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1. After 3 Days, Obama Delivers 'Sweeping Change' at 'Warp Speed' ABC and CBS on Friday night delivered glowing assessments of President Barack Obama's first three days in office, with ABC's George Stephanopoulos declaring "this first week was disciplined and strategic" enabling "sweeping change." Fill-in anchor Diane Sawyer pronounced: "Change the tone and change it at warp speed." CBS's Bob Schieffer relayed how "I think he's off to a very good start" and marveled at how -- given "the severity of the problems" -- any "human" could "live up to the expectations," yet Obama "has laid out an ambitious program" and by closing Guantanamo and deciding to "outlaw torture" he "has told the world that we will practice what we preach." 2. ABC Spins New Empire State Senator as 'Conservative Democrat' On Friday's Good Morning America, reporter John Berman spun U.S. Representative Kristen Gillibrand, the soon-to-be announced Senator from New York, as a "conservative Democrat." Although she is only beginning her second term in the House, Gillibrand has been endorsed by the aggressively pro-abortion group NARAL. According to the New York Observer, she supports gay marriage. Additionally, the American Conservative Union (ACU) ranked her voting record as a meager eight. During the segment, Berman explained that the issue of gun rights prompted the label: "Now, the Gillibrand pick is not without controversy itself. She is a conservative Democrat, favoring gun rights. And the pick has upset some more liberal Democrats." Over on the Today show, reporter David Gregory used similar language: "She's demonstrated that she can win as a conservative Democrat, in more conservative part of the state." 3. CNN Guest: 'Religious Right' Opposed Past Medical Advances Too During a segment on Friday's Newsroom program, CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen heralded the FDA's approval of the first human clinical trial involving embryo-destroying stem cell research. Cohen then gave a soft interview of the president and CEO of the company involved in the trial, who made the bizarre claim that new medical breakthroughs, including corneal transplants and anesthesia for women in childbirth, were supposedly "always met with concerns from the Religious Right" in the past. Cohen did not follow-up to this statement by the CEO. 4. CNN Re-Plays Zakaria's Fallacious 'Bush's Biggest Mistake' CNN was so pleased with Fareed Zakaria's commentary from the Sunday before, on Fareed Zakaria: GPS (Global Public Square), that they re-ran it on Thursday afternoon to counter House Minority Leader John Boehner's advocacy of tax cuts to boost the economy. In the noon hour Thursday CNN re-played Zakaria's commentary from the top of his January 18 show, in which he denounced the tax cuts as "the single most significant bad decision George Bush made." Though federal revenue from income taxes has soared faster than inflation, Zakaria, editor of Newsweek's international edition, blamed the tax cuts for the rising deficit: "But by far the lion's share of the surpluses went into the tax cuts. It was the most profoundly un-conservative act of the Bush presidency. Rather than pay down the debt or save in the good times for the inevitable bad times, Bush squandered it all, so that all of us, particularly the high-income earners, could indulge in a bit more consumption." 5. WashPost Wouldn't Print Negative Obama Ads, But Weird Ones Fine In mid-December, the Washington Post decided it would feature a special classifieds section on Inauguration Day in which readers could, for a fee, offer a special message to the new President. Buried within the announcement was this requirement: "All ads must be congratulatory in nature. The Washington Post reserves the right to reject any notice." However, bizarre and oddly stilted messages apparently made it through the screening process just fine. 6. Sign Up to Receive the MRC's Notable Quotables Via E-Mail Another edition of the MRC's new Notable Quotables e-mail, with the media's sappy inaugural coverage, will be distributed in just a few hours. Amongst the category headings reflecting the infatuation with Obama: "A Day When Even the Seagulls Were Awed," "Cheney Exiting Like 'Dr. Strangelove.'" "Press Gets Intimate with Obama," "CNN Expected an Inaugural Speech 'For the Ages,'" "As Obama Ascends, Horn Honking Ends" and "After Eight Years of Hell, Celebrating Soulful, Brilliant Obama." The new e-mail service is available in two formats: You can receive it as plain text, or in HTML which will feature graphics, images and click-and-play links to video clips. The newest edition will highlight five videos. To subscribe to either format: http://www.mrc.org/subscriptions/
Change' at 'Warp Speed' ABC and CBS on Friday night delivered glowing assessments of President Barack Obama's first three days in office, with ABC's George Stephanopoulos declaring "this first week was disciplined and strategic" enabling "sweeping change." Fill-in anchor Diane Sawyer pronounced: "Change the tone and change it at warp speed." CBS's Bob Schieffer relayed how "I think he's off to a very good start" and marveled at how -- given "the severity of the problems" -- any "human" could "live up to the expectations," yet Obama "has laid out an ambitious program" and by closing Guantanamo and deciding to "outlaw torture" he "has told the world that we will practice what we preach." Admiring how Obama's discipline is meant to demonstrate he's "moving on all fronts to bring change," Stephanopoulos trumpeted how on day one and day two he's used executive orders to bring "sweeping change to open government," "sweeping change in foreign policy" and "then day three, today, two promises kept." Referring to the "great crowd that stretched over a mile before" Obama as he made his inaugural address, Schieffer expressed awe: [This item, by the MRC's Brent Baker, was posted Friday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] # From the Friday, January 23 World News on ABC:
DIANE SAWYER: It's early to be writing history already on the Obama presidency, but tell me about the first three days. What do you think the headline is?
