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I think America may soon learn that "the Emperor has no clothes." The protective press veil around Barack Obama may be about to be torn away. This is video (see video) of ABC News' Jake Tapper reporting from Berlin yesterday on Good Morning America. In his report, Tapper reveals the truth about Barack Obama's excessive ego by showing that Obama has replaced the U.S. Flag that was on the tail of his airplane "with an enormous Obama "O". He also describes how Obama has redesigned the airplane to separate Obama and his staff "from us lowly reporters," and he shows...

Not every reporter covering Barack Obama's world tour is entranced by the words and imagery of the Democratic candidate. On Thursday's "Good Morning America," political correspondent Jake Tapper jabbed at Obama's overconfidence, describing the senator's July 24 speech in Berlin as "one the Obama campaign is billing at almost presidential. Even though he is not the president." Regarding the Obama plane, the ABC journalist also pointed out: "The American flag on the tail wing has been replaced by an enormous Obama O."

After meeting with top U.S. military commanders and members of the Iraqi government, Sen. Barack Obama today said his opposition to the surge and support for a firm timetable for the withdrawal of troops hasn't changed. ~snip~ Obama and Petraeus have also staked out opposing positions on whether there should be a timetable for withdrawing American forces. Obama said that in his meeting with Petraeus, the general discussed his "deep concerns" about "a timetable that doesn't take into account what they anticipate might be a change in conditions." "My job is to think about the national security interests as a...

"Good Morning America," in what is surely a sign of things to come, prepped for Barack Obama's first Middle East trip by focusing three stories on the subject, including one in which GMA co-host Robin Roberts and the ex-Clinton aide discussed the media coverage briefly, in a passive voice. Referring to Obama's visit next week to Iraq and Afghanistan, Roberts casually wondered, "And finally, how does McCain counter all of this attention that Obama is going to be receiving on this trip?" Stephanopoulos candidly responded, "The McCain campaign is very frustrated by this. As you know, all three evening news...

Barack Obama's upcoming swing through Europe and the Middle East is now guaranteed to be a major media event, certified by the presence of the three network anchors. The Washington Post has learned that Brian Williams, Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric will travel overseas next week, lured by the prospect of interviews with the presumed Democratic candidate. That means the NBC, ABC and CBS newscasts will originate from stops on the trip and undoubtedly play it up.

The three network anchors will travel to Europe and the Middle East next week for Barack Obama's trip, adding their high-wattage spotlight to what is already shaping up as a major media extravaganza. Lured by an offer of interviews with the Democratic presidential candidate, Brian Williams, Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric will make the overseas trek, meaning that the NBC, ABC and CBS evening newscasts will originate from stops along the route and undoubtedly give it big play. John McCain has taken three foreign trips in the past four months, all unaccompanied by a single network anchor. Obama has "proven...

Soldiers stood directly behind Raddatz as she queried GI’s walking past. She asked 60 GI’s who they planned to vote for in November. 54 said John McCain, 4 for Obama, and 2 for Hillary. When the story ran, they didn't even mention the 54 that chose McCain.

ABC News is Anti American They just released (June 30, 2008) a mandatory requirement that all reporters (maybe employees also) can no longer where American Flag pins or any type of US patriotic materials. My belief is this a direct reaction to the Obama Flag Pin debacle. I believe BHO is proud of his county, he just handled this simple hot button issue so poorly, that it may shed some light on how he will handle himself in the White House. Like most alphabet soup dinosor media, they are so far in the bag for OBH, they don't even know...

...More importantly however is the fact that news organizations across the country conveniently failed to publish this portion of Obama’s remarks. Both CNN Online and The New York Times published excerpts of the speech that omitted the gaffe. Two reporters, however, took it upon themselves to alter the text of Obama’s speech in articles they published...

Soothsayer ABC’s by: Bethany Stotts, June 16, 2008 The American public continues to be bombarded with fantastic messages of the Earth’s impending doom as a result of global warming, whether it be from Al Gore, Newsweek, or the Washington Post. Last August, it was pictures of burning planets matched by the condemnation of dissenters as skeptics and deniers. Now media outlets claim to know the future as far out as 2100. In an upcoming two hour prime-time special, scheduled to air this fall, ABC will promote the view that the Earth faces a “perfect storm” of environmental dangers, a storm...

