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1. Staff Changes Resurrect Plame; CBS: Metaphor in Grounded Chopper Of the three broadcast network evening newscasts, the NBC Nightly News delivered the most negative assessment of the situation facing a White House which made some personnel changes, with reporter David Gregory using the moves as a chance to resurrect the Plame case and to maintain, in an amazing coincidence of his personal agenda matching that of "Republicans I've been talking to," that "the President needs a Press Secretary who will be more open with the media." CBS's Jim Axelrod also got in a snarky shot that certainly put imagery over substance: "The metaphor of the day came from the President's chopper. Technical problems kept it from getting off the ground, just like grounded poll numbers and a stalled agenda are making it harder to fill top jobs." 2. Olbermann: Snow Pick Will Merge FNC's "Bias" With WH "Propaganda" Citing reports that the White House might select Tony Snow to replace Scott McClellan as Press Secretary, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann on Wednesday night ridiculed the journalistic integrity of Snow and FNC -- even claiming, contrary to what ratings show, that the number of people who "believe" FNC is becoming "increasingly smaller." Near the top of his Countdown show, Olbermann noted Snow's Fox News affiliation before he snidely added: "As critics would suggest, as such he's already an unofficial White House spokesman." To guest Richard Wolffe of Newsweek, Olbermann proposed: "If you go with Tony Snow of Fox News, are you not saying we're only talking to that increasingly smaller group of people who believe Fox News is the sole source of truth in the world?" In another segment, with the Washington Post's Dana Milbank, Olbermann, the host of a very slanted cable news show, presumed FNC is the only network anyone sees as biased: "Would the entire Fox News bias issue suddenly become connected at the hip with how the administration handles truth versus propaganda?" Milbank quipped: "I'm not sure it would necessarily be bad for the White House, but it does raise some questions. We first have to ask if Tony's going to get back pay?" 3. Networks Falsely Cite "Record High" Price for Barrel of Oil Though in constant, inflation-adjusted dollars -- the only way to measure prices over time -- a price of a barrel of oil will have to exceed $87 to reach a record high, the broadcast networks have been falsely trumpeting nominal oil prices as a "record high." On Wednesday night, for instance, CBS Evening News anchor Russ Mitchell inaccurately asserted that "oil prices hit another record high today, closing above 72 bucks a barrel." NBC's Brian Williams wrongly claimed that oil prices were "surging to yet another record high close. The gain on the day 82 cents per barrel. Closing price of oil, $72.17 a barrel, the third record close in a row." ABC anchor Elizabeth Vargas teased, "Big Oil. Crude hits a record high for the third day in a row." 4. Liberal Ex-Time Writer Despises "Patriot-ization" of Her Son Remember former Time magazine contributor Nina Burleigh? She won the MRC's Quote of the Year award in 1998 for proclaiming to the Washington Post: "I would be happy to give him [Clinton] a blow job just to thank him for keeping abortion legal. I think American women should be lining up with their presidential kneepads on to show their gratitude for keeping the theocracy off our backs." Burleigh has written a piece for Salon.com (a liberal site, yes, but still viewing a corporate commercial is required) about how her son was molded into a little patriotic clone in small-town New York and how she learned that she, too, could love America, if only Bush wasn't ruining it with that vile war in Iraq, "Country boy: I cringed as my young son recited the Pledge of Allegiance. But who was I to question his innocent trust in a nation I long ago lost faith in?" 5. On Today, Actor Dennis Quaid Promotes Movie Satirizing Bush Actor Dennis Quaid appeared on Wednesday's Today show to promote his new movie, American Dreamz, the poster for which proclaims: "Imagine A Country Where The President Never Reads The Newspaper, Where The Government Goes To War For All The Wrong Reasons And Where More People Vote For A Pop Idol Than Their Next President." But according to Quaid the movie is, "not a political statement," and that he's "not a Bush-basher." Katie Couric outed Quaid as a Gore voter in 2000 but tried to give him cover by noting he voted for Bush in 2004, though she had praise for Quaid's co-star Mandy Moore's performance in Saved, a movie that mocked Christians. 