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2. NBC Misleads Friends Viewers with Promise of "Brief" Speech NBC didn't want viewers of their re-run Friends episode to change channels, so they misled them, claiming Friends would continue after a "brief" presidential address. But Bush's address lasted longer than the non-advertising content of the Friends repeat. 3. MSNBC's Matthews: "These Guys Would Take a Bullet for This Guy" President George W. Bush's aircraft carrier production impressed MSNBC's Chris Matthews, a former Democratic political operative and a vociferous opponent of Bush's Iraq policy. Before Bush's address from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, recalling Bush's arrival via Navy jet in full pilot's gear, Matthews raved about how "Americans love having a guy as President, a guy who has a little swagger" since "we like having a hero as our President." After the speech, he asserted that not since JFK have we seen "this kind of love of the troops for their Commander-in-Chief. These guys would take a bullet for this guy." 4. Lauer Upset Carrier Landing "Symbolism Overshadowing Safety" NBC's Matt Lauer was quite upset Thursday morning about how the White House was putting President Bush into a Navy jet for maximum political impact. Lauer asserted that landing on an aircraft carrier is "thrilling but it's also very dangerous." He demanded of White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett: "Why take this risk with the Commander-in-Chief?" And Lauer postulated: "Is this symbolism overshadowing safety?" 5. Oh, Never Mind; Jennings Concedes Museum Looting Exaggerated Oh, never mind. After running multiple stories about the "failure" of U.S. troops to prevent the looting of Iraq's national museum, with ABC's Peter Jennings going so far as to charge that "the U.S. did not act according to international law to prevent it," on Thursday's World News Tonight Jennings read a short item about how "the looting at the national museum may not have been as extensive as some people first reported" and "it turns out that many pieces were removed before the war." Those "some people," Jennings did not remind viewers, included himself. 6. Jennings Dictated Pro-Sandinista Language to a Reporter Fourteen years ago, Peter Jennings forced then-ABC News reporter Peter Collins to insert into a story language which cast in a positive light the communist Sandinista thugs of Nicaragua, praising their efforts to create "an unselfish society" and successes in "land reform" and reducing infant mortality, Collins this week told the MRC's CNSNews.com. Collins recalled about his 1989 story: "Mr. Jennings wanted was for me to make a favorable pronouncement about the 10 years of the Sandinista revolution and he called me up, massaged my script in a way that I no longer recognized it." 7. Garofalo Goes on Rant Mocking Intelligence of Fox News Staff Actress/anti-liberation of Iraq activist Janeane Garofalo went on a rant on Thursday's The View against Fox News, mocking the intelligence of their reporters and denying she has anything to apologize for. Garofalo charged that "some news anchors, apparently, at Fox aren't smart enough to understand" that "victory cannot be defined by a photo-op of a statue." 8. Hutton: Men in Charge "Shameful," But Better in Bed Than Women A bizarre moment on CBS's Early Show on Thursday: In the midst of promoting her new cosmetics line for women over 35, former model turned actress Lauren Hutton, after incomprehensibly announcing that "the big nuke is the sun," went into a feminist rant about how "governments everywhere are men and it is ancient and insane and shameful." She conceded, however, that without men we wouldn't have bridges or airplanes and that men are "fun in bed." In fact, she shared how she's had sex with women too, but "I prefer men."
Corrections: A few typos in the May 1
CyberAlert:
GMA helpfully provided video of that 1988 event with Dukakis. In Stephanopoulos's world apparently all presidential candidates and Presidents are equally unfit for the same scenes when the reality is that President Bush would not look out of place wearing a helmet as he stood in a moving tank while Dukakis would look out of place in a Navy pilot's outfit -- with or without donning a helmet. MRC analyst Jessica Anderson took down the analysis offered by Stephanopoulos on the May 2 GMA: Stephanopoulos: "This whole photo-op was carried off with military precision, and I heard Charlie talking to the commander [who flew the President in] about grade books, grading the landing. For those who grade presidential photo-ops, this was an A++. I mean, look at the pictures of the President on the flight deck. He looks like one of the pilots -- I'll say one thing, he was very careful to take that helmet off before he got out on the flight deck. Nobody wants a picture in a helmet looking like, remember back in 1988, Michael Dukakis in the tank. But this was well done, you had all of the troops just surrounding him with joy and even, I don't know if we have the picture, but if you look when the President gave the speech last night, even up on the tower of the aircraft carrier, they had a small poster that said 'Mission Accomplished,' in case any photo just looked up that high."
