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Bush's "Black Eye"; Rather Admired McCain's Appeal; Puppet Sang to Sawyer >>> February
21 edition of Notable Quotables, the MRC's bi-weekly compilation of the
latest outrageous, sometimes humorous, quotes in the liberal media, is now
online thanks to Kristina Sewell and Andy Szul. Some of the quote topics
included in this issue: "Hillary, Victim of Venomous Bias";
"Gore's a Boaster, Not A Liar"; "Ken Starr = POW
Torturer"; "We're Pro-McCain: Deal With It"; "Pampered
Under Communism?"; "Birthday Shot at Reagan"; "CBS:
Clueless Bob Schieffer" and "Victims of Delayed Buffalo Wings."
To read these quotes and others, go to: >>> MRC job opening. Find the bias documented in CyberAlerts. The MRC, located in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, has an opening for a News Media Analyst. Those in this position must work at the MRC's headquarters and, therefore, should live in the Washington, DC area. News Media Analysts review network television news shows and major print publications to track coverage and identify biased stories for quoting in our publications which document liberal bias. Qualified applicants should have a good understanding of current events, be able to write clearly and be interested in politics and the news. The starting pay for the position is $22,000. Those interested should send a resume via fax to Brent Baker at (703) 683-9736. <<<
Tuesday night both CBS and NBC had reported on anti-Bush phone calls accusing him of being anti-Catholic. Wednesday night only NBC's David Bloom acknowledged that while McCain's top aides had denied any involvement, they later admitted directing the calls. Bloom also pointed out how top Democrats are "euphoric" over how McCain is weakening likely eventual nominee Bush and ABC's Jim Wooten uniquely looked at how Michigan Democrats conceded "meddling" in the Republican primary. Here are highlights of campaign coverage Wednesday night, February 23, on the three broadcast networks: -- ABC's World News Tonight opened with Mike Von Fremd
with McCain in Washington State: "He is still appealing to outsiders
....but he has now added a direct appeal to insiders, the core of the
Republican Party." John Yang then checked in from the Bush campaign in California, noting how Bush is "smarting" over calls saying he's anti-Catholic. Yang added: "After veering to the right in South Carolina, Bush came to this inner-city community center to return to his theme of compassionate conservatism." ABC next showed tapes of quick interviews by anchor
Peter Jennings with McCain and Bush before Jim Wooten explored the growing
lack of party loyalty. Wooten began by recalling what occurred in Michigan: -- CBS Evening News. Phil Jones summarized McCain's day but did not mention his new appeal to Republicans. Jones showed a clip of him interviewing McCain on a plane flight. His first question: "You're riding pretty high today. Are you dreaming about this being Air Force One or worried about being shot down?" While CBS failed to note how the McCain camp admitted involvement in anti-Bush phone calls accusing him of being anti-Catholic, Jones portrayed McCain as the victim: "McCain continues to struggle over campaign strategy. He holds to his promise of no negative advertising, but he told me today he will continue to make an issue out of the negative attacks on him by Governor Bush and the so-called religious right." Next, Bill Whitaker looked at Bush. As transcribed by MRC analyst Brad Wilmouth, he began: "He called Michigan a glancing blow, but the truth is George Bush is stepping into the biggest primary ring of all, California, battered and bruised and on the ropes." Whitaker applied some loaded labeling: "The
strategy that seemed so brilliant in South Carolina, embracing the far right,
snapped back and gave him a black eye in Michigan, allowing John McCain to
paint him as anti-Catholic and in the pocket of the Christian Right. So today
the original compassionate conservative was back on display, visiting
disadvantaged children at the L.A. Dream Center. But is his plan to reposition
himself back in the middle just California dreaming?" -- NBC Nightly News
went right to Anne Thompson on McCain's plan to show Republicans they should
support him because of his popularity among independents. She added:
"Today John McCain trying to convince Republicans he is one of
them." Thompson explained how he is now stressing cutting taxes and spending in order to expand his GOP support beyond just the 29 percent who voted for him in Michigan. Thompson concluded: "Tonight the battle of attack faxes continues. Late this evening McCain charging the Bush campaign of launching a new round of negative phone calls, this time in Virginia where primary will be held there next Tuesday, using the same phone calls taped by televangelist Pat Robertson that accused McCain campaign chairman Warren Rudman of being a vicious bigot." From the Bush camp reporter David Bloom summarized Bush's case that McCain cannot win since true GOP voters rejected him and Bush "portrays himself as the real Republican." Bloom then uniquely pointed out: "And many
Democrats are euphoric, believing a weakened Bush forced to the right by
McCain, will still prevail, but as a less formidable threat to Gore. Senate
Democratic Leader Tom Daschle today."
