1. Obama's 'All-Star Cabinet' of the 'Smartest' Impresses Mitchell
While ABC, CBS and NBC on Friday night all touted how news that New York Federal Reserve President Tim Geithner will be nominated for Secretary of the Treasury fueled a market rebound, NBC was the most excited with Andrea Mitchell, sounding completely in the tank, hailing President-elect Obama's "all-star cabinet" as she maintained "Obama is determined to pick the strongest, smartest people he can find, knowing that he is facing an economic crisis of historic proportions." A Nexis search turned up no references on NBC, in December 2000-January 2001, to President-elect Bush's "all-star cabinet" though it featured some stars, such as Colin Powell.

2. In Awed and Hushed Tone, Sawyer Reads Aloud from Obama Essay
In an odd, non-sequitur of a segment, co-host Diane Sawyer kicked off the 8:30 half-hour of Friday's Good Morning America by reading aloud from an essay that President-elect Barack Obama wrote about Abraham Lincoln for a 2005 issue of Time magazine. Stopping the show cold for a minute and 22 seconds, she solemnly began: "There was something that made us all stop and think. And you know, it's 60 days now. 60 days until the inauguration of a new President." Then, Sawyer gravely announced that Obama had, in fact, written an essay: "And we saw that President-elect Obama has a favorite photograph, which he looks at. And here are the words that he wrote in Time magazine. An essay." To music that seemed reminiscent of the Ken Burns Civil War documentary, with images of Lincoln appearing on screen, the GMA host recited the words of the President-elect's Time article.

3. Chris Matthews Praises 'Magnanimity' of Obama's Hillary Nod
Is Chris Matthews having more thrills about Obama? Appearing on Friday's Today show, the Hardball host appeared more enthused about the incoming Obama administration than Obama's own spin-meisters. With the news of Hillary Clinton as the incoming Secretary of State, Matthews called it "an astounding gesture of magnanimity." Taking a swipe at the outgoing Bush administration, Matthews claimed the world is "waiting to see us back in that family of nations" and touted Bill Clinton's popularity around the world. Matthews even opined that despite past primary rivalries, the Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama "relationship is going by swimmingly."

4. Robin Roberts in the ABC 'Hot Seat': 'What's on Your Ipod?'
Day three on Friday of Good Morning America's "hot seat" series featured softball viewer questions for co-host Robin Roberts, including subjects such as her iPod and whether she'd ever consider appearing on Dancing With the Stars. The purpose of the daily segment, which concludes on Monday, is to have the tables turned on the GMA hosts and force the journalists to ask tough questions. More typical were the type of queries that people like Regina from Arkansas posed. Via video, she offered this expose: "Your jewelry is so pretty. I would like to know where you get it?"

Obama's 'All-Star Cabinet' of the 'Smartest'
Impresses Mitchell

     While ABC, CBS and NBC on Friday night all touted how news that New York Federal Reserve President Tim Geithner will be nominated for Secretary of the Treasury fueled a market rebound, NBC was the most excited with Andrea Mitchell, sounding completely in the tank, hailing President-elect Obama's "all-star cabinet" as she maintained "Obama is determined to pick the strongest, smartest people he can find, knowing that he is facing an economic crisis of historic proportions." A Nexis search turned up no references on NBC, in December 2000-January 2001, to President-elect Bush's "all-star cabinet" though it featured some stars, such as Colin Powell.

     NBC Nightly News put "OBAMA MOVES THE MARKET" on screen as anchor Brian Williams teased: "On our broadcast here tonight, Obama moves the market. Stocks go on a huge rally with first word of the President-elect's choice of a Treasury Secretary." As he set up Mitchell, viewers saw "TAKING ACTION" beneath a picture of Obama.

     [This item, by the MRC's Brent Baker, was posted Friday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

     Mitchell concluded her piece on the Friday, November 21 NBC Nightly News:

....Democratic officials also tell NBC News, Bill Richardson, New Mexico Governor and former Clinton cabinet member and presidential candidate, will be named Monday to be Commerce Secretary, making him Obama's first high-profile Hispanic appointee.