KATIE COURIC: Bob Schieffer is our chief Washington correspondent and anchor of Face the Nation. And, Bob, it's been quite a week beginning with Tuesday.
'Conservative Democrat' On Friday's Good Morning America, reporter John Berman spun U.S. Representative Kristen Gillibrand, the soon-to-be announced Senator from New York, as a "conservative Democrat." Although she is only beginning her second term in the House, Gillibrand has been endorsed by the aggressively pro-abortion group NARAL: www.prochoiceamerica.org According to the New York Observer, she supports gay marriage. Additionally, the American Conservative Union (ACU) ranked her voting record as a meager eight: www.acuratings.org During the segment, Berman explained that the issue of gun rights prompted the label: "Now, the Gillibrand pick is not without controversy itself. She is a conservative Democrat, favoring gun rights. And the pick has upset some more liberal Democrats." Gillibrand also opposed the TARP bailout legislation. Over on the Today show, reporter David Gregory used similar language: "She's demonstrated that she can win as a conservative Democrat, in more conservative part of the state." So, while a few issues may make Gillibrand a moderate Democrat for the state of New York, it seems like a stretch for Gregory, Berman or other reporters to label the new Senator a "conservative Democrat." [This item, by the MRC's Scott Whitlock, was posted Friday on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] A transcript of the January 23 GMA segment, which aired at 7:02am:
ROBERTS: But we begin with Caroline Kennedy. Before she sought the Senate seat, she was known as an extremely private, private citizen. This morning, she has returned to that role, declining to reveal the exact reason she withdrew her name. Our John Berman has the latest for us. Good morning, John.
Past Medical Advances Too During a segment on Friday's Newsroom program, CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen heralded the FDA's approval of the first human clinical trial involving embryo-destroying stem cell research. Cohen then gave a soft interview of the president and CEO of the company involved in the trial, who made the bizarre claim that new medical breakthroughs, including corneal transplants and anesthesia for women in childbirth, were supposedly "always met with concerns from the Religious Right" in the past. Cohen did not follow-up to this statement by the CEO. The segment, which began 17 minutes into the 11 am Eastern hour of the CNN program, began with anchor Tony Harris trumpeting how the FDA's approval of the embryonic stem cell clinical trial represented "major milestone in this field of research." He then asked Cohen to "explain to us how significant a day this is." The correspondent gushed in reply, "This is a big day, and I will tell you, I interviewed Christopher Reeve many times about stem cells, and I think he would probably be smiling if he were here to see this day." She did not bring up the moral objections to embryonic stem cell in her explanation of the breaking news item which followed, just that "some say that some of this research has been overblown, and a it's not quite as promising as many people say." [This item, by the MRC's Matthew Balan, was posted Friday evening on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] Cohen then introduced Doctor Thomas Okarma, the president and CEO of the Geron Corporation, the biomedical research outfit involved in the clinical trial. She first asked the "Christopher Reeve" question -- if the technology could "make human beings who are paraplegic walk again." When Okarma answered that patients might see "modest improvement in patients with so-called complete injuries who are paralyzed for life," Cohen replied, "So if people are hearing this and are thinking, oh, wow, with this treatment, paraplegics are going to hop out of their wheelchairs and walk again, you're telling us, right now, be a little more realistic." Later, the medical correspondent concluded by asking a question which oversimplified conservatives' objections to embryonic stem cell research: "Now, in 2001 -- you know this well -- there was an outcry. There were some folks who said embryonic stem cell research involves destroying an embryo and they were incensed. They said that this research should not go on. Are you hearing from those folks now or has some of that uproar died down?" Okarma's strange reply: "Well, most of the uproar has died down, and we would hope that if we show safety and utility in this clinical trial, it will go away forever. This is a new idea, and any new idea as big as this one always generates controversy. So the first corneal transplant, the first use of anesthesia to achieve painless childbirth -- historically, these were always met with concerns from the Religious Right. So we hope to demonstrate that using an embryo that would have been destroyed or discarded to treat millions of patients with chronic disease is a very ethical step forward." The "Religious Right" opposed corneal transplants? That's news to the University of Louisville's