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Chris Gets His Thrill On |
Co-anchor Chris Matthews: "I have to tell you, you know, it’s part of
reporting this case, this election, the feeling most people get when they hear
Barack Obama’s speech. My — I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don’t
have that too often."
Co-anchor Keith Olbermann: "Steady."
Matthews: "No, seriously. It’s a dramatic event. He speaks about America in
a way that has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with the feeling we
have about our country. And that is an objective assessment."
— Exchange during MSNBC’s coverage of the Virginia, Maryland and Washington
D.C. primaries, February 12. |
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CBS’s Valentine for Obama |
"They come in droves, by the tens of thousands at times, to hear Barack Obama
speak....With soaring rhetoric, Obama is moving his audiences not just
politically, but emotionally. Even some political commentators who’ve seen it
all can’t help but gush....The stoic eloquence channels John F. Kennedy."
— Correspondent Tracy Smith on CBS’s The Early Show, February 14. |
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Can’t Wait to Impugn Republicans |
"Have you stopped to think what the Obama version of Swift Boating might be in
this campaign cycle if you get to the general election? What they did to John
Kerry, what’s that version going to be with Barack Obama?"
— NBC’s Matt Lauer to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on
Today, February 19.
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer: "There’s still plenty of racism out
there, you know. There are all these incidents you see of racial hatred....How
worried are you — and you’re obviously sympathetic to the Republicans — that if
Barack Obama gets the Democratic presidential nomination, that there could be
elements of racism that come up from the other side?"
Conservative radio host Larry Elder: "I’m sure there are people who won’t
vote for him because he’s black. I’m sure there are people who are voting for
him because he’s black."
Blitzer: "No, I’m talking about the Willie Horton kind of commercials, the
ads that could be used against, potentially against, Barack Obama."
— Exchange on CNN’s Situation Room, February 12. |
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McCain vs. "Far Right" "Crazies" |
"While [Senator John] McCain may be close to locking up the Republican
nomination, he still faces a tough battle to win the support of hard-line
GOP conservatives."
— Fill-in anchor Harry Smith on the February 7 CBS Evening News.
"McCain: Frail with the Far Right"
— Headline over a February 6 Time.com article by the magazine’s
Washington Bureau Chief Jay Carney.
Co-host Harry Smith: "These conservatives, they’re still — they’re
not happy. They’re not happy about this guy."
CBS political analyst Nicolle Wallace: "And, you know what, Republicans
are beginning to say that’s okay. The more that we see, kind of, the crazies
like Ann Coulter out attacking John McCain, the better Republicans feel
about their chances in the general election."
— Exchange on CBS’s The Early Show, February 13. |
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Just Toddlers Having a Tantrum |
"Critics of conservative voices right now are saying for the first time in a
very long time, the conservatives have lost. They haven’t been able to choose
their nominee and it’s the political version now of a 3-year-old saying, ‘if you
can’t play the game the way I want to play, I’m taking my football and I’m going
home.’ How do you respond to that?"
— NBC’s Matt Lauer to Ann Coulter on Today, February 8. |
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Just a Matter of Time |
"I do think he [John McCain] gets good treatment....The media like him because
he’s the one who pokes his thumb in Republican and conservative eyes, mostly
conservative eyes. But as soon as it’s McCain against Obama or Clinton, the
media goes over to the other side."
— Former CBS News correspondent Bernard Goldberg on FNC’s The O’Reilly
Factor, February 7. |
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Vieira’s Liberal Circle of Friends |
"I was with a group of friends who, actually were trying to choose between
Clinton and Obama and the, for example, the ones who were for Clinton said,
‘Well I want to vote for her but I think I’m gonna vote for Obama because I
think he, he can win the general election.’ And then some of the Obama people
said, ‘Well, I’m gonna vote for Clinton because I think she’s gonna win.’"
— NBC’s Meredith Vieira on the February 4 Today. |
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Start Packing |
"Could global warming one day force us into space to live?"
— ABC’s Sam Champion, Good Morning America, Feb. 8. |
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Run, Al, Run |
"Al Gore on the second ballot: A scenario that a few weeks ago seemed
preposterous is beginning to look plausible to some nervous Democrats
looking for a way out of the deadlock between Hillary Clinton and Barack
Obama.... Democrats want to win. The new rallying cry: Gore on the second
ballot."
