ABC's Moran: Obama 'Too Nice,' Empathizes: 'You Got No Honeymoon' --2/11/2009
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2. Time 'News' Piece Compares GOP to Geese Who Caused Plane Crash
3. CNN's Borger & Gergen: Obama Comes Across 'Pragmatist,' 'Shrewd'
4. ABC's Stephanopoulos Grades Obama's Press Conference an 'A'
5. CBS's Early Show Fact Checks Obama Press Conference
6. Networks Silent on White House Grab of 2010 Census
7. In Housing Segment, ABC Ignores Truth Behind 'Bank Terrorist'
8. Tickets Available for MRC's March 19 'DisHonors Awards' and Gala
Earlier, Moran cued up Obama: "How close do you think the country is to the kind of economic catastrophe that you're warning about?" In the ABCNews.com transcript, which does not include the "honeymoon" lament, the tri-anchor of Nightline suggested the banks should just be nationalized: "There are a lot of economists who look at these banks and they say all that garbage that's in them renders them essentially insolvent. Why not just nationalize the banks?" (That question was part of what aired later on Nightline.) [This item, by the MRC's Brent Baker, was posted Tuesday night, with video, on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] Two quotes from Moran's fawning approach to Obama during the campaign, as posted with video, in the MRC's special November 3, 2008 edition of Notable Quotables, "Campaign 2008 Review: Barack Obama's Media Groupies." Is He "The One?"
Mesmerized by "Stoic Eloquence" "Now to Barack Obama. When I spent the day with him in Iowa over the weekend, you could sense the excitement he nearly always generates....Whatever he's eating, it is working for Obama....Here as elsewhere, the crowd listens closely to Barack Obama's real argument, that he is tomorrow, a fresh face who represents a real change from our bitter polarized politics....When you talk to Iowa voters who come to hear Obama, you get the sense they know they might be part of something big here, something historic." -- ABC's Terry Moran on Nightline, November 26, 2007. To watch those videos: www.mrc.org At the top of the Tuesday, February 10 World News viewers saw a quick exchange in which Moran told Obama, referring to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's comments: "Judging by the reaction in the markets, Wall Street really doesn't like your plan." After a story on Geithner's vague financial system plan, ABC played more from Moran's interview recorded in Ft. Myers, Florida (note: because of editing and inaccurate transcribing, this does not match the online transcript, but this matches what aired on World News):
TERRY MORAN: Can you say how much, ballpark figure, that will cost the American taxpayers. A trillion? Trillion-five? Two trillion?
Clearly impressed with his own comic stylings, Grunwald continued: "Their critiques seem even more comical when you see their alternatives. They warn that President Obama's stimulus package will explode the debt -- so they want to make George W. Bush's debt-exploding tax cuts permanent. They say Democratic spending plans are full of pork -- then they propose an extra $24 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers, the federal equivalent of Oscar Mayer. Let's just say their idea bank could use a bailout." [This item, by the MRC's Tim Graham, was posted Tuesday on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] Before the House GOP voted unanimously against the "stimulus" bill, The Hill newspaper reported that Republican House leaders did insert an amendment calling for more billions for the Army Corps of Engineers and more highway spending while reducing the stimulus size by a net $104 billion, apparently to assuage "centrist GOP legislators, along with other Republicans representing districts especially hard hit by the economic downturn, [who] said they needed to be on record backing increased funding for infrastructure programs." The Hill story: thehill.com Grunwald, a former Washington Post reporter, has written extensively on the Army Corps and criticized it extensively for wasteful spending and environmental harm. Later in the article, Grunwald supported some tax cut ideas and dismissed others, and then mocked House minority leader John Boehner on spending: "What about the spending? Again, there has been an Alice in Wonderland quality to much of the criticism, as if economist John Maynard Keynes were a fraud and government spending couldn't possibly create jobs -- especially spending on biomedical research, education about sexually transmitted diseases or other programs that sound vaguely liberal and exotic. Jobs in biomedical research and sex education are real jobs. Granted, some spending proposals would work faster and better than others. But it's telling that House minority leader John Boehner ridicules programs to weatherize low-income homes -- which would create jobs in a hurry, save poor people money in the long term and reduce the energy waste that increases carbon emissions and empowers foreign