Bryant Gumbel:
Liberal Activist Masquerading as Impartial Journalist

Bryant Gumbel returned to a morning TV anchor chair on Monday, November 1, 1999. According to MRC President Brent Bozell, "for 15 years, Mr. Gumbel used another morning program as a daily platform for personal liberal bias masquerading as news and commentary." Bozell explained that "like everyone else, Mr. Gumbel is entitled to his own opinions -- but not to his own set of facts. Yet he repeatedly used his anchor status to slant the facts to support his personal liberal opinions, misinforming millions."

The October 26, 1999, issue of USA Today reported on Bozell's letter to CBS News, commenting: "One of Bryant Gumbel's frequent critics is after him again, less than a week before the former Today anchor returns to morning TV on CBS' The Early Show. In a letter to CBS News president Andrew Heyward, Brent Bozell, head of the conservative watchdog group Media Research Center, warns that the new show could be a vehicle for 'liberal propaganda.' CBS dismissed Bozell's comments, calling Gumbel 'fair and tough.'"

According to MRC Vice President for Research and Publications Brent Baker, "short of Geraldo Rivera, few have done as much as Bryant Gumbel to lower the standards of professional TV journalism. As an interviewer, he can’t even pose a question without stumbling over his own liberal bias, and we have the audio- and videotape to prove it."

The MRC invites you to judge for yourself.

Bryant Gumbel on CBS
Videos and transcripts of Bryant Gumbel's most biased 
Early Show moments, November 1999 to present.

MRC on Gumbel
Advertisements, columns newsletters and news releases from the MRC regarding Bryant Gumbel's liberal bias.

Top 10 Gumbel Stumbles
Videos and transcripts of Bryant Gumbel's most biased Today, Public Eye and other on-air moments, 1989-1999.

Gumbel Anthology
Forty-six of the most bias Gumbel quotes from his on-air performances and interviews, 1989-1999.

Bryant Gumbel on CBS

Videos and transcripts of Bryant Gumbel's most biased Early Show moments, November 1999 to present.

CyberAlert, May 14: Senator John McCain’s appeared on CBS’s Early Show promoting public service ads for Americans for Gun Safety featuring him. It gave Bryant Gumbel a chance to ask: "Could you see your position reaching the point where you might support registration, where you might support longer waiting periods?"

CyberAlert, April 26: In our Media Reality Check, "Grading TV Coverage of Bush's 100 Days," CBS received an F and their worst spin came from their Four Horsemen of Liberal Bias -- Dan Rather, Bryant Gumbel, Bob Schieffer and John Roberts.

CyberAlert, April 23: Liberal uniformity at CBS’s Early Show. To Bryant Gumbel’s question, "are you a believer in global warming?," the whole crew responded in the affirmative, while the host lamented the public’s lack of concern.

CyberAlert, April 18: To the assertion made by reporter Bernard Goldberg that in sports "race really isn’t that important if you’re good," Bryant Gumbel retorted on HBO: "If that’s the case, it may be the only place in America that it works."

CyberAlert, March 23: Gumbel complained that the dive in the stock market was due not only to President Bush talking it down but because the markets miss Bill Clinton and Bob Rubin.

Notable Quotable, March 19: According to 60 Minutes producer Don Hewitt CBS has spent too much money on the Early Show.

CyberAlert, March 9: Gumbel pushes Secretary of Education Rod Paige for the federal government to take the lead in regulation of guns.

CyberAlert, February 27: Gumbel questions Republican Congressman Chris Shays on why Congress would waste its time investigating Clinton’s last minute pardons.

CyberAlert, February 23: According to Gumbel the news that Hillary Rodham Clinton’s brother took $400,000 to arrange last-minute pardons will only feed the "cottage industry of the usual Republican Clinton-bashers."

CyberAlert, February 22: Gumbel and Early Show team ignore Reagan presidential poll. 

CyberAlert, February 5: Gumbel paints Clinton as the victim of cheap Republican attack politics.

CyberAlert, January 25: Gumbel: school vouchers only make schools worse and students need national standardized tests.

CyberAlert, January 17: Gumbel accuses John Ashcroft of character assassination of Ronnie White.

CyberAlert, January 18: John Ashcroft not going quietly.

CyberAlert, January 8: Gumbel: "I’ve Got a Bad Mouth."

CyberAlert, January 4: Gumbel complains Bush has not met his promise for a "bi-partisan, coalition cabinet."

CyberAlert, December 15: Bush not gracious enough for Gumbel.

CyberAlert, December 13: Gumbel: Is Clarence Thomas Justice Scalia’s rubber stamp?

CyberAlert, December 12: The "political stripes" of the biased Supreme Court.

CyberAlert, December 7: President Dukakis?

CyberAlert, December 6: Gumbel loses faith in Gore winning.

CyberAlert, November 28: Gumbel discredits U.S. Supreme Court.

CyberAlert, November 21: Viewer waves sign on air saying Gumbel’s biased reports will soon make him.

CyberAlert, November 17: Gumbel disappointed by Bush’s tone since Election Night.

CyberAlert, November 15: Gumbel dubs Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris a "King-maker."

CyberAlert, November 14: Gumbel questions legitimacy of Bush presidency.

CyberAlert, November 9: Gumbel hammers on Bush attitude during election recount.

CyberAlert, November 7: Gumbel is baffled why Gore is not further ahead since he is "better qualified."

CyberAlert, November 6: Gumbel interviews Al and Tipper Gore.

CyberAlert, October 31: Early Show manages to lose viewers despite expensive overhaul of set.

CyberAlert, September 29: Gumbel asks Lieberman about taking campaign money from Hollywood.

CyberAlert, September 27: More Gumbel on "gun safety."

