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1. Clift Raises Ire of Colleague When She Calls Bush a 'Dictator' When, on the McLaughlin Group over the weekend, Newsweek's Eleanor Clift charged that President Bush is "a dictator who's ineffective," an incensed Chrystia Freeland, a Canadian native who is the Managing Editor in the U.S. of London's Financial Times, scolded Clift for using the dictator label "so loosely" and inaccurately. Clift opined that of those attending the G-8 summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin is "the only one of those leaders who goes in there with a commanding popularity among his own people, because he is perceived to be an effective dictator. What we have in this country is a dictator who's ineffective." Freeland, shouting over panelists who were trying to move on to other points, retorted: "But he's not a dictator! I mean we can't use, no we can't use these terms so loosely." Clift backtracked a bit: "Well we have an authoritarian President who is ineffective." But Freeland stood her ground, pointing out: "You guys can elect your Presidents and there can be a free choice. That's not the case in Russia." 2. Two Nights in Row Purple-Tied Williams Trumpets Plame's Lawsuit On Thursday night, and then again on Friday night, anchor Brian Williams gave time on the NBC Nightly News to highlighting Valerie Plame Wilson's lawsuit against Vice President Dick Cheney, his former Chief of Staff Scooter Libby and top Bush advisor Karl Rove. On Thursday, Williams framed the story from Plame Wilson's agenda, reporting her "cover was blown after her husband criticized the Bush administration's claims about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction," and relayed how her lawsuit says Cheney, Libby and Rove "all conspired to discredit, punish and seek revenge against the couple and claims their constitutional and legal rights were violated." On Friday night, Williams heralded how "today we heard Plame speak in public for the very first time. She told reporters in Washington she and her husband filed this lawsuit with quote, 'heavy hearts.'" Viewers then saw a clip of Plame slamming her targets: "I and my former CIA colleagues trusted our government to protect us as we did our jobs. That a few reckless individuals within the current administration betrayed that trust has been a grave disappointment to every patriotic American." 3. NBC Plugs Brokaw's One-Sided Discovery Cable Global Warming Rant Tom Brokaw's two-hour Sunday night special, Global Warming: What You Need to Know, may have aired on the Discovery Channel, but NBC News, a co-producer of the program, adopted it as its own even as another reviewer found that it provided a one-sided presentation -- which watching it proved true, as did the apoplectic tone of an except aired on Saturday's NBC Nightly News. On Friday, Brian Williams ended NBC Nightly News with a plug, and both MSNBC's Countdown and NBC's Today ran promotional excerpts. In a review posted Friday by Bloomberg News, however, Dave Shiflett concluded: "You'll find more dissent at a North Korean political rally than in this program." Saturday's NBC Nightly News ended with an excerpt from Brokaw's then-upcoming special which showed how it would match Al Gore-s fear-mongering. Brokaw warned of the "calamitous" impact of melting ice so that "in the coming centuries New York could be abandoned, its famous landmarks lost to the sea." 4. IBD and FNC Pick Up on Williams' Conspiratorial Take on Deficit You read it here first. An Investor's Business Daily editorial and FNC's Fox Newswatch picked up on a politically-charged July 11 comment, by NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, which was highlighted in the July 12 CyberAlert. Host Eric Burns noted that "conservatives were quite upset about" how the media covered the lower deficit number announced last week and then played a clip of Williams, who had asserted: "Many economists and administration critics say the White House has deliberately inflated its own deficit projections in the past few years to score political points when the actual numbers came in lower." Panelist Jane Hall, a former Los Angeles Times reporter, agreed with Williams: "It's a fact." But Jim Pinkerton observed: "The media hate it when the deficit goes down because of economic growth. The only acceptable way to reduce the deficit, if you can, is through tax increases." Cal Thomas argued "the problem with the Brian Williams soundbite...is that who are these people? Many of the media anchors, especially, ask questions like, 'what do you say to people who believe this?' when really they're the ones who believe it. They never give you a name."
Calls Bush a 'Dictator' When, on the McLaughlin Group over the weekend, Newsweek's Eleanor Clift charged that President Bush is "a dictator who's ineffective," an incensed Chrystia Freeland, a Canadian native who is the Managing Editor in the U.S. of London's Financial Times, scolded Clift for using the dictator label "so loosely" and inaccurately. Clift opined that of those attending the G-8 summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin is "the only one of those leaders who goes in there with a commanding popularity among his own people, because he is perceived to be an effective dictator. What we have in this country is a dictator who's ineffective." Freeland, shouting over panelists who were trying to move on to other points, retorted: "But he's not a dictator! I mean we can't use, no we can't use these terms so loosely." Clift backtracked a bit: "Well we have an authoritarian President who is ineffective." But Freeland stood her ground, pointing out: "You guys can elect your Presidents and there can be a free choice. That's not the case in Russia." [This item was posted, with video, early Monday morning on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org. The video and audio will be added to the posted version of this CyberAlert item, but in the meantime, to watch the Real or Windows Media video, or to listen to the MP3 audio, go to: newsbusters.org ]
A November press release last fall announcing Freeland's promotion, recounted: "A Canadian national, Ms. Freeland has held a number of senior positions at the Financial Times, including Weekend FT Editor, and Editor of FT.com. She was also Deputy Editor of The Globe & Mail, Toronto, and from 1994 to 1999 she worked at the FT as UK News Editor, Moscow Bureau Chief and Eastern Europe Correspondent." See: www.pr-inside.com
John McLaughlin: "You wrote a book on Russia, right?"
Trumpets Plame's Lawsuit On Thursday night, and then again on Friday night, anchor Brian Williams gave time on the NBC Nightly News to highlighting Valerie Plame Wilson's lawsuit against Vice President Dick Cheney, his former Chief of Staff Scooter Libby and top Bush advisor Karl Rove. On Thursday, Williams framed the story from Plame Wilson's agenda, reporting her "cover was blown after her husband criticized the Bush administration's claims about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction," and relayed how her lawsuit says Cheney, Libby and Rove "all conspired to discredit, punish and seek revenge against the couple and claims their constitutional and legal rights were violated." Rove's denial then got five words. On Friday night, Williams heralded how "today we heard Plame speak in public for the very first time. She told reporters in Washington she and her husband filed this lawsuit with quote, 'heavy hearts.'" Viewers then saw a clip of Plame slamming her targets: "I and my former CIA colleagues trusted our government to protect us as we did our jobs. That a few reckless individuals within the current administration betrayed that trust has been a grave disappointment to every patriotic American." On Thursday and Friday, ABC's World News Tonight and CBS Evening News did not find the lawsuit to be newsworthy. All three cable news networks, however, carried live the late Friday morning Joe Wilson/Valerie Wilson press conference at a National Press Club room in which only their lawyer answered questions from reporters. On both nights, NBC used the same graphic with a picture of Plame and Williams wore a purple tie with white shirt and a dark suit jacket, so it's hard to tell the two stories apart visually. As you can see in the two screen shots below (they will be added to the posted version of this CyberAlert, but in the meantime check: newsbusters.org ), on Thursday his purple tie had white dots and on Friday his purple tie had more white dots closer together.