thugs. What's the argument in favor of heating and air-conditioning the outdoors?" Grunwald concluded that President Obama should ignore "partisan gripes" and press ahead with his spending spree, since he is the "Santa" the people elected: "So it's not clear how hard he'll push to fund his long-term agenda. But he should ignore the partisan gripes that the stimulus is becoming a 'Christmas tree.' Congress is about to toss almost $1 trillion into the economy, which means that any stimulus is going to be a Christmas tree, no matter where the gifts are hidden. And in November, the U.S. chose its Santa. This is his best chance to decide who gets the goodies and who gets the lump of coal." Since they're comparing Republicans to dead geese, clearly Time magazine wants the GOP to get coal in their stocking. For Grunwald's Time piece posted on February 5: www.time.com
The two analysts participated in the network's post-press conference programming, which took up the entire 9 pm Eastern hour on Monday night. Five minutes into the hour, Borger made her "pragmatist" comment, and continued with what she gathered from the president's remarks: "What I heard tonight was somebody who kept saying I can't afford to see Congress play the same usual political games. But the interesting fight that we're setting up here is whether the new president really understands the role or can cope with the role that ideology now plays in our politics today." [This item, by the MRC's Matthew Balan, was posted Tuesday afternoon on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] Fourteen minutes later, anchor Anderson Cooper asked Gergen for his take on the press conference, introducing him as someone who has "advised presidents, Republican and Democrat." The analyst played up how President Obama was going to win in the end:
ANDERSON COOPER: What do you think this president's staff is saying to him tonight? What would you say to him tonight after this press conference? During the hour, CNN had their anchors and analysts sit at one table in their studio and their partisan talking heads at another, just as they had done during the presidential debates. But given the way that both Borger and Gergen were reacting (not to leave out two of the others sitting with Borger: Soledad O'Brien, who compared Obama to the Hudson River pilot last month; and senior legal analyst/resident Obama spokesman Jeffrey Toobin), you might have a hard time telling the difference between the two. For more on Soledad O'Brien comparing President Obama to US Airways pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, who saved all the passengers on his plane when it landed in the Hudson River, check the January 17 item by Tim Graham on NewsBusters.org, "CNN's Soledad O'Brien Suggests Obama's a Hero Like the Hudson River Pilot," at: newsbusters.org For more on Jeffrey Toobin's defense of Barack Obama during the presidential campaign, see the September 18 CyberAlert item, "Roland Martin & Jeffrey Toobin: CNN's Resident Obama Spokesmen," at: www.mrc.org
Speaking to Nightline anchor Terry Moran, the This Week host enthused: "Well, I think he got an A on this, Terry...He had the long answers, five-minute mini-essays or speeches all about the economy, able to explain from his perspective how bad the situation is, how we got into this mess and how his stimulus package will fix it." On the subject of reaching out to Republicans, Stephanopoulos asserted, "I think on that you give him a B." After allowing that the President hasn't been able to obtain GOP support for the stimulus bill, he spun, "He was able to make his points tonight, how, basically, that isn't his fault. That's what he was trying to say tonight. He has reached out, he hasn't had a response from the Republican side." [This item, by the MRC's Scott Whitlock, was posted Tuesday afternoon on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] The only grade that failed to elicit a top score was when Moran queried how Obama has done overall. Stephanopoulos responded, "You know, it's just impossible to give a grade on that in first four weeks, Terry. I think you have to give him an incomplete." As noted in an October 16 CyberAlert, Stephanopoulos repeatedly appeared on ABC's post-debate coverage during the fall and declared Obama the winner every single time. If one were to include the vice presidential debate, where he announced Joe Biden the victor, it was a four-for-four sweep by the Democratic ticket. See: www.mrc.org Host Moran also gushed over Obama during a previous Nightline segment. Regarding a question the President received on baseball player Alex Rodriguez and steroids, the anchor enthused, "But this President offered a glimpse of the values he brings to the tasks in an answer to a question about the revelation that baseball star Alex Rodriguez used steroids." Moran then played a clip of Obama's answer. In contrast, during a World News Tonight segment on January 21, 2004, in response to then-President Bush's condemnation of steroid