top
|
|
1. NBC's Williams Avoids Controversy with Edwards, Not with Giuliani Three weeks ago, when NBC anchor Brian Williams interviewed Rudy Giuliani, Williams raised Giuliani's closeness to Bernard Kerik and pressed him on Iraq as he pointed out how 2007 had become "the bloodiest year" in the war, but in an interview with John Edwards aired Tuesday night, Williams stuck to softballs and didn't bring up the indictment of a major Edwards donor or push Edwards about how the "surge" in Iraq he rejected is working. The two interviews are the most recent in the "Making of the President" series on the NBC Nightly News. In the taped session with Republican presidential candidate Giuliani aired on November 6, Williams inquired: "Let's talk about your friend Bernard Kerik. Press reports are, as recently as today, that he could be a few days away from indictment, perhaps. When was the last time, first of all, that you spoke with him?" And on Giuliani supporting the war: "We just learned today '07 is the bloodiest year in Iraq. What would you do in Iraq starting today?" But with Democratic candidate Edwards Tuesday night, Williams stuck to the horse race and sympathetic personal issues. 2. ABC's Moran: Obama a 'Fresh Face' Who Represents 'Real Change' According to Nightline host Terry Moran, Iowa voters are listening to Barack Obama's "real argument, that he is tomorrow, a fresh face who represents a real change from our bitter, polarized politics." The ABC anchor, who profiled the Democratic candidate for the Tuesday edition of the program, spent part of the interview interpreting the feelings of caucus voters. He gushed: "You get the sense they know they might be part of something big here, something historic." After listening to one Iowan laud Obama's leadership, he prompted the man: "It would be an historic thing, Barack Obama?" 3. Russert Praised Clinton on Mideast Peace Then, Scoffs at Bush Now On Tuesday's Today show NBC's Washington bureau chief, Tim Russert, scoffed at President Bush's attempt to broker Middle East peace at the Annapolis conference, as he derided it as a "Hail Mary pass." However, nine years ago, when Bill Clinton made a failed attempt at Mideast peace, in the midst of his impeachment, Russert praised the former President on the October 23, 1998 Today show: "As the impeachment hearings grind on, could you have a situation where next year the President cannot go to the Judiciary Committee on a particular day because he's receiving the Nobel Peace Prize? That's the kind of irony the White House looks at as they look at the success of President Clinton on this day." 4. NBC Highlights Returning Iraqis: 'I Can't Wait to Get Back' "There is a noticeable trend under way. A growing stream of Iraqis who left to escape the killing, many of them going to Syria, now reversing their migration," anchor Brian Williams highlighted Tuesday evening as the NBC Nightly News became the first broadcast network evening newscast to air a full report on the trend. From Baghdad, reporter Tom Aspell showcased a mother who exclaimed: "I'm so excited" and "I can't wait to get back." Aspell explained: "Though safer, life in Syria turned out to be hard. $300 a month rent and food for the family of seven wiped out their savings. So when the Iraqi government offered free bus tickets to Baghdad, today's opportunity was too good to miss." Adding the caveat that a safer Iraq is not the main motivator, Aspell noted: "A recent UN survey...found most Iraqi refugees are returning home not because Iraq is any safer, but because they're running out of money, and Syria is clamping down on visas." Aspell, however, acknowledged upbeat trends: "Refugees coming back to Baghdad are going to see a lot of changes. There are more people in the streets, shops are open and traffic everywhere." Though Aspell pointed out how "it is still a dangerous city," another mother, nonetheless, decided: "Thank God we returned and found the situation better than when we left." 5. Not Prejudiced, But 'I Don't Want...a Colored Man' as President In the self-incriminating quote of the night, an unidentified white man, in a Tuesday night CBS Evening News story on Barack Obama, insisted "I don't want to sound prejudiced or anything," but then proceeded to declare: "I don't want to vote for a colored man to be our President." The soundbite aired during a piece from Dean Reynolds on Obama's racial identity and how it gives some blacks "pause" because "he is not the descendant of African slaves, but is the son of a white mother and a Kenyan father." Reynolds, reporting from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, concluded by observing that "of course, there are whites who will never vote for Obama because he is black." The unidentified man, standing in what looked like a store, then asserted in a soundbite: "I don't want to sound prejudiced or anything, but for one I'm not gonna, I don't want to vote for a colored man to be our President."
