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1. ABC Scolds 'Incendiary' GOP Ad, 'Many See Racial Overtones' A night after the NBC Nightly News tried to discredit as racist an RNC ad against the Democratic Senate candidate in Tennessee, Harold Ford, ABC joined the effort. On Wednesday's World News, Dean Reynolds asserted: "Drawing on Ford's attendance at a Playboy magazine Super Bowl party last year, the national GOP has been running this commercial, with what many see as racial overtones. First, people lampoon Ford's positions, and then a woman in a suggestive pose says this:" The woman: "I met Harold at the Playboy party." Reynolds: "And after a few more digs, she adds this just to drive the point home." Woman again: "Harold, call me." Reynolds then declared: "To many, the message is clear, and in some parts of Tennessee, potentially incendiary." In case anyone missed the supposed implications, a professor explained: "He's talking about interracial sex, interracial relations." 2. CBS Evening News to Showcase Michael J. Fox Interview on Thursday Katie Couric touted, on Wednesday's CBS Evening News, how her Thursday broadcast will feature an interview with actor Michael J. Fox. It will air just three days after conservatives denounced as misleading and distorted his TV ads, about stem cell research, against Republican Senate candidates. In a spot for Democratic Missouri Senate candidate Claire McCaskill, for instance, Fox, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, charged in reference to the Republican incumbent: "Senator Talent even wanted to criminalize the science that gives us the chance for hope." Couric's plug for the Fox interview followed a piece from Cynthia Bowers on the battle in Missouri with competing ads about stem cells, a story which failed to address the accuracy of the Fox ads. Couric plugged the Fox appearance as an "exclusive" interview: "By the way, tomorrow we'll have an exclusive interview with Michael J. Fox on the stem cell legislation and Rush Limbaugh." No word on when CBS might give equal time to someone with a different view. 3. Sawyer Ridiculously Suggests Conservatives Want to Silence Fox On Wednesday's Good Morning America, co-host Diane Sawyer contended Michael J. Fox's plight -- suffering from Parkinson's disease -- should make him immune from criticism, a line of thinking which presumed Rush Limbaugh and others who pointed out inaccuracies in Fox's anti-Republican candidate TV ads wanted him censored when they were just treating him like anyone else who joins the political fray. Sawyer pressed guest Sean Hannity: "What is going on here? Attacking Michael J. Fox?...Rush Limbaugh, even in his apology, said that Mike Fox was allowing his illness to be exploited, shilling for a Democratic candidate. If you have Parkinson's disease, and you believe embryonic stem cell research is the, is the answer, a possible answer, a possible cure, don't you have a right to speak up?" When Hannity suggested some vindication for Limbaugh's suggestion that Fox may have been off his meds in order to look as bad as possible, citing how Fox had done that before congressional testimony, Sawyer retorted: "He didn't say that. He didn't talk about the congressional testimony." In fact, he did write about that in his book. 4. Today Show Advances 'Vast Right Wing' Gas Price Conspiracy Theory On Wednesday's Today show, NBC's Carl Quintanilla floated the kooky conspiracy theory that the oil companies lowered gas prices to help the GOP. Today co-host Meredith Vieira at the top of the show even postulated: "You know the good news is that gas prices are down, but do the elections have anything to do with it? In other words, are we being manipulated?" Co-host Matt Lauer fed the conspiracy, when he introduced the segment: "This morning on 'Today at the Pump,' falling gas prices fueling conspiracy theories. The price of a gallon of gas, the average price, is way down to about $2.21 a gallon just in time for the midterm elections. Is it a coincidence? Some people say no." 5. ABC News Political Chief Admits Media More Favorable to Liberals Picking up on Monday's item in "The Note," the weekday ABCNews.com political compilation, titled "How the (liberal) Old Media plans to cover the last two weeks of the election," FNC's Bill O'Reilly brought aboard ABC News Political Director Mark Halperin, who confirmed his belief that conservatives have good reason to view the media as hostile to their views. Halperin conceded: "If I were a conservative, I understand why I would feel suspicious that I was not going to get a fair break at the end of an election. We've got to make sure we do better so conservatives don't have to be concerned about that. It's just, it's not fair." And, he amazingly admitted: "The mindset at ABC, where you and I used to be colleagues at, at the other big news organizations, it's just too focused on being more favorable to Nancy Pelosi, say, than Newt Gingrich, being more down on the Republicans' chances than perhaps is warranted..."