Picking up on the media's meme that a vast right-wing hate machine is going at full-tilt against Michelle Obama, ABCNews.com wants readers to know that the Illinois senator's wife is "more Jackie O Than Teresa [Heinz Kerry]." The story made the "top headlines" lineup for the afternoon of June 13, along with a headline tease for recent video from Fox News Channel where an onscreen graphic labeled the mother of two as Sen. Obama's "baby mama." Online slang lexicon urbandictionary.com defines a baby mama as "The mother of your child(ren), whom you did not marry and with whom you are...

Subject: ABC News - Unbelievable Forwarded from Major General (ret) Buckman, a close friend of my cousin. Subject:ABC News - Unbelievable Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2008 13:51:29 +0000 From a friend: Subject: Reporting the news My niece, Katelyn, stationed at Baluud , Iraq was assigned, with others of her detachment, to be escort/guard/ watcher for Martha Raddatz of ABC News as she covered John McCain's recent trip to Iraq . Katelyn and her Captain stood directly behind Raddatz as she queried GI's walking past. They kept count of the GI's and you should remember these numbers. She asked 60 GI's...

After the Bush administration released a report warning of the potential dangers of global warming, you would think the media, which propagate much of the modern alarmism over climate, would be thrilled. That wasn’t the case. The May 29 ABC “World News” used the release of the report as an opportunity to indict the Bush administration for conspiring to hide science about global warming. “For the first time, the Bush administration is conceding what most scientists have said for years – that global warming is having an impact on just about every aspect of the way we live,” ABC “World...

Not waiting until the actual Friday release of John McCain's medical records, on Thursday's World News anchor Charles Gibson (who's 65) and Dr. Tim Johnson (who at 72 is older than McCain) speculated about McCain's health. Gibson wondered about “psychological damage” from his POW captivity. Assured there's no evidence of that, Gibson jumped to wonder how much longer McCain has to live, a question which led Johnson to warn, that while McCain may live another 16 years, there's a decent chance he'll develop “dementia.” Gibson asked: “There's also an enormous amount of medical records involving the time that he was...

<p>Hundreds of legal and illegal immigrants in Arizona are being sent back to their home countries, sometimes against their will, for medical treatment because they lack insurance.</p>

Imagine that a "documentary" film-maker—whose most notable former credit is a film advancing the notion that extra-terrestrials did indeed visit Area 51—brought forth a new work suggesting that key elements of the Prophet Mohammed's story had been fabricated. What are the odds ABC would devote a segment of Good Morning America to a respectful interview of the filmmaker and discussion of his work? But that's exactly what ABC did regarding someone who has produced a documentary ["Bloodline"] calling into question key aspects of the story of Jesus Christ. Here's how GMA weekend co-anchor Bill Weir introduced the segment this morning:...

The news media successfully predicted 10 out of the last 3 recessions, so obviously we can trust them about the current one they keep trying to ram down our gullets, right? Well, I suppose if you define a "recession" as being in a generally pessimistic, defeatist mood and really wanting Barack Obama to win the next election, then yes, the news media is in the midst of one of the most pronounced recessions in the whole of human history. The rest of us, though... aren't actually doing so bad. Job losses aren't materializing as predicted, the dollar has begun a...

In an attempt to rehabilitate Jeremiah Wright and, by extension, Senator Barack Obama's connection to the man, Friday's "Good Morning America" featured two segments on the "soft-spoken," patriotic pastor, a man who urged God to damn America. Reporter David Wright, a well-known Obama partisan, described an appearance Pastor Wright made with liberal PBS journalist Bill Moyers. Wright cooed, "But the soft-spoken man who sits down with Bill Moyers couldn't seem more different from that fire-brand preacher we've all seen in those sound bites." During his segment, the ABC reporter seemed to accept Reverend Wright's contention that he had been smeared...