Edwards, Not with Giuliani Three weeks ago, when NBC anchor Brian Williams interviewed Rudy Giuliani, Williams raised Giuliani's closeness to Bernard Kerik and pressed him on Iraq as he pointed out how 2007 had become "the bloodiest year" in the war, but in an interview with John Edwards aired Tuesday night, Williams stuck to softballs and didn't bring up the indictment of a major Edwards donor or push Edwards about how the "surge" in Iraq he rejected is working. The two interviews are the most recent in the "Making of the President" series on the NBC Nightly News. In the taped session with Republican presidential candidate Giuliani aired on November 6, Williams inquired: "Let's talk about your friend Bernard Kerik. Press reports are, as recently as today, that he could be a few days away from indictment, perhaps. When was the last time, first of all, that you spoke with him?" And on Giuliani supporting the war: "We just learned today '07 is the bloodiest year in Iraq. What would you do in Iraq starting today?" But with Democratic candidate Edwards Tuesday night, Williams stuck to the horse race and sympathetic personal issues, wondering about the impact of Oprah Winfrey -- "a formidable celebrity" -- campaigning for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton's contention she will be the nominee, the status of his wife's health and Williams cued him up to elucidate his foreign policy expertise: "If you had to pick one, what one foreign country, currently, keeps John Edwards up at night?" [This item was posted late Tuesday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] Back on September 20, the Washington Post reported that "Democrat John Edwards's list of bundlers includes well-known fellow trial lawyer William S. Lerach, who raised $80,000 from his family and law firm partners for the candidate..." See: www.washingtonpost.com Just over a month later, the October 30 Washington Post recounted Lerach's illegal conduct: The California plaintiff's attorney who helped turn class-action lawsuits into a lucrative trend pleaded guilty yesterday to a conspiracy charge stemming from his role in a wide-ranging kickback scheme. William S. Lerach, 61, acknowledged in a Los Angeles courtroom that he and his former partners at the Milberg Weiss firm hid payments to people who served as repeat plaintiffs in their class-action suits. According to federal prosecutors, the lawyers found people who held shares -- often only a few -- in companies that were accused of fraud. By getting those people to sign up as early plaintiffs in civil lawsuits against the companies, Lerach and his firm were able to exert greater control over the cases and reap additional fees. In all, the scheme infected more than 150 cases over the past two decades, bringing Lerach and his partners well over $200 million, according to court papers. Under the terms of the plea agreement, Lerach will face as many as two years in prison when he is sentenced Jan. 14. He is scheduled to pay the government nearly $8 million in fines and penalties.... For the entire article: www.washingtonpost.com The MRC's Brad Wilmouth collected the questions Williams posed in the excerpts aired of the two interviews: # Giuliani segment on the November 6 NBC Nightly News: BRIAN WILLIAMS: Earlier today in Washington, we sat down with the national front-runner in the race for the GOP presidential nomination, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Walking around Washington, the native New Yorker says he likes the capital city just fine. He first moved there after he became a Republican. And as part of our "Making of a President" series, we started off today by talking about that decision. WILLIAMS: What does Washington, coming back to this city, mean to you? WILLIAMS: You've been fairly tough recently on Senator Clinton. What are your personal feelings about the Senator?
WILLIAMS: Let's talk about your friend Bernard Kerik. Press reports are, as recently as today, that he could be a few days away from indictment, perhaps. When was the last time, first of all, that you spoke with him? WILLIAMS: Will you stand by him, support him if, in fact, he's indicted? WILLIAMS: Were you stung by at all or amused by what Joe Biden said about you in Philadelphia last Tuesday night? He diagramed a Rudy Giuliani sentence: noun, verb, 9/11. It was the biggest laugh line of the night. You're laughing now. WILLIAMS: We just learned today '07 is the bloodiest year in Iraq. What would you do in Iraq starting today? WILLIAMS: Would you consider going, between now and the presidential election to Iraq? WILLIAMS: You are, looking around the rest of the party, an aberration. Can we agree on that point? WILLIAMS: Is your message going to continue to be, can you afford it to continue to be, "Take me as I am."
