top
|
1. ABC Ignores Denial by Phone Companies, Leads with Low Bush Rating Tuesday's CBS Evening News devoted a story to how all three phone companies -- BellSouth, Verizon and AT&T -- denied they supplied the NSA with massive records of numbers called by their customers, as charged in a Thursday front page USA Today story which led to an ongoing media firestorm. Verizon, for instance, maintained: "Contrary to the media reports, Verizon was not asked by NSA to provide, nor did Verizon provide customer phone records." NBC Nightly News ran a story on the denials by BellSouth and Verizon. But ABC's World News Tonight didn't utter a syllable about the denials which undermine the media's obsession of the last six days. Instead, anchor Elizabeth Vargas announced: "We begin with President Bush and the growing dissatisfaction in this country with the job he is doing. A new ABC News/Washington Post poll finds that the President's approval now stands at just 33 percent, tying a 25-year low. George Stephanopoulos soon inserted a Vietnam comparison. 2. Leftist Environment Day on Today, with Al Gore Dancing with Katie It was a Greenie lovefest on Tuesday's Today. First, Today show viewers were treated to Al Gore wishing Katie a fond farewell, video which featured an early 1990s clip of Couric actually giving him dance lessons in the White House. Then at the end of the show Ann Curry promoted Sting's annual rainforest concert with his wife Trudie Styler, complete with this promotion of global warming: "To also remind people, I mean, most scientists really agree that if we don't protect this band of rainforest in the middle part of, lower middle part of the Earth that we will, could affect the environment in a dramatic way. Some now, there's a lot more debate now today about climate change and more concern about the environment. You've seen this go up and down, the interest and the political wave of it. Where are we now and how hopeful are you that people will be able to talk about this, do something about?" 3. Geraldo Slams Bush, Warns America: Get Ready For $10 Artichokes Geraldo Rivera, on the Monday edition of his syndicated half hour Fox show Geraldo At Large, slammed the President's immigration policy. Rivera complained that "the President is caving in to the most strident voices on this divisive issue" and asserted that the National Guard wouldn't be effective in stopping illegal immigration, but warned if they were successful: "Who will mow our lawns, pick our apples, patch our roofs, sew our garments? You can bet it won't be those screamers demanding the National Guard. What we need is a sensible and humane approach to immigration. What we need is what the President has advocated up until now. The deployment of the National Guard is political baloney. Get ready everybody for $10 artichokes." 4. NBC's ER Docs Rail Against Iraq War: "Right-Wing Cronyism" NBC's medical drama ER included more anti-war speeches in last Thursday's next to last episode of the season, as the show's writers killed off a character who used to work as a doctor at the Chicago hospital but has lately been serving as a National Guard medical officer in Iraq. One doctor railed against how the "whole war smell[s]...of right-wing cronyism," while another complained the U.S. was spending "$6 billion a month in a war all the way across the world to kill a few more of the other kids who actually get to make it to their teens!" 5. Letterman's "Top Ten Surprises in George W. Bush's Speech" Letterman's "Top Ten Surprises in George W. Bush's Speech." ABC Ignores Denial by Phone Companies, Leads with Low Bush Rating Tuesday's CBS Evening News devoted a story to how all three phone companies -- BellSouth, Verizon and AT&T -- denied they supplied the NSA with massive records of numbers called by their customers, as charged in a Thursday front page USA Today story which led to an ongoing media firestorm. Verizon, for instance, maintained: "Contrary to the media reports, Verizon was not asked by NSA to provide, nor did Verizon provide customer phone records." NBC Nightly News ran a story on the denials by BellSouth and Verizon. But ABC's World News Tonight didn't utter a syllable about the denials which undermine the media's obsession of the last six days. Instead, anchor Elizabeth Vargas announced: "We begin with President Bush and the growing dissatisfaction in this country with the job he is doing. A new ABC News/Washington Post poll finds that the President's approval now stands at just 33 percent, tying a 25-year low. George Stephanopoulos soon inserted a Vietnam comparison as he explained: "Everything President Bush says and does is seen through the filter of Iraq and the American people are judging it a failure. Look at these poll numbers: 59 percent call the war in Iraq a mistake. It took several more years back in the 1970s, far deeper into the Vietnam war, for the American people to reach that same judgment about Vietnam." [This item was posted Tuesday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org. To share your comments, go to: newsbusters.org ] On the phone company denials, both CBS and NBC saw "parsing." CBS's Jim Stewart cautioned, "You get the impression that they're very carefully parsing their statements," and he endorsed the thrust of the story while giving a mild rebuke to USA Today: "You also get the impression looking at the body language of the intelligence community that there is something here, although maybe not on the scale that USA Today suggested." A flummoxed Lisa Myers of NBC decided: "It's very hard to know what this means because both statements are carefully parsed."