use in baseball (in his State of the Union address), Moran derided the speech as "marked by relatively minor but politically appealing initiatives: $23 million for drug testing in schools, $135 million for abstinence education, $300 million for post-release assistance to ex-convicts and a call to end steroid use in pro sports, which cost nothing ." See a January 22, 2004 CyberAlert posting for more: www.mediaresearch.org However, Moran should be given credit for at least playing a clip on Monday night of a woman at an Obama event challenging the President over the tax problems that a number of his cabinet nominees have had. To read the MRC's new "Profiles in Bias" section on Stephanopoulos: www.mrc.org Partial transcripts of the February 10 segments follow:
TERRY MORAN: Tonight in the east room, the questions were, for the most part, more respectful and several focused on Washington and the partisan sniping and division that already marks this presidency. ....
TERRY MORAN: So how did the president do in his primetime debut? George Stephanopoulos, host of "This Week" and our Chief Washington Correspondent is here for the "Nightline" report card. With his take on President Obama.. So, George, first, let's take a look at the sale. This is what he wanted to do, sell the stimulus package. How'd he do?
[This item, by the MRC's Kyle Drennen, was posted Tuesday morning on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] Following Plante's report, co-host Harry Smith interviewed White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. Smith did not ask anything that made much news, but did present some challenge: "Watched the president's press conference last night. It was very interesting. Part of the tone was, '€˜it's our way or the highway.' Does the president really believe that the Republicans' objections are merely obstructionist?" After Smith spoke to Gibbs, correspondent Michelle Gielan did a brief report on other uses of the the nearly $1 trillion price tag of the bill: "A $1 trillion economic recovery plan would represent 7% of the U.S. economy. $1 trillion is also more than double the size of the largest U.S. budget deficit in history, $455 billion recorded in fiscal 2008...With $1 trillion, one could build more than 1,200 Yankee Stadiums or 25 for each of the 50 U.S. states. And finally, a stack of 1,000 dollar bills totaling $1 trillion would be more than 67 miles high." Here is the full transcript of the February 10 segment:
7:00AM TEASE:
7:01AM SEGMENT:
This would undoubtedly be a huge story if the White House were still in Republican hands and it was the GOP that was attempting to take over the Census. As the Wall Street Journal's John Fund reported on Tuesday: "'There's only one reason to have that high level of White House involvement,' a career professional at the Census Bureau tells me. 'And it's called politics, not science.'" [This item, by the MRC's Rich Noyes, was posted Tuesday morning on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] Blogging at U.S. News & World Report on Monday, Michael Barone -- who knows more about the nuts and bolts of U.S. politics than practically anybody -- suggested the move could even be ruled unconstitutional: "Here's an argument that it's unconstitutional for the President to take over the Census from the secretary of commerce. It goes like this: Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution provides for an 'actual enumeration' and a statute passed by Congress provides that the duties under this clause are to be performed by the secretary of commerce. Article I (as Joseph Biden didn't know in debate) is about the legislative, not the executive branch. Hence, it is argued, the president can't substitute a sampling for the enumeration required to be done by the secretary." See: www.usnews.com
But at Monday night's presidential news conference, there were zero questions about the Census, or about the tax troubles of multiple Obama cabinet nominees -- although a Washington Post reporter did ask the President about the reported steroid use of baseball player Alex Rodriguez. The New York Times has been silent on the White House's intrusion into the Census process, but did gripe in a Thursday editorial that Obama was somehow jeopardizing the count by putting Gregg in charge: In the run-up to the 2000 Census, the Democratic (Clinton) White House tried to push for statistical sampling as a way to create a supposedly more accurate count. In 1999, the Supreme Court ruled that for the purposes of drawing of congressional district boundaries, the Constitution required an actual enumeration of citizens, not an extrapolation based on statistics. Last week's move suggests the Obama White House is attempting to re-fight the same battle, perhaps believing (as the New York Times seems to believe) that liberals will benefit politically if the Census moves away from the traditional decennial head count. In his Wall Street Journal column, Fund reviewed some of the issues raised ten