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By 6-to-1 Margin, Networks Paint Debate Over “Tax Cuts,” Not Raising Rates

Posted on December 7, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Comments Off on By 6-to-1 Margin, Networks Paint Debate Over “Tax Cuts,” Not Raising Rates

Even with Monday’s deal between President Obama and top Republicans, no American’s income tax rates will actually decline on January 1 (although, if the deal passes, workers will notice a modest reduction in their payroll taxes in 2011). Yet throughout this debate, the broadcast networks have insisted on framing the debate as about “tax cuts” and “tax breaks,” not about forestalling a tax increase that could jeopardize the weak recovery. MRC analysts reviewed all 23 ABC, CBS and NBC evening news stories about the tax debate from the start of the lame-duck session of Congress on November 15 through December 5, just before the GOP and Obama struck their deal. Network reporters used the phrase “tax cut” a total of 71 times to characterize the issue at hand. CBS’s Nancy Cordes, for example, talked about “the battle over the Bush tax cuts” on the November 15 Evening News. Two nights later, NBC’s Chuck Todd related a new poll showing how “49 percent say don’t give the wealthy these tax cuts” — as if the “the wealthy” would be getting some new gift from the government. read more

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Bozell Column: Still More Carter-Coddling

Posted on September 21, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Jimmy Carter is out with his 26th book, so that means he is on his 26th round of slavish liberal-media interviews hailing him as a genius and a peacemaker. No wonder we’re so tired of him. While the Bushes have remained dignified and largely silent as ex-presidents, Carter and Bill Clinton just cannot resist venomously attacking Republican presidents and conservative politicians, perhaps because whenever they do this, TV anchors bow and scrape before them and hail their “achievements” and compassion and generosity of spirit toward mankind. And so we have to put up with this megalomaniacal failure, along with his tired, angry opinions yet again. On CNN, Larry King asked if the Tea Party was racist. (That question is as insulting as King is old, and CNN irrelevant.) Carter answered that it is only a tiny minority, but then added that it’s goaded by Fox News and Newt Gingrich. “I think that Gingrich five years ago would be embarrassed at what Newt Gingrich is saying today and doing today.” He said because Gingrich is running for president, he has to “go hard right and appeal to the extreme.” But Carter feels poor Obama is “suffering from perhaps the worst Washington environment of any president in history, and I would even include Abraham Lincoln as we led up to the war between the states.” Amazing, isn’t it? Carter can sit there and say ridiculous junk – failing to get one or two Republican votes on liberal bills is a darker and more divided political environment than the prelude to the Civil War? – and Larry King just nods. No wonder he’s been put out to pasture. Speaking of ludicrous claims, on “60 Minutes,” CBS reporter Lesley Stahl asserted that Carter was the most successful president in modern times, more successful than even Ronald Reagan. “But when all is said and done, and many will be surprised to hear this: Jimmy Carter got more of his programs passed than Reagan and Nixon, Ford, Bush 1, Clinton or Bush 2.” And many would most certainly not be surprised to hear that Lesley Stahl would try to rewrite history this foolishly on national TV. Passing a number of “programs” isn’t a measure of success. Doesn’t it matter if those programs worked? Did Carter’s legislation succeed in whipping inflation and bringing full employment? Or did he preside over the most disastrous economy since the Great Depression? Did he get the hostages home? Or were they sent home out of fear of incoming President Reagan? Stahl wasn’t done, fortunately for this column, which is writing itself: “A lot of critics of yours, when you were President, say that you’ve been a fantastic ex-President. You hear that all the time.” Click. Change channel. On “Today,” NBC’s Matt Lauer inquired how Carter might be evaluated today by people who were born after 1980. (In other words, people who didn’t live through the misery of Carter’s incompetence.) If they read Carter’s book, would they think his presidency was a success or failure? Naturally, said Carter, “I think success.” He claimed to advance peace and human rights – despite troubling facts like the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the communist takeover of pretty much every damn country they wanted  on his watch. Carter also took a turn with NBC anchor Brian Williams, who worked as a White House Fellow during Carter’s presidency. (He didn’t mention that.) Williams lauded Carter’s “brutally honest” book, and noticed a recent photo of assembled presidents showed Carter a little off to one side. He asked sympathetically: “What is it about you, you think, the way you’ve decided to conduct your life in post-presidency? Do you feel listened to? Do you feel that you received your due, or do you feel, in fact, apart from the crowd?” Carter was brutally honest, all right – about his own inflated self-importance. “No, I feel that my role as a former president is probably superior to that of other presidents, primarily because of the activism and the injection of working of the Carter Center into international affairs, and to some degree domestic affairs.” Williams did note that after the taping, this statement “raised tension and eyebrows,” but Carter could only retort, not retract: “What I meant was for 27 years the Carter Center has provided me with superior opportunities to do good.” Like King, Williams wanted Carter’s commentary on how “such high numbers of people believe that this American-born Christian president is either foreign-born or a Muslim or both?” Carter obliged by slamming Fox News for “totally distorting everything possible concerning the facts.” This, from the man who thinks it’s factual that he was better for America than Ronald Reagan.

