Free Republic

Nothing is quite so damaging to the mainstream media as publishing their own words in context. In her new book, Bring Her Down: How the American Media Tried to Destroy Sarah Palin, conservative author and C4Per Gina Dalfonzo does just that – in chilling fashion. Ever wanted to compare ABC News anchor Charles Gibson’s fawning interview with Obama to his condescending inquisition of Palin? Dalfonzo has it for you. Here’s a fair representation of the questions which Dalfonzo has in longer form … I can’t think of a better way to illustrate liberal media bias than this. Gibson to Obama:...

It's no secret that [Nicolle] Wallace is no fan of Sarah Palin. But the former Bush communications director and McCain campaign aide perhaps took things to another level with her attack on Palin on today's Morning Joe. Wallace was on to comment on Joe Scarborough's astonishing claim of yesterday, noted here, that "all" conservatives and talk radio hosts with whom he's spoken are harshly critical of Palin off the record, but are afraid to express their views publicly. Wallace opined that if it ever looked as if Palin were close to copping the Republican presidential nomination, many GOP leaders who...

Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz presented quite a paradox in a Charlie Gibson profile Monday. The retiring ABC World News anchor said that "it’s time to move on" since objectivity is "less of a marketable commodity." But Kurtz also underlined how Gibson dared to keep airing live coverage of Ted Kennedy’s funeral until they were able to broadcast the reading of Ted Kennedy’s letter to Pope Benedict. These passages came late in the article: Gibson worries whether broadcast networks will be able to support sizable editorial staffs in an era of declining audiences, when cable news channels are louder...

This morning, the ACORN scandal was raised to Charlie Gibson in an interview on WLS AM Chicago’s “Don Wade & Roma Morning Show.” TRANSCRIPT:Don: Ok here’s my question, Senate bill yesterday passes cutting off funds to this group called ACORN. Now we got the…we got that bill passing, we got the embarrassing video of ACORN staff giving tax advice on how to set up a brothel with 13 year old hookers. It has everything you could want corruption and sleazy action at tax funded organizations that’s got government ties. But nobody’s covering that story why?Charlie Gibson: (laugh) I don’t even...

Don: Okay, here’s my news question. A Senate bill yesterday passes, cutting off funds to this group called ACORN. Now, we got that bill passed and we have the embarrassing video of ACORN staffers giving tax advice on how to set up a brothel with 13-year-old hookers. It has everything you could want – corruption and sleazy action at tax-funded organizations and it’s got government ties. But nobody’s covering that story. Why? Gibson: HAHAHAHAHA. HEHEHE. I didn’t even know about it. Um. So, you’ve got me at a loss. I don’t know. Uh. Uh. But my goodness, if it’s got...

ACORN Watch: Charlie Gibson and the ostrich media By Michelle Malkin • September 15, 2009 09:52 AM Several Chicago readers and Twitterers report that ABC News anchor Charlie Gibson told WLS-AM Chicago talk show hosts Don Wade and Roma this morning that the reason he hasn’t covered the ACORN scandal is that he didn’t know about it. Reader Patrick M. e-mails: "While listening to Don Wade and Roma this morning on WLS AM Chicago, they had Charlie Gibson on as their usual Tuesday morning guest. Don asked Charlie, why, after the senate last night voted to halt funding to ACORN...

EXCERPTS: Charlie Gibson Interviews Sarah Palin (September 11, 2008)THE BOLDED & UNDERLINED PARTS WERE EDITED OUT OF THE INTERVIEW GIBSON: Governor, let me start by asking you a question that I asked John McCain about you, and it is really the central question. Can you look the country in the eye and say “I have the experience and I have the ability to be not just vice president, but perhaps president of the United States of America?” PALIN: I do, Charlie, and on January 20, when John McCain and I are sworn in, if we are so privileged to...

"At times visibly nervous . . . Ms. Palin most visibly stumbled when she was asked by Mr. Gibson if she agreed with the Bush doctrine. Ms. Palin did not seem to know what he was talking about. Mr. Gibson, sounding like an impatient teacher, informed her that it meant the right of 'anticipatory self-defense.' " -- New York Times, Sept. 12 Informed her? Rubbish. The New York Times got it wrong. And Charlie Gibson got it wrong. There is no single meaning of the Bush doctrine. In fact, there have been four distinct meanings, each one succeeding another over...

Here is the third and fourth parts of Charlie Gibson's interview with Gov. Sarah Palin which aired tonight on World News Tonight. Gibson continued in "gotcha" mode, not really wanting to get to know who Sarah Palin is, but trying every conceivable angle to trip her up. . . . (see videos at link)

Did ABC use particular camera tricks to make Governor Palin look small and powerless in their Charlie Gibson interview? I've been pointed to a blog that makes a compelling case that they did just that. Using still shots of the Gibson interview with Palin compared to similar Gibson interviews with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, it seems this blogger has proven it to be an open and shut case of manipulation of the viewer. The writer shows how ABC used special camera placements and lenses to make Governor Palin seem small and Charlie Gibson seem overpowering and large by comparison....

