New Today Co-Host an Anti-War Protester: "War Built on Lies" --4/6/2006
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On the Monday, August 30, 2004 edition of the ABC daytime show she quad-hosts, The View, the former CBS 60 Minutes reporter told viewers that she attended the anti-Bush protest held in New York City on the Sunday before the Republican convention opened, insisting: "I didn't go anti-Bush or pro-Kerry. I'm still so upset about this war and I'm so proud I live in a country where you can protest." She showed a photo of herself marching with her pre-teen daughter and her husband, Richard, who was the senior political producer at CBS News for most of the 1980s. Behind her in the photo: A protest sign featuring a "W," for George W. Bush, with a slash through it.
[This item was posted, with two 2004 video clips, Wednesday afternoon on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org. The video and audio clips will be added to the posting of this CyberAlert item, but in the meantime you can watch or listen by going to: newsbusters.org ] [UPDATE, 11:40am EDT Thursday, April 6: On today's The View Vieira, who also hosts the syndicated Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? game show, made it official, confirming her agreement with NBC to co-host Today.] Below are excerpts from past MRC CyberAlert items from which the quotes above were drawn: # Monday August 30, 2004 CyberAlert, PM edition: Meredith Vieira Marched in NYC Protests Against Iraq War Meredith Vieira, the former CBS 60 Minutes reporter and current co-host of ABC's The View, announced to viewers Monday that she attended the Sunday anti-Bush protest in New York, insisting: "I didn't go anti-Bush or pro-Kerry. I'm still so upset about this war and I'm so proud I live in a country where you can protest." Barbara Walters added that the current focus on Vietnam and John Kerry "doesn't make any sense." After a discussion about co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck's upcoming Tuesday night speech at the Republican National Committee on fighting breast cancer, Vieira proclaimed: "I don't know if you saw the cover of the New York Post, but I believe this is me right here on the cover [which had a picture of hundreds of people]. I went to that demonstration yesterday, not because I'm, you know what, I didn't go anti-Bush or pro-Kerry, I'm still so upset about this war and I'm so proud I live in a country where you can protest and it was really [applause]....I went with my daughter, Lily, and my husband, Richard. My sons didn't want to protest. They chose to not go, or even just experience it. I wish they had because it was peaceful, the New York City police department, phenomenal. They did such a wonderful job. They had 40,000 of them out there and the people that demonstrated I would say, by and large, there were a few probably, I didn't see anybody that was out of hand at all." Star Jones: "Aren't you impressed that your kids made choices? You know, one son decided ideologically he just disagreed with you, and he didn't want to be there so that nobody could misinterpret his presence." Vieira: "Absolutely, and the other one said that as he was doing Game Boy, so I'm not sure what he really felt. But Lily went and it was just a really wonderful thing. And there were a lot pro-Bush folks along the side who were also saying, giving their two cents, so it was interesting just to experience." Barbara Walters: "It was interesting when you mentioned the war, that here it is, and instead of discussing the Iraq War that much, we're discussing Vietnam war 35 years later. Doesn't make any sense." Vieira replied: "I know, I know." END of Excerpt
For the CyberAlert item in full: www.mediaresearch.org
Vieira Declares "Entire Pretext for War" Was "Built on Lies" Meredith Vieira, a veteran of CBS News and ABC News, on Thursday's [June 17] The View, the ABC daytime show she now quad-hosts, declared that, in the wake of how the 9-11 Commission supposedly contradicted the Bush administration on the links between al-Qaeda and Iraq: "Everything's been built on lies. Everything! I mean the entire pretext for war." Vieira, a former 60 Minutes correspondent who now hosts the syndicated version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, issued her vicious charge, which matches the most virulent hate speech of the far left, after Barbara Walters asserted that part of the rationale for going to war against Hussein "was the tie, right, between al-Qaeda and Iraq and now we know that's not true. And the President continues to say, and the Vice President, are you not better off -- I think, you know, since, now that Saddam Hussein is not there? That's the defense-" Vieira jumped in: "Who knows anymore because everything's been built on lies. Everything! I mean the entire pretext for war." Another quad-host, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, defended Bush, in the show's up top "Hot Topics" segment, by asserting that given what was assumed at the time, "we had to act." Former Good Morning America staffer Joy Behar countered: "But they were lying to us." Bahar urged viewers of the June 17 program: "Go see that Fahrenheit 9/11. It will tell you a lot about what's going on." END of Excerpt
