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1. Couric 'Uncomfortable' with Post-9/11 Patriotic Fervor The wearing of flag lapel pins and saying "we" when referring to the United States in the days after 9/11 made Katie Couric "uncomfortable," she revealed at a Tuesday forum in which she also fretted that "corporate America owning a lot of media outlets" dissuaded questioning of "this inevitable march toward war." She claimed that "anyone who questioned the administration was considered unpatriotic." On Iraq, she declared: "People in this country were misled in terms of the rationale for war." Couric's politically-charged comments came during a "Kalb Report" interview conducted at the National Press Club that aired Wednesday night on C-SPAN2. 2. Stephanopoulos Touts Talking Points Sent Him by Clinton Camp On Thursday's Good Morning America, ABC host George Stephanopoulos provided another example of the close relationship that the This Week host has with Bill and Hillary Clinton. After playing a debate clip of the New York Senator publicly disagreeing with her husband over a question about torture, Stephanopoulos revealed to co-host Robin Roberts: "My e-mail started going off the minute after that exchange happened. All the Clinton people." Stephanopoulos, a former top aide to Bill Clinton, explained that Mrs. Clinton's operatives "were thrilled" with the retort and "they like any moment where she can show that, actually, she's the one in charge. He's not pulling the strings." In other words, the Clinton camp e-mailed the ABC anchor, told him the debate moment they most appreciated and Stephanopoulos dutifully highlighted it the next day on Good Morning America. 3. CNN's Anderson Cooper Joins Clinton Summit 'Featured Attendees' CNN's Anderson Cooper interviewed Bill Clinton for a segment on Wednesday's Anderson Cooper 360 in which Clinton railed against past GOP criticisms of Democratic candidates, and if there was speculation on why Cooper, instead of someone "higher up the food chain" like Wolf Blitzer, interviewed Clinton on the occasion of the "Clinton Global Initiative" annual meeting, it could be because Cooper was one of the "featured attendees" at this meeting. Cooper moderated a "working session" panel discussion on Wednesday on "The Most Effective Strategies for the Most Vulnerable Children." Cooper joined other members of the mainstream media who were "featured attendees" at this year's "Clinton Global Initiative" annual meeting, including Daljit Dhaliwal of PBS; Nicholas Kristof and George Suroweicki of the New York Times; Fareed Zakaria of Newsweek, and former Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos of ABC News. Major media executives attending the meeting included Judy McGrath, Chairman and CEO of MTV Networks; Rupert Murdoch; and Ted Turner. 4. Turner: Chance Humanity Will Survive Impaired by Bush's 'Bombing' Ted Turner made a rare appearance on CNN on Wednesday's American Morning and, live from the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City, the CNN founder used a baseball analogy to claim humanity is in dire straights made worse by President Bush's foreign policy: "It's the seventh inning and humanity is down by two runs. Now, we've got to score three runs in the next, in the next two innings, and we've got to hold them right where they are. So, it's real tricky. We're in a dangerous spot, but we can pull it out if we really work together and go to work on it, and do the smart things and stop doing the dumb things, like bombing Third World countries." 5. O'Reilly Thanks Bozell and MRC Staff: 'They're Doing a Great Job' At the end of Thursday's The O'Reilly Factor, FNC's Bill O'Reilly gave a shout out to the Media Research Center, publisher of NewsBusters, for tracking the media's distorted coverage of the remarks made by O'Reilly last week on his radio show which the far-left has tried, with the complicity of several media outlets, to turn into an "Imus moment" to silence O'Reilly: "And finally tonight, the mail. Before we get to the letters, I want to thank Brent Bozell and his staff at M, as in Mary, RC.org. They're doing a great job covering this racial deal. Thank you guys." Couric 'Uncomfortable' with Post-9/11 Patriotic Fervor The wearing of flag lapel pins and saying "we" when referring to the United States in the days after 9/11 made Katie Couric "uncomfortable," she revealed at a Tuesday forum in which she also fretted that "corporate America owning a lot of media outlets" dissuaded questioning of "this inevitable march toward war." She claimed that "anyone