of the Top 10
... Gumbel Stumbles
and his flattering comments about the
MRC.
Gun Rights
After CNN showed a demonstration of two AK-47 models, one illegal and legal, the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre charged the news channel with deliberately faking the story. A few days later, a CNN spokesman admitted the demonstration needed further explanation, since the camera operator had not realized the sheriff’s deputy firing the rifles had changed targets and was shooting into the ground with the legal model.
(CyberAlert,
May 22, 2003)
Time’s Karen Tumulty and Viveca Novak linked the sniper attacks to the Bush administration by its name and maker, and claimed, “Gun-rights advocates have been emboldened by an administration that is sympathetic to their cause.” The quote was a runner-up for the “Begala & Carville War Room Award for Bush Bashing” in the Best Notable Quotables of 2002.
(CyberAlert,
October 29, 2002)
(Notable
Quotables, November 11, 2002)
(Best Notable
Quotables of 2002)
(CyberAlert,
December 30, 2002)
CNN’s Judy Woodruff exploited the sniper case to advance the gun control cause. Over video of Charlton Heston holding up a rifle, Woodruff demanded: “Is this the right picture for NRA President Charlton Heston to be starring in as the sniper case plays out?”
(CyberAlert,
October 24, 2002)
Today show host Matt Lauer acted astonished that Charlton Heston hadn’t ever reconsidered his support of gun rights after hearing about a crime or shooting. Lauer also asked whether Heston thought there would be a “problem” with keeping guns in his house after he had begun showing signs of Alzheimer’s.
(CyberAlert,
September 6, 2002)
During a roundtable on ABC’s
This Week, co-host Sam Donaldson raised the subject of how the Bush Justice Department had changed the government’s position on the Second Amendment to stand with those who believe it protects an individual’s right.
Newsweek International Editor Fareed Zakaria called this view “constitutional fundamentalism” that “just doesn’t make any sense.”
(CyberAlert,
May 13, 2002)
Talk show host and anti-gun rights crusader Rosie O’Donnell contended on
Good Morning America that the Columbine shooting drove her into depression. She even claimed that her three-year-old asked her: “You want to watch Rugrats? Mommy, there's no guns in it.”
(CyberAlert,
August 10, 2001)
Dan Rather asserted that President Bush could count the NRA among his most ardent supporters, but warned that he might also be paying a price for that backing. Reporter Jim Stewart claimed Attorney General John Ashcroft's idea to throw away all the criminal background check information on gun buyers just one day after their purchase was suddenly running into opposition from law enforcement.
(CyberAlert,
July 24, 2001)
ABC aired a Peter Jennings Reporting special titled “The Gun Fight.” Earlier in the day, on
Good Morning America, Jennings argued the show would not be anti-gun rights, but his description betrayed his agenda to paint the NRA as a negative force with too much influence in Congressional politics. Jennings concluded the hour-long special by suggesting Gore would win if gun owners saw “a larger picture,” rather than voting only according to one issue.
(CyberAlert,
October 10, 2000)
Interviewing the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre, Bryant Gumbel argued that increased public cries for stricter gun control were proof that the NRA’s increase in membership did not show concern for infringement on gun rights. Gumbel suggested the cause was actually the increased debate over gun control, which had “hardened positions on both sides and encouraged activists on both sides.” Gumbel also demanded LaPierre respond to the concerns of those in the Million Mom March.
(CyberAlert,
May 22, 2000)
On the McLaughlin Group, host John McLaughlin asked: "Which side has the more defensible position on guns, the NRA or Handgun Control Inc.?" Lawrence Kudlow answered the NRA, but the other three panelists, all reporters, picked the anti-gun group, and provided liberal reasonings for their choice.
(CyberAlert,
May 22, 2000)
Newsweek columnist Anna Quindlin was among the speakers at the anti-gun rights protest, the Million Mom March. Quindlin delivered an overblown maternal scolding to Congress and gun-rights supporters: “Don’t dare tell us that we don’t have the right to keep our children safe.”
(CyberAlert,
May 16, 2000)
ABC’s This Week put Cokie Roberts on the Mall for its lead interview with Rosie O’Donnell at the Million Mom March. Roberts set up the segment with liberal terminology: “Here on the Mall thousands of women are expected later this morning to protest gun violence and call for sensible gun legislation.”
(CyberAlert,
May 15, 2000)
During coverage of the Million Mom March, Soledad O’Brien was concerned that it was “a bunch of mothers” up against “the NRA, which is obviously a very powerful and well-funded group.”
(CyberAlert,
May 15, 2000)
The three broadcast networks took different approaches to covering the anti-gun rights Million Mom March -- from balance on ABC to outright liberal-cause advocacy on CBS, with NBC somewhere in between.
(CyberAlert,
May 15, 2000)
ABC’s Good Morning America aired two hours live from the White House called "GMA at the White House: Moms & Guns." The show offered minimal opposition to the pro-gun control party line, and Charles Gibson complained to President Clinton about the lack of progress of gun control legislation, asking, “What went wrong?”
(CyberAlert,
May 15, 2000)
On CBS’s Early Show, Bryant Gumbel relayed the story of Million Mom March founder Donna Dees-Thomases and how “the shooting of two adults and three children at a Jewish community center shook her enough to try to do something.” Gumbel scolded one activist for “only” demanding licensing and registration, instead of “a total ban.”
(CyberAlert,
May 15, 2000)
After presidential candidate and Texas Governor George W. Bush promised “free” trigger locks to anyone in Texas who wanted one, Katie Couric still pressed him from the left and challenged his gun record.
(CyberAlert,
May 15, 2000)
NBC Nightly News relayed without skepticism the claim that 4,223 children a year are killed by guns, and Roger O’Neil showed how by going to a private dealer it was easy to buy a gun in Colorado without a background check. Then Pete Williams devoted an entire story to discrediting the NRA’s claim of gun-rights advocates that self-defense with a gun happened 2.5 million times a year. Williams repeated another anti-gun argument, that it’s “actually more dangerous to have a gun at home.”
(CyberAlert,
April 13, 2000)
In an effort to advance his gun control legislation on Capitol Hill, President Clinton linked the NRA to gun-related deaths None of the networks except NBC followed up on Clinton’s statement, but when the NRA took out adds defending itself and accusing Clinton of exploiting recent shootings for political gain, the organization became the villain in the eyes of the media.
(Media Reality Check,
March 23, 2000)
An MRC Special Report, Outgunned: How The Network News Media Are Spinning the Gun Control Debate was the result of two years of analysis of stories on gun rights and gun control from the ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN evening shows.
(Special Report,
January 5, 2000)
(Media Reality Check,
January 6, 2000)
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