Rather maintained that "Gore has not moved as far to the left as Bush has to the right." Citing Bush's speech at Bob Jones University as an example of going to the far right, Rather ignored Gore's pursuit of Al Sharpton's endorsement, insisting Gore "hasn't had to do make any comparable move in the other direction." Rather's dream candidate: John McCain, who appeals to the "vital center." If McCain does not win, Rather warned, "the Republican Party may have ample opportunity in the months ahead to wonder if they should have better recognized this talent for the truly special thing it is." He impugned the motives of conservatives, suggesting they oppose McCain just because they wish "to preserve a campaign finance system that helps to keep them in powerful positions." Here are some excerpts from the February 22 edition of "Rather's Notebook": Whether or not the underdog Straight Talk Express runs out of gas on its way to the Republican nomination, all the other candidates -- Republicans and Democrats -- would do well to take a page from the McCain campaign playbook. John McCain has accomplished something we haven't seen in some time -- appeal to the vital center while running in his party's primary elections. This is the sort of feat for which Ronald Reagan is remembered. And if McCain does not emerge as the GOP nominee, the Republican Party may have ample opportunity in the months ahead to wonder if they should have better recognized this talent for the truly special thing it is.... Folks who are willing to overlook the label of Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, for a candidate they like on the basis of character, personality, style or even on the issues -- or just plain old "gut feeling." Again, for emphasis, it must be underscored that this generality applies more to general elections than to primaries. The party and ideological faithful, usually the people furthest from the center, can be and often are decisive at the polls in the nominating process. It wasn't true in New Hampshire, where John McCain fashioned his blowout triumph over George Bush. It was true in South Carolina, where Bush rode the Republican hard-right's organization, money and messages to a big win. The self-described "Religious Right" -- including conservative preachers Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson -- are part of the deep core of the Republican Party, one that runs deeper in South Carolina than perhaps anywhere else in the country. And they delivered big-time for Bush in the Palmetto State. Yes, it's true they acted partly out of self-interest, to preserve a campaign finance system that helps to keep them in powerful positions and allows them to spend freely and make their influence felt. But it's also true that Bush worked especially hard and effectively to get out their vote after New Hampshire. He went to the right places, said the right things the right way. He got the Religious Right's all-out support the old-fashioned way: He earned it. But now he owes them. Which is part of the point of this writing. Bush has moved the image of himself pretty far to the right, giving up, at least temporarily, some of the middle ground he will need to win in November, if he's the nominee. No doubt Gore liked what he saw out of South Carolina. In the general election, Bush won't be running right the way he did in South Carolina. But Gore -- or Bradley, if by some miracle he becomes the nominee -- would turn that George W. Bush into a target in front of the voting public.... And Bradley has succeeded in pushing Gore further to the left than he would ideally like to be. Such is the price of winning the core Democratic Party voters in the nominating contests. But, by any reasonable analysis, Gore has not moved as far to the left as Bush has to the right. He hasn't had to. Bradley's threat to Gore's nomination has not been nearly as substantial as the challenge McCain has posed to the Bush campaign. An example is Bush's appearance at South Carolina's Bob Jones University. Rightly or wrongly, justly or unjustly, that school is widely viewed as having not only anti-black, but also anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic roots. By going there and not clearly disassociating himself from the worst of the school's image and reputation, Bush helped himself with the hard-right necessary to win the South Carolina primary. But he also handed the Democrats a club with which they will pound him. Gore, as yet, hasn't had to do make any comparable move in the other direction.... In 1988, George Bush the elder claimed the center by making "liberal" a dirty word. We remember it as one of the nastier elections in recent years, but not a close one.... END Excerpt Naturally, whenever the more conservative candidate wins it must be a tainted victory. To read the entirety of Rather's analysis, go to:
ABC's Elizabeth Vargas expressed concern to McCain about whether his independent and Democratic supporters "know about" his conservative stands on issues like abortion. On the February 23 Good Morning America, ABC's
Elizabeth Vargas posed these questions to McCain, as transcribed by MRC
analyst Jessica Anderson: But Bush only got two questions from ABC's John Yang
in an interview taped aboard a plane: Over on CBS's The Early Show, during an interview taped on a plane, Phil Jones asked: "I get the sense that a lot of bitterness has built up because of campaign tactics. Tell me about this." Amongst his other questions: "What's your message to Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and the so-called Christian right?" McCain replied, as transcribed by MRC analyst Brian Boyd: "I guess my message to them is that I've never known them very well, but the display that I saw in South Carolina and then the phone calls that Pat Robertson made in Michigan, I just think they should be ashamed of themselves." While Jones never asked McCain about the anti-Bush
calls, in a taped interview shown a few minutes later Bill Plante demanded
that Bush repudiate Pat Robertson's tactics: On NBC's Today David Bloom raised the anti-Bush calls with Bush, but quickly moved on to pressing Bush about how he should have denounced Bob Jones University's racist policies. Bloom told Bush: "The phone calls in Michigan touched a raw nerve with you. The ones accusing you of being anti-Catholic. Why?" Bloom next asked: "Those allegations stem from the speech you gave at Bob Jones University in South Carolina. You said that you don't regret having spoken there. But do you regret not having at the time during the speech spoken out against their supposedly segregationist and anti-Catholic policies?" Talking with John McCain, in a taped interview played earlier in the show, David Gregory cited how McCain had allies criticizing Bush, but did not outline the specifics or demand that McCain retract the claims.
