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1. ABC Relays Charge Bush "Lied," But Not How He Met with Families ABC made time Wednesday night for Martha Raddatz to read from a letter the Gold Star Moms for Peace sent to President Bush in which they charged that "you put our troops in harm's way based on a lie. We are military families who demand an end to the lies, and call for you to bring our troops home now." But, after weeks of hyping Cindy Sheehan, neither Raddatz nor anyone else on World News Tonight mentioned how Bush spent nearly three hours meeting with family members of those killed in Iraq. Neither did the CBS Evening News which held its coverage of Bush's speech in Idaho to the National Guard to a soundbite of Bush quoting a mother with four sons in Iraq. NBC anchor Brian Williams touted how Sheehan's group "said today its members will follow President Bush around the country protesting the war," but at least Kelly O'Donnell noted that Bush "met privately with 68 family members who grieve for sons and husbands lost in war." 2. ABC Admits Anti-War Movement Weak, Suggests How to Give It Impact In a look Wednesday night at the status of the anti-war movement, ABC's Dan Harris acknowledged that "while Cindy Sheehan gets a lot of media attention, only 13 percent of Americans, according to the latest ABC News poll, want an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops, which may be why the public protests thus far have been relatively small." But then Harris advised how to get traction for the anti-war efforts: "Former Senator Gary Hart, who was at the center of the anti-war protests during Vietnam, says the only way for a bonafide movement to come about now would be for a prominent politician to publicly and repeatedly say something like this." Viewers then heard from Hart: "'I was misled by the President, the country was misled by the President, the reasons we are in Iraq today are not the reasons that I voted for, and here's a plan for the speedy withdrawal of American military forces.'" 3. NBC: "Iraq: The New Vietnam?"; Matthews Hears Dusty Springfield "Is Iraq becoming the new Vietnam?" Wednesday's Today on NBC devoted its 7am half hour "Close-Up" segment to that topic with Matt Lauer interviewing Chris Matthews. Lauer began with Senator Chuck Hagel's comparison of Iraq to Vietnam, prompting Matthews to buck up Hagel's importance: "It is a problem because he's not just a Republican as you know. Chuck Hagel, the Senator from Nebraska is from a red state, very much the heartland of America." Matthews soon asserted that "there's also another phrase from Vietnam that keeps coming to mind. No light at the end of the tunnel. I think what wears on people is not the casualty rate itself. It's no where near where it was in Vietnam. It's the murkiness." Matthews soon suggested that "it seems like we're gonna be hearing Dusty Springfield and hearing the chopper blades again." On screen during the segment, "Iraq: The New Vietnam?" 4. Olbermann Targets Hume as "Worser" in "Worst Person in the World" On his MSNBC Countdown show on Wednesday night, Keith Olbermann, who described the Fox News Channel as "just a brand name, not a description," named FNC's Brit Hume his "runner-up" in his daily "Worst Person in the World" gimmick. What riled Olbermann? Hume daring to criticize as "'excessive' the TV coverage of Pat Robertson's call for the assassination of President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela because, he said, Robertson has 'no influence.'" Olbermann sarcastically added: "Probably why Fox has had Robertson on their network ten times in the last year." By that reasoning, Olbermann would have to consider influential the parade of lawyers, family friends and other hangers-on brought out many times a day on FNC and MSNBC to talk about the Natalie Holloway case. 5. ABC & CBS Falsely Cite "Record High" Prices for Both Oil and Gas Double false stories. ABC anchor Charles Gibson and CBS anchor John Roberts on Wednesday night weren't satisfied with a fallacious reference to a "record high" price for either gas or oil. No, they insisted upon inaccurately reporting both. "Another day, another record high price for oil -- $67.32 a barrel," Gibson reported on World News Tonight before setting up his next story with a fallacy: "All week, we have been examining the record-high gasoline prices in our series, 'Over a Barrel.'" Over on the CBS Evening News, Roberts claimed that "oil production sent the price of crude soaring today to a record high $67.32 a barrel" and referred to "more pressure on already record high gas prices." As noted in several past CyberAlerts, oil will have to exceed $90 a barrel to set a record and a gallon of gas will have to go over $3.00 to reach the 1981 price. 6. NBC Blames Floods on Global Warming; CNN: "We're Making It Worse" Two more examples have how journalists have been captured by the environmental left. In a story Wednesday night on what NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams described as "severe, history-making floods" in Europe, reporter Jim Maceda forwarded: "What's happening? Some experts say global warming is generating extreme weather systems." Earlier Wednesday, on CNN's American Morning, co-host Miles O'Brien declared as fact: "Well, you know, let's face it, the scientific jury is in, folks. The planet is getting warmer, we're making it worse. And the fact is the Bush administration has not made this a priority." Earth may be warming, but by how much, the degree of its impact, what is causing it and what, if anything, needs to be done about it is very much in dispute. ABC Relays Charge Bush "Lied," But Not How He Met with