Obama Watch

Laugh of the Week: ‘Barack Obama Never Had Reporters Eating Out of His Hand’

brent.baker — Sun, 10 Aug 2014 05:15:52 +0000

Brent Baker

Reid Cherlin, an Assistant Press Secretary during the first two years plus of the Obama administration, managed to deliver two laugh-worthy howlers in a piece for Rolling Stone posted this past Monday:

> “Barack Obama never had reporters eating out of his hand the way that right-wingers love to allege.”

> “I...believe he’ll be remembered as an excellent President.”

— Brent Baker is the Steven P.J. Wood Senior Fellow and Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center. Follow Brent Baker on Twitter.

Hayes and Krauthammer Scoff at Media Claim of ‘Austerity’ Under Obama: ‘An Assault on the Dictionary’

brent.baker — Sun, 23 Feb 2014 15:43:52 +0000

Brent Baker

Steve Hayes and Charles Krauthammer, on Friday’s Special Report with Bret Baier, scoffed at the Washington Post’s front page characterization that President Barack Obama’s expected budget proposal “will call for an end to the era of austerity that has dogged much of his presidency.”

— Brent Baker is the Steven P.J. Wood Senior Fellow and Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center. Follow Brent Baker on Twitter.

Stephanopoulos Rationalizes Obama’s Economic Failures: ‘It’s Bigger than Washington’

brent.baker — Mon, 16 Sep 2013 01:34:54 +0000

Brent Baker

Imagine a major news network anchor, in 1985, telling President Reagan that five years into his presidency rising income inequality wasn’t his fault. Ludicrous, given how the media used the term Reaganomics to denigrate his policies, policies far more successful than President Obama’s in turning around an inherited poor economy.

Yet in a sit-down with Barack Obama for ABC’s This Week, George Stephanopoulos compliantly excused Obama’s failure: “Do you look at that four and a half years in and say, maybe a President can’t stop this accelerating inequality?”

Stephanopoulos Misquotes Obama, Leaves Off ‘Just’ in Claim Congressional Approval Not ‘a Political Ploy’

brent.baker — Mon, 09 Sep 2013 12:17:21 +0000

Brent Baker

Friday in Russia, President Obama let slip that putting Congress on the hook, or in a political bind, was part of his calculus in asking for their approval for an attack on Syria, but twice on Sunday morning ABC’s George Stephanopoulos misquoted Obama’s admission. Obama maintained: “I did not put this before Congress, you know, just as a political ploy or as symbolism.”

Yet on Sunday’s Good Morning America, Stephanopoulos quoted Obama: “Listen to what he said Friday night in Russia: ‘I did not put this’ – this resolution – ‘before Congress as a political ploy or symbolism.’” Later, on This Week, he again left off the very relevant “just” as he mis-characterized Obama back to White House Chief-of-Staff Denis McDonough: “He said his call to Congress was not a political ploy or symbolism.”

CBS’s Pelley Hails Trilogy of Thomas Jefferson, John F. Kennedy and Now Barack Obama

brent.baker — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 12:51:10 +0000

Brent Baker

Does journalistic insistence on catapulting President Barack Obama into historic greatness and relevance know no bounds? CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley on Tuesday night insisted upon trumpeting Obama’s proposal, to spend $100 million to map the human brain, through the hagiographic maneuver of putting Obama into a trilogy with the triumphs of Thomas Jefferson and John Kennedy:

CBS’s Pelley Scolds Boehner as Impediment to Compromise with Obama, Frets ‘He Didn’t Seem Open to Change’

brent.baker — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 02:20:06 +0000

Brent Baker

Previewing the State of the Union address, CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley repeatedly scolded Republican House Speaker John Boehner for daring to criticize President Barack Obama’s commitment to reducing the deficit. “There will be a great deal said about compromise and bi-partisanship, but in reality there seems to be very little mood for it,” Pelley despaired, before citing the Speaker as the culprit. He relayed a Boehner quote: “When it comes to the heavy lifting that has to be done, he doesn’t have the guts to do it.”

Newsweek Makes It Official: Obama’s Inauguration Is ‘The Second Coming’

brent.baker — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 16:23:11 +0000

Brent Baker

Conservatives have long joked that the national press corps see Barack Obama as the second coming of Jesus Christ. Today, Newsweek – at least what’s left of it, an online product for tablets and e-readers – made it official.

Pelley Trumpets Obama’s ‘Remarkable Moment of Candor’ in What Makes the ‘Sacrifices Worth It’

brent.baker — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 03:10:06 +0000

Brent Baker

“Listen for it,” CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley urged viewers Friday night in trumpeting what he hailed as “a remarkable moment of candor” from President Barack Obama “when he told us the sacrifices he makes being President wouldn’t be worth it except for one thing.”

ABC Spikes ‘Dismal’ 1.5% 2nd Quarter GDP, Instead Touts ‘Giant Rally on Wall Street’

brent.baker — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 06:26:34 +0000

Brent Baker

CBS and NBC on Friday night aired full stories on the very weak 1.5 percent second quarter GDP rate, down from an anemic two percent in the first quarter, yet – incredibly – ABC’s World News, which had time to champion how First Lady Michelle Obama brought her “Let’s Move” campaign to London where she “indulged in some Olympic daydreaming,” didn’t consider newsworthy the bad news fo

Stephanopoulos Celebrates ObamaCare Victory with Someone ‘Special,’ Kennedy’s Widow

brent.baker — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 07:42:36 +0000

Brent Baker

How cozy. Former Democratic operative turned television news host George Stephanopoulos used his ABC News platform on Sunday to celebrate, with Vicki Reggie Kennedy, ObamaCare’s Supreme Court victory. Stephanopoulos excitedly plugged his “special exclusive guest” on This Week, announcing: “We begin with something special. The first reaction on the ruling from Vicki Kennedy, the widow of Senator Ted Kennedy who fought for universal health care...”

NBC’s Todd Avoids Obama’s ‘Incompetence,’ Falsely Touts Health Care as Obama’s ‘Strongest Positive’

brent.baker — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 13:01:42 +0000

Brent Baker

Some creative spin in favor of President Barack Obama from Chuck Todd on Tuesday’s NBC Nightly News. Recounting the results of a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll which puts Obama ahead of Mitt Romney by 47 to 44 percent, Todd declared Obama’s “strongest positive was a surprise, ‘health care,’” though it actually was the third-most common positive reply to the question: “What is the first thi

Washington Post’s Milbank Claims: ‘Media Would Love to Have an Obama Scandal to Cover’

brent.baker — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 12:33:47 +0000

Brent Baker

Unintentionally defining irony, in the midst of trying to rationalize news media disinterest in the “Fast & Furious” scandal by maintaining “it’s not a political scandal” but “a scandal of government,” Washington Post columnist and former reporter Dana Milbank claimed on CNN's Reliable Sources: “It’s not an ideological thing. I think the media would love to have an Obama scandal to cover.”

Cue the laugh track as you watch the video.

George Clooney: If Obama Were a Republican He’d Be Considered ‘Very Successful’

brent.baker — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 13:57:24 +0000

Brent Baker

If only President Barack Obama were a Republican, then the public would realize he has been “a very successful” President, but Democrats, actor/activist George Clooney fretted, “are just very poor...at explaining” their accomplishments. The assessment from Clooney, who also declared “the President that I voted for, I’m very proud of,” came in a Meet the Press online “Press Pass” sit-down with David Gregory aired on the real Meet the Press. Clooney imagined that if he and Obama were Republicans: