Good Morning, Bias: Diane Sawyer’s Liberal Spin
For the last decade, Diane Sawyer has been a familiar face to
millions of morning TV viewers as co-host of ABC’s Good Morning America. Over
her lengthy career at ABC, Sawyer has repeatedly lauded high-profile liberals,
including Nancy Pelosi (“galvanized steel with a smile”) and Hillary Clinton
(“political mastery,” “dazzling”). Sawyer targeted Ken Starr’s report on Bill
Clinton as “demented pornography, pornography for Puritans,” derided the Bush
administration’s “massive tax cuts,” and championed campaign finance “reform.”
A Smattering of Harry Smith’s Liberal Smugness
For the past seven years, Harry Smith has co-hosted CBS's The Early Show,
currently the third-place broadcast network morning news program. Smith
previously co-hosted CBS’s This Morning from 1987 to 1996 while also
serving as a contributor to the CBS Evening News, 48 Hours, and
various documentaries. In 1996, Smith left CBS to narrate various programs for
the History Channel and A&E’s Biography. Smith returned to CBS in
2002 to replace
Bryant Gumbel
as co-host of The Early Show; he also occasionally fills in as host of
Face the Nation and anchor of the CBS Evening News.
Tea Parties Hit with Hostile & Crude
Media Response
Media
coverage of the more than 800 Taxed Enough Already (TEA) Party protests,
which took place in all fifty states on April 15, 2009 ranged from
disdainful dismissal of their nature, significance and import, to outright
hostility towards the events and individual participants, to crude sexual
innuendo-based ridicule -- all capped off by MSNBC bringing aboard actress
Janeane Garofalo to scurrilously charge the rallies were only “about hating
a black man in the White House.” Here's a summary of the most-obnoxious and
hostile coverage, illustrated with several videos, on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and
MSNBC, as well as in USA Today, the New York Times and the Washington Post.
George
Stephanopoulos: ABC's In-House Spin Doctor
George
Stephanopoulos became a political celebrity as a spin doctor in Bill
Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign. Hired by ABC News after four years as
a top presidential aide, ABC's corporate line has been that the onetime
Clintonista has been scrubbed free of the liberal ideology that originally
drew him to politics. But in his on-air role at ABC, Stephanopoulos has been
a reliable mouthpiece for the Democratic spin of the day — using his perch
as an analyst and correspondent to add an extra boost to liberals, undermine
conservatives and push a liberal policy agenda.
Rosie O'Donnell's
Left-Wing Ravings
As
co-host of ABC’s The View, Rosie O’Donnell has used her daytime perch
to push an array of extreme left-wing and anti-American views, including her
assertion that "radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical
Islam" and promoting 9/11 conspiracy theories: "Miraculously, for the first
time in history, steel was melted by fire. It is physically impossible." To
mark her imminent departure from The View, MRC has collected some of
O’Donnell’s more noteworthy left-wing outbursts, posted here with many audio
and video clips, along with links to more detailed descriptions of Rosie's
ravings.
Brian
Williams
Brian Williams, who suggests Jimmy Carter is one of the
greatest former presidents in history and that the Founding Fathers could be
called terrorists, landed in the anchor chair at NBC’s Nightly News
on Dec. 2, 2004. A new Profile in Bias, updated for Mr. Williams’ two-year
anniversary in 2006 and compiled by MRC experts, details Brian Williams’
liberal bias, complete with video.
Walter
Cronkite: Liberal Media Icon
Since his retirement, Walter Cronkite, anchor of the CBS
Evening News from 1962 to 1981, has made clear his liberal views on a
range of issues, including how being a liberal is essential to being a good
journalist. The MRC has compiled a representative collection of Cronkite's
liberal pronouncements, and denunciations of conservatives, since the late
1980s.
ABC’s Charles
Gibson, Conventional Liberal
Charles Gibson, ABC’s longtime co-host of Good Morning
America was tapped to replace Elizabeth Vargas as solo anchor of World News
Tonight, starting May 29, 2006. On his morning show, and as a frequent
fill-in for Peter Jennings on World News Tonight, Gibson over the years has
shown little willingness to stray from the media elite’s liberal template.