Lion Eye Bank. On their frequently asked questions webpage about cornea/eye donation, the Eye Bank answered that "[c]ornea/eye donations are consistent with the beliefs and attitudes of major religions." Also, on the issue of anesthesia for women undergoing childbirth, the Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology, in an article marking the sesquicentennial (one hundred fiftieth anniversary) of the first modern obstetric anesthetic in 1847, cited a paper which "debunks the idea that the physicians objected to anesthesia for religious reasons - a myth...perpetuated by generations of writers." For the University of Louisville's Lion Eye Bank frequently asked questions webpage about cornea/eye donation, see "Frequently Asked Questions About Cornea/Eye Donation," at: www.ulleb.org For the Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology article on the history of obstetric anesthetics, see "WLM History Review: Spirits of Anesthesia -- The Beginning of Obstretric Anesthesia," at: www.asahq.org The full transcript of the segment from Friday's Newsroom program:
TONY HARRIS: Breaking news in medicine now -- the U.S. government has approved the world's first known embryonic stem cell trial in humans. It is something 'Superman' actor Christopher Reeve fought hard for. He helped propel spinal cord injury into the national spotlight after his own paralysis. Now, a little more than four years after his death, his wish coming true -- the stem cell study aimed at spinal injury. It is a major milestone in this field of research. CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is joining me now to talk about, and Elizabeth, explain to us how significant a day this is.
Biggest Mistake' CNN was so pleased with Fareed Zakaria's commentary from the Sunday before, on Fareed Zakaria: GPS (Global Public Square), that they re-ran it on Thursday afternoon to counter House Minority Leader John Boehner's advocacy of tax cuts to boost the economy. In the noon hour Thursday CNN re-played Zakaria's commentary from the top of his January 18 show, in which he denounced the tax cuts as "the single most significant bad decision George Bush made." Though federal revenue from income taxes has soared faster than inflation, Zakaria, editor of Newsweek's international edition, blamed the tax cuts for the rising deficit: "But by far the lion's share of the surpluses went into the tax cuts. It was the most profoundly un-conservative act of the Bush presidency. Rather than pay down the debt or save in the good times for the inevitable bad times, Bush squandered it all, so that all of us, particularly the high-income earners, could indulge in a bit more consumption." Federal revenue tops $2.6 trillion, yet Zakaria ludicrously complained: "And now, when times have gotten bad and when we sorely need those reserves, we're clean out of cash." [This item, by the MRC's Brent Baker, was posted Sunday morning on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] As for the tax cuts causing the deficit to rise, IRS figures posted by the Tax Foundation (table 4 in a July report with the latest numbers for 2006) show revenue from the income tax jumped from $748 billion in 2003 to $1.024 trillion in 2006 -- that's faster than inflation. 2003: $748 2004: $832 2005: $935 2006: $1,024 The income taxes paid by the top 5 percent of payers rose from $407 billion in 2003 to $616 billion in 2006. 2003: $407 2004: $475 2005: $558 2006: $616 The economic downturn now may well be reducing federal revenue, but clearly it has been rising spending, not tax cuts which did not reduce revenue, which have led to a higher deficit. The Tax Foundation's report: www.taxfoundation.org Back in October, Zakaria used his CNN show as platform to endorse Barack Obama. The October 21 CyberAlert item, "Newsweek/CNN's Fareed Zakaria Announces He's Voting for Obama," recounted: Not that it's any big surprise given his well-established liberal views and contempt for conservative policies, but in what is an unusually blatant abandonment of basic journalistic pretenses, CNN on Sunday -- and Newsweek in this week's issue -- provided time and space for Fareed Zakaria to outline why he will be voting for the "steady and reasoned" Barack Obama. Along the way, he denigrated Sarah Palin as "a rabble-rousing ultraconservative." At the end of his Sunday (October 19) CNN program, Fareed Zakaria: GPS, Zakaria told his viewers of his choice, concluding: "John McCain represents the best of America's past, and Barack Obama the hope of the future -- the hope of a country that can make big changes and live out one of its greatest promises, of equal opportunities for all Americans, of every caste, creed and color. And America has always been a country that looks forward. So, I will be voting for Barack Obama on election day this year." More: www.mrc.org From CNN's Newsroom at about 12:30 PM EST on Thursday, January 22:
TONY HARRIS: The President's $825 billion stimulus package is part spending plan, part tax cutting plan. Republicans are pushing harder for deeper tax cuts. Here's the House minority leader a short time ago.