— Newsweek’s Eleanor Clift in a February 15 posting to her
magazine’s "Stumper" political blog.
"He foresaw global warming. He ‘took the initiative’ on the
Internet. And he knew exactly how Iraq would turn out. Who’s to say that Al
Gore hasn’t known all along that the Democratic race would descend into some
weird state of gridlock — and that only he, the Goracle, could rescue the
party from civil war?"
— Newsweek political reporter Andrew Romano on the "Stumper" blog
commenting on Clift’s theory. |
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"Dashing" "Rock Star" Castro |
"From a tiny island, a larger than life personality....Castro knew life is a
stage and played the part of the dashing revolutionary, coming to New York,
getting rock star treatment."
— ABC’s Diane Sawyer on the February 19 Good Morning America, after
news Castro would relinquish his title as Cuban president.
"His record has been a mix of great social achievements, but a
dismal economic performance that has mired most Cubans in poverty. He succeeded
in establishing universal health care, providing free education through college
and largely rooting out racism."
— New York Times reporter James C. McKinley, Jr., writing about
Castro’s legacy in a February 19 online article. |
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News You Can Use |
CBS’s Katie Couric: "What were you like in high school? Were you the girl
in the front row taking meticulous notes and always raising your hand?...Someone
told me your nickname in school was Miss Frigidaire. Is that true?"
Hillary Clinton: "Only with some boys." [laughs]
Couric, giggling: "I don’t know if I want to hear the back story on that!"
Clinton: "Well, you wouldn’t want to know the boys either." [bursts out
laughing]
— CBS’s 60 Minutes, February 10. |
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Some Fine Objective Reporting |
"Mr. Bush never sounds surer of himself than when the subject is Sept. 11, even
when his critics argue that he has squandered the country’s moral authority,
violated American and international law, and led the United States into the
foolhardy distraction of Iraq."
— New York Times reporter Steven Lee Myers in a February 12 front-page
"news analysis" about military trials for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other 9/11
conspirators. |
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Americans "Suffering" Due to Bush |
NBC’s Ann Curry: "Some Americans believe, that they feel they’re carrying
the burden because of this economy. I mean, they say they’re suffering because
of this war."
President George W. Bush: "I don’t agree with that."
Curry: "You don’t agree with that? Has nothing to do with the economy? The
war? The spending on the war?...But at some point if you’re wrong about
something it is — I’m not saying that you are, I’m just saying that at some
point if you, if this idea of not wanting soldiers to die in vain. At some
point, if you’re absolutely wrong, you don’t want any more soldiers to die in
vain."
Bush: "Well, we’re not wrong in this case."
— Exchange on NBC’s Today, February 18. |
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Frothing Over Bush the "Fascist" |
"If you believe in the seamless mutuality of government and big business, come
out and say it! There is a dictionary definition, one word that describes that
toxic blend. You’re a fascist! Get them to print you a T-shirt with fascist on
it!...You, sir, have no place in a government of the people, by the people, for
the people. The lot of you are the symbolic descendants of the despotic middle
managers of some banana republic to whom ‘freedom’ is an ironic brand name, a
word you reach for when you want to get away with its opposite."
— MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann in a "Special Comment" about the NSA’s terrorist
surveillence program on Countdown, February 14. |
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Wishing Rush Had "Croaked" |
Author/humorist P.J. O’Rourke: "It’s the twilight of the radio
loud-mouth, you know? I knew it from the moment the fat guy-"
Host Bill Maher: "You mean Rush Limbaugh and Sean-"
O’Rourke: "-from the moment the fat guy refused to share his drugs...."
Maher: "You mean the OxyContin that he was on?...Why couldn’t he have
croaked from it instead of Heath Ledger?"
— HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, February 8. |
PUBLISHER: L. Brent Bozell III
EDITORS: Brent H. Baker, Rich Noyes, Tim Graham
MEDIA ANALYSTS: Geoffrey Dickens, Brad Wilmouth, Scott Whitlock, Matthew Balan and Kyle Drennen
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE: Michelle Humphrey
INTERNS: Lyndsi Thomas and Michael Wales
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