George Stephanopoulos and Charlie Gibson of ABC News weren't just criticized for their tough questioning of Barack Obama during last week's Democratic debate. They were flayed. Hendrik Hertzberg of The New Yorker called their approach "something akin to a federal crime." Tom Shales, the Washington Post's TV critic, said the ABC duo turned in "shoddy and despicable performances." Walter Shapiro of Salon magazine said the debate had "all the substance of a Beavis and Butt-head marathon." Most of the media mauling consisted of anger that the ABC moderators brought up a series of issues that had surrounded Mr. Obama since...

1. Senator Barack Obama’s strongest defenders, led by Andrew Sullivan, were furious at the questioning directed at Senator Obama by two of the best in the news business: ABC’s Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos. In Sullivan’s words: The loser was ABC News: one of the worst media performances I can remember — petty, shallow, process-obsessed, trivial where substantive, and utterly divorced from the actual issues that Americans want to talk about. What really irritated Sullivan is that the early part of the debate focused on issues like Obama’s former pastor Jeremiah Wright Jr., Obama’s association with a former leader of...

Take cover, ABC! Incoming! “[Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos] disgraced the American voters, and in fact even disgraced democracy itself.” – Will Bunch, Philadelphia Daily News “Perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years.” – Greg Mitchell, Editor & Publisher “… all the substance of a Beavis and Butt-Head marathon.” – Walter Shapiro, Salon “… petty, shallow, process-obsessed…utterly divorced from the actual issues that Americans want to talk about.” – Andrew Sullivan, The Atlantic “…Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos turned in shoddy, despicable performances.” – Tom Shales, The Washington Post What could ABC’s...

My, oh my, but weren’t those fellows from ABC News rude to Barack Obama at this week’s presidential debate. Nothing but petty, process-oriented questions, asked in a prosecutorial tone, about the Democratic front-runner’s personal associations and his electability. Where was the substance? Where was the balance? Where indeed. Hillary Rodham Clinton and her aides have been complaining for months about imbalance in news coverage. For the most part, the reaction to her from the political-media commentariat has been: Stop whining. That’s still a good response now that it is Obama partisans — some of whom are showing up in distressingly...

ABC has broken MSM rule#1: Do not ask Democrats hard questions; just stick to the script/template. Upon breaking this rule in Thursday's debate in Philly; when Gibson and Stephanopolous dared to ask the "Exalted" Barack Obama tough questions about his recent problems on the campaign trail, a furor has erupted on the left. How dare they ask these types of questions(of a Democrat). If this were a GOP debate, this type of questioning would be required under MSM rule#2: Do not ask Republicans easy questions; just stick to the script/template. So now the Left is scrambling to boycott ABC/Disney and...

Democratic presidential rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama are complaining about which candidate is the biggest complainer. The issue is their treatment in debates. Obama is objecting to the questions posed this week in one moderated by ABC News. Many of the toughest questions were targeted at Obama, the front-runner for the nomination, and he's said too much time was spent on political divisions instead of issues that matter to Americans. Clinton said Friday that if Obama thinks the debate was tough, it pales in comparison to the pressures a president faces. "I'm with Harry Truman on this —...

The left-wing blogosphere's outrage against ABC ["Boycott Fig Newtons!"] over its allegedly unfair questioning of Obama during Wednesday's debate has seeped over into the MSM in the form of Derrick Z. Jackson's Boston Globe column of this morning. While the headline moots the matter as a question "Tough questions or just plain bias?", there's no doubt of the answer in Jackson's mind. Just two paragraphs in, the columnist unleashes [emphasis added]: "In some 1,600 words of transcript, Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos tried to eviscerate Obama in Philadelphia on Wednesday."

Amid a storm of criticism that Wednesday’s Democratic presidential debate focused too heavily on “gotcha” questions and not enough on substance, ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos defended his decision to ask Illinois Sen. Barack Obama about his relationship with former political radical William Ayers. Stephanopoulos denied he’d been spoon fed the question by Fox News host Sean Hannity. “We have been researching this for a while,” Stephanopoulos said in a phone interview from New York. ABC News political correspondent Jake Tapper, he said, had blogged about the issue April 10, after it was first reported by Politico, the political news website....

