Making It Up to Obama? ABC Touts: 'Bandwagon' of Endorsements' --4/21/2008

1. Making It Up to Obama? ABC Touts: 'Bandwagon' of Endorsements
A day after Barack Obama and many of his liberal media compatriots complained about ABC's Wednesday debate questioners daring to ask him about William Ayers, Jeremiah Wright and not wearing a flag pin, Friday's World News featured a story championing Obama's "bandwagon" momentum with his campaign "firing on all cylinders." Anchor Charles Gibson teased, "Obama Bandwagon: The candidate picks up three big name endorsements, including the backing of a long-time Clinton friend." Neither CBS or NBC were so excited over the endorsements. ABC reporter David Wright, whose Thursday evening story was dominated by criticism of ABC's debate topics, trumpeted: "Despite all the focus on bitterness this week and the debate, the Obama campaign seems to be firing on all cylinders, gaining in the national polls, today gaining these endorsements..." Wright touted how Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich "was one of three elder statesmen to endorse Obama today, along with former Senators Sam Nunn and David Boren, both conservative Democrats with strong defense and foreign policy credentials." With Nunn's words on screen, Wright heralded: "Today Nunn said: 'I believe Senator Obama has a rare ability to restore America's credibility and moral authority and to get others to join us in tackling serious global problems.'"

2. ABC's GMA, Brought to You by Honda, Says Don't Buy Stuff
Left wing environmentalist Sam Champion continued to push his eco-agenda on Friday's edition of Good Morning America. The liberal weatherman enlisted the help of IdealBite.com, a Web page devoted to "green living." One of the site's founders, Heather Stephenson, lectured a family interested in going green about the evils of buying new toys for their children. She explained, "'Cause the best thing that you can do for the environment, actually, is not buy more stuff." The goal was to help the couple "get their green on." And while some of the suggestions were sensible, others sounded rather socialist. After encouraging a neighborhood "toy swap" as an alternative to new toys, the other founder of Ideal Bite, Jennifer Boulden, touted old jewelry. "And that's the best thing you do, in terms of eco, is not have to buy new. People don't think about the fact that when they're wearing new jewelry, it is from the Earth. It has to be mined," she hectored. Isn't this more than a little hypocritical on the part of GMA? After the segment ended, commercials appeared advertising a new Disney movie, Amtrak, the newest cars from Hyundai and Honda.

3. NBC Highlights Concealed Carry Movement at College Campuses
Friday's NBC Nightly News took a balanced look at the issue of whether colleges would be safer if students were allowed greater freedom to carry concealed weapons on campus. Though the report failed to delve into any supporting statistics, soundbites were featured from advocates on both sides of the issue, including Mike Guzman of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus: "This is where we see mass shootings occur, at gun-free zones, because these criminals have a government guarantee or a university guarantee that their intended victims will be unarmed and unable to defend themselves."

4. Late Show's 'Top Ten Signs Katie Couric Doesn't Care Anymore'
Last week's Late Show "Top Ten Contest" winners for the "Top Ten Signs Katie Couric Doesn't Care Anymore."

Making It Up to Obama? ABC Touts: 'Bandwagon'
of Endorsements

A day after Barack Obama and many of his liberal media compatriots complained about ABC's Wednesday debate questioners daring to ask him about William Ayers, Jeremiah Wright and not wearing a flag pin, Friday's World News featured a story championing Obama's "bandwagon" momentum with his campaign "firing on all cylinders." Anchor Charles Gibson teased, "Obama Bandwagon: The candidate picks up three big name endorsements, including the backing of a long-time Clinton friend." Neither CBS or NBC were so excited over the endorsements.

