On Wednesday, August 20, CBS This Morning promoted a new ad campaign by the National Rifle Association “going after former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg” a major gun control advocate.
During the news brief, CBS’s Ben Tracy played up how one ad is “getting personal. An NRA official called him an arrogant hypocrite who thinks knows what is best for people and their lives.” While the CBS reporter made sure to play up how the NRA was supposedly “getting personal”, he ignored his own network’s repeated promotion of Bloomberg’s liberal agenda.
In the brief, Tracy highlighted how “the NRA created an anti-Bloomberg ad campaign that kicks off today. Bloomberg is a vocal gun control advocate who plans to spend $50 million of his own money on the effort. Now the NRA ads portray Bloomberg as an elitist who is out of touch with average Americans.”
While CBS was quick to label the NRA as “getting personal” the network has run numerous puff pieces on Bloomberg’s advocacy, none of which were mentioned on Wednesday morning:
• On May 3, 2010 [1], CBS featured Bloomberg Speculating that Times Square bomber was mad about ObamaCare
• On March 29, 2012 [2], CBS This Morning brought on Bloomberg to push gun control agenda
• The July 23, 2012 [3] CBS This Morning hyped Bloomberg’s attack on gun rights activists
• On January 17, 2013 [4], CBS This Morning allowed the former New York mayor to rip the NRA, call them “stupid”
Given CBS’ history of providing Bloomberg an unchallenged platform to promote his leftist agenda, it should come as no surprise that they were quick to defend the former New York City mayor from any criticism that came his way.
See relevant transcript below.
CBS This Morning
August 20, 2014
BEN TRACY: USA Today reports the National Rifle Association is going after former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The NRA created an anti-Bloomberg ad campaign that kicks off today. Bloomberg is a vocal gun control advocate who plans to spend $50 million of his own money on the effort. Now the NRA ads portray Bloomberg as an elitist who is out of touch with average Americans. And this one is getting personal. An NRA official called him an arrogant hypocrite who thinks knows what is best for people and their lives.
VINITA NAIR: Not mincing words there.
TRACY: Not mincing words at all.
— Jeffrey Meyer is a News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Jeffrey Meyer on Twitter. [5]