Smith & Gibson Fret to Obama Protracted Race Will Hurt Party --3/28/2008
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2. NBC's Lee Cowan: Covering Obama Makes My Knees Quake
3. Today Show: Global Warming Making Napa Valley Wines Passe
4. Just Two Weeks Until MRC's 'DisHonors Awards,' Get Tickets Now
Gibson lamented: "No matter who emerges as the nominee for this, is the eventual nominee hurt by the extension of this contest?" Gibson next raised the same poll numbers he highlighted the night before, "But you had to be sobered by that Gallup poll yesterday: 28 percent of her supporters would vote for McCain if you get the nomination, 19 percent of yours would vote for him." [This item, by the MRC's Brent Baker, was posted Thursday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] The March 27 CyberAlert posting, "ABC Conveys Worries Obama-Clinton Battle Will Hurt Party in Fall," recounted:
For the entire previous CyberAlert item: www.mrc.org All of the questions to Obama, as aired in taped pieces on ABC's World News and the CBS Evening News, on Thursday, March 27: # From ABC's Charles Gibson: - Senator Obama was in New York today to deliver his speech on the economy and I had a chance to sit down with him for a bit, after he finished, talking about his protracted fight for the Democratic nomination and about his speech about race. - No matter who emerges as the nominee for this, is the eventual nominee hurt by the extension of this contest? - But you had to be sobered by that Gallup poll yesterday: 28 percent of her supporters would vote for McCain if you get the nomination, 19 percent of yours would vote for him.
- I wonder if you worry that race could become a central, or pivotal, issue at a time when so many other things -- it's an important issue in this country and has been forever. But when so many other things are central. Like the economy, like terrorism, like the Middle East, like war and peace? The ABCNews.com online report on the interview with video which includes portions of the session not aired on World News: abcnews.go.com
- On the presidential campaign trail, Barack Obama has long said he'd start withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq shortly after taking office. In a one-on-one interview here in New York today, I asked the Senator if that's really possible with Iraq so unstable. - Let's talk about money. Bear Stearns has been helped out a lot by the Federal Reserve. Should the federal government be in the business of bailing out companies that were involved in the sub-prime mess? - Was the federal government too late on this? - Several people have written that even in the best-case scenario, Hillary Clinton's chances of getting the nomination for the Democratic Party are about 5 percent. When is it time for her to leave? - If you're the presumptive candidate here, isn't it time that you say, with some severity, that we can't go on like this? [Obama: Well, no.] At the cost of losing the general election? Online version of Smith's interview: www.cbsnews.com CBSNews.com video of the segment as aired on the CBS Evening News: www.cbsnews.com
Cowan's latest quote appeared in a NBC advertising section entitled "The Peacock." The first person article, which recounts Cowan's excitement over covering the Obama campaign, also featured the correspondent bubbling: "I wondered if I was up to the job. I wondered if I could do the campaign justice. I wondered if the experience would swallow me whole." (The eight page spread, which featured several articles, appeared as a supplement to the March 23-29 edition of American Profile, a magazine distributed with newspapers across the country.) Cowan labeled the Democratic presidential candidate a "a whirlwind of activity, and being caught in that tornado is a challenge every day." See The Peacock at: www.thepeacock.pubgroup.com [This item, by the MRC's Scott Whitlock, was posted Thursday morning on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] Cowan closed his fawning piece by addressing viewers. He instructed: "If we come to your town, you'll see us'€"just look behind the Senator. We're all there, for the experience of a lifetime." Cowan's rhapsodizing over Obama hasn't changed much since his January 7 remarks to colleague Brian Williams. He told the NBC Nightly News host: "From a reporter's point of view it's almost hard to remain objective because it's infectious, the energy, I think. It sort of goes against your core to say that as a reporter, but the crowds have gotten so much bigger, his energy has gotten stronger. He feeds off that..." See the January 11 CyberAlert for more: www.mediaresearch.org However, it's one thing to commit bias on the air, paying for it in an advertising supplement shows that NBC is truly taking liberal spin to the next level. It's a good thing the network has Saturday Night Live to provide balance.
[This item, by Geoffrey Dickens, was posted Thursday afternoon on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] The following exchange occurred on the Thursday, March 27 Today show:
ANN CURRY: Talk about the wines because now you're saying-
Less than two weeks until the MRC's 2008 "DisHonors Awards" and seats are running out. We only have a few dozen left. The MRC's annual video awards with the "William F. Buckley Award for Media Excellence," this year presented to Tony Snow, will take place in Washington, DC on Thursday evening, April 10. Confirmed participants: Ann Coulter, Larry Kudlow, Mark Levin, Cal Thomas and many more since surprise conservative guests will accept the awards in jest. Get your tickets now. "It was a terrific show...It was a great, great, great assemblage of people... Everybody just had a blast!" -- Rush Limbaugh, 2007 recipient of the William F. Buckley Jr. Award for Media Excellence. Make your reservation today. Every year our gala sells out, so don't delay. Individual seats available for $250. To reserve your seat(s), contact the MRC's Sara Bell at: sbell@mediaresearch.org Or call, 9 to 5:30 PM EDT weekdays: (800) 672-1423. Online page with information: www.mrc.org For a look at all the fun at last year's event: www.mediaresearch.org -- Brent Baker
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In interviews with Barack Obama aired Thursday night, CBS anchor Harry Smith and ABC anchor Charles Gibson both shared their concern over how the protracted Democratic race could hurt the party in the fall -- with Smith urging Obama to demand, "with some severity," that Hillary Clinton exit the race -- while Gibson hailed Obama's "extraordinary speech" on race before he wondered if Obama worries "race could become" the "central...issue." Smith told Obama: "If you're the presumptive candidate here, isn't it time that you say, with some severity, that we can't go on like this?" After Obama replied "well, no," Smith rued: "At the cost of losing the general election?" 
The broadcast networks rarely highlight poll numbers other than their own, but on Wednesday night ABC's World News pegged a story to a Gallup survey which confirmed the ongoing Democratic presidential battle will harm the party's chances in November. With "HURTING THE PARTY?" on screen beneath pictures of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, anchor Charles Gibson warned: "Many Democrats have been worried that the protracted fight, between Senators Clinton and Obama, might start alienating voters and hurt the party's chances against John McCain in the fall. Well, now there is evidence that may, indeed, be the case." 
- You gave an extraordinary speech last week on race. You had a difficult road to navigate with that speech, in showing that you embrace Reverend Wright, that he is somebody who has been very close to you, and that you feel strongly about, and yet distance yourself from his remarks. 
It seems as though NBC News is now expanding its bias to include paid supplements. In a print promotional distributed by NBC News, reporter Lee Cowan enthused: "When NBC News first assigned me to the Barack Obama campaign, I must confess my knees quaked a bit." This is the same journalist who in January famously confessed to Nightly News host Brian Williams that it's "almost hard to remain objective" when covering the Illinois Senator. 
Proving that no segment, be it even one on food trends, is safe from liberal bias, NBC's Today show food editor claimed, in a report on hot new food trends, that global warming was causing Napa Valley wines to become passe. On Thursday's Today show co-anchors Ann Curry and Hoda Kotb sipped wine, while Lempert contended that North Carolina wines were going to be all the rage because Napa Valley wineries were being harmed by "global warming." 