Families ABC made time Wednesday night for Martha Raddatz to read from a letter the Gold Star Moms for Peace sent to President Bush in which they charged that "you put our troops in harm's way based on a lie. We are military families who demand an end to the lies, and call for you to bring our troops home now." But, after weeks of hyping Cindy Sheehan, neither Raddatz nor anyone else on World News Tonight mentioned how Bush spent nearly three hours meeting with family members of those killed in Iraq. Neither did the CBS Evening News which held its coverage of Bush's speech in Idaho to the National Guard to a soundbite of Bush quoting a mother with four sons in Iraq. NBC anchor Brian Williams touted how Sheehan's group "said today its members will follow President Bush around the country protesting the war," but at least Kelly O'Donnell noted that Bush "met privately with 68 family members who grieve for sons and husbands lost in war." ABC's Charles Gibson opened the August 24 World News Tonight, as corrected against the closed-captioning by the MRC's Brad Wilmouth: "Good evening. In a time when many are calling for troops to start coming home from Iraq, the Pentagon announced that, to the contrary, more will be going. That is just one of today's developments on Iraq. New battles broke out there between Iraqi factions, which might jeopardize getting that country's new constitution. And President Bush defended the war in another speech and seemed to speak even more directly to those anti-war mothers who are protesting against him every day. We start, tonight, with ABC's Martha Raddatz. Martha, the additional troops. Why are they being sent over?"
Raddatz checked in from the Pentagon: "The 1,500 additional troops, Charlie, are being sent over to secure the upcoming referendum in October and also elections in December. But they probably won't be the last additional forces. President Bush made clear to National Guard families in Idaho today that this will be a long fight with continued sacrifice." NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams announced: "Back here in the U.S., peace activist and the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, Cindy Sheehan, arrived back in Crawford, Texas, after spending several days in Los Angeles with her mother, who suffered a stroke. A group she co-founded, called Gold Star Families for Peace, said today its members will follow President Bush around the country protesting the war. The President was in Idaho today, continuing what has become a campaign to praise military sacrifice while countering Sheehan's protests. Here is NBC's Kelly O'Donnell."
O'Donnell began: "Today, a presidential thank-you note hand-delivered to Idaho. Mr. Bush praised the 1,700 members of Idaho's National Guard, now in Iraq. A small state, but with the country's highest percentage of its guard mobilized."
ABC Admits Anti-War Movement Weak, Suggests How to Give It Impact In a look Wednesday night at the status of the anti-war movement, ABC's Dan Harris acknowledged that "while Cindy Sheehan gets a lot of media attention, only 13 percent of Americans, according to the latest ABC News poll, want an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops, which may be why the public protests thus far have been relatively small." But then Harris advised how to get traction for the anti-war efforts: "Former Senator Gary Hart, who was at the center of the anti-war protests during Vietnam, says the only way for a bonafide movement to come about now would be for a prominent politician to publicly and repeatedly say something like this." Viewers then heard from Hart: "'I was misled by the President, the country was misled by the President, the reasons we are in Iraq today are not the reasons that I voted for, and here's a plan for the speedy withdrawal of American military forces.'" Wednesday's Washington Post carried an op-ed from Hart, "Who Will Say 'No More'?"
Following Raddatz's story quoted above in CyberAlert item #1, World News Tonight anchor Charles Gibson set up the next story:
Harris began: "Shortly before the war, when the lead singer of the Dixie Chicks criticized the President, she was publicly pilloried. Today, the number one most-requested video on MTV depicts the anguish of soldiers [video of music video] and their loved ones. The song is by Green Day, who have twice topped the charts with their scathingly anti-war album [shot of album cover "American Idiot]."
NBC: "Iraq: The New Vietnam?"; Matthews Hears Dusty Springfield "Is Iraq becoming the new Vietnam?" Wednesday's Today on NBC devoted its 7am half hour "Close-Up" segment to that topic with Matt Lauer interviewing Chris Matthews. Lauer began with Senator Chuck Hagel's comparison of Iraq to Vietnam, prompting Matthews to buck up Hagel's importance: "It is a problem because he's not just a Republican as you know. Chuck Hagel, the Senator from Nebraska is from a red state, very much the heartland of America." Matthews soon asserted that "there's also another phrase from Vietnam that keeps coming to mind. No light at the end of the tunnel. I think what wears on people is not the casualty rate itself. It's no where near where it was in Vietnam. It's the murkiness." Matthews soon suggested that "it seems like we're gonna be hearing Dusty Springfield and hearing the chopper blades again." On screen during the segment, "Iraq: The New Vietnam?" The MRC's Geoff Dickens tracked the August 24 interview for us and provided this transcript:
Matt Lauer: "On Close Up this morning is Iraq becoming the new Vietnam? Chris Matthews is the host of MSNBC's Hardball as well as the syndicated Chris Matthews Show. Hi Chris, good morning."