Ads, But Weird Ones Fine In mid-December, the Washington Post decided it would feature a special classifieds section on Inauguration Day in which readers could, for a fee, offer a special message to the new President. Buried within the announcement was this requirement: "All ads must be congratulatory in nature. The Washington Post reserves the right to reject any notice." See Media Bistro for more: www.mediabistro.com However, bizarre and oddly stilted messages apparently made it through the screening process just fine. [The MRC's Scott Whitlock wrote this item for CyberAlert.] In one ad, Callie (no last name) wrote: "Dear Malia and Sasha,-I need a babysitter....??" One Douglas F. Ryder oddly instructed, "I want to help allow people to create their own economy. I see results and would like to help others. My way of helping improve the economy." Alex Barriger asked President Obama to keep an eye out for him on the big day: "I will be in the crowd in front of the Capitol today to witness this historic moment." This person, who identified himself as a volunteer, continued: "You should have my resume on file...I figured this was the best way to get in touch with you." Considering the rather unusual poem that was recited by Elizabeth Alexander during the Inauguration, maybe President Obama should have gone with the one submitted by Ellen M. Overby. Her Washington Post submission, with the original grammatical choices left intact, read: "The Mosaic of life. Stop! Look around! What do you see? There are people like you; and people like me; we did not design it! This Mosaic of Life! But we're part of the pattern, of success! and strife! We're red and white; we're brown and yellow; but each, an individual fellow!! Without the mixture; there would be no picture! No, Mosaic of life!!! Remember the trip to the moon? No color, no movement, just gloom! Preserve our Mosaic of Life---Earth!" Someone identified only as "Barryobomber" asserted, "My dear President Obama- Congratulations on making the ultimate long shot. Merry Christmas!" Considering the January 20 printing date for the classifieds, It's unclear whether Barryobomber meant this as an early or a belated holiday wish. Finally, Henry M. Terrell narrowly tailored his message: "Congratulations [sic] Your leadership is required to change the Psyche of the Personal Economic Unit to solve the problem created by Wall Street."
Quotables Via E-Mail Another edition of the MRC's new Notable Quotables e-mail, with the media's sappy inaugural coverage, will be distributed in just a few hours. Amongst the category headings reflecting the infatuation with Obama: "A Day When Even the Seagulls Were Awed," "Cheney Exiting Like 'Dr. Strangelove.'" "Press Gets Intimate with Obama," "CNN Expected an Inaugural Speech 'For the Ages,'" "As Obama Ascends, Horn Honking Ends" and "After Eight Years of Hell, Celebrating Soulful, Brilliant Obama." The new e-mail service is available in two formats: You can receive it as plain text, or in HTML which will feature graphics, images and click-and-play links to video clips. The newest edition will highlight five videos. To subscribe to either format: www.mrc.org If you subscribe by 10 AM EST today you'll receive the newest one. Otherwise, you'll get your first issue in two weeks. Note: As a CyberAlert subscriber you will continue to receive Notable Quotables text every other week as a "CyberAlert Special." The new HTML version of the Notable Quotables e-mail, however, features an eye-pleasing colorful layout with photos, video images and the ability to click to play video clips. Suggest to any of your friends, relatives or work colleagues -- who might be overwhelmed by daily CyberAlerts but are interested in evidence of the media's left-wing agenda and wildest claims -- that they sign up for the Notable Quotables e-mail so they get a cache of fresh ammunition every other week. Again, to subscribe to either format: www.mrc.org -- Brent Baker
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