See Racial Overtones' A night after the NBC Nightly News tried to discredit as racist an RNC ad against the Democratic Senate candidate in Tennessee, Harold Ford, ABC joined the effort. On Wednesday's World News, Dean Reynolds asserted: "Drawing on Ford's attendance at a Playboy magazine Super Bowl party last year, the national GOP has been running this commercial, with what many see as racial overtones. First, people lampoon Ford's positions, and then a woman in a suggestive pose says this:" The woman: "I met Harold at the Playboy party." Reynolds: "And after a few more digs, she adds this just to drive the point home." Woman again: "Harold, call me." Reynolds then declared: "To many, the message is clear, and in some parts of Tennessee, potentially incendiary." In case anyone missed the supposed implications, a professor explained: "He's talking about interracial sex, interracial relations."
The October 25 CyberAlert recounted: Another campaign, another opportunity for the mainstream media to discredit a Republican campaign ad as racist. On Tuesday's NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams declared: "Tonight some are saying that one commercial in particular in one very close Senate race has now crossed a racial line." Andrea Mitchell proceeded to critique the RNC ad attacking Democratic Senate candidate Harold Ford and she highlighted how "the NAACP said the ad, quote, 'plays to pre-existing prejudices about African-American men and white women'" and "advertising experts like Jerry Della Femina, a Republican, says it is a blatant racial appeal." See: www.mediaresearch.org ABC anchor Charles Gibson: "Back to politics, and the midterm elections are 13 days away. And one of the fiercest fights is taking place in Tennessee, a bitter contest that might determine the control of the Senate. It has just about everything -- hints of sex, allegations of racism, and the possibility that a Southern state could elect a black Senator for the first time since Reconstruction. ABC's Dean Reynolds reports tonight from Tennessee."
Dean Reynolds: "Bob Corker should be coasting. A Republican running in a conservative red state that was carried twice by President Bush, his prospects should be looking good."
J. Fox Interview on Thursday Katie Couric touted, on Wednesday's CBS Evening News, how her Thursday broadcast will feature an interview with actor Michael J. Fox. It will air just three days after conservatives denounced as misleading and distorted his TV ads, about stem cell research, against Republican Senate candidates. In a spot for Democratic Missouri Senate candidate Claire McCaskill, for instance, Fox, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, charged in reference to the Republican incumbent: "Senator Talent even wanted to criminalize the science that gives us the chance for hope." Couric's plug for the Fox interview followed a piece from Cynthia Bowers on the battle in Missouri with competing ads about stem cells, a story which failed to address the accuracy of the Fox ads. Couric plugged the Fox appearance as an "exclusive" interview: "By the way, tomorrow we'll have an exclusive interview with Michael J. Fox on the stem cell legislation and Rush Limbaugh." No word on when CBS might give equal time to with a different view. [This item was posted Wednesday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]
For more on the distortions in Fox's ads, see the October 25 CyberAlert: www.mediaresearch.org "Amazingly, [Democratic Senate candidate Claire] McCaskill credits conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh" for raising money for her "because what originally had been a limited ad campaign targeting a few Senate races in a few key states like his one, where stem cells are an issue, suddenly went national when Limbaugh suggested Fox was exaggerating the symptoms of his Parkinson's disease." After a clip of Limbaugh suggesting "he is moving all around and shaking, and it's purely an act," Bowers concluded: "Limbaugh later apologized. But with the spotlight now glaring on the Missouri Senate race, the Republican party quickly channeled an extra $2 million into the Show Me State, trying to offset an ad that may do more than pull on heartstrings. It just might pull voters into the polls."