Olbermann Targets Hume as "Worser" in "Worst Person in the World" On his MSNBC Countdown show on Wednesday night, Keith Olbermann, who described the Fox News Channel as "just a brand name, not a description," named FNC's Brit Hume his "runner-up" in his daily "Worst Person in the World" gimmick. What riled Olbermann? Hume daring to criticize as "'excessive' the TV coverage of Pat Robertson's call for the assassination of President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela because, he said, Robertson has 'no influence.'" Olbermann sarcastically added: "Probably why Fox has had Robertson on their network ten times in the last year." By that reasoning, Olbermann would have to consider influential the parade of lawyers, family friends and other hangers-on brought out many times a day on FNC and MSNBC to talk about the Natalie Holloway case. [This article was posted Wednesday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters: Exposing and Combating Liberal Media Bias. To post a comment on this topic: newsbusters.org ] In fact, Hume never said Robertson has "no influence." Hume suggested that Robertson's "political influence may have been declining since he came in second in the Iowa Republican caucuses 17 years ago and he may have no clout with the Bush administration" and that CNN's Bill Schneider had decided that Robertson has "little influence." The August 24 CyberAlert quoted Hume's August 23 "Grapevine" item in which Hume specifically castigated CNN: www.mrc.org Olbermann's "worse," the third runner-up was a malfunctioning security robot which sprayed smoke at Japan's Prime Minister and he crowned Victoria Gotti the winner for saying she has cancer when she doesn't.
Full text of Olbermann's August 24 hit on Hume:
ABC & CBS Falsely Cite "Record High" Prices for Both Oil and Gas Double false stories. ABC anchor Charles Gibson and CBS anchor John Roberts on Wednesday night weren't satisfied with a fallacious reference to a "record high" price for either gas or oil. No, they insisted upon inaccurately reporting both. "Another day, another record high price for oil -- $67.32 a barrel," Gibson reported on World News Tonight before setting up his next story with a fallacy: "All week, we have been examining the record-high gasoline prices in our series, 'Over a Barrel.'" Over on the CBS Evening News, Roberts claimed that "oil production sent the price of crude soaring today to a record high $67.32 a barrel" and referred to "more pressure on already record high gas prices." As noted in several past CyberAlerts, oil will have to exceed $90 a barrel to set a record and a gallon of gas will have to go over $3.00 to reach the 1981 price. Both items were accompanied by graphics with a red "Record High" on screen. # Charles Gibson on ABC's World News Tonight: "Another day, another record high price for oil -- $67.32 a barrel. Today's explanation, declining U.S. stockpiles and fears that Tropical Storm Katrina might disrupt production in the Gulf. All week, we have been examining the record-high gasoline prices in our series, 'Over a Barrel.' Tonight, new ways automobiles might be powered in the future. You've heard of gas/electric hybrids, you've heard of hydrogen fuel cell cars. Well, ABC's Brian Rooney has found some other alternatives that people are working on right now." # John Roberts on the August 24 CBS Evening News: "And worries that Tropical Storm Katrina, soon to be Hurricane Katrina, might disrupt oil production sent the price of crude soaring today to a record high $67.32 a barrel. Then there's a report that gasoline inventories are down sharply. All that is putting more pressure on already record high gas prices. CBS News is checking the impact in a special series, 'The Cross Country Price Patrol.'"
NBC Blames Floods on Global Warming; CNN: "We're Making It Worse" Two more examples have how journalists have been captured by the environmental left. In a story Wednesday night on what NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams described as "severe, history-making floods" in Europe, reporter Jim Maceda forwarded: "What's happening? Some experts say global warming is generating extreme weather systems." Earlier Wednesday, on CNN's American Morning, co-host Miles O'Brien declared as fact: "Well, you know, let's face it, the scientific jury is in, folks. The planet is getting warmer, we're making it worse. And the fact is the Bush administration has not made this a priority." Earth may be warming, but by how much, the degree of its impact, what is causing it and what, if anything, needs to be done about it is very much in dispute.
Maceda asked in his August 24 story: "What's happening? Some experts say global warming is generating extreme weather systems." The MRC's Megan McCormack caught this exchange from just before 9m EDT Wednesday on CNN's American Morning:
Miles O'Brien: "Nine northeastern states, in the absence of a U.S. federal plan to cap greenhouse emissions and curb global warming, nine northeastern states going to do it themselves. They're going to cap utility emissions-"
-- Brent Baker
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