For the CyberAlert item in full: www.mediaresearch.org
ABC's Barbara Walters Comes Out Against Executing Saddam Hussein ABC's Barbara Walters has come out against executing Saddam Hussein, arguing on the ABC daytime show The View on Tuesday [December 16] that "we condemn the suicide bombers, we condemn those who have no regard for life, and Lord knows this man deserves, you know, the greatest punishment, but I just sort of feel this would be a chance for us to show the regard for life that this man didn't have." Another host, former ABC and CBS reporter Meredith Vieira, agreed with Walters... Walters: "But I think we condemn the suicide bombers, we condemn those who have no regard for life, and Lord knows this man deserves, you know, the greatest punishment, but I just sort of feel this would be a chance for us to show the regard for life that this man didn't have." Vieira: "But we don't have it in this country. How can you say that? We have the death penalty here."... Star Jones: "I'm not an advocate for running out and stabbing people in the heart, but I don't think I'll lose one night's sleep if they execute Saddam Hussein, right?" Joy Behar, while audience applauds and cheers: "Well, no one's gonna care!" Vieira, as audience continues to applaud and cheer: "I do, I don't believe in it, I don't believe in it." END of Excerpt
For the CyberAlert item in full: www.mediaresearch.org
Ann Coulter Sends ABC's The View Crew Into a Tizzy Ann Coulter's guest-hosting slot on ABC's daytime show The View on Wednesday [June 25] sent the regular tri-hosts into a tizzy as they denounced Coulter's criticisms of liberals. To Coulter's assertion in her new book, Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism, that liberals hate America, former CBS News correspondent Meredith Vieira shot back: "Well, it's stupid." Former NBC News reporter Star Jones was so adamant about defending liberals that she boasted: "I'm a card-carrying Democrat." Later, Jones suggested Coulter was just mad at Hillary Clinton because of how many books Clinton has sold and Jones sing-songed to Coulter: "Hater. Hater." During a discussion of a study that claims women are as sexually aroused by pornography featuring two women or a man and a woman, to the dismay of the View crew, Coulter quipped that "the last time" she saw "two women get it on" was "the Katie Couric interview with Hillary Clinton." The MRC's Jessica Anderson took down a hunk of the gabfest at the beginning of the June 25 The View, ABC's daytime show created by Barbara Walters, for whom Coulter was filling in. Meredith Vieira explained: "In your last book you said liberals have been wrong about everything in last half century. You ticked us off over that one, alright. And now in this new bok you say that liberals hate freedom...I want to talk about your politics because in Treason you say, yes, that liberals hate America." Ann Coulter: "Right." Vieira: "Well, it's stupid. What do you mean liberals hate America?" Coulter: "Well, for one thing, I mean, part of the point of my book is to get back to asking that question. I mean, I find it interesting that that is the one thing we cannot talk about: which party is more patriotic, the relative patriotism. Liberals, Democrats feel perfectly comfortable saying that Republicans are not as good on civil rights, on civil liberties, they aren't as good on women's issues. Why is the one issue that is simply off the table for debate, the relative patriotism of the two parties? Let's at least get back into that debate again. Surely you can acknowledge that it is possible to be more or less patriotic?" Vieira: "Based on what?" Joy Behar: "Yeah, based on what?" Coulter: "Based on, for example, the burning hatred of the American flag from the left. I mean, that is how liberals describe someone they want to denounce; they cite his affection for the flag, 'flag-waving yahoos.'" Star Jones: "I love the flag. I'm a card-carrying Democrat." [Audience member yells "Woo!" at this declaration, at which point the audience begins to applaud as Jones continues] Jones: "My biggest, the biggest, most wonderful thing in my life is my citizenship, so that's one down -- keep going. I love the flag!" Coulter: "It could well be that you belong to the'€"" Vieira: "But some people wrap themselves in the flag -- I mean, that's what some liberals are against, to argue their point." Behar: "Yeah, but they cover up their evil with the flag, and that is a sin." Vieira: "Just like McCarthy: 'I'm just being patriotic.'" Behar: "Yeah." Coulter: "Well, that's why much of my book discusses McCarthy. I mean, this is how liberals have taken this issue off the table." Behar: "We're not talking about the dummy and the ventriloquist, Charlie McCarthy." Vieira: "Eugene." Behar: "We're talking about Eugene McCarthy who was a senator. Coulter: "Joe McCarthy." Vieira: "Joe McCarthy, Joe McCarthy '€" sorry, that's what I said."... END of Excerpt
For the CyberAlert item in full: www.mediaresearch.org
