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2. Lauer to Rove: Do You Have 'Credibility' to Criticize Stimulus?
3. ABC's David Wright Derides Sarah Palin as a Barbie Doll
4. Bill Ayers vs. Bill Buckley: Double Standards in the NY Times
5. CNN Airs Sympathetic Report on Latest Michael Moore Project
Justifying the spending, Muir cited replacing "old boilers" at a high school which Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm insisted would create jobs. Jumping to Elkhart, Indiana, Muir listed worthwhile projects and specific numbers of jobs each would supposedly create: "Fixing one of their main streets would cost $34 million and create 858 new jobs. Fixing the city's pumping facility, $9 million, 225 new jobs and upgrading an airport runway: $5.5 million, 138 people to work." He moved on to Hoboken, New Jersey's $36 million plan to prevent flooding, a project the mayor declared will lead to "several hundred employees being hired immediately." Muir concluded by seeing a harmonious match of money and need: "Here, and across the country, a flood of requests from cities in need of help and workers in need of jobs." [This item, by the MRC's Brent Baker, was posted Tuesday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org [1] ] Meanwhile, in a story to file under "Now They Tell Us," four hours after Obama signed the bill the NBC Nightly News got around to informing viewers of how it may not be a great as the media sold it. NBC caught up with the CBS Evening News, as recounted in a February 2 CyberAlert item: "CBS Lists Excess Spending Which Prompted GOP Opposition," online at: www.mrc.org [2] NBC anchor Brian Williams noted the "giant stimulus bill the President signed today, $787billion in spending, hopes are high it will help. It's designed to put Americans to work." But, he acknowledged, "at over a thousand pages, people are still reading through it, discovering what's in it. And a lot of critics of course are looking closely." Lisa Myers reported, in part:
Conservative economists say that though some of the spending is worthwhile, the package is not properly designed to stimulate the economy.... Then there is the price tag. If the package creates or saves 3.5 million jobs as predicted, it will cost a quarter of a million dollars per job. The Obama administration says the cost of doing nothing would be much greater, in human and economic terms. Transcript of the story on the Tuesday, February 17 World News on ABC: DIANE SAWYER: The nation's mayors are getting in line for their portion of the stimulus money, and the wish list: nearly 19,000 infrastructure projects -- roads, bridges, mass transit -- costing some $150 billion. And the mayors argue that the projects are ready to go and will bring along 1.6 million jobs. Here's ABC's David Muir.
DAVID MUIR: Across this country, mayors and governors tonight are pouring over wish lists -- broken bridges, schools, libraries -- all of which need help.
[This item, by the MRC's Geoffrey Dickens, was posted Tuesday morning on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org [3] ] However this prompted Rove to hit back, in the following exchange, as he noted Democrats like Barack Obama were the ones who stood in the way of the Bush administration regulating some of the main culprits behind the mortgage mess -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac:
MATT LAUER: You've come out and talked about it in your, written about it in your op-ed, you've spoken about this statement which prompted a comment from David Axelrod, the current senior adviser to the President. And I'm paraphrasing here Karl but he basically said, "Why do we need advice from any one attached to the Bush administration over the last eight years? Look at the economy as a result of that administration." How do you respond to that? Do you have credibility on this subject? The following is the full interview with Rove as it occurred on the February 17 Today show:
MATT LAUER: Alright, Savannah, thanks very much. Savannah Guthrie at the White House this morning. Karl Rove was the senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush. He is now a contributor to Fox News. Hey, Karl, good morning, good to have you here.
ROVE: No, no. What they bet on was this was not the right way to stimulate the economy. The one, the interesting thing was, in both the House and Senate, the Republicans went out of their way to offer alternatives and to discuss items with the White House and with their Democrat colleagues when they were allowed to. In the House they weren't allowed to talk at all. ROVE: Well, first of all, look I'm not giving them advice. I'm commenting on what they're doing. I'm sure even this White House would say that people have a right to offer an opinion. Frankly, I thought it was interesting. The biggest accelerant in this economic difficulty was the failure of the government to rein in Fannie and Freddie. It was the Bush administration trying to rein in Fannie and Freddie. A new senator came to the United States Senate in January 2005 and refused to join the reform efforts, in fact, joined a filibuster effort to, to on the, on the bill that the administration offered up to rein it in. That senator was- LAUER: That senator was? ROVE: -Barack Obama of Illinois. He could have come and said, "You know what, I agree with the administration, we ought to rein in these imprudent lending practices that are getting us into difficulty." Do you know that, that it took 30 years for Fannie and Freddie to buy $2 trillion worth of mortgages? It took them five years to buy another trillion dollars worth of mortgages. After we tried to regulate them in 2005 it took them two-and-a-half years to get another trillion-two, mostly imprudent loans that they bought up. LAUER: But, but you bring up this as an example but overall would you say that the eight years of the Bush administration were lax on regulation? ROVE: No, no! Look, we, we, we were the administration that said this needs to be regulated. This is too big, too dangerous. A Clinton era regulator, Armando Falcon came in, in 2001. He had a term, so he was in office while Bush was in office and briefed the White House on this. And we agreed and began to move to regulate Fannie and Freddie. And it was, again I repeat, Democrats led by Chris Dodd and helped by the new senator from Illinois who blocked it in 2005.
