Brokaw: Platform Doesn't Speak to Women -- 09/01/2004 - Media Research Center

For Immediate Release: Katie Wright (703) 683-5004 - Wednesday, September 1, 2004

Republican Convention, Day 2: MSNBC Reporter Suggests "Compassion" = Supporting Gay Marriage

Brokaw: Platform Doesn't
Speak to Women

To document the heights (or depths) of liberal media bias during the week of the Republican convention in New York City, the Media Research Center staff is preparing twice-daily CyberAlerts. The following items are a sampling of the latest findings of notable convention media coverage, with full details available at www.mrc.org:

• Brokaw's Sour Note. NBC anchor Tom Brokaw ended Tuesday's live GOP convention coverage by stressing how "things are not going well in many parts of the world for the United States. Despite the speeches tonight of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Laura Bush, this is a very difficult time in Iraq, the war on terrorism is an uncertain trumpet." ABC's Peter Jennings noted how Rudy Giuliani had said Republicans were like the New York Yankees: "Maybe a little glib to conclude with, but tonight the Yankees got beaten by Cleveland, 22 to nothing."

• Moderate Republicans Should Vote for Kerry. Tuesday afternoon during CNN's Inside Politics, analyst Bill Schneider argued that GOP moderates would gain clout if Bush went down to defeat: "The market for [California Governor Arnold] Schwarzenegger's philosophy would be a lot bigger if Bush loses. Then Republicans would be forced to examine what went wrong, and many would conclude maybe, just maybe the Party went too far to the right."

Worst of the Day: Republicans Against Women • Liberal Definition of Compassion. On MSNBC last night, reporter Chris Jansing confronted a delegate: "Here we are at a convention where tonight the theme is com-passion, and we're talking about banning gay marriage. Is that a compassionate stance?" Earlier on the same network, NBC anchor Tom Brokaw told Senator Susan Collins that the GOP platform does not speak to women.

• No Girlie Men. Even as reporters continued to fret over some delegates' joke band-aids adorned with little purple hearts, ABC's Kate Snow confronted a delegate who wore a button with the words "Girlie Men" and a big red slash through it: "Are you worried your button's going to offend anybody?"

• Four More Years of War. In an interview shown on ABC's Good Morning America Tuesday morning, Claire Shipman asked Dick Cheney: "Should Americans expect that a second Bush-Cheney term would mean another war?" She also said a "psychological profile test" of Cheney indicated he'd be well-suited to be an undertaker.

• Scolding "Divisive" Rudy. Interviewing Giuliani Tuesday morning, ABC's Charlie Gibson called his speech "more partisan" and "sharply critical of John Kerry," and he worried that any mention of 9/11 was inappropriate and "divisive." CBS's Harry Smith warned Giuliani he was helping a party controlled by social conservatives.

• No Praise for Bush Here. On ABC's daytime The View on Tuesday, Joy Behar ridiculed Giuliani for saying he was glad Bush was President on 9/11, saying Al Gore "would have been as tough." Details, plus more at www.mrc.org.

- Tim Graham, Brent Baker, and Rich Noyes