ABC reporter David Wright, whose Thursday evening story was dominated by criticism of ABC's debate topics, trumpeted: "Despite all the focus on bitterness this week and the debate, the Obama campaign seems to be firing on all cylinders, gaining in the national polls, today gaining these endorsements..." Wright touted how Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich "was one of three elder statesmen to endorse Obama today, along with former Senators Sam Nunn and David Boren, both conservative Democrats with strong defense and foreign policy credentials." With Nunn's words on screen, Wright heralded: "Today Nunn said: 'I believe Senator Obama has a rare ability to restore America's credibility and moral authority and to get others to join us in tackling serious global problems.'"

Gibson described the three endorsers as "influential." Super-delegates may know them, but I wonder how many Democratic voters in the remaining states have ever head of any of them?

Friday's CBS Evening News limited coverage of the endorsements to this one sentence in Jim Axelrod's story, "Today Obama picked up the endorsement of two former Democratic Senators: Sam Nunn from Georgia, David Boren from Oklahoma, both moderates."

(So Nunn and Boren are "moderates" to CBS News, but "conservative Democrats" to ABC News.)

Over on the NBC Nightly News, Lee Cowan didn't mention Nunn or Boren and only gave a clause to Reich's endorsement of Obama.

[This item, by the MRC's Brent Baker, was posted Friday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

The Friday CyberAlert item, "Obama and Liberals Whine: ABC Contrite and CBS Shares His Pain," recounted ABC's Thursday night approach:

...ABC hardly stood by Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos. David Wright cited "a grueling round of questions focused on issues such as Obama's patriotism, and his more controversial friends" -- though Wright only highlighted Jeremiah Wright and ignored William Ayers. After a clip of Obama complaining about how it was "45 minutes before we heard about health care. 45 minutes before we heard about Iraq. 45 minutes before we heard about jobs," Wright ran four comments, three of the four critical of ABC: "Today, in Philadelphia's Redding market, we met plenty of others who shared those views." A man declared: "I felt they wasted a whole hour, a good hour, talking about nothing." Wright then read this e-mail: "This so-called debate will be shown to my communications students as an example of what shoddy journalism looks like."

Wright concluded by helpfully promoting a far-left publicity effort: "There's now an organized campaign by the liberal group MoveOn and others to send a message to ABC." A message ABC News and Wright himself delivered by framing an entire story around their agenda....

For the full previous CyberAlert article with a look at CBS too: www.mediaresearch.org

A transcript of the story on the Friday, April 18 World News on ABC:

CHARLES GIBSON: Next, turn to presidential politics, and new support today for Barack Obama. He picked up the endorsements of influential former Senators Sam Nunn and David Boren, as well as Robert Reich, Labor Secretary under Bill Clinton and a long-time Clinton friend. The Obama campaign is doing everything it can to signal momentum for its candidate. ABC's David Wright tonight is in Philadelphia again. David, good evening.

DAVID WRIGHT: Good evening, Charlie. Despite all the focus on bitterness this week and the debate, the Obama campaign seems to be firing on all cylinders, gaining in the national polls, today gaining these endorsements, just as the national party leadership is again signaling their wish to wrap this up. Today, Obama toured a steel plant in Erie, stopped off across the street at a brewery. Hillary Clinton started her final push in Radnor, accusing Obama of whining about the debate.
HILLARY CLINTON: I'm with Harry Truman on this: If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. I am very comfortable in the kitchen.
WRIGHT: But today the negative tone of her campaign, especially the attack ads she started this week, cost her the support of an old friend. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich has known the Clintons for 40 years.
ROBERT REICH: The economy going down the tubes, Iraq a mess. I mean, to distract the attention of the public and do that kind of old politics as usual, frankly, I just went over the top. I just couldn't be silent anymore.
WRIGHT: Reich was one of three elder statesmen to endorse Obama today, along with former Senators Sam Nunn and David Boren, both conservative Democrats with strong defense and foreign policy credentials. Both were short-listed to be Bill Clinton's Defense Secretary. Today Nunn said [text on screen]: "I believe Senator Obama has a rare ability to restore America's credibility and moral authority and to get others to join us in tackling serious global problems."