The Debate: The mainstream media were taken aback by some of the questions asked of Barack Obama at the ABC-run debate in Philadelphia. We, on the other hand, were pleasantly surprised.We'll admit we weren't expecting much more of this debate than the earlier puffball affairs sponsored by CNN and MSNBC. And indeed, the first question out of ABC anchorman Charlie Gibson's mouth — about the chances for a Clinton-Obama or Obama-Clinton dream team — had us muttering, "Here we go again." But when that went nowhere (Obama said such talk was "premature"), Gibson got down to business by asking about...

Dear Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos, It's hard to know where to begin with this, less than an hour after you signed off from your Democratic presidential debate here in my hometown of Philadelphia, a televised train wreck that my friend and colleague Greg Mitchell has already called, quite accurately, "a shameful night for the U.S. media." It's hard because -- like many other Americans -- I am still angry at what I just witnesses, so angry that it's hard to even type accurately because my hands are shaking. Look, I know that "media criticism" -- especially when it's one...

Thank you, Rush Limbaugh for making this Democrat primary the most entertaining one ever. As we have seen, Operation Chaos has already caused DUmmieland to go into full MELTDOWN and now the Daily KOs KOmmies are following suit. It wasn't even a half hour into last night's debate when some KOmmie went berserk with this THREAD titled, "Tomorrow We Take On ABC, and Disney." YEEHAW!!! Break out the ropes! Tomorrow we're gonna HANG 'EM HIGH for daring to ask tough questions. So let us now watch the crazed KOmmies mentally wilting under the effects of Operation Chaos while the...

 Finally, the Media 'Discovers' Obama-Ayers Relationship Rick Moran http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/04/finally_the_media_discovers_ob.html It is a major story in the New York Times, Politico, the New York Post, and the left wing Guardian in Great Britain. It is the most curious of all Barack Obama's problematic relationships and calls into question not only his judgement but the core of his politics. The story is about William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn - two members of the radical 1960's terrorist group the Weather Underground  - and the fact that the possible next president of the United States is on a first name basis with a...

The journalist’s job is to make politicians uncomfortable, to explore evasions, contradictions and vulnerabilities. Almost every question tonight did that. The candidates each looked foolish at times, but that’s their own fault. We may not like it, but issues like Jeremiah Wright, flag lapels and the Tuzla airport will be important in the fall. Remember how George H.W. Bush toured flag factories to expose Michael Dukakis. Second, Obama and Clinton were completely irresponsible. As the first President Bush discovered, it is simply irresponsible statesmanship (and stupid politics) to make blanket pledges to win votes. Both candidates did that on vital...

The last Democratic debate has finally concluded, and perhaps the last chances of ending the primaries early. Thanks to a surprisingly tenacious set of questions for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton from ABC moderaters Charles Gibson and George Stephanopolous, Barack Obama got exposed over and over again as an empty suit, while Hillary cleaned his clock. However, the big winner didn’t even take the stage tonight. The first 45 minutes of the scheduled 90-minute debate (which went 15 minutes over) wound up focusing on the series of gaffes and stumbles from both candidates. Hillary more or less defused the Tuzla...

When Barack Obama met Hillary Clinton for another televised Democratic candidates' debate last night, it was more than a step forward in the 2008 presidential election. It was another step downward for network news -- in particular ABC News, which hosted the debate from Philadelphia and whose usually dependable anchors, Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos, turned in shoddy, despicable performances. For the first 52 minutes of the two-hour, commercial-crammed show, Gibson and Stephanopoulos dwelled entirely on specious and gossipy trivia that already has been hashed and rehashed, in the hope of getting the candidates to claw at one another over...