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Tonight, "In Depth," we continue our "Making of the President" series with our conversation here in New York today with Senator John Edwards. The former Democratic Senator from North Carolina ran for VP under Senator Kerry last time. This time, he's made a huge investment in Iowa, where a lot of the talk instead is about Clinton and Obama. This weekend, he's up against the high wattage barnstorming of Bill Clinton and Oprah Winfrey. I started out by asking Senator Edwards what effect that might have on his campaign. WILLIAMS: Oprah Winfrey, though, is a formidable celebrity in this country. WILLIAMS: Newsweek ran a piece recently that said, in effect, where John Edwards is concerned, no more Mr. Nice Guy.
WILLIAMS: Senator Clinton yesterday told an interviewer she was certain she would be the nominee. WILLIAMS: As an issue, as a dynamic in the campaign, has it been more or less than you expected it would be, once you announced the diagnosis?
WILLIAMS: If you had to pick one, what one foreign country, currently, keeps John Edwards up at night?
WILLIAMS: I'm trying to get a handle on your mindset. Can it be said you're content with where you are, given the investment of time and money you've put into this race so far?
WILLIAMS: I read one profile saying there was a rage inside you on the campaign trail. Is that accurate? This MSNBC.com page now features Flash video of the full interview with Edwards and what aired on Nightly News with Giuliani: www.msnbc.msn.com This page has video of what aired on Nightly News of Edwards and the full interview with Giuliani: www.msnbc.msn.com
Represents 'Real Change' According to Nightline host Terry Moran, Iowa voters are listening to Barack Obama's "real argument, that he is tomorrow, a fresh face who represents a real change from our bitter, polarized politics." The ABC anchor, who profiled the Democratic candidate for the Tuesday edition of the program, spent part of the interview interpreting the feelings of caucus voters. He gushed: "You get the sense they know they might be part of something big here, something historic." After listening to one Iowan laud Obama's leadership, he prompted the man: "It would be an historic thing, Barack Obama?" Upon noting that Obama is "hitting his stride on the stump in this state after some poor reviews earlier in the campaign," Moran allowed that the senator is "not a perfect candidate." However, a November 2006 Nightline segment might lead viewers to wonder which "poor reviews" he's referring to. Then, as with the November 26, 2007 piece, Moran spent the day with Obama. For the 2006 report, the ABC journalist gushed that Obama is "an American political phenomenon." Just as he would more than a year later, Moran speculated as to what the voters were thinking: "And the question you can sense on everyone's mind, as they listen so intently to him, is he the one? Is Barack Obama the man, the black man, who could lead the Democrats back to the White House and maybe even unite the country?" For more on the 2006 Nightline report, see the November 8, 2006 CyberAlert: www.mediaresearch.org Obama did get one rather sharp line at journalist Moran. Following five questions from the reporter about whether a loss in Iowa would doom his campaign, the Illinois politician shifted the focus to Hillary Clinton. He retorted: "All I know is you guys have been measuring the curtains for a while and you're telling me she can get away with not winning Iowa?" [This item, by Scott Whitlock, was posted Tuesday afternoon on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] At the close of the segment, Moran showed more deference to Hillary Clinton by noting: "Well, today, the jabs continued even before the Clinton campaign saw our entire interview, they responded with this." He then proceeded to read a prepared statement from the Clinton campaign slamming Obama for lack of experience.
A partial transcript of the two-part segment, which aired on November 26:
Then, Scoffs at Bush Now On Tuesday's Today show NBC's Washington bureau chief, Tim Russert, scoffed at President Bush's attempt to broker Middle East peace at the Annapolis conference, as he derided it as a "Hail Mary pass." However, nine years ago, when Bill Clinton made a failed attempt at Mideast peace, in the midst of his impeachment, Russert praised the former President on the October 23, 1998 Today show: "As the impeachment hearings grind on, could you have a situation where next year the President cannot go to the Judiciary Committee on a particular day because he's receiving the Nobel Peace Prize? That's the kind of irony the White House looks at as they look at the success of President Clinton on this day." [This item, by Geoffrey Dickens, was posted Tuesday morning on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] The following exchange, that occurred on the November 27, Today show, stands in stark contrast to Russert's overly optimistic analysis of Clinton's bungled Mideast peace attempt in 1998:
MATT LAUER: What's our level of clout, at this particular time, given the problems in Iraq and elsewhere? To read more about how Russert and others at NBC treated Clinton's 1998 peace attempt, see: www.mediaresearch.org
Wait to Get Back' "There is a noticeable trend under way. A growing stream of Iraqis who left to escape the killing, many of them going to Syria, now reversing their migration," anchor Brian Williams highlighted Tuesday evening as the NBC Nightly News became the first broadcast network evening newscast to air a full report on the trend. From Baghdad, reporter Tom Aspell showcased a mother who exclaimed: "I'm so excited" and "I can't wait to get back." Aspell explained: "Though safer, life in Syria turned out to be hard. $300 a month rent and food for the family of seven wiped out their savings. So when the Iraqi government offered free bus tickets to Baghdad, today's opportunity was too good to miss." Adding the caveat that a safer Iraq is not the main motivator, Aspell noted: "A recent UN survey at registration centers found most Iraqi refugees are returning home not because Iraq is any safer, but because they're running out of money, and Syria is clamping down on visas." Aspell, however, acknowledged upbeat trends: "Refugees coming back to Baghdad are going to see a lot of changes. There are more people in the streets, shops are open and traffic everywhere." Though Aspell pointed out how "it is still a dangerous city. There are kidnappings, shootings and bomb blasts every day," another mother, nonetheless, decided: "Thank God we returned and found the situation better than when we left." [This item was posted Tuesday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]
Before NBC's Tuesday night story, broadcast network evening show coverage of returning refugees was limited to part of a sentence by fill-in CBS Evening News anchor Russ Mitchell, who noted the night before Thanksgiving (November 21) that "the Baghdad government said today some 1600 refugees are now returning to Iraq each day" (see link below for the full story Mitchell was introducing), and this short update the same night from ABC anchor Charles Gibson: ABC's World News leads with four full reports since late October on improving conditions in Iraq, followed by two before tonight on the NBC Nightly News and just one on the CBS Evening News. The November 26 CyberAlert item, "CBS Grudgingly Acknowledges Progress in Iraq, But 'Danger' Ahead" provides a rundown of all the positive stories on all three networks: www.mrc.org The MRC's Brad Wilmouth corrected the closed captioning against the video to provide this transcript of the November 27 NBC Nightly News story:
BRIAN WILLIAMS: In Iraq, two American soldiers were killed today north of Baghdad. And violence across the country today has killed at least 30 Iraqis. There is a noticeable trend under way. A growing stream of Iraqis who left to escape the killing, many of them going to Syria, now reversing their migration. NBC's Tom Aspell reports tonight from Baghdad.
Colored Man' as President In the self-incriminating quote of the night, an unidentified white man, in a Tuesday night CBS Evening News story on Barack Obama, insisted "I don't want to sound prejudiced or anything," but then proceeded to declare: "I don't want to vote for a colored man to be our President." The soundbite aired during a piece from Dean Reynolds on Obama's racial identity and how it gives some blacks "pause" because "he is not the descendant of African slaves, but is the son of a white mother and a Kenyan father." Reynolds, reporting from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, concluded by observing that "of course, there are whites who will never vote for Obama because he is black." The unidentified man, standing in what looked like a store, then asserted in a soundbite: "I don't want to sound prejudiced or anything, but for one I'm not gonna, I don't want to vote for a colored man to be our President." [This item was posted Tuesday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] The CBSNews.com online version of the Reynolds story identified the man only as "one South Carolina voter." See: www.cbsnews.com The man certainly, and very unfortunately, probably confirmed the media's prejudices about conservative white men. -- Brent Baker
Home | News Division
| Bozell Columns | CyberAlerts |
|
|
|