CBS’s Mike
Wallace: Too Many Minutes of Liberal Bias
To mark his retirement, the
May 21 edition of 60 Minutes devoted a tribute to Mike Wallace. Below,
from the MRC's archive, are some comments and views from Wallace that were
not mentioned on the tribute show.
Top Ten Left Wing
Scenes on The West Wing
On May 14, 2006, NBC
aired the final episode of The West Wing. Since its debut in
September of 1999 when "President Josiah Bartlet," played by Martin
Sheen, told some cartoon-ish conservative religious leaders to "get
your fat asses out of my White House," the prime time drama
regularly advocated liberal policies and showcased liberal causes.
The MRC's compilation provides text and video/audio for a "Top Ten"
presentation of some of the program's most notorious liberal moments
and crusades. Actually, you'll find nine scenes pushing liberal
ideas followed by one unusual scene which mocked liberal opposition
to tax cuts.
Katie
Couric’s Years of Liberal Tilt
Read and watch quotes from Katie
Couric, former co-anchor of NBC’s Today and, starting in September 2006,
the anchor of the CBS Evening News. Katie Couric has a long history of
liberally biased reporting: a soft spot for Jimmy Carter, Hillary Clinton, and
the U.N., knee-jerk posture on global warming, war on terrorism, higher taxes,
more regulations, national health insurance, and blatant hostility towards
conservatives.
Meredith
Vieira: Megaphone for the Liberal Cause
On April 6, 2006, NBC announced that Meredith
Vieira, a host of ABC's The View, would succeed Katie Couric as
co-host of the Today show. In picking Vieira, NBC chose a
journalist with a record of liberal views on many contentious issues:
participation in anti-war protests, anti-capital punishment, very critical
of abstinence-based sex education, and on record as saying the Iraq war
was "built on
lies."
Dan Rather's Outrageous Liberal
Bias
Dan Rather ascended to the CBS Evening News anchor chair on March 9, 1981. Since then, his on-air liberal bias has become the stuff of legend. To find out why, read and watch MRC-selected Dan Rather highlights.
World News Tonight With Peter Jennings:
20 Years of Liberal Bias
On September 5, 1983, Peter Jennings took the helm of ABC’s
World News Tonight as its sole anchor. While based in ABC’s London bureau from 1978 to 1983, Jennings had shared anchor duties with Chicago-based Max Robinson and the Washington, D.C.-based Frank Reynolds, who was the newscast’s main anchorman until his death in July of 1983.
Peter Jennings:
A Review of the ABC Anchor's Iraq Coverage
ABC's Peter Jennings was consistently critical of the American military effort in Iraq, as a compilation of more than 70 items from Media War Watch demonstrate.
Howell
Raines: Editor and Partisan
New York Times Executive Editor Howell Raines has consistently and aggressively promoted liberal policies throughout his career. Listed
on this page are what others have said about the head man at the Times and a couple of comments from Raines himself.
Stephanopoulos:
Lone Anchor of This Week
George Stephanopoulos will take over as the solo host of ABC's Sunday interview show
This Week in the fall, ABC News President David Westin announced on June 18. Stephanopoulos's rise has been marked by numerous acts of bias.
Connie Chung: CNN's New Prime Time Star
Connie Chung Tonight will
become part of CNN's prime time lineup on June 24. In anticipation
of the new show, the MRC takes a look back at some of Chung's most
outrageous incidents of liberal bias.
Carter Goes to Cuba
Former President Jimmy Carter
recently completed a tour of Cuba that created a flurry of network
coverage and provided viewers with a fleeting glimpse inside the
island nation.
Bryant
Gumbel Set to Retire
Check out videos of Gumbel at his most biased in "Top Ten Gumbel
Stumbles" and read a staggering anthology of the liberal activist-anchor's personal bias masquerading as journalism.
Palestine
Pete: Jennings and the Palestinians
ABC's World News Tonight
anchor Peter Jennings has demonstrated a pro-Palestinian, pro-Arab
bias in Middle East coverage for years.
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