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MRC Study: ABC, CBS and NBC Tilt Ground Zero Mosque Debate by Smearing Americans as ‘Islamophobic’

Posted on September 15, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

By a wide margin — 66 percent to 29 percent, according to the most recent ABC News/ Washington Post poll — the public is opposed to building that proposed $100 million Islamic cultural center near the site of the destroyed World Trade Towers. This is not a lightly-held opinion: more than half (53%) told ABC news they are “strongly opposed” to building it near Ground Zero, vs. only 14 percent who report being “strongly” in favor. (Scroll to Question 30 .) So in the face of such obvious public sentiment, are the big broadcast networks reflecting such public sentiment in their coverage? Or are journalists implicitly repudiating their viewers by touting accusations that opposition to the mosque is motivated by America’s supposed “Islamophobia”? To find out, MRC analysts reviewed all 52 stories about the Ground Zero mosque on the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts from August 14 through September 13 — the first month after President Obama propelled the issue into the headlines with his remarks at a White House dinner. The results show that the networks have tilted in favor of mosque supporters and against public opinion, with more than half (55%) of all soundbites or reporter comments coming down on the pro-mosque side of the debate, vs. 45 percent for opponents. Even those overall numbers fail to show how the debate has grown increasingly tilted over time. During the first week (August 14-20), the networks actually provided more visibility to mosque opponents — 55 percent of soundbites, vs. 45 percent for mosque supporters. But in the following weeks (August 21 to September 13), the networks’ coverage lurched in the other direction, with mosque supporters receiving a 63 percent to 37 percent advantage. (See chart.) Our analysts tallied as “pro-mosque” all statements and soundbites that either: supported the idea of building the Islamic center on its currently proposed site; defended or praised the project’s organizers (mainly the Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf); or criticized the other side as bigoted or “Islamophobic.” Anti-mosque statements/soundbites presented the other side: criticized the plans to build the center and/or the project’s organizers, or defended mosque opponents from charges of bigotry. The shift in coverage occurred after mosque proponents began tarring their opponents as bigots. A pair of protests on Sunday, August 22 — one in favor of the mosque, one against — drew coverage on all three network newscasts, and all three highlighted the accusation from pro- mosque demonstrators that a contrary stance was evidence of what Time magazine’s cover story that week dubbed “Islamophobia.” What had been a relatively even-handed debate about balancing the sensitivities of 9/11 families with America’s tradition of religious freedom morphed into a one-sided story about beleaguered Muslims facing hardship at the hands of bigoted Americans. On the August 23 Nightly News , for example, NBC’s Ron Allen picked up how “many Muslim-Americans insist this debate is more evidence of religious intolerance.” On the August 25 CBS Evening News , fill-in anchor Jeff Glor linked the stabbing of a cab driver to the mosque debate: “That alleged hate crime took place in the shadow of a heated and divisive debate over whether a mosque should be build near Ground Zero….Other controversies over new mosques in Wisconsin and Kentucky have led some to question: Is America becoming Islamophobic, a prejudice against Muslims?” Four days later, on ABC’s World News, correspondent Steve Osunsami cited “a string of recent incidents suggesting that many Americans don’t care for Muslims — the back and forth over the Islamic center near Ground Zero, the cab driver who was stabbed simply for being Muslim.” “Critics say all the rhetoric is fueling anti-Muslim violence,” ABC’s Dan Harris chimed in on the September 5 World News . ABC and CBS both touted exclusive interviews with organizers of the Ground Zero mosque project, but never gave the same privilege to mosque opponents. These interviews were hardly probing. CBS’s Scott Pelley interviewed Sharif el-Gamal, the real estate developer who bought the property two blocks from Ground Zero, excerpts of which were shown on the August 27 and August 30 Evening News . “This facility that is being debated all around the world is universally known as the Ground Zero mosque,” Pelley told el-Gamal. “What do you call it?” “It should be universally known as a hub of culture, a hub of co-existence, a hub of bringing people together,” el-Gamal enthused. ABC’s Christiane Amanpour interviewed Abdul Rauf for the September 12 This Week , with excerpts shown on the September 9 World News . She quoted Abdul Rauf as arguing that failing to proceed with his mosque concept would “strengthen the radicals in the Muslim world, help their recruitment. This will put our people, our soldiers, our troops, our embassies, our citizens, under attack in the Muslim world. And we have expanded and given and fueled terrorism.” Seemingly deaf to what she just heard, Amanpour characterized Abdul Rauf’s statement this way: “So, he said he wasn’t making any threats or predicting any terrible worst case scenario.” Alone among the three evening newscasts, ABC’s World News also offered soundbites to Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) to propose that Americans were prejudiced against Muslims. (NBC’s Today on September 9 also featured a CAIR representative to speak out against Americans as bigoted.) CAIR is currently listed by federal prosecutors as an unindicted co-conspirator in their investigation of funding for Middle Eastern terrorist groups such as Hamas. “I’ve really never seen the level of Islamophobia that we’re experiencing today,” Hooper blasted on the August 16 World News , a soundbite that was repeated on the August 29 broadcast. A week later, on the September 5 World News, Hooper was back to condemn the “hysterical atmosphere we’re in right now.” Parsing the numbers a different way provides some insight into how the networks seem to conceptualize the issue of balance: Debate about the Islamic center itself and/or its organizers was almost perfectly balanced (57 soundbites arguing against the project, vs. 54 soundbites in favor, or a 51-49% split). But the “debate” about whether opposition reflected Islamophobia was almost perfectly one-sided: 27 soundbites (93%) leveling that accusation, with just two soundbites (7%) offering a defense. In other words, the networks permitted a balanced debate about a proposed real estate project, but allowed mosque supporters to attack the majority of Americans as “haters” and “bigots” without adequate debate. That’s yet another sign that the liberal, elite media are hopelessly out of touch with the public they ostensibly serve.  