who questioned the administration was considered unpatriotic." On Iraq, she declared: "People in this country were misled in terms of the rationale for war." Couric's politically-charged comments came during a "Kalb Report" interview conducted at the National Press Club that aired Wednesday night on C-SPAN2. The Kalb of the "Kalb Report" is Marvin Kalb, a former CBS News and NBC News correspondent now working at Harvard University. His "Kalb Report" is produced in conjunction with George Washington University. GWU's page for it: www.kalb.gwu.edu Some of these quotes may be familiar to CyberAlert e-mail subscribers since a September 26 MRC Appearance Alert included an excerpt from a Washington Examiner article about Couric's comments. For "Couric weighs in on Iraq, Rather," by Jeff Dufour and Patrick Gavin, go to: www.examiner.com For video of MRC President Brent Bozell's appearance on Wednesday's Hannity & Colmes about Couric's comments: newsbusters.org For video of MRC Director of News Analysis Tim Graham's appearance on FNC's Your World with Neil Cavuto on Wednesday: newsbusters.org The MRC's Brad Wilmouth now, however, has reviewed the video aired by C-SPAN2 and provided a lengthier transcript, including some phrases left out of the key quotes in the September 26 Washington Examiner story, of Couric's September 25 observations:
KATIE COURIC: Right now, there's so much emphasis, as I said, on whether or not it was a wise decision in the first place. I think certainly people who covered that fell down on the job in terms of getting the right information and kind of rolled over in terms of U.S. policy and really didn't do their due diligence on that, in that period of time....
MARVIN KALB: Lately I've been hearing that the military is again beginning to finger the media as the culprit in this war. And I'm presenting as evidence, but just one very small bit of evidence, the statement by Major General Rick Lynch, who's one of our top people in Iraq, and he said this war is "winnable," his word, if only the media cooperates properly. What's in his mind?
COURIC: I think it's accepted far and wide that this war was probably, that this might not have been on the President's, top of his agenda, and that people have questioned, you know, what was really behind this. And I think there, it's been very well documented- The September 4 CyberAlert has a list of Couric's worst bias from the past year, including on Iraq: www.mrc.org
Stephanopoulos Touts Talking Points Sent Him by Clinton Camp On Thursday's Good Morning America, ABC host George Stephanopoulos provided another example of the close relationship that the This Week host has with Bill and Hillary Clinton. After playing a debate clip of the New York Senator publicly disagreeing with her husband over a question about torture, Stephanopoulos revealed to co-host Robin Roberts: "My e-mail started going off the minute after that exchange happened. All the Clinton people." Stephanopoulos, a former top aide to Bill Clinton, explained that Mrs. Clinton's operatives "were thrilled" with the retort and "they like any moment where she can show that, actually, she's the one in charge. He's not pulling the strings." In other words, the Clinton camp e-mailed the ABC anchor, told him the debate moment they most appreciated and Stephanopoulos dutifully highlighted it the next day on Good Morning America. This isn't the first time the veteran journalist has touted his continuing ties to the Clintons. In March of 2005, he boasted to then-MSNBC host Don Imus that he talked with liberal political operative James Carville "every day." See: www.mrc.org [This item, by Scott Whitlock, was posted Thursday afternoon on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] During his GMA appearance on Thursday, Stephanopoulos also described the previous night's Democratic debate in New Hampshire carried on MSNBC as "pile-on Hillary night." Despite all of the criticism from her fellow Democrats, he charitably observed that Mrs. Clinton "kept smiling, stayed above the fray." Stephanopoulos's assessment: "I don't think they drew any blood last night." A transcript of the segment, which aired at 7:09am on September 27:
Robin Roberts: "Now, the Democratic debate in New Hampshire. The gloves really came off last night and front-runner Hillary Clinton took most of the hits. So, how did she do? Did she hold her own or did the other candidates make some much needed progress in their regard? ABC chief Washington correspondent George Stephanopoulos joins us now with that bottom line. Good to see you, George."