LAUER: Let me end on a completely different subject. There is a report in the New York Daily News this morning that former Vice President Dick Cheney is furious at former President Bush for not pardoning Scooter Libby, that he went back and back in person and on the phone trying to get that pardon for his. his former aide, Scooter Libby, and it didn't happen and he's furious. What do you know about this?
During the 2008 presidential election, Wright would occasionally throw in a out-of-left field shot at Palin or the Republican ticket. Reporting for Good Morning America on October 22, he discussed the Republican vice presidential candidate's attacks on Barack Obama and editorialized: "Her own glass house notwithstanding, Sarah Palin has thrown some stones on the issue, too, even though she's not above making gaffes of her own." See a October 23 CyberAlert posting for more: www.mrc.org [4] [This item, by the MRC's Scott Whitlock, was posted Tuesday afternoon, with video, on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org [5] ] In a post-election look back on the November 5 World News, Wright nastily commented that while some Americans were "impressed" with the Alaska Governor, "plenty of others came to see Sarah Palin as an empty designer suit." See a November 6 CyberAlert posting: www.mrc.org [6] On October 31, Wright took a swipe at McCain backer Joe "The Plumber" Wurzelbacher, deriding him on Nightline as "the Ohio plumber who has become a campaign mascot." See a October 31 NewsBusters posting for more: www.newsbusters.org [7] A transcript of the relevant part of the February 16 Nightline segment: TERRY MORAN: That long hair, that bizarrely shaped figure and a name you just can't forget. By now, generations of little girls have called Barbie their friend. Others have disdained the doll. Over the decades, Barbie changed, new roles, new looks, often echoing real-life changes in the world around her and sometimes courting controversy. This year, Barbie turns 50. And for David Wright, that's "A Sign of the Times." ...
Just as the Times did with its front-page inoculation "investigation" last October (see: www.timeswatch.org [8] ), Solomon also helped bailed out Ayers' reputation, taking a mildly negative tone in only two out of a total of 15 questions she put to him. But back in 2004, she hit Buckley: "You seem indifferent to suffering. Have you ever suffered yourself?" [This item, by Clay Waters, was posted Tuesday on the MRC's TimesWatch site: www.timeswatch.org [9] ] Solomon began with political fluff: "In your new book, Race Course: Against White Supremacy, you and your wife, Bernardine Dohrn, describe your long struggle against racism and social injustice. Do you think Obama's victory has put America on a new course?" These three questions were as hostile as Solomon got: - "How did you feel when Obama publicly disowned you, describing you as a guy in his neighborhood who had committed 'despicable acts' when he was 8 years old?" - "Right, the Weathermen, which you co-founded, did hurt the antiwar movement by adopting violent tactics and alienating the middle class." - "Do you regret your involvement in setting off explosions in the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol?" Solomon concluded with two cheery queries: - "How do you feel when you wake up?" - "You're weirdly cheerful for a former bomb-thrower." For Solomon's interview in the February 15 New York Times Magazine, "Radical Cheer," go to: www.nytimes.com [10] Contrast the soft questioning of Ayers to the untrammeled hostility with which Solomon greeted the late conservative icon William Buckley, the founder of National Review. Buckley was grilled by Solomon for the July 11, 2004 edition of the Times. Of the 20 questions Solomon asked Buckley, almost half were negative in tone, including these: - "You have made so many offensive comments over the years. Do you regret any of them?" - "It's not fair to blame the press. Some of your most inflammatory comments have been made in your essays and columns. In the 50's, you famously claimed that whites were culturally superior to African-Americans." - "You seem indifferent to suffering. Have you ever suffered yourself?" For the full interview: www.nytimes.com [11]
The segment on Moore's new production began with a clip from "Sicko," his last movie, as Chetry announced that "the controversial filmmaker is setting his sights on Wall Street. He's actively recruiting people who've worked in the financial sector to expose what he calls the biggest swindle in U.S. history." As she introduced Carroll, the anchor continued that Moore "probably has a rapt audience at this point, because everything that's happened with this financial crisis and a lot of people are blaming Wall Street." [This item, by the MRC's Matthew Balan, was posted Tuesday afternoon on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org [12] ] The correspondent couldn't have agreed more with Chetry's assessment: "Absolutely, you know, and also they