# Brian Williams on the Thursday, July 13 NBC Nightly News:
# Brian Williams on the Friday, July 14 NBC Nightly News:
Cable Global Warming Rant Tom Brokaw's two-hour Sunday night special, Global Warming: What You Need to Know, may have aired on the Discovery Channel, but NBC News, a co-producer of the program, adopted it as its own even as another reviewer found that it provided a one-sided presentation -- which watching it proved true, as did the apoplectic tone of an except aired on Saturday's NBC Nightly News. On Friday, Brian Williams ended NBC Nightly News with a plug, and both MSNBC's Countdown and NBC's Today ran promotional excerpts. In a review posted Friday by Bloomberg News, however, Dave Shiflett concluded: "You'll find more dissent at a North Korean political rally than in this program." Saturday's NBC Nightly News ended with an excerpt from Brokaw's then-upcoming special which showed how it would match Al Gore-s fear-mongering. Brokaw warned of the "calamitous" impact of melting ice so that "in the coming centuries New York could be abandoned, its famous landmarks lost to the sea." Under duress, I suffered through it last night and it was every bit as one-sided as suggested by Shiflett and the excepts quoted below. [This item is adopted from a Saturday posting on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] At the end of Friday's NBC Nightly News, Brian Williams ahd touted, "One quick program note here about a friend of ours: Tom Brokaw's special report on global warming airs this Sunday night on the Discovery Channel. That's at 9 Eastern time." A bit later Friday night, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann previewed a clip of the cable special: "Tom Brokaw has faced right-wing attacks for his report on global warming. We'll give you your first look at his special report and about how the latest news is that the Earth's warming is leading to the deaths of polar bears." Countdown viewers were then treated to an excerpt from the show in which Brokaw presented one scientists' take on how global warming is harming polar bears in the Arctic which, Brokaw definitely declared, are "likely to become another statistic in one's database of a species on its way to extinction." The excerpt -- identical to the preview clip aired on Friday's Today -- was certainly one-sided, but Olbermann insisted Brokaw's special "is plenty balanced. It is the Earth's atmosphere that is not balanced." Saturday's NBC Nightly News ended with an excerpt which showed how it would match Al Gore-s fear-mongering. Brokaw warned of the "calamitous" impact of melting ice so that "in the coming centuries New York could be abandoned, its famous landmarks lost to the sea."
Anchor Lester Holt teased at the top of the July 15 newscast:
In the subsequent excerpt, which featured two of the most doomsday-oriented scientists, Brokaw asserted:
A Friday MRC CyberAlert item recounted the "right wing" criticism, cited by Olbermann, which had simply relayed the take of a scientist who saw an advanced copy, and Olbermann's denunciation of those critics. A summary: Tom Brokaw's special on global warming claims to have "no agenda,'' though some viewers will quickly suspect he's out to make us sweat. If mankind doesn't change its polluting ways, New Yorkers will soon be snorkeling to work. That's the basic message of 'Global Warming: What You Need to Know,' which airs on July 16 at 9 p.m. New York time on the Discovery Channel. Brokaw, like former Vice President Al Gore and many prominent scientists, is convinced that carbon-dioxide emissions are the main cause of global warming and that without serious change we should expect gondoliers in San Francisco. The former NBC anchorman delivers the bad news in his trademark solemn monotone and travels widely to marshal his argument. In the ice fields of Patagonia, glacier expert Stephan Harrison explains that ice is melting at an incredible rate. In Montana, the 66-year-old Brokaw says Glacier National Park may be glacier-free "in my lifetime.'' Geologist Mark Serreze takes us into the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, where core ice samples reaching back 600,000 years provide a startling fact: heat- trapping carbon-dioxide levels have reached an all-time high, which bodes ill for the planet's health. In the Amazon rain forest, tree harvesting, farming and drought are reducing the ability of the "Earth's lung'' to cleanse the air of CO2. In China, growing energy demands are being met by large-scale production of CO2-belching, coal-fired power plants. Then there's the U.S., world leader in C02 emissions thanks to our love of the internal-combustion engine, large appliances and jet travel. Brokaw relies largely on a handful of experts in the two- hour show, particularly NASA's James Hansen and Princeton professor Michael Oppenheimer. Both support Brokaw's view of global warming and consider the scientific debate closed. Brokaw scoffs at the notion that there are "any remaining doubts humans are behind temperature rises,'' while Hansen says "99.5 percent of scientists say we know what's going on.'' You'll find more dissent at a North Korean political rally than in this program, which would have benefited from contrarian views, perhaps from MIT's Richard S. Lindzen or William Gray, the world's foremost expert on hurricanes and a critic of global- warming orthodoxy. Both are serious scientists, yet neither appears to be in Brokaw's Rolodex.... If we don't act soon, Brokaw says, we may reach a "tipping point'' of no return: New York and other coastal cities will be submerged, while Bangladesh will vanish beneath the waves. We're also told there could be mass extinction of wildlife, a plague of disease-bearing insect swarms, extreme weather and famine causing mass starvation. A powerful presentation, to be sure, though certainly one with an agenda. END of Excerpt
For the review in full: www.bloomberg.com An Olbermann upcoming segment plug, at 8:40pm EDT: "Tom Brokaw has faced right-wing attacks for his report on global warming. We'll give you your first look at his special report and about how the latest news is that the Earth's warming is leading to the deaths of polar bears." Another plug from Olbermann during a commercial break: "Global warming warnings. Dying polar bears is the latest sign the Earth is heating."