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CBS: U.S. Muslims ‘Feel Like Strangers in Their Own Country’

Posted on September 10, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Filling in for anchor Katie Couric on Thursday’s CBS Evening News, Early Show co-host Harry Smith introduced a report on opposition to building mosques in some areas of the country: “…they feel like strangers in their own country, Muslims shocked by the growing opposition to new mosques ….building a mosque has suddenly become a hot-button issue in many communities.” Smith expounded on the cause of the protests: “The furor over plans to burn the Koran and the building of the proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero has had ripple effects all across America.” Correspondent Seth Doane followed by focusing on opposition to a proposed mosque in Tennessee: “About 250 Muslim families live here in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. For decades, they’ve lived in peace and have prayed at a small local mosque. But then trouble started brewing over this site, where they want to expand and build a bigger Islamic center.” Doane described the feelings of one Muslim resident: “[Saleh Sbenaty] says even after September 11th, he didn’t see hatred like this.” Doane added: “Nationwide, more than half a dozen proposed Islamic centers have run into roadblocks, from Temecula, California, to Sheboygan, Wisconsin, to the high-profile one near Ground Zero.” He did not explain what those “roadblocks” were. Doane turned to the Sbenaty’s daughter: “Is this really about a building or is it about something bigger?” Dima Sbenaty replied: “It’s about the growing hatred, you know, against Muslims.” Doane warned: “Dima says for the first time she’s scared.” Near the end of the report, Doane cited more evidence of anti-Muslim sentiment in the form of grade school name-calling: “10-year-old Zaid Abuzahra probably had more on his mind than just school. Last week at recess, some bullies learned that he was Muslim.” Abuzahra explained: “This group comes, and starts calling me terrorist, ‘I hear you’re a Muslim. This is America.'” The report included only two brief sound bites of mosque opponents, with Doane portraying them as a radical fringe: “In June, residents packed meetings in protest….And what some call a vocal minority, got louder….A few weeks ago, construction equipment at the site was set on fire, and with that, the arsonists set nerves on edge, too.” Meanwhile, on Thursday’s NBC Nightly News, correspondent Ron Mott also reported on the building of a new mosque in Tennessee, but took a slightly different approach: Last night’s call to prayer outside Memphis was answered by the Muslim faithful as usual: shoes removed, rugs laid, all bowed east toward Mecca, singing Allah’s praises. But what makes this year’s Ramadan different is where they’re worshiping, a Christian church called Heartsong, a sort of ‘welcome to the neighborhood’ gift while a new mosque is built nearby….Neighbors ever since the Memphis Islamic Center bought 31 acres in the heart of the Bible Belt. Unlike other parts of the country, there have been no signs of protests. Doane left out any mention of that story of religious cooperation elsewhere in the state. Here is a full transcript of Doane’s September 9 report: 6:40PM ET TEASE: HARRY SMITH: Up next, they say they feel like strangers in their own country, Muslims shocked by the growing opposition to new mosques. 6:42PM ET SEGMENT:      SMITH: The furor over plans to burn the Koran and the building of the proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero has had ripple effects all across America. There are 2.5 million Muslims in this country, and about 1900 mosques, but building a mosque has suddenly become a hot-button issue in many communities. As Seth Doane reports, that’s just what happened in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. SETH DOANE: Like most 13-year-olds, he’s proud of his school, his soccer trophies, and his country. SALIM SBENATY [MURFREESBORO, TN. RESIDENT]: I’m as American as you get. I’m as patriotic as you get. I mean, I’m America all the way. DOANE: He’s also proud of his religion. Salim Sbenaty is Muslim, and nowadays, this Tennessee town that’s been his family’s home for nearly 20 years, doesn’t feel the same. SBENATY: I’m always afraid for my mom, because there are always a few stupid people out there. You never know what they’re going to do, and my mom wearing that scarf is a symbol saying, ‘hey, I’m Muslim.’ DOANE: About 250 Muslim families live here in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. For decades, they’ve lived in peace and have prayed at a small local mosque. But then trouble started brewing over this site, where they want to expand and build a bigger Islamic center. In June, residents packed meetings in protest. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If construction does begin, I would also encourage contractors to boycott it. DOANE: And what some call a vocal minority, got louder. LARRY ANDERSON [MUFREESBORO, TN. RESIDENT]: They want to make this instead of one nation under God, America, they want to make this one nation under Islam. DOANE: A few weeks ago, construction equipment at the site was set on fire, and with that, the arsonists set nerves on edge, too. Salim’s dad says even after September 11th, he didn’t see hatred like this. SALEH SBENATY: It’s very hard for me to forget what I’ve heard directed toward me from people who don’t know me. DOANE: Nationwide, more than half a dozen proposed Islamic centers have run into roadblocks, from Temecula, California, to Sheboygan, Wisconsin, to the high-profile one near Ground Zero. Is this really about a building or is it about something bigger? DIMA SBENATY [SISTER OF SALIM SBENATY]: It’s about the growing hatred, you know, against Muslims. DOANE: Salim’s 20-year-old sister Dima says for the first time she’s scared. SBENATY: It’s very disappointing. It really is, because this country was founded upon freedom of religion. DOANE: Across town this morning, 10-year-old Zaid Abuzahra probably had more on his mind than just school. Last week at recess, some bullies learned that he was Muslim. ZAID ABUZAHRA: This group comes, and starts calling me terrorist, ‘I hear you’re a Muslim. This is America.’ DOANE: How did it make you feel? ABUZAHRA: Awkward, sad, like, surprising. DOANE: A surprise to many here who watch the news and wonder. SBENATY: First Amendment, ever since I was little and had to memorize it, freedom of religion, it says it. DOANE: In that First Amendment, another right – freedom of speech, for some just harder to hear. Seth Doane, CBS News, Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