CNN's Anderson Cooper Joins Clinton Summit 'Featured Attendees' CNN's Anderson Cooper interviewed Bill Clinton for a segment on Wednesday's Anderson Cooper 360 in which Clinton railed against past GOP criticisms of Democratic candidates, and if there was speculation on why Cooper, instead of someone "higher up the food chain" like Wolf Blitzer, interviewed Clinton on the occasion of the "Clinton Global Initiative" annual meeting, it could be because Cooper was one of the "featured attendees" at this meeting. Cooper moderated a "working session" panel discussion on Wednesday on "The Most Effective Strategies for the Most Vulnerable Children." Cooper joined other members of the mainstream media who were "featured attendees" at this year's "Clinton Global Initiative" annual meeting, including Daljit Dhaliwal of PBS; Nicholas Kristof and George Suroweicki of the New York Times; Fareed Zakaria of Newsweek, and former Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos of ABC News. Major media executives attending the meeting included Judy McGrath, Chairman and CEO of MTV Networks; Rupert Murdoch; and Ted Turner (see item #4 below for more on Turner). Home page for the Clinton Global Initiative: www.clintonglobalinitiative.org List of the "Featured Attendees" is online at: www.clintonglobalinitiative.org Page listing the meeting moderated by Cooper: www.clintonglobalinitiative.org In past years, other members of mainstream media have been participants in the "Clinton Global Initiative" annual meeting. In 2006, CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Tom Brokaw, Katie Couric, Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, CNN's Sanjay Gupta, former PBS anchor Charlayne Hunter-Gault, NPR "All Things Considered" anchor Michele Norris, Diane Sawyer, CNN anchor Zain Verjee, and Judy Woodruff were "featured attendees," along with some of those named above. See: newsbusters.org Besides the panel discussion Cooper moderated, among the other topics being discussed at the "Clinton Global Initiative" annual meeting included "Stabilizing the Climate: Pathways to Success;" "Promoting Growth and Fairness;" and the peculiarly-named "Addressing Under and Over Nutrition." [This item is adapted from a posting by Matthew Balan on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] Last year, Today co-host Meredith Vieira interviewed Clinton at his summit and didn't exactly quiz him toughly. For the September 22, 2006 CyberAlert article, "Vieira Swoons Over Bill Clinton the 'Genie,' Treats as Wise Sage," go to: www.mrc.org In Cooper's September 26 interview with Bill Clinton, which was previewed on The Situation Room, Clinton blasted "disingenuous" Republicans for their "feigned outrage" over MoveOn.org's ad attacking General David Petraeus. Clinton put on his best "angry face" during the clip: "This was classic bait-and-switch....These Republicans that are all upset about Petraeus -- this is one newspaper ad. These are the people that ran a television ad in Georgia with Max Cleland, who lost half his body in Vietnam â€" in the same ad, with Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. That's what the Republicans did." Clinton also brought up the "Swift Boat" attack on John Kerry during the 2004 presidential campaign: "These are the people that funded the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth. And the President appointed one of the principal funders of the Swift Boat ads to be an ambassador. But they're really upset about Petraeus. But it was ok to question John Kerry's patriotism on the blatantly dishonest claims by people that [sic] didn't what they were talking about." Clay Waters of the MRC's TimesWatch project explored "The Myth of Max Cleland" back in 2004, including video of the Saxby Chambliss commercial against Cleland. It in no way suggests that Cleland is like Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein. Over a montage of four photographs, one each of bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, two others of the U.S. military, a narrator reads: "As America faces terrorists and extremist dictators, Max Cleland runs television ads claiming he has the courage to lead," but he voted 11 times against Bush's homeland security measures. The page includes a video link: www.timeswatch.org