The focus on the economy has postponed rolling out Obama's national security team until after Thanksgiving. Barring unforeseen developments, Hillary Clinton is on track to become Secretary of State. Robert Gates, a Republican, is most likely to remain as Defense Secretary. And former Marine commandant Jim Jones is the front-runner for National Security Adviser, to keep all those strong cabinet secretaries in line.

Although some critics say that his all-star cabinet might be difficult to manage, Obama is determined to pick the strongest, smartest people he can find, knowing that he is facing an economic crisis of historic proportions.

In Awed and Hushed Tone, Sawyer Reads
Aloud from Obama Essay

     In an odd, non-sequitur of a segment, co-host Diane Sawyer kicked off the 8:30 half-hour of Friday's Good Morning America by reading aloud from an essay that President-elect Barack Obama wrote about Abraham Lincoln for a 2005 issue of Time magazine. Stopping the show cold for a minute and 22 seconds, she solemnly began: "There was something that made us all stop and think. And you know, it's 60 days now. 60 days until the inauguration of a new President."

     Then, Sawyer gravely announced that Obama had, in fact, written an essay: "And we saw that President-elect Obama has a favorite photograph, which he looks at. And here are the words that he wrote in Time magazine. An essay." To music that seemed reminiscent of the Ken Burns Civil War documentary, with images of Lincoln appearing on screen, the GMA host recited the words of the President-elect's Time article: www.time.com

     [This item, by the MRC's Scott Whitlock, was posted Friday morning, with video, on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]
     She closed by marveling at Obama's contention that President Lincoln did not allow the problems of his day to become the strife of the future. Sawyer, cooed: "And I love that sentence. 'He did not pass the challenges on to a future generation.'" One wonders if reading from Obama essays, pronouncements and future books could become a regular feature on GMA? Furthermore, why, exactly, is GMA doing a live reading of a three year old essay?

     A transcript of the segment, which aired at 8:31am on November 21:

     DIANE SAWYER: But, we're going to take a second. Because, there was something that made us all stop and think. And you know, it's 60 days now. 60 days until the inauguration of a new president. And we were thinking what it would be like to be a president-elect facing that incredible responsibility. And we saw that President-elect Obama has a favorite photograph, which he looks at. And here are the words that he wrote in Time magazine. An essay. These are his words about that face and why it inspires him. 'As I look at his picture, it's the man and not the icon that speaks to me. It is those imperfections and the painful self-awareness of those failings etched in every crease of his face and reflected in those haunted eyes that make him so compelling. For when the time came to confront the greatest moral challenge this nation has ever faced, this all-too human man did not pass the challenge on to future generations. But I marvel at what gives me such hope is that this man could overcome depression, self-doubt and the constraints of biography and not only act decisively, but retain his humanity. He did not know how things would turn out. But he did his best.' And I love that sentence. 'He did not pass the challenges on to a future generation.'

Chris Matthews Praises 'Magnanimity'
of Obama's Hillary Nod

     Is Chris Matthews having more thrills about Obama? Appearing on Friday's Today show, the Hardball host appeared more enthused about the incoming Obama administration than Obama's own spin-meisters. With the news of Hillary Clinton as the incoming Secretary of State, Matthews called it "an astounding gesture of magnanimity." Taking a swipe at the outgoing Bush administration, Matthews claimed the world is "waiting to see us back in that family of nations" and touted Bill Clinton's popularity around the world. Matthews even opined that despite past primary rivalries, the Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama "relationship is going by swimmingly."

     [This item, by the MRC's Justin McCarthy, was posted Friday on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

     Meredith Vieira then questioned Matthews on why Obama has not urgently named a Treasury Secretary with the financial crisis. Matthews defended the Obama transition team again, opining: "I think he's got to wait to do what's right," so he can look like "a Roman phalanx."

