CBS and NBC, which have delivered very friendly interviews with
President Barack Obama (link below the jump to examples), on Wednesday
night characterized Bret Baier's sit-down with Obama for the Fox News
Channel as "contentious," while ABC decided to devote nearly two minutes
of World News (1:50) to Obama's college basketball tournament choices.
Anchor Diane Sawyer teased at the start of the March 17 newscast, "Top
picks: Stream of consciousness as the Fan-in-Chief completes his
college basketball bracket."
On the NBC Nightly News, Kelly O'Donnell referred to the "contentious
interview with Fox News." Chip Reid, on the CBS Evening News, added a
modifier as he saw "a very contentious interview."
[1]
[1]The ABC story on Obama's basketball picks consisted
of highlights from corporate cousin ESPN's session with Obama as he
filled out a big bracket chart, and World News included Obama's spelling
challenge. "Should be an R in there," ESPN's Andy Katz corrected
Obama upon spotting how the President had misspelled "Syracuse" as
"Sycacuse."
(Click on screen shot for a larger
jpg image [1] of Obama's misspelling.)
For five examples from last year of CBS and NBC journalists working
to advance Obama's cause, check out the "Let Us Fluff Your Pillow Award for Obsequious Obama
Interviews [2]" in the MRC's "Best Notable Quotables of 2009: The 22nd Annual Awards
for the Year's Worst Reporting [3]."
- Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the
Media Research Center. Click
here [4] to follow him on Twitter.