6. "Top Ten Other Announcements Meredith Vieira Would Like to Make" As presented on the Late Show by incoming Today show co-host Meredith Vieira, the "Top Ten Other Announcements Meredith Vieira Would Like to Make." Staff Changes Resurrect Plame; CBS: Metaphor in Grounded Chopper Of the three broadcast network evening newscasts, the NBC Nightly News delivered the most negative assessment of the situation facing a White House which made some personnel changes, with reporter David Gregory using the moves as a chance to resurrect the Plame case and to maintain, in an amazing coincidence of his personal agenda matching that of "Republicans I've been talking to," that "the President needs a Press Secretary who will be more open with the media." CBS's Jim Axelrod also got in a snarky shot that certainly put imagery over substance: "The metaphor of the day came from the President's chopper. Technical problems kept it from getting off the ground, just like grounded poll numbers and a stalled agenda are making it harder to fill top jobs." NBC anchor Brian Williams led his newscast: "These are tough times these days at the Bush White House. The President's approval rating has hit its lowest point yet. Complaints have been coming in from fellow Republicans. And there is concern the coming midterm elections this year could spell colossal defeat for his own party." Gregory proceeded to bring up how the portfolio change for Karl Rove "comes at a time when Rove remains under investigation in the CIA leak case." Moving on to McClellan, Gregory again raised the Plame matter: "But his critics, including Republicans close to the White House, felt McClellan wasn't effective, didn't click with the press corps and lost credibility during the leak investigation when he vouched -- incorrectly it turned out -- for two key figures in the case, Scooter Libby and Rove." [This item was posted Wednesday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org. To share your comments, go to: newsbusters.org ]
On the CBS Evening News, White House correspondent Jim Axelrod included this lazy comparison:
Brian Williams led the April 19 NBC Nightly News:
David Gregory: "It is a big day, Brian, and the feeling around here is that there is still more to come. About today's moves, top advisors say it reflects a pretty grim mood around here, a sense that this team has got to become more assertive, and frankly more effective if it's going to salvage this second term. The biggest change today was one that may be harder to notice. Karl Rove, the President's top political advisor, lost some of his duties as Deputy Chief of Staff. It comes at a time when Rove remains under investigation in the CIA leak case and is among the leading targets of critics who think the Bush team has lost its way."
Olbermann: Snow Pick Will Merge FNC's "Bias" With WH "Propaganda" Citing reports that the White House might select Tony Snow to replace Scott McClellan as Press Secretary, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann on Wednesday night ridiculed the journalistic integrity of Snow and FNC -- even claiming, contrary to what ratings show, that the number of people who "believe" FNC is becoming "increasingly smaller." Near the top of his Countdown show, Olbermann noted Snow's Fox News affiliation before he snidely added: "As critics would suggest, as such he's already an unofficial White House spokesman." To guest Richard Wolffe of Newsweek, Olbermann proposed: "If you go with Tony Snow of Fox News, are you not saying we're only talking to that increasingly smaller group of people who believe Fox News is the sole source of truth in the world?" In another segment, with the Washington Post's Dana Milbank, Olbermann, the host of a very slanted cable news show, presumed FNC is the only network anyone sees as biased: "Would the entire Fox News bias issue suddenly become connected at the hip with how the administration handles truth versus propaganda?" Milbank quipped: "I'm not sure it would necessarily be bad for the White House, but it does raise some questions. We first have to ask if Tony's going to get back pay?" [This item was posted Wednesday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org. To post your comments, go to: newsbusters.org ] For some cable ratings, check Mediabistro's TVNewser site. You'll see that anywhere from three to five times more people watch FNC than MSNBC, with the disparity at the greater end during Olbermann's 8pm EDT hour: www.mediabistro.com Snow was once much more involved with Fox News as host of the broadcast network's Fox News Sunday, the regular Friday host of Special Report with Brit Hume and Saturday and Sunday host of the 12-2pm ET Weekend Live hours. Currently, his only FNC duty is hosting from noon to 2pm ET Saturdays and he has a 9am -12pm ET weekday radio talk show distributed by Fox News.