-- February 23 Today. As noted by MRC analyst Geoffrey
Dickens, Russert contended: Do you think we'll ever hear a network analyst suggest a liberal is "antagonizing Catholics over support of partial-birth abortion"? -- Good Morning America, February 23. Gibson told George Stephanopoulos: "George, this is the Senator who succeeded Barry Goldwater in the United States Senate. His record on traditional Republican issues, very solid. He does want to shake up things on campaign finance reform, which may scare a lot of lobbyists in Washington, but why are so many Republicans running away from him?" Later Gibson asserted: "It was nasty. There were calls being made on behalf of both candidates. They say they don't know where they came from, but calls being made on behalf of both candidates charging religious bigotry on the other side. A call by Pat Robertson calling one of McCain's main supporters a vicious bigot, former Senator Warren Rudman. This is really nasty and tough."
As detailed in Tuesday's
CyberAlert, plugging an upcoming interview about C-SPAN's survey of
historians to rank Presidents, Gumbel asked Clayson: "Who would you think
finished first?" Watching this again on Wednesday I noticed that Gumbel
dropped his pen the second Clayson said "Reagan." I thought many
might like to see the video, so Wednesday afternoon Webmaster Andy Szul posted
it in RealPlayer format. It's now up on the MRC home page, or go directly
to:
Well she may be onto something there as I doubt Fox is God's favorite network. In the second half of the 8am half hour Sawyer interviewed Elizabeth Taylor. GMA started the 8:30am half hour with Sawyer and Charles Gibson spending over five minutes with the "Sock Puppet" from Pets.com TV ads, a guy behind the sofa with a sock on his hand. The puppet sang "once, twice, three times a lady" to Sawyer. After all of this, as the show ended, Sawyer told viewers: "I want to tell everybody because of our breaking news this morning, David Letterman's mom, who was going to be on the broadcast, is going to be on tomorrow." What "breaking news"? This morning, Thursday, in the 8:30am half hour Letterman's mom got as much time as the Sock Puppet and she revealed that weather grounded her flight from Indianapolis so she was unable to make it to last Friday's taping of her son's first post-heart surgery show which aired Monday night. That made me feel a little better as I suffered her same plight. My brother arranged a ticket for me to see that Late Show taping but I spent over three hours in the air Friday flying to New York, circling LaGuardia and then returning to Dulles Airport because LaGuardia was closed. -- Brent Baker [5]
>>>
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Wednesday
night ABC and NBC stressed how John McCain was appealing to traditional
Republicans, whom ABC called "insiders," while ABC and CBS
highlighted how being too conservative supposedly hurt George Bush.
"After veering to the right," ABC's John Yang asserted, Bush is
returning to "compassionate conservatism." CBS's Bill Whitaker
employed an extremist label, insisting: "The strategy that seemed so
brilliant in South Carolina, embracing the far right, snapped back and gave
him a black eye in Michigan."
Matching
CBS's on-air reporting quoted in item #1 above, in his weekly "Rather's
Notebook" report on the CBS News Web site, Dan Rather complained that in
South Carolina Bush "rode the Republican hard-right's
organization" to a big win which "moved the image of himself pretty
far to the right."
In
post-Michigan primary interviews run on the Wednesday morning shows, George W.
Bush was pressed by CBS to repudiate phone calls placed by Pat Robertson which
called McCain campaign chairman Warren Rudman an anti-Christian bigot, but the
network did not press McCain about phones calls which denounced Bush as
anti-Catholic. ABC's John Yang asked Bush to react to a McCain backer's
claim that Bush went "a little too far to the right in South
Carolina."
Discussing
the campaign with Katie Couric on Wednesday's Today, NBC's Tim Russert
claimed Bush is "antagonizing" women and blacks. On ABC's Good
Morning America co-host Charles Gibson argued that McCain is conservative
because he "succeeded" Barry Goldwater and in arguing how
"nasty" the campaign has become Gibson cited only anti-McCain phone
calls.
Video now
online: Gumbel flinging his pen down on the desk in disgust at the idea that
Reagan was the best President. In Wednesday's Washington Times "Inside
Politics" columnist Greg Pierce picked up on the February 22 CyberAlert
item about an interchange Monday between Early Show co-hosts Bryant Gumbel and
Jane Clayson.
Wednesday's
Good Morning America devoted an amazing 16 minutes of air time to Diane Sawyer
interviewing Darva Conger, the woman married on the Fox show, Who Wants to
Marry a Multi-Millionaire? She got the entire 7:30 half hour, plus the first
interview segment in the 8am half hour. Conger uttered the understatement of
century: "I committed an error in judgment." She
didn't think getting married meant anything: "Maybe we'll like each
other and get along, maybe even date. I never in a million years ever thought
it was an actual marriage in my heart and before God."