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Nov

2012

Fox's 'Best Journalistic Instincts' Are Nothing to Write Home About

New York Times media reporter David Carr (11/12/12) had some kind words for Fox News Channel's Election Night coverage: On Tuesday night, the people in charge of Fox News were confronted with a stark choice after it became clear that Mr. Romney had fallen short: was Fox, first and foremost, a place for advocacy or a place for news? In this moment, at least, Fox chose news. After relating the story of Karl Rove's contrarian insistence that Obama had not won Ohio and thus the election–including the oddest part of the story, which is that one of Fox News' featured [...]

Filed Under: Barack Obama, Election, Fox News Tagged With: Bret Baier, Brit Hume, David Carr, Juan Williams, Karl Rove, Megyn Kelly

Nov

2012

Corporate Media Lose Their Favorite 'Warrior Scholar'

By Peter Hart 31 Comments

There's no doubt that the sex scandal that prompted CIA director David Petraeus's sudden resignation late last week is a big story. New details–verified or not–seem to arrive almost by the hour. But the reason it seems to have shaken so many media figures is because Petraeus was uniquely beloved by many in the corporate media, who considered him both an accessible source and a war hero. NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams called him (11/9/12) a "a man of such sterling reputation," and confided on the air to one guest that "it is impossible to be a member of [...]

Filed Under: ABC, Afghanistan, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, New York Times, Washington Post Tagged With: Andrea Mitchell, Brian Williams, David Gergen, David Ignatius, David Petraeus, Erin Burnett, Howard Kurtz, Martha Raddatz, Michael Hastings, Richard Cohen, Spencer Ackerman, Wired, Wolf Blitzer

Nov

2012

Mittmentum: Reporters Thought He Might Win Because He Said So

By Peter Hart 26 Comments

Asked about the pre-election sense that Mitt Romney might win the election, CNN reporter Candy Crowley told viewers (11/7/12): There was an optimism in the Romney camp. But it wasn't based on the numbers. It was based on the feel of things. And one thing you know when you cover a campaign, the feel of things can be really deceiving. She's not alone–others had the same sense that the numbers couldn't be what they were. A Politico story (10/31/12) reported that this feeling was fairly widespread among elite media: Gov. Mitt Romney's campaign says it still has momentum. President Barack [...]

Filed Under: ABC, CNN, Election, Mitt Romney, Politico, Polling Tagged With: Candy Crowley, Jonathan Karl

Nov

2012

It's Awkward for NBC When MSNBC Tells the Truth

By Jim Naureckas 23 Comments

The New York Times has a news piece today (11/6/12) reporting that MSNBC is just like Fox News, and isn't that awful. Now, MSNBC, for all its flaws, is not really anything like Fox News. And most of Times reporter Jeremy Peters' evidence for their similarity comes from a Pew study of "positive" and "negative" news coverage–the kind of study that will only be meaningful after someone comes up with an objective scale for measuring how positive or negative reality is. But I was struck by this anecdotal example of the Fox-like "partisan bitterness" supposedly on display on MSNBC: In [...]

Filed Under: Election, Fox News, MSNBC, New York Times Tagged With: Jeremy Peters, Paul Weyrich, Rachel Maddow

Nov

2012

Yes, You Can Talk About Climate Change on TV

By Peter Hart 9 Comments

FAIR's new alert takes aim at the Sunday morning chat shows (Meet the Press, This Week, Face the Nation and Fox News Sunday) for ignoring climate change this weekend– right after "superstorm" Sandy devastated the East Coast. As we noted, NBC host David Gregory said early on his program: "Should more attention be paid to a changing climate's impact on the severity of these storms?" That was the last mention of climate change on the show. I know a lot of people might say, "Well, with the election around the corner, politics shows have to stick to electoral politics." I [...]

Filed Under: Climate Change, Election, Media Activism, MSNBC Tagged With: Chris Hayes

Nov

2012

Worst Media Moment on Hurricane Sandy?

By Peter Hart 11 Comments

CNN's Erin Burnett (screengrab by mroach)

CNN reporter Erin Burnett's comment (10/29/12) that it was "kind of neat" to see New York City break its flooding record as the storm surge from Hurricane Sandy flooded Battery Park was bizarre, to say the very least: I just want to give everyone an update of where we are right now in terms of the record books. This is one for the record books. In terms of the storm surge here in Manhattan, Lower Manhattan where I am right now, almost a three-foot record, three feet. We're at 12.75 feet, as you can see, it's above my ankles now [...]

Filed Under: CBS, Climate Change, CNN, Election Tagged With: Bob Schieffer, Erin Burnett, Peggy Noonan

Nov

2012

Politico Makes You Glad Election Is Almost Over

By Peter Hart 11 Comments

The gossipy, horse race-obsessed outlet Politico ran a story on October 29 about the credibility of polling expert Nate Silver, whose 538 blog at the New York Times is a must-read for people interested in election forecasting. What Silver does isn't, on one level, all that tricky–his model combines national and state polls and generates probabilities about election outcomes. This model finds it highly likely that Barack Obama will win the election. It's probability, not a crystal ball or a bet. Politico's Dylan Byers notes that Silver's model says this "even as the polls have [Romney] almost neck-and-neck with the incumbent." [...]