Olbermann reported in his opening summary, on the April 19 Countdown, of the personnel changes at the White House:
Olbermann to his first guest, Newsweek White House reporter Richard Wolffe:
Olbermann at the end of a session with Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank, mostly about Donald Rumsfeld's status: Regular Olbermann viewers will get Milbank's cop allusion. If you don't, it's not worth your time to read an explanation.
Networks Falsely Cite "Record High" Price for Barrel of Oil
Though in constant, inflation-adjusted dollars -- the only way to measure prices over time -- a price of a barrel of oil will have to exceed $87 to reach a record high, the broadcast networks have been falsely trumpeting nominal oil prices as a "record high." On Wednesday night, for instance, CBS Evening News anchor Russ Mitchell inaccurately asserted that "oil prices hit another record high today, closing above 72 bucks a barrel." NBC's Brian Williams wrongly claimed that oil prices were "surging to yet another record high close. The gain on the day 82 cents per barrel. Closing price of oil, $72.17 a barrel, the third record close in a row." ABC anchor Elizabeth Vargas teased, "Big Oil. Crude hits a record high for the third day in a row." # CBS Evening News. Russ Mitchell: "Oil prices hit another record high today, closing above 72 bucks a barrel." # NBC Nightly News. Brian Williams: "It was another wild day on the oil markets today with prices surging to yet another record high close. The gain on the day 82 cents per barrel. Closing price of oil, $72.17 a barrel, the third record close in a row." # ABC's World News Tonight. The up top tease from Elizabeth Vargas: "Big Oil. Crude hits a record high for the third day in a row. What's causing the price hikes? And is there an end in sight?" Vargas later in her newscast: "Now, to the price of oil. It set another record high today, for the third day in a row. The price of crude closed at $72.17 a barrel this afternoon. That's up 82 cents from yesterday's previous record. It means that Americans can expect to pay still more for gasoline. And ABC's Betsy Stark joins us to explain why the market is so volatile. Three record days in a row." For some more instances from earlier this week, check Ken Shepherd's short piece, "Networks Complain of 'Record-High' Oil That Isn't," on the MRC's Free Market Project page: www.freemarketproject.org
Liberal Ex-Time Writer Despises "Patriot-ization" of Her Son Remember former Time magazine contributor Nina Burleigh? She won the MRC's Quote of the Year award in 1998 for proclaiming to the Washington Post: "I would be happy to give him [Clinton] a blow job just to thank him for keeping abortion legal. I think American women should be lining up with their presidential kneepads on to show their gratitude for keeping the theocracy off our backs." Burleigh has written a piece for Salon.com (a liberal site, yes, but still viewing a corporate commercial is required) about how her son was molded into a little patriotic clone in small-town New York and how she learned that she, too, could love America, if only Bush wasn't ruining it with that vile war in Iraq, "Country boy: I cringed as my young son recited the Pledge of Allegiance. But who was I to question his innocent trust in a nation I long ago lost faith in?" (In an October 15, 1998 appearance on CNBC's Hardball, Chris Matthews asked her why she had proclaimed she "would give the President the kind of sex that he got from Monica Lewinsky." The October 23, 1998 CyberAlert, with a screen shot of her, detailed her exchange with Matthews and tracked the evolution of the quote first uttered a few months earlier. See: www.mediaresearch.org ) [This item is slightly modified from a posting by Tim Graham on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] An excerpt from Burleigh's April 17 Salon posting on her travails in living in a small southern New York town: The Harlem unit of the National Guard was putting on a Christmas clothing drive for Iraqi children. On the way into the city, I tried to explain to my son what we were doing, and -- as best I could -- why. As we crossed the George Washington Bridge and the Manhattan skyline spread out below us, I began to give him a variation on the "Africans don't have any food, finish your dinner" talk. I wanted him to understand how privileged he was to live in a place where bombs weren't raining from the sky. It was a talk I'd tried to have before, but not one he'd ever paid much attention to until that day, trapped in the back seat of our car. In simple language, I told my son that our president had started a war with a country called Iraq. I said that we were bombing cities and destroying buildings. And I explained that families just like ours now had no money or food because their parents didn't have offices to go to anymore or bosses to pay them. "America did this?" my son asked, incredulous. "Yes, America," I answered. He paused, a long silent pause, then burst out: "But Mommy, I love America! I want to hug America!" SUSPEND Excerpt The small town school had to close for financial reasons, and Burleigh's family moved back to New York City. Resume excerpt: The patriot-ization of our son was thorough enough to survive the summer. He decorated his birthday cookies with red, white and blue sugar, and in his summer camp program, when doing arts and crafts, those were the colors of paint he favored. "I made the stars red, white and blue -- like the flag!" he exclaimed, holding a paper mobile he'd strung together. Now it has been almost a year since my son scampered down the steps of Narrowsburg Central Rural School for the last time. We've since returned to the city, driven back to urban life more by adult boredom than our children's lack of educational opportunities. Our son is enrolled in a well-rated K-5 public school on Manhattan's Upper West Side; not surprisingly, the Pledge of Allegiance is no longer part of his morning routine. Come to think of it, and I could be wrong, I've never seen a flag on the premises. My husband and I realized, though, that Narrowsburg did more than mold our boy into a patriot. He can, it turns out -- despite the warnings of other city parents -- read at a level twice that of his new peers. Since we returned to the city, he has learned how to ride a bike, long for an Xbox, practiced a few new swear words and, somehow, learned the meaning of "sexy." He has pretty much stopped favoring red, white and blue. How soon childish national pride is shed, I sometimes think now, and not a little wistfully. Only once it was gone did I realize that, after our initial discomfort, my husband and I had begun to see our son's patriotism as a badge of innocence. His faith was a reminder to us that the reason we are devastated by the war in Iraq and the Bush presidency is that we too love America. We too want to believe in its potential for good and brotherhood. END of Excerpt And don't miss the part where she tattles to the ACLU on the small-town school for its voluntary Bible study. Oh, what tasks Burleigh might perform for the ACLU for keeping the theocracy off our backs...
For Burleigh's piece in full on Salon: www.salon.com
On Today, Actor Dennis Quaid Promotes Movie Satirizing Bush Actor Dennis Quaid appeared on Wednesday's Today show to promote his new movie, American Dreamz, the poster for which proclaims: "Imagine A Country Where The President Never Reads The Newspaper, Where The Government Goes To War For All The Wrong Reasons And Where More People Vote For A Pop Idol Than Their Next President." But according to Quaid the movie is, "not a political statement," and that he's "not a Bush-basher." Katie Couric outed Quaid as a Gore voter in 2000 but tried to give him cover by noting he voted for Bush in 2004, though she had praise for Quaid's co-star Mandy Moore's performance in Saved, a movie that mocked Christians. Universal's site for the American Dreamz movie: www.americandreamzmovie.com The Internet Movie Database's page for Quaid: www.imdb.com [This item, by the MRC's Geoff Dickens, was posted Wednesday afternoon on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] The Quaid-Couric discussion about American Dreamz:
Katie Couric: "It is hard to believe that Dennis Quaid has been on the big screen for more than 30 years, particularly since he's just 35. He has more than 50 films under his belt and now he can add one more to that list. In his latest role Quaid plays a president who's looking for a way to boost his popularity so he becomes a guest judge on a hit reality show. The movie is called American Dreamz and Dennis Quaid is here to tell us all about it. Hi, Dennis how are you?" ...
Couric: "Also Mandy Moore is in it. Marcia Gay Harden who's a great actress and-"
"Top Ten Other Announcements Meredith Vieira Would Like to Make"
From the April 19 Late Show with David Letterman, as presented by incoming Today show co-host Meredith Vieira, the "Top Ten Other Announcements Meredith Vieira Would Like to Make." Late Show home page: www.cbs.com 9. Six retired generals advised me not to go to CBS 8. I once served time for running a cockfighting ring in Managua 7. I'm carrying Brad Pitt's baby 6. I haven't even started at NBC and already I'm getting creepy phone calls from Donald Trump 5. I'm thrilled to follow in the high heels of Katie Couric, Jane Pauley and Bryant Gumbel 4. A minute ago backstage I saw a rat the size of a basset hound 3. The rumors are true -- I'm on steroids 2. I can smell Dave's cheap-ass cologne from here 1. If I seem disappointed, it's because I thought I was going on Leno
-- Brent Baker
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