TAD DEVINE, POLITICAL STRATEGIST: I think what the party leadership right now is looking for closure. I think they want this process to come to a peaceful end.
WRIGHT: Last night the Democratic Party Chairman practically pleaded on CNN for super-delegates to make up their minds.
HOWARD DEAN, CHAIRMAN, DNC: We can not give up two or three months of active campaigning and healing time. We've got to know who our nominee is.
WRIGHT: Clinton has 23 more super-delegates than Obama, but since February 5th, she's had a net loss of two. During the same period, Obama has gained 77.
DEVINE: I think the results of the Pennsylvania primary will have a huge impact on the decisions that super-delegates make.
WRIGHT: Today, Hillary Clinton picked up three super-delegates, including two former governors of New Jersey. And for both of these campaigns, the timing of these endorsements is important -- coming just before the Pennsylvania primary -- because it does give that appearance of momentum. Charlie?
GIBSON: David Wright, reporting from Philadelphia tonight.

ABC's GMA, Brought to You by Honda, Says
Don't Buy Stuff

Left wing environmentalist Sam Champion continued to push his eco-agenda on Friday's edition of Good Morning America. The liberal weatherman enlisted the help of IdealBite.com, a Web page devoted to "green living." One of the site's founders, Heather Stephenson, lectured a family interested in going green about the evils of buying new toys for their children. She explained, "'Cause the best thing that you can do for the environment, actually, is not buy more stuff."

The goal was to help the couple "get their green on." And while some of the suggestions were sensible, others sounded rather socialist. After encouraging a neighborhood "toy swap" as an alternative to new toys, the other founder of Ideal Bite, Jennifer Boulden, touted old jewelry. "And that's the best thing you do, in terms of eco, is not have to buy new. People don't think about the fact that when they're wearing new jewelry, it is from the Earth. It has to be mined," she hectored. Isn't this more than a little hypocritical on the part of GMA? After the segment ended, commercials appeared advertising a new Disney movie, Amtrak, the newest cars from Hyundai and Honda. Wouldn't it be best to watch an old Disney movie and not encourage the making of new ones? Shouldn't eco-Americans simply buy used cars and not patronize Honda and Hyundai?

[This item, by the MRC's Scott Whitlock, was posted Friday afternoon on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

In more activist news, Elle magazine has awarded the aforementioned Mr. Champion an "eco-illuminator" award in its new issue. The publication openly phrased the meteorologist for inserting an agenda into his weather reports:

SAM CHAMPION

Weathering Heights

One of the strangest disconnects over the past several years has been that TV meteorologists have been talking about the unseasonably warm winters, early springs, heat waves, and other erratic weather'€"yet, until recently, they never mentioned the words global warming or climate change. Champion changed that: On one of his first assignments as weather anchor for Good Morning America, in late 2006, he traveled to Iceland and witnessed firsthand the melting ice cap. Since then, he's been saying the forbidden words loud, and saying them proud, to a mass-market audience. "I have the perfect venue," says Champion, who does one green segment a week. "People want to hear about it, and they want to talk about it."

See: Elle www.elle.com

To show you what kind of company Champion is in, the magazine also gave an award to this summer's Democratic National Convention, to be held in Denver. "...They'll be in for the greenest Democratic National Convention in history," Elle applauded. Finally, the magazine also congratulated the work of No Impact Man, Colin Beavan. NewsBusters readers may know him as the radical environmentalist who is giving up, not just electricity, but also toilet paper. To bring it full circle, Champion has twice promoted Beavan on GMA. As Earth Day appoaches, viewers can expect more environmental lecturing from Champion. One question though, are the expensive suits he wears second hand? Does Champion know how much energy is wasted to make new ones? See a June 26, 2007 CyberAlert posting for more on Beavan: www.mrc.org

A transcript of the segment, which aired at 8:41am on April 18, follows:

SAM CHAMPION: We are counting down to Earth Day right here on the old GMA show. Showing you know how to live greener. And this morning, we're focusing on the little changes that can make a big impact on the planet. Now, we've enlisted the help of our friends at the environmental website IdealBite.com who are giving one family a green make-over, you could call it. But it's something that we can all learn from. Planet Earth, it's home to over six billion people. And we share the planet with wildlife and plant life. So, how do we take care of our most precious resources? Our loved ones. Well, maybe one step at a time.
HEATHER STEPHENSON: Hi, I'm Heather.
JENNIFER BOULDEN: And I'm Jen from IdealBite.com.
CHAMPION: Three years ago, Heather Stephenson and Jennifer Boulden co-founded IdealBite.com, a website dedicated to helping make our lives a little bit greener through simpler and practical bite-sized tips. They believe that even the small steps can make a big difference. o, we asked our ideal ladies if they could teach one family how to get their green on.
[Knocks on door of home. Rest of segment is Boulden and Stephenson touring the home and making suggestions.]
CHAMPION: Michelle and Scott McCuen (PH) have two very important reasons for wanting a more eco-friendly life style. Four and a half year-old Mason and two and a half year-old Maddix.
SCOTT MCCUEN: We have two kids now and we just want to teach them early how to help the Earth and, you know, teach them about green and start them young.
STEPHENSON: Yeah. Great. That sounds great. Let's get started. The more we can look for toys that don't incorporate plastic in it, the better. These are wooden-based toys, painted with environmentally friendly paint. And what's really great about these toys, you know, obviously they're going to grow out of them. You know, he's going to grow up. They're going to grow out of them. They're going to want other things. So, find a group of people and do a toy swap. 'Cause the best thing that you can do for the environment, actually, is not buy more stuff.
BOULDEN: Let's go through the morning ritual. All right? You're getting ready and reach for your shampoo. Who would have thought that there's actually eco-shampoos out there? There's also organic beauty products available. Same with your makeup. Here is a new idea. It's basically your brushes that are often used plastic for the bristles and raw materials. These are made out of bamboo, and recycled aluminum and then synthetic bristles as opposed to animal bristles or ones again that are petroleum based. And, lastly, you might be putting on your jewelry when we're getting ready.
MICHELLE MCCUEN: Okay. Yes.
BOULDEN: And these type of items actually come from, like, vintage. And that's the best thing you do, in terms of eco, is not have to buy new. People don't think about the fact that when they're wearing new jewelry, it is from the Earth. It has to be mined. A lot of energy goes into that. A lot of chemicals are used in the mining process.
STEPHENSON: Here in your home office, we usually like to think about two different ways that you can get a lot more green in your day-to-day life. The first is dealing with paper. Print two sided. You can set your printers settings so that you print double sided. Everyone gets way too much junk mail. The average person, this is not going to surprise you, gets 11 pieces of junk mail a week. If everyone in the United States actually went online and signed up to have their junk mail reduced, we'd save 11,000 trees. Really, look at the energy use of your appliances. Something that most people don't know, is that their appliances are actually using energy even when you're not using them. So, perfect example, you guys have this cell phone charger plugged in here. All right. 90 percent of the energy that this cell phone charger uses is just evaporating into the air while it's sitting here not plugged into the phone and not charging the phone. Most the people don't want to be pulling plugs though into and out of the wall. So, what you guys have already done, which is great, is you have a power strip that has one of those on/off switches, so when you're not here in your home office, all you have to do is just switch off that switch. It's not only going to help the environment, but it's also going to lower your electricity bills for your home.
SCOTT MCCUEN: Great. Sounds good.
STEPHENSON: It's good stuff.

NBC Highlights Concealed Carry Movement
at College Campuses

Friday's NBC Nightly News took a balanced look at the issue of whether colleges would be safer if students were allowed greater freedom to carry concealed weapons on campus. Though the report failed to delve into any supporting statistics, soundbites were featured from advocates on both sides of the issue, including Mike Guzman of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus: "This is where we see mass shootings occur, at gun-free zones, because these criminals have a government guarantee or a university guarantee that their intended victims will be unarmed and unable to defend themselves."