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Qur’an Burning Threat Leads Network News to Discover Wisdom of Palin and Pope

Posted on September 8, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

“Anti-Muslim bigotry is a problem, but it is only exacerbated by the media’s tendency to exaggerate and sensationalize it,” the Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto observed Wednesday in looking at the media’s focus on the threat, to burn Qur’ans, by one widely condemned Florida pastor with barely a few dozen followers. On Wednesday night, for the second night in a row, two of the three broadcast network evening news shows led with Terry Jones (ABC and CBS on Tuesday, CBS and NBC on Wednesday.) But what I found amusing is how network journalists decided Sarah Palin, the Pope – and even Pat Robertson – are now sources of wisdom worth publicizing. Over aerial video of the Vatican (screen capture below), Katie Couric teased the CBS Evening News: “Tonight, despite condemnation from the Vatican and a personal plea from Muslims, that Christian minister in Florida is going ahead with plans to burn copies of the Qur’an.” “This is the news,” an excited Diane Sawyer announced on ABC, “not only is Billy Graham’s son Franklin trying to reach out to him, so is Sarah Palin.” Terry Moran relayed how “late today, Sarah Palin tweeted her opposition, writing: ‘Please stand down.’ And long-time televangelist Pat Robertson blasted Pastor Jones this morning.” In the second of two reports at the top of the NBC Nightly News, Andrea Mitchell touted how “the Florida pastor even got the Vatican’s attention” and aired a clip of a Vatican spokesman declaring: “This act would only call for new hate and violence.” Mitchell concluded by approvingly paraphrasing a political figure normally the object of journalistic scorn: “Sarah Palin has now tweeted that Pastor Jones should please stand down , that people have a right to burn a Qur’an but that it is insensitive and an unnecessary provocation that will feed the fire.” Palin’s tweet: “Koran Burning Is Insensitive, Unnecessary; Pastor Jones, Please Stand Down” Back to ABC’s World News, Terry Moran saw sinister views of Islam held by Americans, but failed to point out attitudes have held steady for years and are not spiking: Still, Jones vows to go forward, convinced he speaks for many Americans. A brand new ABC News poll confirms some disturbing facts. 26 percent of Americans admit to feelings of prejudice against Muslims and only 54 percent of Americans see Islam as a peaceful religion. 31 percent say mainstream Islam encourages violence against non-Muslims. In reciting the same numbers online , however, ABC News polling chief Gary Langer added a crucial fact which undermines the implication that negative views of Islam are growing: Just 54 percent call Islam a peaceful religion, while a substantial minority, 31 percent, thinks mainstream Islam encourages violence against non-Muslims. This view has held steady since 2003 , after doubling from 2002. From the WSJ’s online “Best of the Web Today” for September 8 , a perceptive take from James Taranto: …Anti-Muslim bigotry is a problem, but it is only exacerbated by the media’s tendency to exaggerate and sensationalize it – and by the adversarial and snobbish attitude many journalists and some politicians have adopted toward the vast majority of Americans, who are not bigoted and who see the Ground Zero mosque as an affront. The obnoxious pastor and the obnoxious media have a confluence of interests here. It is no credit to the latter that their behavior has been no worse than that of the former. Sawyer set up Moran’s September 8 story: The chorus of voices grew louder today denouncing that Florida pastor who plans to burn the Qur’an on Saturday, the anniversary of 9/11. And, as we told you last night, Terry Jones’ church has only a couple of dozen members, but tonight, this is the news: Not only is Billy Graham’s son Franklin trying to reach out to him, so is Sarah Palin. And, we have a new poll showing what Americans really think and know about Islam. Here’s Terry Moran. …. TERRY MORAN: Late today, Sarah Palin tweeted her opposition, writing: “Please stand down.” And long-time televangelist Pat Robertson blasted Pastor Jones this morning. PAT ROBERTSON: Imagine a pastor that is so egotistical that he would sacrifice the lives of missionaries and soldiers to go forward with something. This is so stupid. CBS Evening News, September 8: After Couric’s tease quoted above (“Tonight, despite condemnation from the Vatican and a personal plea from Muslims, that Christian minister in Florida is going ahead with plans to burn copies of the Qur’an”), she related in her opening: “And the Vatican said quote, “This act would only call for new hate and violence.’”

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Olbermann Sarcastically ‘Thanks’ Bush for Starting Troop Withdrawal, ‘Neocons Lied to Get Us in There’