years ago: Starting in 2000, the Census Bureau conducted three years of studies with the help of many outside statistical experts. According to then Census director Louis Kincannon, the Bureau concluded that "adjustment based on sampling didn't produce improved figures" and could damage Census credibility. The reason? In theory, statisticians can identify general numbers of people missed in a head count. But it cannot then place those abstract "missing people" into specific neighborhoods, let alone blocks. And anyone could go door to door and find out such people don't exist. There can be other anomalies. "The adjusted numbers told us the head count had overcounted the number of Indians on reservations," Mr. Kincannon told me. "That made no sense." The problem of counting minorities and the homeless has long been known. Census Bureau statisticians believe that a vigorous hard count, supplemented by adding in the names of actual people missed by head counters but still found in public records, is likely to lead to a far more defensible count than sampling-based adjustment. The larger debate prompted seven former Census directors -- serving every president from Nixon to George W. Bush -- to sign a letter last year supporting a bill to turn the Census Bureau into an independent agency after the 2010 Census. "It is vitally important that the American public have confidence that the census results have been produced by an independent, non-partisan, apolitical, and scientific Census Bureau," it read. END of Excerpt For Fund's piece: online.wsj.com So will the networks get around to holding the Obama White House accountable to the Constitution and the requirements of a fair, non-political Census next year? It's safe to guess they would be all over the story if George W. Bush and Karl Rove were still in the White House.
Golodryga neglected important information, such as the fact that NACA has picketed outside the schools of children whose parents work for banks that are not acquiescing to the group's demands, which include insisting that mortgages be given to high risk individuals. In an April 2, 2008 column, Michelle Malkin quoted Marks as saying, "We will go to their neighborhood, we will educate their children on what their parents do. They should be ashamed." A December 2007 article by the Boston Globe (featured on NACA's web site) unabashedly touted Marks as "a controversial character who once infamously called himself a 'bank terrorist.'" See NACA: https://www.naca.com/press/globe20071230.jsp [This item, by the MRC's Scott Whitlock, was posted Tuesday afternoon on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] Golodryga ignored this when she talked to the CEO. Instead, she highlighted non-confrontational quotes such as this one from Marks: "The thing that is so important is to say to the American people, don't give up. There's help on the way." The ABC financial correspondent did admit, "The group is also protesting the banks they feel are not helping struggling homeowners refinance their mortgages," while video of such a protest appeared onscreen. However, she grossly minimized the radical nature of NACA. In the aforementioned Malkin article, the conservative columnist described the extreme steps taken by Marks and his group: As The Globe reported in its cover feature on Marks, there's no line of decency this housing shakedown artist won't cross. Welcome to the subprime politics of personal destruction: "Marks and his yellow-T-shirted followers have swarmed shareholders' meetings with enough force to shut them down. They have picketed outside the schools attended by the children of bank CEOs, pressing the youngsters in signs and chants to answer for the actions of their daddies." And they even once distributed scandal sheets to every house in one CEO's neighborhood, detailing the affair he was allegedly having with a subordinate. In time, that CEO, like most of the others that NACA targeted, sat down with Marks and signed a deal. For more, see the April 2, 2008 New York Post: www.nypost.com Of course, Golodryga has a long history of pushing left-wing economics in her reporting for GMA. For instance, on November 15, 2007, she touted "Robin Hood" investor Warren Buffett and praised him for lobbying "on behalf of fairness in taxes." See a November 16, 2007 CyberAlert posting for more: www.mrc.org A transcript of the segment, which aired at 7:05am on February 10, follows:
DIANE SAWYER: And we're going to turn now to the front lines of American housing. This morning, we try to give you perspective. Three million families are on the brink of foreclosure right now and in the next four years the fear, of course, the number could balloon to ten million. Well, today the Obama administration is expected to announce that $50 billion mortgage relief plan. But we wanted to know more about whether and how it would help a typical family like the Grays of Queens, New York. They shared their anguish with financial correspondent Bianna Golodryga.