ABC News is “disadvantaged” in a digital landscape where cable news operations including CNN and MSNBC are helping to drive billions of users to their online sites, said Bob Iger, president and CEO of Disney, parent company of ABC. Bob Iger In a fragmented media landscape where news consumers continue to migrate to the Web, a prominent digital footprint is necessary for survival. For traditional media businesses including newspapers and broadcast-news divisions like ABC News and CBS News, the quest for digital relevance is especially acute. “ABC News is disadvantaged in that regard,” Iger said, referring to the network’s lack...

Members of the military are prohibited from engaging in political activity, but ABC News convinced a few soldiers in Iraq to go before the cameras to discuss their choices for president. It is well known that the troops generally support Republicans because of their pro-military credentials, which is the reason Al Gore tried to have ballots from overseas military bases disqualified during the 2000 recount. However, Martha Raddatz could not find a single soldier who supported Sen. John McCain, a Vietnam War veteran for Commander in Chief. Most of those Raddatz interviewed backed Sen. Barack Obama with one favoring Sen....

ABC-TV “This Week” Subliminally Slants Coverage To Boost Hillary. TV news slants their coverage in favor of liberalism and its proponents in many ways. Who is interviewed, what is edited out, the choice of spokespersons, all give the liberal corporate network leadership, especially at ABC, the chance to lean their coverage far to the left. But there is an even more insidious way to slant coverage, and it’s all done before any newsmaker speaks one word. This morning’s “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos was a classic example. On the surface, it was a fair debate, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham on...

Crude Coverage Media ignore OPEC’s control of oil market when covering America’s pain at the pump. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Highlights: • Since January 2007, the network news has run 43 stories on oil companies’ profits and just three stories on OPEC profits – a ratio of 14-to-1. • Network reporters have referred to oil companies as “a bunch of thieves … ripping people off” and asked them to “cut back a bit on your profit.” But they have overlooked the openly anti-American hostility of some OPEC nations and have downplayed the cartel’s control of world prices. • The networks didn’t mention the...

Following yesterday's announcement of a reorganization of the operations and finance areas of ABC News, TVNewser has learned as many as 21 jobs have been eliminated. However, insiders tell us a number of new jobs have already been posted, and that those who were cut are being encouraged to apply for the added positions. In the end, the insider figures around 11 jobs will be lost. In his note yesterday, ABC News president David Westin wrote, "...we will reduce the level of operations management and the number of operations positions overall." ABC News Operations has an opening for a Vice...

Have a look at the screencap from today's This Week, then please answer this serious question: has ABC no shame? How does the network justify a round-table consisting of four liberals against one conservative? Let's review the batting order: * Frank Reich: Clinton's former Labor Secretary comes from the leftward reaches of the Dem party. He's a co-founder of the liberal American Prospect magazine. * Paul Krugman: Like Reich, a very liberal professor of economics, and a NYT columnist. * Donna Brazile: Dem activist, Gore 2000 campaign manager. * George Stephanopoulos: The show host was a senior political adviser to...

There were deep cuts at ABC News in New York this week as more than 20 employees in the finance and operations departments were informed that their jobs were being eliminated as part of an ongoing restructuring project that began last spring. pink slip “This new structure will streamline how we receive our finance and operations support. It will also make that support more directly responsible to those at ABC News who depend on it the most. And it should move us forward faster and more effectively into the evolving digital world,” ABC News president David Westin said in an...

Sometimes, like a Cinderella team marching through March, Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign seems nothing short of charmed. It helps that while Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has 10 weeks to make Obama totally and entirely unelectable, Obama just has to wait out the clock. But the outside help Obama is getting (some that he asked for, some that he didn't) is the X-factor -- and it means that, even as Obama grapples with perhaps the biggest challenge to his candidacy, he will be the nominee short of something else dramatic happening in the race that's already seen everything. To survey...

Some 50 delegates were reportedly poised to unite behind Barack Obama if he had won by even 1 point in Texas. He lost the popular vote by 100,000 ballots, and now we learn that 100,000 Republicans voted for Hillary Clinton, probably not because of some change in party allegiance but because they thought she would be the easier candidate to beat. This kind of strategic voting often backfires (think Ralph Nader). The Texas crossovers are winners. By helping to prolong the Democratic race, they can claim credit for weakening the eventual nominee, whoever it turns out to be. Obama has...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Democrat Barack Obama suffered in the polls Thursday after a much-acclaimed speech on race that, pundits said, had failed to defuse voters' anger over rage-filled sermons by his former pastor. Waging an acrimonious battle against Hillary Clinton for the Democrats' White House nomination, Obama confessed to being bruised by the controversy surrounding his longtime Chicago preacher, Reverend Jeremiah Wright. "In some ways this controversy has actually shaken me up a little bit and gotten me back into remembering that, you know, the odds of me getting elected have always been lower than some of the other conventional...

Could this photo be a first? It shows a card-carrying member of the MSM shooting a handgun. That's Jan Crawford Greenburg, an ABC News legal correspondent. The clip, pun intended, of Greenburg on the firing range was part of a segment she narrated on today's Good Morning America on a case to be argued before the Supreme Court today. At issue is the District of Columbia's law banning handguns. The case comes before the Supreme Court after the U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. invalidated the law. The decision is anticipated to be a landmark one since it could be...

Just as occurred Monday night, viewers of Tuesday's ABC and NBC evening newscasts never heard the word "Democrat" applied to New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, nor did they even put a "(D)" on screen by his name as ABC did briefly Monday. CBS didn't announce his party either on Tuesday night, but Katie Couric had done so Monday night. The ABC and NBC newscasts, however, did put "(R)" on screen over soundbites from Republicans and NBC's Mike Taibbi twice referred to the reaction from "Republican" politicians. Fill-in ABC anchor Elizabeth Vargas avoided any party tag: "New York's Governor, Eliot Spitzer,...

A point oft-repeated today but worth repeating again: How did a guy who made his bones prosecuting corporate criminals get so sloppy with the evidence of his own malfeasance? Every john knows you always pay cash. Always. Or so I hear. The federal investigation of a New York prostitution ring was triggered by Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s suspicious money transfers, initially leading agents to believe Spitzer was hiding bribes, according to federal officials…Client 9 … is alleged to have paid for the woman’s train tickets, cab fare, mini bar and room service, travel time and hotel.The suspicious financial activity was initially...

“The Sept. 11 attacks, the Iraq war and suicide bombings worldwide have changed not only the way we live but the way we look at those around us, especially Muslims. "Islamophobia" has entered the American vernacular, and the anti-Muslim attitudes and prejudice it describes remain common.” – ABC News, Ann Sorkowitz & Julie N. Hays In an appalling piece of news staging and misrepresentation, ABC has produced a Primetime segment right out of the ideological playbook of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). In the segment entitled – “Witness to Discrimination: What Would You Do?” – with the byline...

On its website Tuesday, ABC News posted a story titled, "Common Misunderstandings About Muslims," which did its level best to carry water for the radical Islamist, and Jihadist, movement in America, going so far as to cite America's most notorious radical front group, the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as the source to define the concept of "Jihad."Take this incredibly problematic passage:Misconception: Islam promotes violence and terrorism. Truth:According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, prominent Muslims, Islamic organizations and Islamic scholars have repeatedly denounced the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 and terrorism in general. One letter sent to President...

The reporters at ABC's "Nightline" continued to outdo themselves in their glowing adoration for Senator Barack Obama. Correspondent David Wright, filing a story on Tuesday about the swelling crowds at the Democratic presidential contender's rallies, advised viewers to think of the events as "Springsteen concerts, but the tickets are free." Describing those who waited outside in the cold for such a rally, he bubbled, "...Everyone waited patiently, because inside...they felt the warm glow of hope." Wright even wondered if the candidate can "redeem politics from mere partisanship." Descending to a level of fawning that's usually reserved for the subjects featured...

Former ABC News correspondent John McWethy was killed when he skied into a tree at Keystone Resort Wednesday, the Summit County Coroner confirmed. McWethy, 61, was skiing on an intermediate trail when the accident occurred. Witnesses said he missed a turn and slid chest-first into the tree shortly after 10 a.m