Friday's World News carried a 15-second promo, the first I've seen, for Wednesday night's controversial prime time special, "Questions for the President: Prescription for America [1]." Over video of President Barack Obama, ABC exulted in how "Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer take you inside his house" for "a television event" where "President Obama answers all of your tough questions about your health care."
(Below: Look at how ABC News has incorporated Obama's image into their graphic plugging the June 24 special.)
Script of the narration:
What's more important than having good health care when you need it? Nothing. That's why Wednesday at 10 on ABC Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer take you inside his house: The White House, for a television event as President Obama answers all of your tough questions about your health care.
Audio: MP3 clip [2] which matches the short video.
A tough approach to Obama on health care would be a change for ABC News. As Julia Seymour of the MRC's Business & Media Institute documented [3], "an examination of ABC World News and Good Morning America stories on health care," from January 20 to June 16, "found that Obama
or supporters of his policies were included 55 times compared to 18
times for critics of those policies - a 3-to-1 margin." (NewsBusters version [4].)
ABC
will also broadcast the June 24 Good Morning America and World News
from the White House, with more on Nightline after the hour under the
'Primetime' moniker.
- Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center