Posted on September 2, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

On Wednesday’s Countdown show, responding to conservatives who wanted President Obama to give more credit to President Bush for apparent successes in Iraq, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann sarcastically thanked the former President and charged that the war in Iraq was Bush’s “false war.” He went on to claim that, “The neocons lied about Iraq to get us in there.” Guest Jeremy Scahill of the left-wing “The Nation” magazine joined in slamming President Bush and “neocons” for the Iraq war, claimed the troop surge did not play a significant role in stabilizing the country, and ended up asserting that Bush administration members who supported the invasion “shouldn’t be able to leave their houses without being confronted with the death and destruction that their lies caused.” And, even though various news outlets reported on the presence of al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab Zarqawi in the country years before the 2003 invasion, Scahill claimed that “it was the Bush administration’s policy in Iraq that created an al-Qaeda presence in that country.” But, as previously documented by NewsBusters , back in January 2003 and again in March 2004, the NBC Nightly News relayed claims that the Bush administration had “passed up several opportunities to take [Zarqawi] out well before the Iraq war began.” Below is a complete transcript of the segment with Jeremy Scahill from the Wednesday, September 1, Countdown show on MSNBC: KEITH OLBERMANN: But praising Mr. Bush was not enough for those war supporters, unrealistic even by Bill Kristol’s standards. Former Bush National Security Advisor Steven Hadley told the Wall Street Journal, quote, “I thought I owed it to the former President that somewhere out there, somebody gives him some credit and points out that he is the one actually that started withdrawing U.S. troops.” Okay, I’ll do it. I, Keith Olbermann, do hereby give former U.S. President George Walker Bush some credit for starting to withdraw U.S. troops, except for those who were withdrawn because they were already dead – 4,427 of them – for whose presence in that nation I also credit President Bush. So, thank you, Mr. Bush, for starting to withdraw those troops lucky enough not to die in your false war. Thank you, Mr. Bush, for starting to withdraw those troops lucky enough to leave before they joined the ranks of the 31,000 whose bodies and lives and futures were shattered by your false war. Thank you for starting to withdraw after bankrupting our nation for your war after it became clear even Iraq would no longer let you stay, and just in time for America to try to accomplish something in Afghanistan, nine years after you let Osama bin Laden get away so you could fight the war for which America, we are told, should now thank you. Adding his thanks tonight, the national security reporter for the Nation magazine, Jeremy Scahill, also the author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army. Jeremy, thanks for your time tonight. JEREMY SCAHILL, THE NATION: Thank you. OLBEMRANN: All right, go ahead. Share your thanks to President Bush while we’re on this. SCAHILL: Well, Keith, you know who should be thanking President Bush tonight? The Iranian government. They have a much greater influence in Iraq now than they ever have had. Russian and Chinese oil companies that have gotten a lot of the oil contracts there. Anyone who likes to kill Americans should thank President Bush. And also among those that should thank President Bush are the people in possession of the billions of missing dollars that went missing in George Bush`s Iraq. The people who don’t have any obligation to thank President Bush are the families of the thousands of U.S. servicemen and women that died in that country, the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians that died, the millions of Iraqis that are displaced as a result of this illegal, immoral war that unfortunately, Keith, and we have to say this, was supported by Hillary Clinton when she was a Senator, and Joe Biden when he was a Senator. So the blame should be shared across the board. But George Bush is number one responsible for this, and deserves no thanks from anyone except people what could be described as enemies of this country and of security in the world. OLBERMANN: The former coalition spokesman, Dan Senor, said that the tone of the speech last night was fine. As I mentioned, Bill Kristol called the speech commendable, even impressive. Why are the others so insistent on the President praising Bush, without getting too deeply into the psychology of mass hypnosis and other things that might be relevant. Just the basics. SCAHILL: Right, well, these people have a PhD in lying, and a master’s degree in manipulating intelligence. And it’s really sobering to see this kind of brass historical revisionism happening in real time. The idea that these people want to post some kind of false flag of victory on the corpses of all who have died in Iraq because of their decisions. These people destabilized Iraq. They destabilized the Middle East with their neocon vision of redrawing maps. And they didn’t even succeed in their own stated mission. This is a special kind of pathological sickness that these individuals collectively are plagued with. OLBERMANN: The neocons lied about Iraq to get us in there, and now, as you point out, they’re lying about how we got out. Since they were not paying attention, we assume deliberately, it’s not that complicated, but can you explain the factors that actually led to the reduction of violence there, the ones that they erroneously credit to the surge? SCAHILL: Right, pardon me for introducing a little bit of fact onto cable news over these 24 hours. But the reality is there was no success of the surge. The fact is that Bush’s policy in Iraq caused massive destabilization, led to a civil war that killed upwards of a million Iraqis. There were ethnic cleansing campaigns. When the surge troops went in there, Baghdad was a walled off city. The Sunnis had been pushed out and sided with the United States. Muqtada al-Sadr responded to the announced time table for withdrawal that the neocons so opposed by saying he considered it a truce with the Americans and pulled his forces off the streets. So the entire surge myth permeates to this day. And it’s actually one big lie. OLBERMANN: The Hadley crediting of the Obama Iraq policies goes with it, arguing that Iraq was worth it. But he says that al-Qaeda in Iraq is, quote, “still capable of spectacular terrorist attacks.” And he simply asserts that somehow those are not a strategic threat anymore. Iraq’s not a threat because the Republicans don’t have the White House? Is that what it boils down to? SCAHILL: Well, let’s remember, and I’d like to remind Mr. Hadley, I’m sure he watches your show every night, Keith, that it was the Bush administration’s policy in Iraq that created an al-Qaeda presence in that country. It was their policies that destabilized that country and caused the deaths of so many Americans and so many Iraqi civilians. Steven Hadley probably sees Osama bin Laden at his corner store or hiding in his bathroom somewhere. So these people have zero credibility and have no business in public life anymore. They shouldn’t be able to leave their houses without being confronted with the death and destruction that their lies caused. OLBERMANN: Jeremy Scahill of the Nation, as always, a pleasure. Thank you, Jeremy. SCAHILL: Thank you.