CyberAlert, September 15: Gumbel complains about no MLK statue on Mall, it was the "climate" of the Reagan years that delayed it.

CyberAlert, September 14: Was the RNC "make-nice convention misguided" wonders Gumbel.

CyberAlert, September 13: Gumbel claims the Republican television ‘rats’ ad is a "new low."

CyberAlert, September 7: Gumbel wants to know how Gore can justify a limited tax cut.

CyberAlert, September 1: Gumbel challenges Henry Kissinger to disprove charges about Richard Nixon.

CyberAlert, August 30: How to boost Gumbel’s sagging Early Show ratings.

CyberAlert, August 17: Gumbel worries about Democrats turn towards family values with Whoopi Goldberg.

CyberAlert, August 16: Gumbel worries about meaning of family values with Hadassah Lieberman and designates Joe Lieberman’s convention reception that of a rock star.

CyberAlert, August 15: Gumbel worries with Hugh Hefner about Gore’s preoccupation with morality.

CyberAlert, August 14: Gumbel wants to return to Kennedy era.

CyberAlert, August 9: Gumbel expects Republicans to try and turn people against Lieberman because he is Jewish.

CyberAlert, August 7: Gumbel gives Bush convention speech "mixed grades."

CyberAlert, August 2: Gumbel accuses GOP of just "pandering" African Americans.

CyberAlert, July 28: Gumbel defines being "Reaganesque" as someone who "does nothing," like the contestants on Survivor.

CyberAlert, July 26: Gumbel described Cheney’s politics are being of the "hard-right variety."

CyberAlert, July 12: Gumbel’s "What a f***ing idiot" blast: FNC’s Hannity & Colmes enlarged the video and went frame by frame; Cal Thomas suggested "it reveals a deeply-held perspective"; and Capitol Hill Blue insisted Mark McEwen was Gumbel’s actual target.

CyberAlert, June 30: A CBS camera seemed to have caught a disgusted Bryant Gumbel blurting out "What a f***ing idiot" just after wrapping up a hostile interview with Robert Knight of the Family Research Council about how the Boy Scouts exclude gays.

CyberAlert, June 28: Bryant Gumbel hoped he and his fellow New Yorkers get a two-for-one deal: Hillary, plus her husband’s "expertise."

CyberAlert, June 7: National Enquirer headline: "Matt Lauer and Bryant Gumbel’s Wild Night with Drag Queens." But it’s not made up. They published photos of a bare-chested Gumbel getting a lap dance from a he/she.

CyberAlert, May 22: Bryant Gumbel tried to discredit the NRA’s jump in membership and demanded the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre respond to the Million Mom March. But, a week earlier before that march, Gumbel pressed organizers from the left about not going far enough.

CyberAlert, May 15: Bryant Gumbel lamented: "Why are you only focusing on licensing and registration?...Why aren't you going for example for a total ban?" Congress won’t do anything about guns, though "we all hope for the best."

CyberAlert, May 3: Bryant Gumbel: "As the former head of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev was widely hailed as the man who brought an end to the Cold War....These days he is...trying to find solutions to the world's environmental problems."

CyberAlert, April 25: CBS’s Bryant Gumbel asked what hearings about the Elian raid would "accomplish besides just so much Reno bashing?"

CyberAlert, April 17: Bryant Gumbel rejected the idea that Cuban-American civil disobedience is analogous to the civil rights movement and noting how Cuban-Americans charge Castro with exploiting Elian, demanded if that’s "any less reprehensible" than what they have done. Gumbel also called the Elian video "the most disgusting thing I've ever seen," rued how a kid from Haiti would have been returned immediately and charged that the Miami relatives "don't care about" Elian.

CyberAlert, March 22: Bryant Gumbel mused about the appeal of a third term for Bill Clinton.

CyberAlert, February 21: To the idea that historians voted Reagan the best President, Bryant Gumbel dropped his pen, "No!"

Notable Quotables, January 10: Reagan, Thatcher Mattered? No.

CyberAlert, December 17: Gumbel on "Divisive" Pope.

CyberAlert, November 30: Gumbel’s Reagan Insult.

CyberAlert, November 22: Viewers Avoiding Gumbel.

CyberAlert, November 11: Gumbel: Conservatives Ruin "National Prestige."

CyberAlert, November 4: CBS Pushed Gun Control Again; Gumbel Denounced Entrepreneurial "Greed."

CyberAlert, November 2: Clinton's Buddy Bryant Gumbel; CBS Pushed Bush Drug Question.

CyberAlert, November 1: Gumbel Denounces MRC ad; Insist That on Political View "I Hold Them in Check"

MRC on Gumbel

Advertisements, columns newsletters and news releases from the MRC regarding Bryant Gumbel.

Bozell column, July 4: Bryant Gumbel and the Christian Bashing System.

MRC's Gumbel ad in the July 13 New York Post and The Washington Times.

Media Reality Check, November 4: The Early Word on The Early Show.

Bozell's Column, November 4: Gumbel: Tough As A Beanie Baby.

Media Reality Check, October 28: Gumbel: America is Hopelessly Racist.

MRC News Release, November 2: Gumbel Gets Massive Thumbs Down in CBS On-Line Viewer Feedback.

MRC Gumbel advertisement in the October 27 New York Post, "Nothing to be Proud Of," as it appeared on the Fox News Channel.

Related Items:

• Gumbel Stumbles: Videos and transcripts of Bryant Gumbel's most biased moments, 1989 - 1999
  
  
• Gumbel Anthology: Forty-six quotes culled from Gumbel's on-air performances and interviews 1989-1999, such as this liberal nugget from the February 23, 1994 Today: "Straight ahead in this half hour we’ll talk about a new book called Lethal Passage. It deals with America’s sickening love affair with guns."