Diane Sawyer, over 1988 video of Dukakis in the tank while wearing a helmet: "I want to put up that picture of Michael Dukakis for a minute, George, because as we know, it sometimes can be tricky to be seen among the military, unless you can carry it off. How could you be sure? Do you think he tried on the suit beforehand? Am I being too cynical?" Perhaps, unlike some recent liberal Presidents and presidential aspirants, Bush respects the military and they respect him. On Saturday night Stephanopoulos will moderate a Democratic candidate presidential debate. It will be carried on many ABC affiliates 30 or so minutes after the end of Saturday's prime time, following local news, and on C-SPAN at 6:30 and 9:30pm EDT Sunday.
NBC didn't want viewers of their re-run Friends episode to change channels, so they misled them, claiming Friends would continue after a "brief" presidential address. But Bush's address lasted longer than the non-advertising content of the Friends repeat which began at 8:40pm EDT/7:40pm CDT and was interrupted for Bush at 9pm/8pm. NBC's announcer stated on the hour: "Friends will return following this brief presidential address." NBC got back to Friends about 27 minutes later.
President George W. Bush's aircraft carrier production impressed MSNBC's Chris Matthews, a former Democratic political operative and a vociferous opponent of Bush's Iraq policy. Before Bush's address from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, recalling Bush's arrival via Navy jet in full pilot's gear, Matthews raved about how "Americans love having a guy as President, a guy who has a little swagger" since "we like having a hero as our President." After the speech, Matthews hailed how not since JFK have we seen "this kind of love of the troops for their Commander-in-Chief. These guys would take a bullet for this guy." For a liberal Democrat like Matthews, invoking JFK is the ultimate tribute.
MRC analyst Brad Wilmouth took down some of Matthews' comments. At about 8:58pm EDT, Matthews maintained: Just after Bush finished, over video of Bush shaking hands with crew members on deck, Matthews trumpeted: "I think that bonding you're seeing right now in that television right now is to me the most powerful message of the night, his closeness with the troops. They're cheering for him relentlessly, there's smiles on every face in the camera, which is something you never saw, or at least not in recent history going back until JFK to see this kind of love of the troops for their Commander-in-Chief. These guys would take a bullet for this guy, and I think that's the big message tonight, Lester."
NBC's Matt Lauer was quite upset Thursday morning about how the White House was putting President Bush into a Navy jet for maximum political impact. Lauer asserted that landing on an aircraft carrier is "thrilling but it's also very dangerous." He demanded of White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett: "Why take this risk with the Commander-in-Chief?" And Lauer postulated: "Is this symbolism overshadowing safety?" MRC analyst Geoffrey Dickens took down a couple of Lauer's contentious questions to Bartlett, who appeared on the White House lawn, on the May 1 Today: -- "I have to ask you the President's gonna land on the USS Abraham Lincoln in an S-3 Viking. I've landed on the deck of carriers in fighter jets before. It's thrilling but it's also very dangerous. Why take this risk with the Commander-in-Chief?" -- "Looking forward to it but you could land him in a helicopter, it would be awful lot safer. I mean in real terms is this symbolism overshadowing safety?"
Oh, never mind. After running multiple stories about the "failure" of U.S. troops to prevent the looting of Iraq's national museum, with ABC's Peter Jennings going so far as to charge that "the U.S. did not act according to international law to prevent it," on Thursday's World News Tonight Jennings read a short item about how "the looting at the national museum may not have been as extensive as some people first reported" and "it turns out that many pieces were removed before the war." "As some people first reported." Those "some people" would be Peter Jennings' own World News Tonight, though he didn't remind his viewers, as well as other ABC News programs. Jennings announced on the May 1 World News Tonight: "The looting at the national museum may not have been as extensive as some people first reported. A Marine Colonel who's been investigating tells us today that hundreds of items have been recovered from smugglers, Iraqis have returned items they may have had for safekeeping, other pieces have been found in the rubble. And it turns out that many pieces were removed before the war. 27 so-called 'significant pieces' were stolen, some of them priceless, but those who said that more than 150,000 items were looted appear to be wrong."
