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Sep
28
2012

Romney's Latest Gaffe: Telling the Truth on Taxes

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muir-abc-taxes

We're familiar with campaign reports that don't do enough factchecking. But here's a  strange one from ABC World News (9/25/12), which seems to be complaining that Mitt Romney departed from his usual misleading claims about how Obama's been raising your taxes. Pointing this out would be a good thing. The problem is that you have a hard time figuring out what the facts are, because the truth doesn't seem to be the primary concern of the segment. Here's what correspondent David Muir said: MUIR: Today, something from Romney about the President we haven't heard before. Romney has long argued the [...]

Filed Under: ABC, Election, Factchecking, Mitt Romney, NBC, Taxes Tagged With: ,
Sep
19
2012

ABC Misses Real Difference Between Romney, Obama Tapes

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From last night's ABC World News (9/18/12): DIANE SAWYER: But we do remember four years ago the president, then candidate, was at a fundraiser, it was during the primary, but he too was caught on tape. JAKE TAPPER: That's right, he was talking about the difficulty of reaching small-town Pennsylvanians and how, because of tough economic circumstances, they get bitter, they cling to religion and guns and xenophobia. But here is the key difference between what then-Senator Obama said four years and this Mitt Romney tape. What Obama said then, that was seven months before the election. He had time [...]

Filed Under: ABC, Barack Obama, Election, Mitt Romney Tagged With:
Aug
21
2012

ABC: Social Security Running Out of Money?

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Part of ABC's This Week show (8/19/12) was devoted to the idea that, as host Jake Tapper put it, the U.S. economy is at a potentially defining moment: The great debate: Can we restore the nation's finances, or is the U.S. headed toward bankruptcy–an issue at the forefront of the presidential debate, especially since Mitt Romney's selection of Congressman Paul Ryan. Setting aside the notion of "bankruptcy," it's worth pointing out that despite Ryan's professed interest in taming the debt, his budget plans don't actually do much of that. The "all-star panel of experts" was going to tackle this weighty [...]

Filed Under: ABC, Social Security Tagged With:
Aug
20
2012

What if Paul Ryan Isn't Really a Wonk? Krugman vs. Campaign Reporters

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If you know anything of substance about Paul Ryan, it's that the Republican vice presidential pick knows his numbers. A Washington Post profile today by Michael Leahy (8/20/12) tells us: He got his start on Capitol Hill as a 19-year-old intern working in the mailroom of Sen. Bob Kasten (R-Wis.). That led in time to positions on congressional committees and habits he hasn't broken since, including a staffer's zeal for voracious research, for charts and PowerPoint presentations, and a facility for budget numbers that he recites with a savant's glee. As if that weren't clear enough, we're told later that [...]

Filed Under: ABC, Budget, Election, Media Criticism, New York, New York Times, Washington Post Tagged With: , , , , , ,
Aug
16
2012

ABC's Unrealistic Paul Ryan Reality Check

By 25 Comments

Campaign rhetoric, we're led to believe, can be hard to sort out. If Paul Ryan says his budget plan protects Medicare and the Democrats say it "ends" it, what should we believe? Those are the kinds of questions journalism is supposed to answer. Which is why ABC World News' August 14 "Reality Check" on Medicare was such a failure. Actually, the fact that it wasn't very good wasn't a total shocker. That was to be expected as soon as you heard Diane Sawyer said this: So we asked ABC's Jon Karl for a reality check on the plan and what [...]

Filed Under: ABC, Election, Medicare Tagged With: , ,
Aug
15
2012

ABC News: Tough Choice on Paul Ryan

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abc-ryan-page

Heading over to the ABC News website, I found this on the homepage: Tough call: Do you read the story about Paul Ryan's impressive physique first, or his awesome bowhunting skills?

Filed Under: ABC, Election Tagged With:
Aug
08
2012

Harry Reid, the New Joe McCarthy

By 36 Comments

Senator Harry Reid started a whole lot of trouble on the campaign trail when he told some Huffington Post reporters that he'd heard that Mitt Romney paid no taxes. As in zero. For an entire decade. Now there are reasons to be skeptical of Reid's account. As Dana Milbank pointed out, Reid's record does not inspire confidence. He says he got this scoop in a phone call with a Bain Capital investor. There is no other documentation or information to substantiate the allegation. Of course, Romney could settle the issue by releasing his tax returns– which is presumably why Reid [...]