It will take place on Thursday evening, March 19th, at the Grand Hyatt Washington. The MRC gala is one of the most fun events of the year. Rush Limbaugh called it "a terrific show...a great, great, great assemblage of people....Everybody just had a blast!" The DisHonors Awards winners will be announced "Oscar-style," with videos played of each nominated hilariously-biased quote followed by surprise guests on hand to accept each award in jest on behalf of a media figure. Cal Thomas will serve as Master of Ceremonies with awards presented by Ann Coulter, Joe Scarborough and Ken Cribb. And, as always, we'll have a fantastic cast of conservatives joining us to roast of the liberal media. "Joe the Plumber" and Andrew Breitbart are amongst the many who have already confirmed. DisHonors Awards categories: "The Media's Messiah Award," "The Obamagasm Award" "Half-Baked Alaska Award for Pummeling Palin" and the "Dan Rather Memorial Award for the Stupidest Analysis." Plus, there'll be lots of funny video clips as we mock the media's infatuation with Barack Obama. It's sure to be an entertaining evening. Tickets for the Gala are $250 per person. If you are interested in joining us or for more information, e-mail Sara Bell at: sbell@mediaresearch.org Or call, 9 to 5:30 PM EST weekdays: (800) 672-1423. We have limited space and this event fills up quickly, so please make your reservation soon. The MRC has a reduced rate for the Grand Hyatt Washington, but the deadline to reserve your room is February 18. To book your room, please call the hotel at (800) 233-1234. We hope you can join us! Online page with information: www.mediaresearch.org For a look at all the fun at last year's event, with videos: www.mediaresearch.org DisHonors/Galas from earlier years: www.mediaresearch.org -- Brent Baker
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"You can see it in the crowds. The thrill, the hope. How they surge toward him. You're looking at an American political phenomenon....He inspires the party faithful and many others, like no one else on the scene today....And the question you can sense on everyone's mind, as they listen so intently to him, is he the one? Is Barack Obama the man, the black man, who could lead the Democrats back to the White House and maybe even unite the country?...Everywhere he goes, people want him to run for President, especially in Iowa, cradle of presidential contenders. Around here, they're even naming babies after him." -- ABC Nightline co-anchor Terry Moran, Nov. 6, 2006. 
TERRY MORAN: Mr. President, you got no honeymoon. Not a single Republican vote in the House on your first major piece of legislation. 
Time magazine clearly dispensed with "news" reporting last week. Michael Grunwald started his article, "How to Spend the Stimulus," with this sentence: "It's hard to take Republican leaders too seriously when they criticize the recovery plans for the economy; it's sort of like those geese criticizing the evacuation plans for US Airways Flight 1549." That would be the geese that were ground into the jet engines of the airliner that crash-landed in the Hudson River. 
CNN's two senior political analysts, Gloria Borger and David Gergen, reacted favorably to President Barack Obama's performance at his first press conference on Monday night. Borger highlighted how the Democrat apparently "came across as real pragmatist." Later, Gergen stated that it was a "classic and shrewd exercise of presidential power." 