Want to Silence Fox On Wednesday's Good Morning America, co-host Diane Sawyer contended Michael J. Fox's plight -- suffering from Parkinson's disease -- should make him immune from criticism, a line of thinking which presumed Rush Limbaugh and others who pointed out inaccuracies in Fox's anti-Republican candidate TV ads wanted him censored when they were just treating him like anyone else who joins the political fray. Sawyer pressed guest Sean Hannity: "What is going on here? Attacking Michael J. Fox?...Rush Limbaugh, even in his apology, said that Mike Fox was allowing his illness to be exploited, shilling for a Democratic candidate. If you have Parkinson's disease, and you believe embryonic stem cell research is the, is the answer, a possible answer, a possible cure, don't you have a right to speak up?" When Hannity suggested some vindication for Limbaugh's suggestion that Fox may have been off his meds in order to look as bad as possible, citing how Fox had done that before congressional testimony, Sawyer retorted: "He didn't say that. He didn't talk about the congressional testimony." In fact, he did write about that in his book. Raising the RNC's ad in the Tennessee Senate race (see item #1 above) the media are tying to discredit as racist, Sawyer proposed: "Harold Ford looks nice, isn't that enough? Does this read as desperation by the Republicans?" The MRC's Megan McCormack provided a transcript of the interview with Sawyer's assertions and radio talk show host and FNC host Sean Hannity's tough retorts on the October 25 GMA:
Diane Sawyer: "And let's turn now to ABC talk radio host Sean Hannity, who's gotten up early to come in this morning." (In fact, as cited in the October 25 CyberAlert, in his 2002 book, Lucky Man, Fox recalled: "I had made a deliberate choice to appear before the subcommittee without medication. It seemed to me that this occasion demanded that my testimony about the effects of the disease, and the urgency we as a community were feeling, be seen as well as heard. For people who had never observed me in this kind of shape, the transformation must have been startling." See: www.michaeljfox.org )
Sawyer: "Well, there's a big difference between adult and embryonic, as we know."
Gas Price Conspiracy Theory On Wednesday's Today show, NBC's Carl Quintanilla floated the kooky conspiracy theory that the oil companies lowered gas prices to help the GOP. Today co-host Meredith Vieira at the top of the show even postulated: "You know the good news is that gas prices are down, but do the elections have anything to do with it? In other words, are we being manipulated?" Co-host Matt Lauer fed the conspiracy, when he introduced the segment: "This morning on 'Today at the Pump,' falling gas prices fueling conspiracy theories. The price of a gallon of gas, the average price, is way down to about $2.21 a gallon just in time for the midterm elections. Is it a coincidence? Some people say no." The story featured loony consumers at the pump buying into the myth and liberal Air America radio host Rachel Maddow saying to her listeners: "People do worry that maybe there's a conspiracy." Near the end of the piece, Quintanilla did air a soundbite from a skeptical trader and ran a quote from Shell Oil's President, but concluded the story, parroting the infamous "conspiracy" line from Hillary Clinton: "Others see a vast right wing conspiracy that leads right from the pump to the booth. For Today, Carl Quintanilla, NBC News, New York." [This item, by Geoffrey Dickens, was posted Wednesday on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] NBC's story echoed an October 16 CBS Evening News piece. An October 17 CyberAlert item, "CBS Takes Seriously Conspiracy About Bush Manipulating Gas Price," recounted: Although a Monday CBS Evening News story included a soundbite from an expert dismissing the idea as "preposterous," the newscast treated a far-left conspiracy theory -- about how the Bush administration is somehow manipulating the pump price for gas to help in the election -- as credible and worthy enough to deserve a broadcast network story. Citing how the price of a gallon of gas has fallen to the lowest all year, anchor Katie Couric wondered: "Is this an election year present from President Bush to fellow Republicans?" Over a shot of a "GOP: Grand Oil Party" bumper sticker laying on a dashboard, reporter Anthony Mason asserted: "Gas started going down just as the fall campaign started heating up. Coincidence? Some drivers don't think so." The man in the car insisted "I think it's basically a ploy to sort of get the American people to think, well, the economy is going good, let's vote Republican." Over headlines from Daily Kos and Huffington Post, Mason conceded you can "call the conspiracy theory crazy," but he touted how "it's spreading through Internet blogs and over the airwaves." For more: www.mrc.org The following is the full segment that aired in the 7am half hour of the October 25 Today: Matt Lauer: "This morning on Today At the Pump falling gas prices fueling conspiracy theories. The price of a gallon of gas, the average price, is way down to about $2.21 a gallon just in term for the midterm elections. Is it a coincidence? Some people say no. CNBC's Carl Quintanilla has that story." [On screen headline, over video of Bush and Rove on the White House lawn: "Gas Conspiracy? Oil Prices Fall As Election Nears"]
Carl Quintanilla: "As conspiracy theories go this one's a doozy. It says the price of gas, now at its lowest level of the year, has actually been forced, manipulated by oil companies to benefit the President and his party ahead of the election now just two weeks away. The rumor running rampant from Internet blogs to liberal talk radio."
