CyberAlert -- 04/04/2002 -- Bye-Bye Bryant: Gumbel Announced His Departure from The Early Show

Bye-Bye Bryant: Gumbel Announced His Departure from The Early Show; Highlights of Gumbel's History of Liberal Bias -- Back to today's CyberAlert

1) CBS has announced that Early Show co-host Bryant Gumbel will be leaving the show still mired in third place two-and-a-half years after he was brought in to revive it. No date has been set for his final broadcast.

2) Gumbel's record of liberal advocacy and of denigrating conservatives, with links to the best examples from the MRC's archives.

1

In an announcement posted at noon EST today on the Early Show Web page, CBS stated:
"Bryant Gumbel is leaving The Early Show after anchoring the CBS morning broadcast for two and a half years.
"Gumbel says it's time for him to move on and do something else. He didn't say what he'll be doing.
"CBS hoped Gumbel would help The Early Show get out of third place in the ratings. Gumbel says while he's "naturally disappointed" that the show didn't do better in the ratings, he's 'pleased with the quality' of the program."

The statement also noted: "Gumbel will work with his bosses to set a date for his final broadcast."

Gumbel, who in 1997 signed a five-year deal with CBS for $5 million annually, remains the host of HBO's monthly Real Sports.

For the entire announcement:
http://www.cbsnews.com/earlyshow/entertainment/celebspot/20020404gumbel.shtml

For the AP story by David Bauder:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=529&ncid=529&e=1&u=/ap/20020404
/ap_en_tv/tv_gumbel_quits_5

For the Reuters story:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=579&ncid=762&e=1&u=/nm/20020404
/en_nm/media_gumbel_dc_1

2

Naturally, the CBS statement about Bryant Gumbel deciding to step down from the Early Show now that his five-year deal with CBS is expiring, did not consider the impact his liberal advocacy and denigrating of conservatives had on his inability to attract viewers to CBS after co-hosting the top-rated Today show on NBC for 15 years.

In his statement posted by CBS, see Item #1 above for the link, Gumbel maintained: "While I am naturally disappointed that the show didn't fare better in the ratings, I am pleased with the quality of the broadcast we created."

Gumbel's liberal slant as documented over the years by the MRC. First, the compilations of quotes already collected onto Web pages by the MRC's Liz Swasey, many with RealPlayer video clips. Second, direct links to some of his most obnoxious outbursts or skewed interviewing during his Early Show term since the fall of 1999:

The compilations:

> Gumbel's Morning TV Bias, with video clips of bias up top:
http://www.mediaresearch.org/news/projects/Bryantgumbel.html#Bryant Gumbel on CBS

> Top 10 Gumbel Stumbles: Videos and transcripts of Bryant Gumbel's most biased Today, Public Eye and other on-air moments, 1989-1999:
http://www.mediaresearch.org/news/projects/Bryantgumbel.html#Top 10 Gumbel Stumbles

> Gumbel Anthology: Forty-six of the most bias Gumbel quotes from his on-air performances and interviews, 1989-1999:
http://www.mediaresearch.org/news/projects/Bryantgumbel.html#Gumbel Anthology

> Bryant Gumbel on CBS: Videos and transcripts of Bryant Gumbel's most biased Early Show moments, Nov. 1999 to May of 2001:
http://www.mediaresearch.org/news/projects/Bryantgumbel.html#Bryant Gumbel on CBS

> Direct links to some of his most egregious examples of bias from his days co-hosting The Early Show, many illustrated with RealPlayer video clips, starting with the most recent:

-- March 13, 2002: Prompted by the guilty murder verdict returned against Andrea Yates, CBS's Bryant Gumbel charged: "Texas justice is an oxymoron."
http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2002/cyb20020314.asp#2

-- February 20, 2002: Ashamed of American patriotism. Bryant Gumbel agreed with the sentiment that "they shouldn't be keeping a medal count" by nation since "this is not about nationalistic efforts." http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2002/cyb20020222.asp#1

-- January 30, 2002: When Jordan's King Abdullah refused to denounce the Bush administration for shunning Yasser Arafat and not helping the Palestinians, Gumbel repeatedly pressed him to do so. Plus, Gumbel wanted to know "how big a mistake" would it be for the U.S. to move "aggressively against Iraq?"
http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2002/cyb20020201.asp#4

-- November 30, 2001: Gumbel tried to link President Bush to the collapse of Enron, but the guest wouldn't buy it. "They were George Bush's biggest campaign contributor. Does any of this reflect on the President at all?" The guest replied: "No." Gumbel pleaded: "No way, none, none whatsoever?" http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2001/cyb20011203.asp#5

-- October 4, 2001: When a British columnist was insufficiently anti-Bush and Blair, Gumbel scolded him: "You're soft peddling your words this morning...you've also said, for example, that 'playing the world's policeman is not the answer to the catastrophe, it's what led us into this.' That 'America and Great Britain must draw in its horns and stop propping up favored states.'" http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2001/cyb20011005.asp#3

-- September 4, 2001: Bryant Gumbel still holds some bitterness toward Al Gore. In an interview about Janet Reno's run for Governor of Florida, he asked: "Do you see her running on the many accomplishments of the Clinton administration or actually running from Clinton, a la Al Gore?" http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2001/cyb20010905.asp#4

-- March 23, 2001: 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.
http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2001/cyb20010323.asp#1

-- February 27, 2001: Gumbel questioned Republican Congressman Chris Shays on why Congress would waste its time investigating Clinton's last minute pardons.
http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2001/cyb20010227.asp#4

-- January 19, 2001: Gumbel to Missouri Supreme Court judge Ronnie White: "What do you think Senator Ashcroft's distortion of your record and tarnishing of your good name says about his character?"
http://www.mediaresearch.org/news/nq/2001/best2001/bestofnq2001d.html#Department of Injustice

-- December 12, 2000. Gumbel: "And we can't let Justice Thomas pass on this. There's no opinion of his in here, he doesn't ask questions in court. Does he do anything besides vote and rubber stamp Scalia?"
http://www.mediaresearch.org/news/nq/2001/best2001/bestofnq2001c.html#ConservativeAward

-- August 15, 2000: Interviewing Hugh Hefner, Gumbel worried: "In a macro-political sense, do you think the Gore preoccupation with morality is a frightening turn for the party?"
http://www.mrc.org/Campaign2000/mrc/20000815pm.html#Flap

-- July 12, 2000: 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." http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2000/cyb20000712.asp#6

-- June 30, 2000: 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.
http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2000/cyb20000630_extra.asp#1

-- May 22, 2000: 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.
http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2000/cyb20000522.asp#5

-- May 3, 2000: 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."
http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2000/cyb20000503.asp#7

-- February 21, 2000: To the idea that historians voted Reagan the best President, Bryant Gumbel dropped his pen, "No!"

-- November 1, 1999: Gumbel Denounces MRC ad; Insist That on Political View "I Hold Them in Check" http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/1999/cyb19991101.asp

That's but a fraction of his recent bias. -- Brent Baker

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