ABC "News" Charles Gibson Interviews Barack Obama Presumptive Democratic Presidential Nominee June 4, 2008 (after Hillary Clinton concedes) http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=5000184 GIBSON: Senator, I'm curious about your feelings last night. It was an historic moment. Has it sunk in yet? GIBSON: What did your grandmother say? GIBSON: Public moments are not your own. There's a million people pulling you in a million different directions, but when everybody clears out, the staff is gone, you're in your hotel room at night and you're alone -- do you say to yourself: "Son of a gun, I've done this?" GIBSON: (inaudible) when you announced, did...

Several Chicago readers and Twitterers report that ABC News anchor Charlie Gibson told WLS-AM Chicago talk show hosts Don Wade and Roma this morning that the reason he hasn’t covered the ACORN scandal is that he didn’t know about it.

TVNewser has learned ABC News will announce today that Charlie Gibson will leave "World News" in January and that Diane Sawyer will be named the new anchor of the network's evening newscast. Gibson has been the anchor of "World News" since May 2006, after the pairing of Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff was broken up when Woodruff was seriously wounded in an IED attack in Iraq. Woodruff and Vargas were named co-anchors of the program in Dec. 2005 after the death of longtime anchor Peter Jennings. DEVELOPING > More: ABC News tells us Gibson is announcing his retirement from ABC...

ABC has Gotcha Gibson. NBC has Williams. CBS has Couric. Fox has............ Nothing. There is no national broadcast coming from Fox news. This needs to change.

From McCain's interview with ABC's Charles Gibson, airing tonight: GIBSON: Does this almost monolithic focus on the economy in the news and in people's minds in recent weeks ... MCCAIN: I totally understand it. GIBSON: Hurt your campaign? MCCAIN: I don't know, Charlie. I think by offering wise solutions and providing mature leadership that it'll redound in my behalf. Look, in my favor. But this is a tough campaign. I'm the underdog. I've always been the underdog from the beginning. I was the underdog in the primaries. I can remember when you and I were in a debate and I...

So, instead of merely reporting the news, now reporters are the news? Apparently Charlie Gibson thinks he is, anyway. He gave an interview to the Toledo Blade on October 5 as if his opinions of the race for the White House are somehow more important than the news of the candidates. You remember the candidates, don't you Chuck? You know, those guys who are actually going to be elected, the ones that you are supposed to be reporting on? Gibson spoke to the Toledo Blade's TV beat reporter Kirk Baird about an upcoming visit to Ohio's Bowling Green State University...

During Charlie Gibson's interview with Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, millions of Americans did not notice something very important. As Gibson was looking down his pointy nose at Palin, some of his notes slipped from his lap onto the floor. RFFM.org has been fortunate enough to obtain the lost Gibson questions and we hope they will shed more light on Gibson's journalistic style and some of the preparation he used to get ready for the first national interview with Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin. Q. Governor Palin, ...

After Charlie Gibson arrogantly misquoted Sarah Palin's prayer for the troops back to Sarah Palin, he followed up by asking her if we were fighting a holy war. He was, of course, trying to paint her as the Crusading Christian Zealot, who would bleed a generation of America's youth fighting for God against the heathens in the sands of the Middle East. All she was doing was praying that God protect the troops and our country and praying that our leaders' plans are part of God's plan. Her prayer was sorta like the ones these other guys made. Nobody seemed...

In her first post-nomination interview, Governor Sarah Palin was confronted by ABC's Charlie Gibson with the following question: "You said recently, in your old church, 'Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from G-d.' Are we fighting a holy war?" The record after this is a little confusing because ABC has edited the video and their transcripts several times, before and after it first aired. ..... Some commentators have noted that Gibson's question and quote were "out of context," but they do not point out the obvious intellectual dishonesty at play. In all likelihood most...

GLOBAL VIEW By BRET STEPHENS Palin and the 'Experience' Canard September 16, 2008; Page A23 If nothing else, the media meltdown over Sarah Palin's candidacy for the vice presidency has exposed the not-unsuspected truth that, when it comes to historical ignorance and political amnesia, our cultural panjandrums are in a class by themselves. ABC's Charlie Gibson is only the latest to offer himself upon the altar of self-parody with his pop-quizzing of the Alaska governor during their interview last week. Gibson: "Do you agree with the Bush doctrine?" Palin: "In what respect, Charlie?" Which was a sensible answer, given that...

Sarah Palin's reputation survived her interview with ABC News' Charlie Gibson. The same cannot be said for Charlie Gibson. On my radio show last week, I twice defended Barack Obama. Once, against those conservatives who took a comment made by Obama in an interview with George Stephanopoulos out of context and suggested that Obama had inadvertently admitted he was a Muslim. And again, when I contended that Obama did not imply that Palin was a pig in his now famous "lipstick on a pig" reference. I mention this only because I want to assume that people of good will on...