Ex-CBS Reporter Vieira Wants Anti-War Marches "Every Day" Former CBS News correspondent Meredith Vieira proclaimed on Wednesday's ABC daytime show on which she is the leading quad-host, The View, that anti-war protests "should be consistent and repeated every day, I believe." On the March 5 edition of The View, a show created by Barbara Walters, ex-actress Linda Carter filled in for Walters and this exchange took place in the midst of a discussion about the inevitability of war: Carter: "We are on a train that has left the station, I'm sorry." Joy Behar, to Meredith Vieira: "Didn't I tell you that, remember you said to me on the air, you said 'these marches are going to turn him [Bush] around.' And I said, 'no they're not' and you disagreed with me." Vieira conceded: "I did. I thought if enough people, but there was that one day where people demonstrated. What was it, the 15th, where you had millions of people and we haven't seen it again. It should be consistent and repeated every day, I believe." From 1989 to 1991, Vieira was a 60 Minutes correspondent after a few years in other CBS News positions. In addition to working on The View, Vieira is now the host of the syndicated version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? END of Excerpt
That CyberAlert item is posted at: www.mediaresearch.org
[This item, modified from a short posting Wednesday afternoon by the MRC's Brian Boyd on NewsBusters, included video and audio clips which will be added to the posting of this CyberAlert article. In the meantime, go to: newsbusters.org ] The April 5 exchange:
Don Imus: "So what do you think of these changes at CBS News?"
CBS Evening News anchor Russ Mitchell celebrated the government mandate, "Imagine this: Virtually everyone guaranteed health insurance coverage. It's happening in one state, and it could be a model for the rest." Over on the NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams dreamed: "Health insurance for everybody. Is it possible? Tonight, one state about to make it the law. If it works, will the same thing happen where you live?" He soon wondered: "If this works, why not the rest of the nation? It's been called 'mandatory health care,' 'universal health care,' and, while it has its critics, it's also being called a potential and revolutionary solution to a huge problem: the millions of uninsured Americans." [This item was posted Wednesday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org. To post your comments, go to: newsbusters.org ] In the Massachusetts plan, individuals who don't buy insurance and companies which do not provide it, will face tax penalties and fines while the poor will go on the state dole with the state paying for their health insurance, thus making the state a major purchaser of private health insurance. Wednesday's Washington Post, like the New York Times, put the passage on its front page. The story, "Mass. Bill Requires Health Coverage: State Set to Use Auto Insurance As a Model," noted the bill passed by Politburo margins: "154 to 2 in the House and 37 to 0 in the Senate." For the April 5 New York Times article: www.nytimes.com
For the Washington Post story: www.washingtonpost.com Of course, that potential is what excites journalists. In the overwhelming positive stories, ABC's Nancy Weiner included one soundbite from a critical small businesswoman and NBC's Mike Taibbi offered a sentence about the burden on small business and fears the middle class will end up subsidizing the new system. CBS's Trish Regan didn't bother with any critical voice or cite any downside. Both ABC's Weiner and CBS's Regan went out of their way to emphasize how the plan is supposedly not liberal. Weiner featured a representative from the Center for Studying Health System Change ( www.hschange.com ) who insisted: "This was not the liberals cramming something down everyone's throats because Governor Romney, a Republican, was very much a leader." And viewers of CBS's Regan piece heard this from someone with the Institute for Health Policy Solutions ( http://www.ihps.org/index.shtm ): "It would be a mistake to think of this as some crazy liberal pinko kind of Massachusetts, 'Taxachusetts,' the important thing is this is a moderate proposal." (Both of those featured, from groups which clearly find the current health care system deficient, were quoted in the April 5 New York Times article.) Transcripts of the April 5 ABC and CBS stories, as well as NBC's introduction, as collected by the MRC's Brad Wilmouth: # ABC's World News Tonight. The tease from anchor Elizabeth Vargas: "I'm Elizabeth Vargas. Tonight, one state's revolutionary attempt to create universal health care. If a state can do it, why can't the country?" Vargas opened: "Good evening. We begin with a bold experiment in health insurance that could change the way you pay your medical bills. After terrorism and the war in Iraq, health care is the major concern for Americans. Most people think medical costs are too high and would like a universal insurance system to cover everyone. Forty-five million people in the U.S. have no insurance [number on screen], and repeated attempts by the federal government to come up with a solution have all failed. Which is why the state of Massachusetts is getting so much attention tonight. ABC's Nancy Weiner reports from Boston."