Filed Under: MSNBC, New York Times, Politico, Polling Tagged With: David Brooks, Joe Scarborough, Nate Silver

Oct

2012

FAIR TV: Killer Drones Stop Terrorism, PBS Gets Iran Wrong, New Obama Ad Is…Racist?

By Peter Hart 4 Comments

On the new episode of FAIR TV: Is a new Obama ad…racist? We'll take a look at how PBS is misreporting Iran, and also take a look at Joe Klein's remarkable defense of killing four-year-old girls in other countries. Take a look–and please spread the word.

Filed Under: Barack Obama, Iran, MSNBC, PBS, Time, Washington Post Tagged With: drones, Joe Klein, NewsHour

Oct

2012

Morning Joe's Drone Debate: Whose Four-Year-Old Girls Should Be Killed?

By Peter Hart 32 Comments

MSNBC's Morning Joe had a remarkable discussion of U.S. drone attacks today (10/23/12). Here's a clip of the most intense moments of the exchange between the conservative-leaning Joe Scarborough and Time columnist Joe Klein, who is occasionally mistaken for a liberal: Scarborough offered up a more passionate critique of drone attacks than you're likely to hear from his left-leaning MSNBC colleagues: "If you're between 17 and 30, and you're within a half-mile of a suspect, we can blow you up." When Klein interjects to argue that drones are "decimating bad guys," Scarborough responds that the attacks are "taking out a [...]

Filed Under: Media Criticism, MSNBC, Time, War/Military Tagged With: drones, Joe Klein, Joe Scarborough

Oct

2012

FAIR TV: Factchecking Moderators, Chris Matthews Wants a King, When Advertisers Write the "News"

By Peter Hart 2 Comments

This week on FAIR TV: Who factchecks the debate moderators? What Does Chris Matthews Think is in the Constitution? And why not just let advertisers write the "news"? Please take a look– and spread the word.

Filed Under: ABC, Advertisers, Media Criticism, MSNBC Tagged With: Chris Matthews, factcheck, factchecking, Martha Raddatz, presidential debate, Social Security

Oct

2012

Playing the Role of 'Journalist' at a 'Presidential Debate'

By Peter Hart 13 Comments

CNN reporter Candy Crowley was apparently causing the Obama and Romney campaigns to panic over the weekend. Why? She was telling people she might ask a question at tonight's presidential debate. Time's Mark Halperin reported (10/14/12) that has done a series of interviews on her network in which she has suggested that she will assume a broader set of responsibilities. As Crowley put it last week, "Once the table is kind of set by the town-hall questioner, there is then time for me to say, 'Hey, wait a second, what about X, Y, Z?'" The campaigns apparently didn't much care [...]

Filed Under: Barack Obama, CNN, Election, Mitt Romney, Time Tagged With: Candy Crowley, Commission on Presidential Debates, debate, Mark Halperin

Oct

2012

CNN Exposes 'Villain' Chavez's Dastardly Plot to House the Poor

By Jim Naureckas 23 Comments

Corporate media's depiction of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is often cartoonish, but the lead from David Frum's piece from CNN.com (10/9/12) takes the cake: Venezuela's authoritarian president Hugo Chavez is a villain out of a Batman movie: buffoonish and sinister in equal measure. You want to be careful about throwing around words like "buffoonish," though, when you're making arguments like "Hugo Chavez has laid Venezuela's economy to waste." Here's a chart of Venezuela's per capita GDP since 1999, when Chavez was first elected; since 2003, when Chavez took control of the national oil company from its self-enriching management, the purchasing [...]

Filed Under: CNN, Economy, Venezuela Tagged With: David Frum, Hugo Chavez

Oct

2012

When Did Checking the Facts Become Taking a Candidate 'at His Word'?

By Peter Hart 20 Comments

Before the first presidential debate, CNN sent out a press release to promote the idea that they'd be doing factchecking of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. It's kind of sad that this would be considered a novel enough idea to warrant a press release, but the actual factchecking was nothing you'd want to call attention to. Anchor Wolf Blitzer cued up the night's first "reality check" from correspondent John Berman, "on the president's claim that Mitt Romney wants a $5 trillion tax cut." And here comes Berman's factcheck: Now let's look at the facts here. Mitt Romney does propose across-the-board [...]

Filed Under: CNN, Factchecking, Mitt Romney, Taxes Tagged With: John Berman, Wolf Blitzer

Fox's 'Best Journalistic Instincts' Are Nothing to Write Home About

Corporate Media Lose Their Favorite 'Warrior Scholar'

Mittmentum: Reporters Thought He Might Win Because He Said So

It's Awkward for NBC When MSNBC Tells the Truth

Yes, You Can Talk About Climate Change on TV

Worst Media Moment on Hurricane Sandy?

Politico Makes You Glad Election Is Almost Over

FAIR TV: Killer Drones Stop Terrorism, PBS Gets Iran Wrong, New Obama Ad Is…Racist?

Morning Joe's Drone Debate: Whose Four-Year-Old Girls Should Be Killed?

Playing the Role of 'Journalist' at a 'Presidential Debate'

CNN Exposes 'Villain' Chavez's Dastardly Plot to House the Poor

When Did Checking the Facts Become Taking a Candidate 'at His Word'?

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