Last Thursday, ABC led with the USA Today allegation now in question. Vargas opened the May 11 World News Tonight: For rundowns of the initial media hysteria, check the first three articles in the May 12 CyberAlert: www.mediaresearch.org
Five days later, Vargas teased the May 16 World News Tonight:
Vargas led her newscast: "Good evening. We begin with President Bush and the growing dissatisfaction in this country with the job he is doing. A new ABC News/Washington Post poll finds that the President's approval now stands at just 33 percent, tying a 25-year low. The poll finds there is one significant reason behind the widespread unhappiness and that is the war in Iraq. Just 32 percent of Americans approve of his handling of the war. Until that changes, it will be very difficult for Mr. Bush to get traction on any other issue. ABC's Chief Washington correspondent, George Stephanopoulos, joins us, tonight, in New York, with more. This is not good news for the administration." The MRC's Brad Wilmouth corrected the closed-captioning against the video for the May 16 CBS and NBC coverage of the denials from the phone companies: # CBS Evening News. Anchor Russ Mitchell: "And with the 9/11 attacks, of course, began the War on Terror, which includes President Bush's once-secret domestic eavesdropping program, monitoring, without a warrant, phone calls and e-mails of Americans suspected of having ties to terrorists. Today congressional leaders say that in a major about-face the President agreed to allow the full Senate and House intelligence committees to review that program. There have been reports for almost a week now that also, as part of the War on Terror, major telephone companies were giving the government their customers' phone call records. But with those companies facing billions of dollars in lawsuits, they are now saying it never happened. There's a lot of confusion about this tonight. Jim Stewart's in Washington to sort if out for us. Hi, Jim."
Jim Stewart: "Russ, all three of the giant telephone companies that are alleged to have turned over millions of consumer phone records to a national spy agency now say they didn't do that, but their denials haven't stopped the firestorm. In carefully worded statements, BellSouth, AT&T, and now Verizon have challenged a report in USA Today that said the companies gave tens of millions of consumers' phone records to the National Security Agency as part of the War on Terrorism after 9/11: 'Contrary to the media reports, Verizon was not asked by NSA to provide, nor did Verizon provide customer phone records,' a company statement said. In response, USA Today said it will 'continue to investigate and pursue the story. We're confident in our coverage.' The phone records were reportedly stored in the NSA's mammoth computer system as analysts there tried to connect the dots between U.S. telephone numbers found on terrorist operatives captured overseas or numbers here that were dialed by suspected terrorists from their overseas locations. The New York Times had earlier reported the existence of an NSA eavesdropping program on international calls without warrants. Any collection of domestic consumer records would suggest the NSA program was far larger than suspected. President Bush today, however, insisted that no domestic calls were ever listened to without a warrant."
Lisa Myers: "Yes, they have, Brian. Both statements are a bit confusing and leave many unanswered questions. BellSouth now says its own internal review has determined that the company has not 'provided bulk customer calling records to the NSA,' and 'does not have any contract to do that.' Now, Verizon's statement starts by saying it 'won't confirm or deny' whether it has any relationship with the NSA program. It says that it 'never provided customer phone records to the NSA.' But Verizon will not comment on whether MCI, the giant phone company Verizon bought recently, did provide data to the NSA."
Leftist Environment Day on Today, with Al Gore Dancing with Katie It was a Greenie lovefest on Tuesday's Today. First, Today show viewers were treated to Al Gore wishing Katie a fond farewell, video which featured an early 1990s clip of Couric actually giving him dance lessons in the White House. Then at the end of the show Ann Curry promoted Sting's annual rainforest concert with his wife Trudie Styler, complete with this promotion of global warming: "To also remind people, I mean, most scientists really agree that if we don't protect this band of rainforest in the middle part of, lower middle part of the Earth that we will, could affect the environment in a dramatic way. Some now, there's a lot more debate now today about climate change and more concern about the environment. You've seen this go up and down, the interest and the political wave of it. Where are we now and how hopeful are you that people will be able to talk about this, do something about?" [This item, by the MRC's Geoff Dickens, was posted Tuesday afternoon, with video, on the NewsBusters blog. The video and audio of Al Gore's taped goodbye to Couric, with a brief look at the two dancing, will be added to the posted version of this CyberAlert. In the meantime, to watch the Real or Windows Media clip, or MP3 audio, go to: newsbusters.org ] The following are the full excerpts from Today. First the Al Gore farewell at 8am:
Al Gore, fresh off his most recent NBC appearance on Saturday Night Live (see: newsbusters.org ):
Matt Lauer, live from Paris: "Katie, you know the Vice, former Vice President Al Gore had me a little nervous there when he was going, 'other than my wife Tipper,' I didn't know where he was going with that." Then at 9:49am, Ann Curry and Trudie Styler chatted with each other like they were old gal pals:
Ann Curry: "It's curtains up in New York City this week as some big names in the entertainment industry take to stage for a worthy cause. Since 1991 the Rainforest Foundation Funds Benefit Concert has been drawing an A-list number of celebrities to raise money for various projects and behind it all are the Foundation's founders the legendary rock singer Sting and his legendary wife Trudie Styler who's also the concert's producer. Trudie, good morning. Pleasure to see you. You just told me just before we started going live here that your, this organization since you started it in 1989 along with your husband Sting has raised $21 million. Phenomenal. How does that feel and how does it feel seeing what good it's done?" It should be noted this isn't the first time Ann promoted Sting's Concert. For a transcript from the April 21, 2004 Today show, see the NewsBusters posting of this item as linked above.