Nancy Weiner: "Under a new bill, Massachusetts will become the first state in the country to require all of its residents to have health insurance."
Vargas then turned to George Stephanopoulos and Dr. Tim Johnson. To Johnson, she asked: "Tim, how might the Massachusetts plan affect the cost and the quality of medical care in that state?"
Mitchell, with "Massachusetts" next to one side of his head and "Insuring Everyone" on the other side, led: "Health care costs are rising by the day, and more than 45 million people in this country have no insurance to cover it. Now, one state is doing what no other state or the federal government has been able to do: Provide near-universal health coverage. The Massachusetts legislature approved it with overwhelming bipartisan support. And it could become a model for the rest of the country. Here's Trish Regan."
Trish Regan: "President Clinton promised it but did not deliver, states have wrestled with it unsuccessfully for decades, and now Massachusetts has apparently done it. It's about to become the first in the nation to provide nearly universal health coverage. Under a bill approved by the legislature, the state will require every citizen to be insured. Governor Mitt Romney pushed for the program."
Williams led his newscast: "Good evening. Depending on where you live, there's a good chance it's mandatory that you insure your car. And, in a strange way, that is exactly what's behind a new bill in Massachusetts, only it's about staying well. It's also likely about to become law in that state that its citizens must have health insurance. Those who can't pay themselves will have help. But more than that, if this works, why not the rest of the nation? It's been called 'mandatory health care,' 'universal health care,' and, while it has its critics, it's also being called a potential and revolutionary solution to a huge problem: the millions of uninsured Americans. We'll begin there tonight with NBC's Mike Taibbi."
The MRC's Brian Boyd caught the exchange during the session run during the 7am half hour of the April 5 GMA. A transcript of the interview taped outside of ABC:
Stephanopoulos: "You got an amazing welcome when you came back to Capitol Hill. Did it make you for even for a moment, want to reconsider?" Back live on GMA, Stephanopoulos wrapped up: "Now, he's still working to defeat his enemies. He told me that he was going to hit the campaign trail in the fall for conservative candidates. And he actually predicted that Republicans will pick up seats in November. It is hard to find anyone else here, Democrat or Republican, who agrees with that." -- Brent Baker
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A day after the Democratic legislature of Massachusetts passed a mandated health insurance plan, and tellingly the day of a front page New York Times story ("Massachusetts Sets Health Plan for Nearly All") touting the bill which Republican Governor Mitt Romney plans to sign, all three broadcast network evening newscasts led Wednesday by championing the proposal and characterizing it as a national model. ABC and NBC provided critics with just a sentence while CBS ran a totally one-sided promotional story. ABC anchor Elizabeth Vargas teased: "Tonight, one state's revolutionary attempt to create universal health care. If a state can do it, why can't the country?" Vargas claimed: "Most people think medical costs are too high and would like a universal insurance system to cover everyone." Reporter Nancy Weiner soon trumpeted: "Many experts say after years of failed attempts in several states, and by the federal government the Massachusetts version of universal health care, which stresses individual responsibility, could serve as a national model." 