     The transcript from November 21 edition of Today:

     MEREDITH VIEIRA: Chris Matthews hosts Hardball on MSNBC as well as The Chris Matthews Show. Good morning to you Chris.
     CHRIS MATTHEWS: Good morning Meredith.
     VIEIRA: Let's start with word that Hillary Clinton will be nominated as Secretary of State. You have said that this is the most extraordinary event since the election. What do you mean?
     MATTHEWS: Well, it's extraordinary. Can you imagine if Hillary Clinton had won the primary fight and she had picked Barack Obama as her Secretary of State? Either way, it's an astounding gesture of magnanimity to take on the person you beat in a very tough, really eight-year fight if you count all the way back to when Senator Clinton wanted to become President. And it's a hell of a fight he won it and yet here he turned over basically the jewel in the crown of his administration, Secretary of State, to his opponent. It's a magnanimous gesture. It's astounding to everyone involved, I think.
     VIEIRA: But is it the smartest thing he could do? I mean, obviously she is very intelligent. She knows landscape, but she is also extremely independent and politically ambitious.
     MATTHEWS: Well, she's not going to be a staffer. Let's make that clear. She's going to be a fellow member of the cabinet. I mean, she's going to be a member of the cabinet in the sense her judgment's important not just her service, her duty. She's got to use her brains and her experience and use the advice, certainly of the former president, her husband. And all that's part of being in the cabinet. One thing we've seen short-sighted in this current administration, President Bush tended treat cabinet members as staff people. In fact he promoted staff people to those jobs. He didn't treat them as serious colleagues. I think Hillary Clinton will be a serious counselor to the President as well as his agent. I think it will be collegial relationship, but of course he'll be the boss.
     VIEIRA: And the million dollar question here: What does Barack Obama do about Bill. What role will Bill play in all of this?
     MATTHEWS: Well, he's going to be whether he likes it or not, sort of an unpaid ambassador. He's going to have to give up a lot of his business relationships, a lot of those speeches and by all accounts he's quite willing to do it to help Senator Clinton become really one of the great states people of our time. I mean, this opportunity that Barack Obama has given her is to say it is generous is to undersell it. This country now stands at the verge of rebuilding its foreign policy, rejoining the family of nations. They're waiting to see us back in that family of nations. The Europeans, the Asians, the Africans, the south Asians. Everybody wants us back in the club and they don't like Bush much. They're going to like the Clinton role in this because Bill Clinton is enormously popular around the world, not just in Europe but certainly in Africa, and south Asia, and around the world. I think it could be a real plus but still say it's absolutely political dismaying. Nobody really gets it. It might have to do with the personal relationship that's been established the last three or four months in the room between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. That relationship we know nothing about, but my sense is it's been going swimmingly.
     VIEIRA: Alright Chris, let me ask you a lot of people probably are not as interested in Hillary Clinton becoming Secretary of State as they are as who's going to be Secretary of the Treasury, the economy is tanking.
     MATTHEWS: Right.
     VIEIRA: And they wonder why Barack Obama has not tried to fill the vacuum here. Why hasn't he named a Treasury Secretary?
     MATTHEWS: For the same-
     VIEIRA: -He should try to do so quickly.
     MATTHEWS: Well, the same reason Franklin Roosevelt refused to join in the politics of Herbert Hoover and the economy of Herbert Hoover. He has to have an absolute fresh break. He has to have a phalanx of economic brains around him. He has to bring it out in a rush. He has to bring it out with freshness and crispness and effectiveness. He cannot let this thing sort of flow into our system and become part of the current problem. Whenever he comes out with his economic team, it has to look like one of those Roman phalanx, four or five people standing together who give us confidence that change is coming. I think he's willing to risk waiting so that he brings out the right team. I think he's got to wait to do it right.

Robin Roberts in the ABC 'Hot Seat':
'What's on Your Ipod?'

     Day three on Friday of Good Morning America's "hot seat" series featured softball viewer questions for co-host Robin Roberts, including subjects such as her iPod and whether she'd ever consider appearing on Dancing With the Stars. The purpose of the daily segment, which concludes on Monday, is to have the tables turned on the GMA hosts and force the journalists to ask tough questions. More typical were the type of queries that people like Regina from Arkansas posed. Via video, she offered this expose: "Your jewelry is so pretty. I would like to know where you get it?"