Olbermann set up the eventual July 14 Countdown segment by claiming "nobody has seen" the special when, in fact, the Senate staffers he had denounced two nights before were simply quoting a scientist who had watched the show in advance:
Tom Brokaw narrating over video of polar bears: "At the tip of South America in the vast ice fields of Patagonia, glaciers that have survived since the last ice age gripped the Earth have lost 10 percent of their mass in just the last seven years. And in the Arctic, here the melting ice may spell disaster for its most famous inhabitant, the polar bear."
Olbermann, who it is doubtful had yet watched the entire two hours, nonetheless then insisted it is balanced:
Discovery's page for the program: dsc.discovery.com
Take on Deficit You read it here first. An Investor's Business Daily editorial and FNC's Fox Newswatch picked up on a politically-charged July 11 comment, by NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, which was highlighted in the July 12 CyberAlert. Host Eric Burns noted that "conservatives were quite upset about" how the media covered the lower deficit number announced last week and then played a clip of Williams, who had asserted: "Many economists and administration critics say the White House has deliberately inflated its own deficit projections in the past few years to score political points when the actual numbers came in lower." Panelist Jane Hall, a former Los Angeles Times reporter, agreed with Williams: "It's a fact." But Jim Pinkerton observed: "The media hate it when the deficit goes down because of economic growth. The only acceptable way to reduce the deficit, if you can, is through tax increases." Cal Thomas argued "the problem with the Brian Williams soundbite...is that who are these people? Many of the media anchors, especially, ask questions like, 'what do you say to people who believe this?' when really they're the ones who believe it. They never give you a name." A July 13 Investor's Business Daily editorial, "Turning Good News Into Bad," quoted Williams and more from CyberAlert. An excerpt: ....The shrinking deficit should make those who worry about it, including the media, very happy. But that doesn't seem to be the case. As noted by the Media Research Center, a journalism watchdog group, coverage of this "good news" was spun in an overwhelmingly negative fashion by the nation's big media. At The New York Times, a prominent subheadline noted: "A second straight year of less red ink fails to soothe many budget analysts." The Washington Post's coverage included the headline: "Long-Term Outlook Still Seen As Bleak." Incredibly, it quoted administration critics who lay the deficit shrinkage to "shifts in the economy, including fatter corporate profits, executive bonuses and stock market gains, that reflect growing inequality." The Los Angeles Times couldn't help itself either. "Bush Gives Deficit News A Positive Spin" was its headline. The big "spin," however, was in the Times' story, not the administration's briefing, which was based entirely on facts. NBC's Brian Williams highlighted the idea -- again from White House "critics" -- that "the White House has deliberately inflated its own deficit projections in the past few years to score political points when the actual numbers came in lower." So a simple, positive report on the government's finances is swamped by negativity and cynicism. No wonder more than 40% in polls think the economy is in dire trouble, when in fact it has rarely been healthier in our 230-year history.... END of Excerpt
For the editorial in full: www.investors.com An excerpt from the discussion on the July 15 Fox Newswatch, pivoting from talk about Time magazine's cover story about the end of President Bush's "cowboy" diplomacy. Eric Burns: "The conservatives were quite upset about it, is how the media covered the President's announcement that the deficit would be less than he, himself, a few months ago thought it would be. Here's a comment that Brian Williams of NBC News made about that a few nights ago."
Williams on the NBC Nightly News: "Many economists and administration critics say the White House has deliberately inflated its own deficit projections in the past few years, to score political points when the actual numbers came in lower."
-- Brent Baker
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