Following a Tuesday night report in which the CBS Evening News blasted GOP campaign ads on ISIS, Wednesday’s CBS This Morning went even further in playing up the supposed outrage at a GOP congressional candidate’s campaign ad.
CBS reporter Nancy Cordes pushed how Republican congressional candidate Wendy Rogers ran “the first ad to show an ISIS captive and reaction was swift. On Arizona Republican Wendy Rogers' Facebook page one person wrote “you have disrespected James Foley's parents and his memory.” The other called the ad “sick, pathetic, and disgusting.”’
Co-host Norah O’Donnell introduced the segment by declaring “one spot is getting a lot of attention” before allowing Cordes to insist “it’s not just the topic of the ad that’s so controversial because a lot of candidates are now talking about ISIS. It was the image the candidate used of American journalist James Foley just before he was beheaded.”
Despite CBS doing its best to push the outrage against a GOP ISIS ad, Cordes conceded that in the most recent CBS News/New York Times poll, most Americans trust the GOP to do a better job fighting terrorism:
In the new CBS News poll, 51 percent of Americans disapprove of the way president Obama has handled the situation with ISIS militants in Iraq and Syria. And while three-quarters of Americans say Congress has done a fair or poor job assessing the ISIS threat, 53 percent of Americans think Republicans are more likely to do a better job dealing with terrorism.
Cordes could have focused her report on the lack of support for President Obama and the entire Democratic Party's plan to fight terrorism. Instead, the CBS reporter spent more than five minutes across two broadcasts slamming the GOP for running ads on ISIS attacking their Democratic opponents.
As NewsBusters’ Curtis Houck noted [1] “Cordes’s panning of Republican ads that criticize President Obama on ISIS provides another example a double-standard in the liberal media, as droves of Democratic candidates aired ads on the Iraq War to bash then-President George W. Bush and Republicans ahead of the 2006 midterm elections.”
It seems as though Cordes is trying to stir up a supposed controversy based on outrage from two random Facebook users when in reality most Americans, as Cordes pointed out, oppose President Obama’s handling of ISIS and trust the GOP to handle terrorism better than Democrats.
See relevant transcript below.
CBS This Morning
October 8, 2014
NORAH O’DONNELL: A majority of Americans in a news CBS News/New York Times poll say a terror attack on the U.S. is either likely or somewhat likely in the next few months, and that fear is permeating the midterm elections. Terrorism now ranks as the third most important issue. ISIS is appearing in campaign ads across the country. Nancy Cordes is on Capitol Hill to show us how one spot is getting a lot of attention. Nancy, good morning.
NANCY CORDES: Good morning. The ad was released by an Arizona Republican who is running for Congress. And it’s not just the topic of the ad that’s so controversial because a lot of candidates are now talking about ISIS. It was the image the candidate used of American journalist James Foley just before he was beheaded.
UNKNOWN VOICE #1: Terrorist threats are growing. Are we secure?
CORDES: It was the first ad to show an ISIS captive and reaction was swift. On Arizona Republican Wendy Rogers' Facebook page one person wrote “you have disrespected James Foley's parents and his memory.” The other called the ad “sick, pathetic, and disgusting.” Her campaign argues Rogers was only using recent events to highlight the differences between herself and the Democratic incumbent.
UNKOWN VOICE #2: Kyrsten Sinema allowed her liberal agenda to get in the way of our safety.
CORDES: That's an argument being made by GOP challengers across the country. Republicans say the president opened the door himself when he admitted in August that he didn't have a strategy to combat ISIS.
SCOTT BROWN: President Obama and Senator Shaheen seem confused about the nature of the threat. Not me.
CORDES: In the new CBS News poll, 51 percent of Americans disapprove of the way president Obama has handled the situation with ISIS militants in Iraq and Syria. And while three-quarters of Americans say Congress has done a fair or poor job assessing the ISIS threat, 53 percent of Americans think Republicans are more likely to do a better job dealing with terrorism.
UNKNOWN VOICE #3: While ISIS grew, Obama kept waiting and Kay Hagan kept quiet.
CORDES: Democratic Senator Kay Hagan pushed back against that ad in a debate in North Carolina last night.
KAY HAGAN: When I see what Speaker Tillis has done. He is waffling on these issues. He is spineless on what he would do to take ISIS out. I have been clear, I have been decisive.
CORDES: And another Democrat, Colorado Senator Mark Udall, tried to head off criticism by releasing an ad of his own.
UNKNOWN PERSON #4: Mark Udall, Intelligence Committee member, chair of the Committee on Strategic Forces. Determined to defeat ISIS with full support for American air strikes in Syria and Iraq.
CORDES: And here's how hot this issue is. Late yesterday, Udall’s opponent released an ad of his own pointing out all the times that Udall has missed Armed Services Committee hearings. And overnight Wendy Rogers changed her ad. She took out the video of James Foley and put out this statement, Charlie. “Wendy Rogers edited the opening two seconds of her 30-second commercial to maintain focus on Kyrsten Sinema’s votes.”
CHARLIE ROSE: Nancy thanks.
— Jeffrey Meyer is a News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Jeffrey Meyer on Twitter. [2]