After the clip of Guzman, correspondent Janet Shamlian introduced a clip from Lori Haas, the mother of a school shooting victim, who "believes armed and well-intentioned students would be no match for a gunman like the one who shot her daughter." Haas: "He had two guns, he had the element of surprise. The fear that grips you when you're worried about your life is paralyzing."

[This item, by the MRC's Brad Wilmouth, was posted Sunday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

Below is a complete transcript of the story from the Friday, April 18 NBC Nightly News:

BRIAN WILLIAMS: NBC News "In Depth" tonight, guns on campus. As we reported earlier this week, Virginia Tech has just marked the one-year anniversary of that massacre on campus. That has opened a new debate over whether students should be able to carry weapons legally. Our report from NBC's Janet Shamlian.

JANET SHAMLIAN: There's no college credit for this class, unless you consider the concealed handgun license students like Lauren Nogle could earn when they pass.
LAUREN NOGLE, TEXAS STATE UNIVERSITY STUDENT: In today's world, it's sad to say, but you need to have a gun for self-protection, even in school.
SHAMLIAN: And yet her school, Texas State University, like most, doesn't allow guns on campus, even with a license.
MIKE GUZMAN, STUDENTS FOR CONCEALED CARRY ON CAMPUS: This is where we see mass shootings occur, at gun-free zones, because these criminals have a government guarantee or a university guarantee that their intended victims will be unarmed and unable to defend themselves.
SHAMLIAN: Mike Guzman is part of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, an Internet-based group created after the deadly shootings at Virginia Tech. They claim more than 25,000 members, and they have one goal: for owners to be able to carry their weapons concealed from the dorm to the lecture hall and everywhere else on campus.
LORI HAAS, MOTHER OF VIRGINIA TECH SHOOTING VICTIM: Absolutely not. Unequivocally no.
SHAMLIAN: Lori Haas believes armed and well-intentioned students would be no match for a gunman like the one who shot her daughter, Emily, at Virginia Tech. Emily survived.
HAAS: He had two guns, he had the element of surprise. The fear that grips you when you're worried about your life is paralyzing.
SHAMLIAN: A year after the massacre, Virginia Tech now has one of the largest groups of the guns on campus movement. Only Utah allows permit holders to carry guns on all public university campuses, though eight states have legislation pending. One year later, 32 stones line a footpath at Virginia Tech, each marking a life lost, amidst a growing debate over whether allowing guns on campus might prevent further tragedy or cause more pain. Janet Shamlian, NBC News, Blacksburg, Virginia.

Late Show's 'Top Ten Signs Katie Couric
Doesn't Care Anymore'

From the Late Show with David Letterman Web site, the winning entries posted Saturday in last week's "Top Ten Contest," the "Top Ten Signs Katie Couric Doesn't Care Anymore." Late Show home page: www.cbs.com

10. She now does the broadcast in her bathrobe and curlers (Michael D, Hollywood, CA)

9. She introduces the new members of her news team: Jim Beam and Jack Daniels (David B, Azle, TX)

8. Reports the over/under on how many days she has left (John R, Roanoke, VA)

7. Has listed her anchor chair on eBay (James C, Wyanet, IL)

6. Was eating a hamburger off the floor during live broadcast of the Pope's arrival (Dacia N, Cranston, RI)

5. Laughs out loud every time she says "Putin" (Ron S, Sebring, FL)

4. Asks every guest, "Do you know what the hell is happening on 'Lost'?" (Gareth S, Dublin, Ireland)

3. "Tonight's top story: Some stuff I found in my pocket" (David R, Austin, TX)

2. Tapes entire week's newscasts on Monday (David N, Sachse, TX)

1. Just repeats everything Brian Williams says about three seconds later (Randy J, King, NC)

This week's contest topic: "Top Ten Things Overheard During the Pope's Visit to America." To submit an entry: www.cbs.com

# Have a great Patriots Day.

-- Brent Baker