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Look Out Below: Nets’ Evening Newscasts Hit 2nd Straight Collective All-Time Low

Posted on September 1, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

How the once mighty have fallen. In the midst of covering the performance of the broadcast networks last week, David Bauder at the Associated Press noted the following (HT Kevin Alloca at Media Bistro ): Meanwhile, the NBC, ABC and CBS evening newscasts combined for a dubious record last week: the average of 18.7 million people who watched one of the three shows last week was the smallest audience those three telecasts have reached collectively on record, since the infancy of television, Nielsen said. During the slow news period of late August, the broadcasts broke their previous record — set just last week. Little did I know that my post last week (at NewsBusters ; at BizzyBlog ) also covered a negative record-breaker. The news actually got worse from there, Media Bistro’s Chris Ariens separately reported : And not a good sign from the younger viewer department — none of the shows broke the 2 million viewer average in the A25-54 demo. That’s the first time that’s ever happened. I don’t find the contention by the AP’s Bauder about the “slow news period of late August” very convincing. Political campaigns are already heating up, and family vacation season was mostly over, as the large majority of children were back in school last week. The networks’ collective performance was down almost 8% from a year ago for all viewers, and over 14% in the 25-54 demo. I think it’s more likely that more and more viewers and news consumers are tuning out because they agree with this sentiment . It will be interesting to see what if any kind of fall recovery there will be at the Big 3 networks’ evening newscasts. Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com .

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Maddow’s Mic Glitch Has Her Seeing Conspiracies

Posted on August 31, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Ve haf certain powers, Miz Maddow . . . In the midst of bashing Pres. Bush over Iraq this evening, Rachel Maddow’s mic went suddenly dead, forcing her MSNBC show to go to commercial. When she returned [and after paraphrasing a line from Macbeth], Maddow let it be known she was “such a conspiracy theorist” but didn’t dare tell the audience what she was thinking because “it would discredit me forever.” RACHEL MADDOW: Spreading peace and democracy.  That was the third try at made-up reasons we invaded. How’s that worked out? It’s at that point that Maddow’s mic suddenly quit. For several moments, she can be seen speaking, with no sound at all. She begins to tap her mic, and a low-quality audio can be heard. MADDOW: Are we back?  We’re not back? Well this is unusual. One, two, three, four, five. [Inaudible] conspiracy. The show had to admit temporary defeat, and cut to commercial.  When it returned . . . MADDOW: Before I was so untimely ripped from the broadcast.  It’s really weird: it’s not like I’m on a satellite feed or anything.  I’m in my home studio, in New York.  And what we lost was the hard-wired mic that pins me to the desk. It’s really weird: nothing like that’s ever happened before. I’m such a conspiracy theorist. I cannot tell you what I’m thinking right now: it would discredit me forever. But as I was saying before that thing happened . . . Rachel, we didn’t want to hit the red button, really.  But on a night of national reconciliation, for you to have criticized Pres. Obama for saying a few kind words about Pres. Bush, then compounded things with your indictment of W’s war policy, well, our itchy finger just got the better of us 😉

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Bozell Column: Brian Williams, From Musketeer to Mouseketeer

Posted on August 31, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

The fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina recalls a horror show on two levels. There’s the actual disaster which killed hundreds of people – and then there’s the media smear job on the Bush administration and first responders. No one should forget pompous grandstanders like “NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams signing off three months after the floods from the Lower Ninth Ward:  “This is a neighborhood that’s been left to die.” How those network anchors loved hurricane hyperbole! Williams, for one, lectured the nation that the hurricane should “necessitate a national discussion on race, on oil, politics, class, infrastructure, the environment, and more.” He underlined that a top local radio station decided not to air President Bush’s remarks from the city since “nothing he could say could ever help them deal with the dire situation unfolding live in the streets of New Orleans, where people were still dying during his visit.” It never mattered to these nattering nabobs that, as Popular Mechanics magazine documented, Katrina spurred by far the largest and fastest rescue effort in American history, with nearly 100,000 emergency personnel arriving on the scene within three days of the storm’s landfall, rescuing an estimated 50,000 residents. Not content to attack Bush on just his own program, Williams took to comedy shows to unload more spin. He lectured to Jon Stewart on how cities less black than New Orleans would have seen a lot more helicopter rescues. Williams proudly took that attack directly to Bush three months after the storm. “After the tragedy, I heard someone ask rhetorically, ‘What if this had been Nantucket, Massachusetts, or Inner Harbor Baltimore or Chicago or Houston?’ Are you convinced the response would have been the same? Was there any social or class or race aspect to the response?” On the first anniversary of Katrina, Williams repeated the mudslinging, citing radical-left black professor Michael Eric Dyson in Bush’s face: “A lot of Americans are always going to believe that that weekend, that week, you were watching something on television other than what they were seeing, and Professor Dyson from the University of Pennsylvania said on our broadcast last night it was because of your patrician upbringing, that it’s a class issue.” Bush shot back: “Dyson doesn’t know. I don’t know Dyson, and Dyson doesn’t know me.” But Williams didn’t care. His cartoon was perfect. Williams later appeared on PBS and boasted “You can’t give distance. I don’t mean that in a Jets vs. Sharks way. I’m not an adversary.” That’s laughable. He insisted Bush “appreciates the swordfight of a crackling good conversation.” Now watch Williams “swordfight” with Barack Obama. He’s gone from musketeer to Mouseketeer. On the fifth anniversary of the hurricane, Williams deferred to the statesman before him by asking about the lack of a national conversation: “Katrina was about so many things. It was about class and race and government and the environment. Whatever happened to that national conversation we were supposed to have about it?” Is that all the toughness Williams could muster? That’s how he “crackles” now? See his crackling swordfight over the BP oil spill and Obama’s lack of effort: “It’s getting baked in a little bit in the media that BP was President Obama’s Katrina. And it’s also getting baked in that the administration was slow off the mark. Is that unfair?” What about our disastrous economy? Surely Williams would challenge Obama here. “Do you have anything new on the economy?” Instead of tough questions, Williams felt Obama’s pain that too many Americans misunderstand his religious faith: “Mr. President, you’re an American-born Christian, and yet increasing and now significant numbers of Americans in polls, upwards of a fifth of respondents, are claiming you are neither. A fifth of the people, just about, believe you’re a Muslim….This has to be troubling to you. This is, of course, all new territory for an American president.” That’s not even a question! But it’s all in a day’s shoeshine for Brian Williams. He loved slinging “racist, classist” mud on Bush, but he was so distraught by Obama’s-a-Muslim rumors that he replayed the poor-Barry exchange a second time the next night. Why is this arrogant partisan the leading evening-news anchor in America? He drew 7.2 million viewers last week, as the ratings continue to decline. That’s not unexpected when an anchorman can’t be bothered to ask tougher questions to this president than his makeup artist would.