loved that 'gotcha' kind of filmmaking, and Michael Moore does it better than no one else and he's about to do it again. Michael Moore says he's looking for a few good men and women to spill the beans and help him take on Wall Street....Now, his Web site says, 'Will you help me with my next film?' The 'you' Moore is referring to, is anyone who works at a bank, brokerage firm, or insurance company to come forward and share what he calls the real deal about the abuses in the financial industry." Carroll then played Rozen's "spank" remark, as well as a clip from another critic, who expressed his excitement over "the idea of Michael Moore taking on Wall Street." He later included the reactions of four unidentified workers to the new project. One labeled the filmmaker "anti-American." While Chetry twice labeled Moore "controversial," and mentioned how "some people think he's very anti-American and has -- it comes, you know, with a point of view," neither she nor Carroll mentioned what specific point of view he holds. The full transcript of the Chetry/Caroll segment on Moore, which began 18 minutes into the 6 pm Eastern hour of Tuesday's American Morning:
MICHAEL MOORE: So this is where people come to pay their bill when they're done staying in the hospital. -- Brent Baker
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ABC's World News on Tuesday night celebrated President Obama's signature on the 'stimulus' package by devoting a full story to how mayors will supposedly use their portion to create 1.6 million jobs. Fill-in anchor Diane Sawyer recited "the wish list" of "nearly 19,000 infrastructure projects -- roads, bridges, mass transit -- costing some $150 billion" and "the mayors argue that the projects are ready to go and will bring along 1.6 million jobs." No word about the inevitable corruption as reporter David Muir trumpeted: "Across this country, mayors and governors tonight are pouring over wish lists -- broken bridges, schools, libraries -- all of which need help." 
Added behind these doors in the final draft of the stimulus package, $8 billion for high-speed rail projects. Critics say some of that is likely to go for a pet project of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a magnetic levitation rail line from Las Vegas to Disneyland near Los Angeles. Critics say such projects may be good for Vegas and other locales, but they're not critical national priorities.... 
MUIR: In Elkhart, Indiana, a city devastated by the highest jobless rate in the country, the mayor told us his projects are shovel-ready. Fixing one of their main streets would cost $34 million and create 858 new jobs. Fixing the city's pumping facility, $9 million, 225 new jobs and upgrading an airport runway: $5.5 million, 138 people to work. This man used to build RVs. He told us, any of it he would take. 
Karl Rove was invited on Tuesday's Today show to discuss Obama's stimulus plan and NBC's Matt Lauer pressed the former Bush senior adviser about the one-sidedness of the vote on the bill by the GOP as he pressed Rove: "219, if you add up the House and the Senate we have what, 219 Republicans. All but three of them voted against this plan...do those 216 Republicans run the risk of being on the outside looking in, if this starts to work?" Lauer also went on to cite Obama's senior adviser David Axelrod ridiculing any member of Bush administration for offering economic advice as Lauer doubted: "Do you have credibility on this subject...would you say that the eight years of the Bush administration were lax on regulation?" 
DAVID WRIGHT: She's been an astronaut and a rock star. Pop icons Beyonce and Shakira. She's won "American Idol" too. [footage of Barbie as president doll.] She's even run for President twice. Some would argue she also ran for Vice President in 2008. [video of Sarah Palin.] And now, Barbie is chancellor of Germany. Go figure. Always, even at her most professional. Let's just say Barbie indulged her feminine side. 
New York Times "Q&A" reporter Deborah Solomon questioned conservative icon William F. Buckley in a more hostile fashion than she did Weatherman bomber Bill Ayers. Every Sunday, Solomon conducts a weekly Q&A with a newsmaker for the New York Times Magazine. This past Sunday it was unrepentant domestic terrorist -- and long-standing Obama associate -- Bill Ayers, a man the Times did its best to render un-newsworthy during the presidential campaign. 
On Tuesday's American Morning, anchor Kiran Chertry and correspondent Jason Carroll failed to mention the left-wing politics of filmmaker Michael Moore during a report about his latest project, which targets the financial industry, and included a sound bite from People Magazine's Leah Rozen, who expressed a desire to "see Michael Moore spank Wall Street." Carroll emphasized Moore's credentials, and agreed with Chetry that many would rush to assist him: "They loved that 'gotcha' kind of filmmaking, and Michael Moore does it better than no one else and he's about to do it again."