Filed Under: ABC, CBS, Media Criticism, Mitt Romney, Taxes, Washington Post Tagged With: , , , , ,
Jul
11
2012

Fast & Furious Conspiracies: Not Just at CBS

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The "Fast & Furious" scandal has been a staple of right-wing media, where it is either evidence of a White House dodging accountability (a  legitimate argument) or a plot to create chaos in order to pass more stringent gun laws (a bizarre and nonsensical conspiracy theory). But a recent Fortune investigation (6/27/12) showed that the central claim at the heart of the scandal is flawed. Was there an ATF program to "walk" guns into Mexico in order to catch drug lords on the other side of the border? No. The problem, as the story documented, was that prosecutors were reluctant [...]

Filed Under: ABC, CBS, magazines, Washington Post Tagged With: , , ,
Jul
09
2012

The Future of the Planet? Get Over It

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You would think–or maybe hope–that journalists who have to appear alongside climate change deniers would find it a bit awkward. It used to be that media were faulted for creating false "balance" in coverage of climate change–quoting reality-based scientists in roughly equal measure with non-scientists who either don't think there's a problem or don't think human activity has anything to do with it. That doesn't seem to be as much of a problem anymore (though it made a comeback after "Climategate"). But ABC has a built-in climate problem: The network's Sunday morning show regularly includes right-wing climate denier George Will, [...]

Filed Under: ABC, Climate Change Tagged With: , ,
Jun
26
2012

This Just In: Hillary Clinton's Scrunchie

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Take my word for it. Diane Sawyer, ABC World News (6/21/12): And now to the ongoing master class in letting your hair down, by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.These past few months, we've been watching her swig a beer, brandish a scrunchie without apology, and makeup free and telling everybody she doesn't care what they think. And today, donning wing-tipped purple glasses at the swearing in of a new assistant secretary whose favorite color just happens to be purple. Proof that nobody does unplugged quite like the secretary of state, who is leaving office by the end of the year. [...]

Filed Under: ABC, Gender, Politics Tagged With: ,
Jun
21
2012

ABC: European Elections Matter, Mostly to American 401(k)s

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Parliamentary elections in Greece saw the conservative-leaning New Democracy party win a narrow victory over the left-wing anti-austerity Syriza coalition. This was good news for an array of major players who prefer Greece to stick to the current punishing bailout plan arranged by European countries. ABC World News showed which angle mattered most when anchor Diane Sawyer led a report (6/18/12) on the election results this way: And now we move on to your money and the momentary sigh of relief for every American with a 401(k). The voters of Greece this weekend decided to stay the course in Europe, [...]

Filed Under: ABC, Economy, Europe Tagged With: , , , ,
Jun
14
2012

Was Houla Massacre a Manufactured Atrocity?

By 49 Comments

It's been widely reported that on May 25, pro-Syrian forces massacred 108 civilians in the Syrian village of Houla, including 34 women and 49 children, many of whose throats were cut. The reported atrocity has sparked the latest round of appeals for intervention in the conflict in Syria. Syrian diplomats have been expelled from several countries over the massacre, including by U.S., Britain, France, Australia and Canada;  "Syrian Diplomats Expelled Across World as Outrage Over Houla Massacre Grows," the British Guardian (5/29/12) declared. "Who Will Stop the Massacres?" asked the headline on a May 29 Washington Post editorial.  As the editors [...]

Filed Under: ABC, Syria, Washington Post Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
Jun
07
2012

Disney Makes the World a Better Place, Reports Disney's Network

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On Tuesday (6/5/12), ABC World News anchor Diane Sawyer introduced a news segment:   Michelle Obama appeared today with the CEO of our parent company, Disney, because Disney decided to do something historic to help fight childhood obesity and called in the big guns to do it, including a very, very famous mouse. The "historic" move: Food ads during ABC's children's programming will now have to meet what correspondent Reena Ninan called "strict nutritional standards." Ninan also touted Disney's earlier decision to phase out trans fats from its theme parks and offer "healthier options." ("They say they saw real results. [...]

Filed Under: ABC, Advertisers, Media Business Tagged With: ,
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