     Just as with past "hot seat" segments, there was one truly interesting question. Meteorologist Sam Champion read a viewer e-mail that probed: "With all of the interviews you have done, is there one you wish you could do over?" Roberts responded by claiming: "There are times I wished I had asked different questions...especially this past political season." Perhaps one such example would be on March 26, 2007. That's when the GMA journalist conducted an episode-long "town hall" meeting with (then) presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in which she allowed the New York senator to talk, uninterrupted or unchallenged, for 18 of 26 minutes.

     [This item, by the MRC's Scott Whitlock, was posted Friday afternoon on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

     And when Roberts did question Clinton, it was often to offer softballs, such as asserting that the former first lady's failed 1993 universal health care plan was just visionary: "What you said then in, in '93, many people felt it was just, in some ways, ahead of its, ahead of its time." See a March 27, 2007 CyberAlert posting for more: www.mrc.org

     Easy queries are a hallmark of Roberts' interviews with Democrats. While speaking to Barack Obama on May 19, the host empathetically cooed: "Should you get through this process and you have the general election ahead of you, that this [attacks against Obama] is what you can expect more and more of. Are you prepared for that?" See a May 20 CyberAlert posting for more: www.mrc.org

     On June 26, while talking to Father Michael Pfleger, another radical religious figure associated with Obama, Roberts described him as a "maverick priest." However, she ignored his extreme and incendiary statements, such as a May 25, 2008 sermon when he exclaimed: "America has been raping people of color and America has to pay the price for the rape!" See a June 27 CyberAlert posting for more: www.mrc.org

     A partial transcript of the segment, which aired at 8:06am, follows:

     REGINA: Hey, Robin. My name is Regina. I'm from Arkansas. Your jewelry is so pretty. I would like to know where you get it.

     SAM CHAMPION: Tara from Oklahoma asks a really good question. With all of the interviews you have done, is there one you wish you could do over?
     ROBIN ROBERTS: Oh. A do over?
     CHRIS CUOMO: Own it.
     ROBERTS: Own it. I know.
     CHAMPION: Quickly. Quickly. Quickly.
     ROBERTS: There are times I wished I had asked different questions or maybe had asked- especially this past political season with both- It was like oh, I should have asked this. Or why didn't I ask that? And- That was the only time. I don't think I would want to do it over. But there was times I wish I had more time to have asked-
     CUOMO: But you don't today. Next question.
     DIANE SAWYER: This is an interesting one. This is a serious one. Robin being African-American-
     ROBERTS: I am.
     SAWYER: -by the way, this is Pamela from Vineland New Jersey. Being African-American, you are, have you ever encountered any type of racism in any of the places you've traveled with ABC News? Racism?
     ROBERTS: Ooh, that's a good one. Racism, while working with ABC News? I know early on in my career, because I started in the '70s, there was some tough times. No. I haven't. My only incident was in Saudi Arabia. It wasn't with race. It was more sexism. When I got kicked out of the gym because women aren't supposed to be in the gym. And had I been traveling as, you know, on my own, I probably would have objected a little more. But I was there as Mrs. Bush's guest. And also there as ABC News. So, that was- that was a tough one.
     SAWYER: We all respect the customs of the country.
     ROBERTS: Yes, we do. We do. Yeah.

     Other viewer questions from the segment:
     "Do you miss sportscasting?"
     "If you had to evacuate your home and could only grab one thing, I guess KJ excluded, what would it be?"
     "Robin, we want to know what's on your iPod?"
     "If your life was turned into a movie, what would be the title? Who gets to play Robin Roberts?"
     "When will we get to see you on 'Dancing With the Stars'? Because we see you show your stuff or strut your stuff in the morning all the time."
     "What was the most horrible job you had to deal with on your rise to the top?"

-- Brent Baker

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