Geraldo Slams Bush, Warns America: Get Ready For $10 Artichokes Geraldo Rivera, on the Monday edition of his syndicated half hour Fox show Geraldo At Large, slammed the President's immigration policy. Rivera complained that "the President is caving in to the most strident voices on this divisive issue" and asserted that the National Guard wouldn't be effective in stopping illegal immigration, but warned if they were successful: "Who will mow our lawns, pick our apples, patch our roofs, sew our garments? You can bet it won't be those screamers demanding the National Guard. What we need is a sensible and humane approach to immigration. What we need is what the President has advocated up until now. The deployment of the National Guard is political baloney. Get ready everybody for $10 artichokes." [This item is adopted from a Tuesday posting, by the MRC's Geoff Dickens, on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]
The entirety of Rivera's end of show commentary on his May 15 program:
NBC's ER Docs Rail Against Iraq War: "Right-Wing Cronyism" NBC's medical drama ER included more anti-war speeches in last Thursday's next to last episode of the season, as the show's writers killed off a character who used to work as a doctor at the Chicago hospital but has lately been serving as a National Guard medical officer in Iraq. One doctor railed against how the "whole war smell[s]...of right-wing cronyism," while another complained the U.S. was spending "$6 billion a month in a war all the way across the world to kill a few more of the other kids who actually get to make it to their teens!" [This item, by the MRC's Rich Noyes, was posted Friday, with video, on the NewsBusters blog. The video will be added to the posted version of this CyberAlert item, but in the meantime, to watch the Real or Windows Media video clip of a doctor's rant, go to: newsbusters.org ] Earlier this season, "Dr. Neela Rosgotra" railed against the war in the March 16 episode, as recounted in the March 17 CyberAlert: On Thursday's ER, a leading character on the NBC drama set in a Chicago hospital, declared in reference to her husband being deployed to Iraq: "My duty is to be a good doctor and to be a good wife, not to be brainwashed into falling in line with some pseudo-patriotic delusion." The blast from "Dr. Neela Rasgotra," played by Parminder Nagra, came at the end of a scene of a gathering of spouses of deployed soldiers. When one woman, whose husband would not be home for the impending birth of their child, proclaimed that "our loved ones are serving our country, and it's a small price to pay," Dr. Rasgotra replied: "I think it's a huge price to pay, especially under the circumstances." The woman wondered: "What circumstances?" Dr. Rasgotra explained: "Well, the way the whole thing's been handled, how we got into it, how it's been managed....I still haven't seen any weapons of mass destruction, have you?" As they all sat in a home's living room, Dr. Rasgotra pleaded with the group: "You can't tell me that you believe 100 percent in your heart that we should be in Iraq, can any of you?"
For more, as well as video of the scene: www.mediaresearch.org On the May 11 episode, the truck carrying Gallant and several other soldiers was blown up by a roadside bomb during the first few moments of the show, right after he tried in vain to save a soldier shot in an insurgent ambush. That left the rest of the show for the other characters to complain about the war as they learned of their friend's death.
The first big speech came after "U.S. Army Captain Evans" and an army chaplain, "Father Morris," tracked Dr. Rosgotra down at the hospital to tell her that her husband was dead. Captain Evans was later confronted by one of other staffers, "Dr. Victor Clemente," who demanded to know "Hey, was it friendly fire?" At that point, another doctor and a nurse led Clemente away. As the show progressed, it became obvious that Clemente was having psychological problems or a problem with drug addiction, with the character at one point jumping onto the hood of a taxi cab, ripping off his lab coat and shirt, kicking in the taxi's windshield and urinating onto the vehicle.
But the addled Clemente wasn't the only anti-war spokesman. Later in the show, "Dr. Gregory Pratt," who was a friendly competitor to Gallant when they worked together, erupted after dealing with two abused children. The attending physician, "Dr. Luka Kovac," heard Pratt yelling at a medical student. Kovac interrupted: "Hey, what's going on?"
After Pratt left, Kovac explained to the med student: "He and Dr. Gallant were friends." Tomorrow night, May 18, NBC will air the season finale.
Letterman's "Top Ten Surprises in George W. Bush's Speech" From the May 16 Late Show with David Letterman, the "Top Ten Surprises in George W. Bush's Speech." Late Show home page: www.cbs.com 10. Immigration crackdown began after he caught Laura hitting on the White House pool boy 9. Referred to Mexican as "People of the Sombrero" 8. Onscreen ticker tape kept track of his rapidly falling approval rating 7. Frequent references to "my good friend Cheech" 6. Not enough time discussing border patrol, to much time discussing the new 'Facts of Life' DVD box set 5. In retaliation, Mexico may forbid American girls from going wild in Cancun 4. Stirring moment when he declared, "Ich Bin Ein Chalupa" 3. Appealed to Zorro for help 2. Instead of "My Fellow Americans," began speech with "Sup, bitches?" 1. Important points punctuated by shotgun blast from Cheney
-- Brent Baker
Home | News Division
| Bozell Columns | CyberAlerts |
|