As noted in the April 18 CyberAlert: "Two of the Bush administration's cultural advisors in Iraq have now resigned," Peter Jennings intoned on the April 17 World News Tonight. "They were frustrated by the failure of U.S. forces to prevent the pillage of Iraq's national museum," Jennings relayed in setting up an entire story examining "the variety of places the U.S. has not been protecting." For details: www.mediaresearch.org [1]
Fourteen years ago, Peter Jennings forced then-ABC News reporter Peter Collins to insert into a story language which cast in a positive light the communist Sandinista thugs of Nicaragua, praising their efforts to create "an unselfish society" and successes in "land reform" and reducing infant mortality, Collins this week told Marc Morano of the MRC's CNSNews.com. Collins recalled about his 1989 story: "Basically what Mr. Jennings wanted was for me to make a favorable pronouncement about the 10 years of the Sandinista revolution and he called me up, massaged my script in a way that I no longer recognized it." The quote in question was featured in the August 7, 1989 edition of the MRC's Notable Quotables. On the July 19 World News Tonight, Collins reported: "The Sandinistas brought with them Marxist ideas about spreading wealth and creating a new, unselfish society. And in the first few years, they did manage to reduce illiteracy, the infant death rate and launched the biggest land reform in Central America. But the Reagan Administration saw the Sandinistas as a threat and forced them into a war with the U.S.-backed Contras." An excerpt from "Pro-Marxist Slant Pushed at ABC, Retired Correspondent Claims," Morano's May 1 story: Having kept quiet for 14 years, a former ABC News correspondent has gone public for the first time with allegations that network anchorman Peter Jennings manipulated news scripts during the 1980s in order to praise the Marxist-backed Sandinista government in Nicaragua. Peter Collins, a newsman with over 30 years experience, including stints with Voice of America, the BBC, CBS News and CNN, recently walked away from the news industry and has "no compunction about telling [my story] now." In an exclusive interview with CNSNews.com , Collins alleged that Jennings personally dictated changes in a Collins television script in order to praise the Sandinista government for its "new, unselfish society," for successfully reducing illiteracy and "launch[ing] the biggest land reform in Central America." Collins covered Central America for ABC's "World News Tonight" and "Nightline" from 1982 until 1991 and having recently retired from journalism, Collins said he now feels "liberated." Repeated attempts to obtain a reaction on Collins' allegations from ABC News were not successful. ABC News publicist Cathie Levine told CNSNews.com that neither Jennings nor the network had any comment. According to Collins, Jennings "took a piece that I had written about the 10th anniversary of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua [in 1989] and first asked his producer to correct it for me and then he himself called me up in Managua and essentially dictated to me what I should say." "Basically what Mr. Jennings wanted was for me to make a favorable pronouncement about the 10 years of the Sandinista revolution and he called me up, massaged my script in a way that I no longer recognized it," Collins said.... Asked why he believed Jennings wanted his script changed to reflect a more positive spin about the Sandinista government, Collins was unequivocal. "Because I presume that Peter Jennings felt that the Sandinista regime, which was a communist regime -- no questions about it -- were mere benign agrarian reformers...[Jennings] was a believer, was and is," Collins explained.... During his days at ABC News, Collins claimed he and Jennings had recurring conflicts. "I had dozens of run-ins with [Jennings] directly -- several with him being the 800-pound gorilla on the ABC News editorial staff," Collins said. "My resistance to him personally cost me my job at ABC eventually." Collins also revealed that fresh off signing a new multi-year contract in the mid 1980s, a confident Jennings warned him that there were going to be changes in the newsroom. "Jennings remarked that he [had] just won a new contract and as a consequence of that, he said, nodding at [ABC News executive producer] Bill Lord, there is going to be a few changes around here. Within two or three months Bill Lord was out as executive producer, and Paul Friedman was in," Collins said.... Collins believes one of the factors that led Jennings to want to change executive producers was the network's coverage of the Sandinista/Contra conflict. "Bill Lord had supported me in my coverage of Central America, against the wishes of Peter Jennings," Collins said. "[Jennings] was unhappy with my coverage because I tried to tell both sides of the story," he added. Collins is speaking publicly about his years at ABC and CNN for the first time because he has walked away from the news business and no longer desires to work in the industry. "I feel liberated," said Collins. "I don't have a job in the industry. I am not looking for a job in the industry. I am starting a little computer consulting company. That is what I am working on right now. I have no compunction about telling it now."... END of Excerpt