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Bozell Column: Brian Williams, From Musketeer to Mouseketeer

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Olbermann Mocked Horowitz for Exposing Stoning of Women in Iran, Ignores Actual Stoning Threat

Posted on August 31, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

While MSNBC host Keith Olbermann was recently dismissive of conservatives for highlighting radical Islam’s persecution of homosexuals in some countries, the Countdown host also has a history of showing more interest in mocking conservatives who complain about the persecution of women by radical Muslims than of actually reporting on such mistreatment. Last July, Olbermann ignored a story about an Iranian woman accused of adultery who was sentenced to death by stoning – a story carried by the NBC Nightly News and ABC’s World News – but on September, 28, 2007, when conservative activist David Horowitz mistakenly cited an image from a movie as if it were taken from an actual stoning, the MSNBC host pounced to slam Horowitz, calling him a “right-wing fringer,” naming him “Worst Person in the World,” as he sarcastically mocked the conservative activist’s attempt to draw attention to such persecution. Olbermann: The image is actually from a 1994 film made in Holland… [The actress] has made at least three appearances on Dutch TV since. Evidently she’s okay. But keep plugging away, Mr. Horowitz. Let’s keep spending billions of dollars to stoke up religious hatred and send our kids to their deaths on the battlefield so we can prevent Dutch actresses from having to do scenes in which their characters are buried alive in a movie. Right-wing water carrier David, “I saw it in the movies, it must be real,” Horowitz, today’s “Worst Person in the World!” By contrast, on July 8, 2010, NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams set up a story about a woman who was awaiting the sentence of stoning to death in Iran, and treated the issue with the seriousness that it deserves: Fair warning, this next story is tough to watch. It’s about a tough subject that is not for any children who may be in the room. It’s about an international outcry tonight over an ancient and brutal form of punishment, one you might think had vanished from the modern world: a woman in Iran convicted of adultery scheduled to be stoned to death. And her own son is risking his life to save hers. It’s a story that’s captured attention around the world. Before informing viewers that the Iranian government had apparently backed down and chosen not to carry out the sentence, correspondent Dawna Friesen recounted: “Stoning in Iran is less common than it once was. Amnesty International knows of just six cases since 2006. When it does happen, men are buried up to their waists, women up to their breasts. If they manage to struggle free, the death sentence is commuted, but women, buried more deeply, rarely do.” On the July 9, 2010, World News, ABC anchor Diane Sawyer introduced a piece on the subject: “And all eyes are on Iran tonight, where a wave of international outrage may be causing the ayatollahs to stop an awful execution – a mother of two, the charge, adultery. She is scheduled to be stoned to death slowly.” Correspondent Jim Sciutto informed viewers: “Six Iranians have been put to death by stoning since 2006, a brutal punishment following a set of arcane rules. Men are buried up to their waists, women to their chests, and the stones, the penal code says, must not be large enough to kill instantly or too small not to be called a stone.”

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Olbermann Mocked Horowitz for Exposing Stoning of Women in Iran, Ignores Actual Stoning Threat

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