More Favorable to Liberals Picking up on Monday's item in "The Note," the weekday ABCNews.com political compilation, titled "How the (liberal) Old Media plans to cover the last two weeks of the election," FNC's Bill O'Reilly brought aboard ABC News Political Director Mark Halperin, who confirmed his belief that conservatives have good reason to view the media as hostile to their views. Halperin conceded: "If I were a conservative, I understand why I would feel suspicious that I was not going to get a fair break at the end of an election. We've got to make sure we do better so conservatives don't have to be concerned about that. It's just, it's not fair." And, he amazingly admitted: "The mindset at ABC, where you and I used to be colleagues at, at the other big news organizations, it's just too focused on being more favorable to Nancy Pelosi, say, than Newt Gingrich, being more down on the Republicans' chances than perhaps is warranted..." Halperin suggested the mainstream media must do better if they want to survive: "If you want to thrive like Fox News Channel, you want to have a future, you better make sure conservatives find your product appealing if you're going to do the right thing. You got to do it." An excerpt from the top of the October 23 The Note: How the (liberal) Old Media plans to cover the last two weeks of the election: 1. Glowingly profile Speaker-Inevitable Nancy Pelosi, with loving mentions of her grandmotherly steel (see last night's 60 Minutes), and fail to describe her as "ultra liberal" or "an extreme liberal," which would mirror the way Gingrich was painted twelve years ago. 2. Look at every attempt by the President to define the race on his terms as deluded and desperate; increasingly quote Republican strategists saying that the President is hurting the party whenever he enters the fray. 3. Refuse to join the daily morning Ken Mehlman-Rush Limbaugh conference calls, despite repeated invitations. 4. Imbue every Democratic candidate for whom Bill Clinton campaigns with a golden halo. 5. Paint groups that run ads or do turnout for Republican candidates as shadowy, extreme, corrupt, and illegitimate; describe their analogues on the left as valiant underdogs, part of a People's Army (with homage to Rich Lowry). 6. Care more about voter disenfranchisement than voter fraud. 7. Take every Republican quote expressing some trepidation about the outcome and banner it. 8. Drop any pretense of covering good news from Iraq or good news about the economy, including some upcoming positive macro numbers (Quick, Note readers: name the current Secretary of the Treasury.). 9. Amplify Obama-mania as a metaphor for the Democratic Party being the party of excitement and the future. 10. Fail to follow Bob Novak's analysis of the difference between Democratic and Republican oppo plants. 11. Lock in the CW (which, shockingly, could be wrong) that the winner of two out three Senate races in Virginia, Tennessee, and Missouri will control the Senate. 12. Carefully document what appears to strategists in both parties to be the case -- while a few incumbent Republicans are clawing their way back into contention (including and especially, perhaps, Tom Reynolds), the number of endangered Republican-held seats is growing, not shrinking.... END of Excerpt
For the October 23 The Note: [Matthew Sheffield of the MRC's blog NewsBusters caught the interview. For his blog item on it, with video rendered by the MRC's Michelle Humphrey which will be added to the posted version of this CyberAlert: newsbusters.org ] The MRC's Brad Wilmouth corrected the closed-captioning against the video to produce this transcript of the segment on the October 24 The O'Reilly Factor on FNC:
Bill O'Reilly: "'Factor Followup' segment: Tonight a somewhat surprising ABC News Internet posting. It's entitled 'How the Liberal Old Media Plans to Cover the Last Two Weeks of the Election.' Article was written by Mark Halperin, the political director of ABC News, and also the co-author of a brand new book called The Way to win: Taking the White House in 2008. Mr. Halperin joins us now from New York. This is a very tough piece of analysis that you wrote. I'm surprised; I'm not stunned because you are a gutsy guy. You have done this before. But let's walk through it. Who is the liberal old media?"
-- Brent Baker
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