For Morano's story in full: www.cnsnews.com [3]
Actress/anti-liberation of Iraq activist Janeane Garofalo went on a rant on Thursday's The View against Fox News, mocking the intelligence of their reporters and denying she has anything to apologize for after promising Bill O'Reilly she would apologize to President Bush if her predictions of disaster in Iraq did not come true. "Just because a statue falls down -- that's a great photo-op -- doesn't mean that the war or the conflict is over," Garofalo argued, and the "Anglo-American conflict with Iraq" is "not going to end anytime soon, contrary to Fox News's idea of what the news is, their version of the news." Garofalo charged that "some news anchors, apparently, at Fox aren't smart enough to understand" that "victory cannot be defined by a photo op of a statue." She soon denigrated Fox News again: "I don't know what is more alarming over at Fox News. Is it that they know that, in the bigger picture, there's a lot of problems over there and they scrub the information or, B, they don't know because they don't watch the news." MRC analyst Jessica Anderson took down some of the comments Garofalo uttered as a guest co-host, really a quad-host, of ABC's daytime show, The View:
Garofalo: "Well, there's also today in the news about a letter that is allegedly from Saddam Hussein, but there's another issue at hand here that goes with the anti-war thing that I think [sic]. Just because a statue falls down -- that's a great photo op -- doesn't mean that the war or the conflict is over. The truth is there's been, in the bigger picture, a conflict, an Anglo-American conflict with Iraq since 1991. It's not going to end anytime soon, contrary to Fox News's idea of what the news is, their version of the news."
The March 7 CyberAlert recounted her exchange with O'Reilly on the March 6 The Pulse on Fox: "Equal, in a different way," actress/comedienne Janeane Garofalo replied when, on Thursday's The Pulse on Fox, Bill O'Reilly asked her if she thinks "George W. Bush is more of a danger to this world than Saddam?" After she condemned Bush for his "with us or against us" rhetoric and claimed his "'axis of evil' speech was not helpful," O'Reilly shot back: "When you say that, people out there, they're gonna think you're a loon."
-- Garofalo claimed on MSNBC back on February 20 that Bush is as great a threat to peace as Hussein. As recounted in the February 21 CyberAlert, asked by Mike Barnicle on MSNBC about whether she considers Bush or Hussein to be "a bigger threat to world peace?", actress/comedienne Garofalo maintained: "I say at this point, for different reasons, they are both very threatening to world peace and to deny that is to be incredibly naive." For details: www.mediaresearch.org [6] For a picture of Garofalo and a full rundown of her TV and movie roles, see her bio on the Internet Movie Database Web site: us.imdb.com [10]
A bizarre moment on CBS's Early Show on Thursday: In the midst of promoting her new cosmetics line for women over 35, former model turned actress Lauren Hutton, after incomprehensibly announcing that "the big nuke is the sun," went into a feminist rant about how "governments everywhere are men and it is ancient and insane and shameful." She conceded, however, that without men we wouldn't have bridges or airplanes and that men are "fun in bed." In fact, she shared how she's had sex with women too, but "I prefer men." MRC analyst Brian Boyd caught Hutton's odd comments made during an 8:30am half hour segment with Early Show quad-host Renee Syler to promote Hutton's "Good Stuff" line. Several minutes into the May 1 interview Syler asked Hutton if enough attention is being paid to woman as we age?
Hutton replied: "I'm saying look your best and then you start feeling your best and you'll say anything. And we need women saying everything now-" Very bizarre. For more about Hutton's career, check the Internet Movie Database's page for her: us.imdb.com [11] Hutton's own Web site: www.laurenhutton.com [12]
For a picture of Hutton on the Early Show, and to access a RealPlayer video of the interview: www.cbsnews.com [13] -- Brent Baker [14]
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In the midst of assigning President Bush's aircraft carrier photo-op an A++ grade, ABC's George Stephanopoulos, on Friday's Good Morning America, suggested that after Bush's jet landed he "was very careful to take that helmet off before he got out on the flight deck" where cameras could see him. Stephanopoulos argued that "nobody wants a picture in a helmet looking like, remember back in 1988, Michael Dukakis in the tank."
