Brian Williams introduced a report on NBC Nightly News (4/21/10) with this declaration: "Public schools from coast to coast in this country are looking at tens of thousands of layoffs, a lot of them teachers, because the money is not there." Correspondent Ron Allen went on to report: In Springfield, Illinois, thousands of teachers turned out to try to save their jobs and programs; music, art and sports activities all being threatened with elimination. Many school districts are hoping for federal stimulus help, but in the meantime are locked into longer teacher contracts and higher salaries for tenured teachers. Some [...]
Jan
14
2010
MSNBC Goes to a Suspect Source on Iranian Scientist's Killing
By 6 Comments
Various forces have been accused of being behind the January 12 killing of Iranian nuclear scientist Massoud Ali Mohammadi–including the Iranian government, the Iranian opposition, the United States and Israel. To sort through this murky subject, MSNBC (1/12/10) turned to Democratic congressmember Jane Harman, who confidently told Andrea Mitchell: I think the logic here is that the Iranian government or some group associated with them took this guy out. I mean, it's a sign of desperation to start killing your own nuclear scientists. So who is Harman, that we should trust her sense of what the "logic" behind Middle East [...]
Dec
17
2009
NBC's Bogus Tea Party Poll
By 18 Comments
The new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll is getting attention for one rather unusual finding: that the right-wing Tea Party movement is more popular than either the Democratic or Republican parties. The point was made on MSNBC's First Read website and on the channel's Morning Joe program this morning (12/17/09). Don't buy it. The MSNBC headline– sure to be repeated everywhere on Fox News today– is straight-forward: "Tea Party More Popular Than Dems, GOP." The numbers tell you that Republicans are viewed positively by 28 percent of the public, the Democrats are at 35 percent, whilethe Tea Party is at 41 [...]
Oct
19
2009
Sarah Palin, Health Policy Expert
By 9 Comments
A bit of NBC Nightly News last night, from reporter Mike Viqueria: But now Mr. Obama faces more friendly fire. After a key committee passed a plan to pay for reform with a tax on high-cost policies, major unions, normally Obama allies, took out full-page newspaper ads complaining that the tax will hit labor hardest and vowing that, without changes, they say, "We will oppose it." And late last night opposition from a more familiar foe, Sarah Palin posting on her Facebook page and echoing insurance industry claims that the latest plan will mean higher premiums, writing, "Unintended consequences always [...]
Oct
19
2009
Bon Jovi Is News?
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The New York Times reported (10/15/09) that rocker Jon Bon Jovi has arranged an unusual deal to become an "artist in residency" on NBC, appearing across the network's various shows to promote an upcoming album. The deal is all the more striking because it includes a segment on NBC Nightly News–part of the show's "Making a Difference" series–topromote Bon Jovi's philanthropic pursuits. The idea apparently originated with Bon Jovi, who took it to NBC.The financial arrangements behind the deal don't appear to be available, but the network already seems devoted to the idea:"NBC indicated that it intended to make the [...]
Oct
13
2009
Is Engel Too Opinionated–or Does He Have the Wrong Opinion?
By 8 Comments
When NBC chief foreign affairs correspondent Richard Engel recently returned from Afghanistan, he told MSNBC's Morning Joe, "I honestly think it's probably time to start leaving the country." Engel added, "I really don't see how this is going to end in anything but tears." Engel's comments caused Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz (10/12/09) to raise an eyebrow at a reporter stating an opinion: "That sounds awfully opinionated for a working reporter," wrote Kurtz. But we had to wonder if what really attracted Kurtz's scrutiny was Engel's stating of an opinion, or the opinion itself? After all, for years FAIR [...]
Sep
04
2009
Big Media Ponder Source of Right's 'Media Firestorms'
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One of the items enumerated in Glenn Greenwald's round-up of "Various Matters" for Salon (9/4/09, ad-viewing required) addresses how NBC's "Chuck Todd this week noted the series of petty scandals the right has been manufacturing and remarked: 'The ability of some conservatives to create media firestorms is still much greater than liberals these days'"–which viewpoint Greenwald calls out as really reflective of one of the more irritating media syndromes: their tendency to talk about media coverage as though they have nothing to do with it and can't exert any influence over it; media coverage is just something that happens to [...]
Aug
24
2009
Chuck Todd, Meet Jeremy Scahill
By 1 Comment
Independent journalist Jeremy Scahill (The Nation, Democracy Now!) appeared on HBO's Real Time With Bill Maher alongside NBC White House correspondent Chuck Todd.Because Jeremy isn't the type to let such an opportunity to go to waste,he used some of his time to castigate the corporate media for failing to question the White House about the reliance on private contracting firms like Blackwater in Iraq and Afghanistan. And he also brought up Todd'sopinion thatinvestigating Bush-era abuses would be a distraction. Scahill shared with Salon.com'sGlenn Greenwald what happened off camera: Right as we walked off stage, he said to me, "That was [...]
Jul
17
2009
Big Media's 'Steadfastly Neutral' 'Partisan Ideologues'
Asking his readers to "remember" that, on NBC, Chuck Todd "is billed as a reporter covering the White House, not a pundit expressing opinions," Salon's Glenn Greenwald (7/15/09, ad-viewing required) examines a Todd appearance on the MSNBC show Morning Joe "discussing reports that [U.S. Attorney General] Eric Holder is likely to appoint a prosecutor to investigate Bush torture crimes. Needless to say, everyone agreed without question that investigations were a ridiculous distraction from what really matters and would be terribly unfair": In response to virtually every media criticism (at least the few they acknowledge), establishment journalists will insist that their [...]
Apr
01
2009
Local TV Poaches, Sensationalizes, Community Reportage
By 1 Comment
"Co-director of Press Pass TV, a youth organization in Boston," Cara Lisa Powers (Women In Media & News, 3/31/09) is telling how, having "shot a story at the home of a community member who had a scare Friday night when shots were fired outside his childrenâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s bedroom," her group "sent the story to local media outlets with a press release to get our solution-oriented message as far as it would go." Gaining some pick-up in local media, Powers points out that, "all we asked was that any other news outlets that used the story let us know": So we were [...]