Turner: Chance Humanity Will Survive Impaired by Bush's 'Bombing' Ted Turner made a rare appearance on CNN on Wednesday's American Morning and, live from the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City, the CNN founder used a baseball analogy to claim humanity is in dire straights made worse by President Bush's foreign policy: "It's the seventh inning and humanity is down by two runs. Now, we've got to score three runs in the next, in the next two innings, and we've got to hold them right where they are. So, it's real tricky. We're in a dangerous spot, but we can pull it out if we really work together and go to work on it, and do the smart things and stop doing the dumb things, like bombing Third World countries." [The MRC's Michelle Humphrey caught Turner's comments and this item is based on a NewsBusters posting, with video, by Matthew Balan. The video will be added to the posted version of this CyberAlert, but to watch or listen in the meantime, go to: newsbusters.org ] Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who interviewed the founder of the network, hailed Turner as "one of the world's most influential philanthropists." Even with this fanfare, Turner himself looked looked out-of-it or uncomfortable during the 4-and-a-half minute interview, which took place live at the annual meeting of the "Clinton Global Initiative" during the 8am Eastern hour. At the beginning of the September 26 interview, Turner explained that it was his "learning experience" at CNN that led to his $1 billion donation to the United Nations almost 10 years ago:
GUPTA: Nearly 10 years ago, you decided to give away $1 billion. This whole spirit of philanthropy, what motivated you to give at that time? Turner then couldn't remember Gupta's next question to him about his donation:
GUPTA: Now, looking back, almost 10 years later, any regrets about that? Did the money do what it's supposed to do? After asking about the effectiveness of events like the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, Turner surprisingly didn't list global warming first:
GUPTA: Climate change is another one of your big passions. You know, Clinton always talks about the fact that HIV-AIDS, since he has left the presidency, has been one of his biggest initiatives. What is yours? Turner looked a little dated in his answer. Most of his fellow rich liberals would name "climate change" or "global warming" as their first priority, not nuclear weapons. At the end of the interview, Gupta asked Turner what he thought about the future:
GUPTA: Now looking -- you've been doing this for a long time. As things stand right now, are you optimistic that you're going to be able-.
O'Reilly Thanks Bozell and MRC Staff: 'They're Doing a Great Job' At the end of Thursday's The O'Reilly Factor, FNC's Bill O'Reilly gave a shout out to the Media Research Center, publisher of NewsBusters, for tracking the media's distorted coverage of the remarks made by O'Reilly last week on his radio show which the far-left has tried, with the complicity of several media outlets, to turn into an "Imus moment" to silence O'Reilly: "And finally tonight, the mail. Before we get to the letters, I want to thank Brent Bozell and his staff at M, as in Mary, RC.org. They're doing a great job covering this racial deal. Thank you guys." [This item was posted Thursday night, with video, on the MRC's blog. The Real and Windows Media video, as well as MP3 audio, will be added to the posted version of this CyberAlert, but to watch or listen in the meantime, go to: newsbusters.org ] This morning, MRC Research Director Rich Noyes appeared on FNC's Fox & Friends to discuss the media smearing of O'Reilly. For video: newsbusters.org
On Thursday, the MRC issued a press release: "BOZELL CALLS ON CBS AND CNN TO APOLOGIZE TO BILL O'REILLY; CBS and CNN Embarrassing Themselves by Associating With Dishonest, Far-Left Organizations Such As Media Matters." See: www.mrc.org # "CBS News Disreputably Promotes Left-Wing Smear of Bill O'Reilly." Go to: www.mrc.org # "MSNBC Graphic Defames O'Reilly: 'Anchor's Racist Comments.'" See: www.mrc.org # "On CNN, O'Reilly is 'Ahmadinejad,' Juan Williams a 'Happy Negro.'" Check: www.mrc.org # "CNN Sees 'Imus Moment' for O'Reilly, Williams Calls CNN 'Idiots.'" Go to: www.mediaresearch.org
-- Brent Baker
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