DAVID GERGEN: Well done, pour it on -- Anderson, I thought it was a classic and shrewd exercise of presidential power. Only the president has the bully pulpit, and tonight, at a critical moment in his presidency, he seized that bully pulpit, dramatized the economy for the country, took his case to the people, and I think put pressure on Congress to get it passed. And I think it's going to work and work in the way that the White House has clearly set this up. He goes to Elkhart [Indiana]; he brings Elkhart into the conversation [unintelligible] repeatedly in order to personalize it. But he -- by setting this up as a big test of power, in the next few days, he's going to win. He's going to get a bill through the Congress. One way or the other -- he may not have many Republicans, but he's going to get a bill. I think we all know that, and about a week to ten days from now, there's -- everybody in Washington is going to be talking about a major presidential victory, which he helped to set up with this press conference tonight. And people -- it's going to enhance his power to deal with these tough economic days ahead. So I thought it was a good way to go on offense, and also I think it was a way to enhance his own power, so he can get other things done well beyond this stimulus package. 
George Stephanopoulos appeared on Monday's Nightline to offer high grades for Barack Obama's first primetime press conference. He awarded the President an A for overall performance at the event and a B for Obama's bipartisan efforts. During the presidential campaign, Stephanopoulos was consistent in giving high marks to the then-Democratic candidate, announcing that Obama won all his debates against Republican John McCain and that Joe Biden bested Sarah Palin. 
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, I think he got an A on this, Terry. The President was able to spend most of an hour talking to most of the country, mostly about the economy. He had the long answers, five-minute mini-essays or speeches all about the economy, able to explain from his perspective how bad the situation is, how we got into this mess and how his stimulus package will fix it. So I think from that perspective he was able to really get his message across tonight and of course, that bully pulpit he has tonight is something his opponents just can't match. 
On Tuesday's CBS Early Show, co-host Julie Chen took an unusually critical tone toward President Obama's first press conference on Monday night: "President Obama takes to prime time to pitch his nearly trillion-dollar rescue plan...But does the president have his facts straight? And what does a trillion dollars really buy you? We'll tell you." In a later report on the press conference correspondent Bill Plante challenged some of the president's assertions, including: "Most economists, almost unanimously, recognize government is an important element of introducing some additional demand into the economy." Plante countered: "In fact, several hundred economists argued for more tax cuts, rather than more spending." Plante also questioned Obama's denial of any earmarks in the so-called "stimulus" bill: "Even so, the bill does call for some specifics that sound a lot like earmarks. $2 billion for a clean coal power plant. $2 billion for hybrid car batteries. $255 million for a Coast Guard icebreaker." 
The Obama administration's decision to have the White House supervise the 2010 Census -- a response to left-wing complaints that the Census was too important to leave under the authority of Republican Judd Gregg, the nominee for Commerce Secretary -- has thus (as of Tuesday morning) far drawn absolutely no attention from the three broadcast networks, with not a single mention on the ABC, CBS or NBC morning or evening newscasts. 
On Tuesday's Good Morning America, financial correspondent Bianna Golodryga promoted the efforts of a radical housing group run by CEO Bruce Marks, a self proclaimed "bank terrorist." Of course, Golodryga skipped that description and glossed over the extreme actions of the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America [NACA]. Instead, she simply asserted that the organization tries "to help keep people in their homes." 
BRUCE MARKS (CEO, Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America): We determined their net income and what their expenses are and to come out with a mortgage payment that you can afford and then we restructure that loan to make it affordable forever. 
Every year, we sell out. So don't procrastinate. One of the biggest and best conservative events -- the Media Research Center's annual gala -- is fast approaching. Join us for this year's gala featuring the "DisHonors Awards for the Worst Reporting of the Year" and the annual "William F. Buckley Award for Media Excellence," this year to be presented to Brit Hume. 