I'm a Director in Hollywood. I've also created visual effects for movies and commercials for 23 years. I'm not disclosing my name at this point, because frankly I've already suffered enough job loss because I was "outted" as a conservative. But enough about me. I caught a commercial teaser for the Charlie Gibson interview of Sarah Palin and something caught my attention as a Director immediately: The use of the position and choice of lenses to minimalize Governor Palin. To be objective to see if I was jumping to conclusions, I immediately reviewed Mr. Gibson's interview with Senator Obama. Take...

Charlie Gibson’s three-part interview (video) with Republican vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin last week scored big in the ratings, reports trade pub Broadcasting & Cable ... The portion of the interview that created the most buzz was Gibson’s “gotcha” line of questioning on the Bush Doctrine that Palin gamely parried as she tried to figure out what, exactly, he was asking her to comment on until Gibson clarified his question with what turned out to be an incomplete explanation of the Bush Doctrine ... Amazingly, the most sympathetic reactions to Palin’s predicament over the Bush Doctrine came from Dem...

Sarah Palin's interview with Charlie Gibson was an appalling attempt at smearing her, even to the point that some in the mainstream media even took Gibson and ABC News to task on it. From the outset, it was clear that Gibson planned to paint her as completely inept and unqualified. The very first question, asking Palin if she hesitated when McCain offered her a spot on the ticket, dripped with condescension. Here was Gibson, looking professorial with his glasses down at the end of his nose, eyebrow cocked, as if to portray her as a liar, or so self-assured as...

Electoral victories of Democrats is a matter the media elites take immensely personal. Bill Clinton’s victory in ’92 was seen as their victory, the ascension to power of all children of the 60s (although Clinton is more conservative than they are, we must bear in mind that perception always trumps reality when it comes to the whimsical allegiances of superficial media elites) . Their fierce allegiance has now transferred to their replacement hero, Obama, who is far more radical than Clinton ever was and who may be even more radical than the media elites are themselves. So it’s understandable that...

The complete Sarah Palin interview, originating from Alaska(in Three parts), with Charlie Gibson. ... From the Gibson Interview from Sept. 11,2008. Edited in a way to misrepresent what Sarah actually said. Statements in bold type are the ones that were edited out of the original interview. This sheds a different light on what the MSM is trying to do to Palin, scramble her words in such a way as to make her sound like Obama on his best day. They can’t even out the field despite the edits. She is light years ahead of the Democrat Candidate Obamessiah. Hat...

It won’t come as a surprise to LGF readers, but Charlie Gibson’s interview with Sarah Palin was heavily edited by ABC News to make Palin appear more hawkish and less knowledgeable. Mark Levin has the complete transcript, and what ABC News tried to pull here is a textbook example of media malfeasance: Gibson Interview. Also see: ABC News Edited Out Key Parts of Sarah Palin Interview. The interview was so egregiously biased, even UPI is calling out ABC News for their blatant double standards: ABC’s Gibson grilled Palin hard, but it may backfire. The double-standard Gibson applied to Palin, compared...

Obama interview: How does it feel to break a glass ceiling? How does it feel to “win”? How does your family feel about your “winning” breaking a glass ceiling? Who will be your VP? Should you choose Hillary Clinton as VP? Will you accept public finance? What issues is your campaign about? Will you visit Iraq? Will you debate McCain at a town hall? What did you think of your competitor’s [Clinton] speech? Palin interview: Do you have enough qualifications for the job you’re seeking? Specifically have you visited foreign countries and met foreign leaders? Aren’t you conceited to be...

I believe in hard hitting interviews. With that in mind, I decided to watch the Charles Gibson interview of Sarah Palin last night on 20/20. What I saw was not a hard hitting interview. It was an adversarial attack. Charles Gibson was not acting as an interviewer. He was acting as a prosecutor examining what he thought was a hostile witness. He was playing gotcha, just as Dennis Prager said he had done. He was a smug supercilious elitist. If you want an example of hard hitting but above the belt interviewing you can look to Chris Wallace and the...

When Sarah Palin said U.S. soldiers were on a ‘task from God,' former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, a historian, knew exactly what she was saying. She was quoting President Abraham Lincoln. The day after a September 11 interview with Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president, aired on ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson," Gingrich blasted the media for its historical ignorance. He then pointed out Gibson's interview as a specific example. ...more (w/video)...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 (UPI) -- There were no surprises, no knockout zingers, but also no bloopers Thursday night in Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's first TV interview since becoming the Republican vice presidential nominee. Charles Gibson of ABC News was out for blood and inherently applied a double-standard compared with the kid gloves George Stephanopoulos used on Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois on Sunday night. Gibson was out to embarrass Palin and expose her presumed ignorance from the word go. By contrast, when Obama referred to his "Muslim faith" on Sunday and did not correct himself, Stephanopoulos rushed...

Here is video of Gov. Sarah Palin's interview with Charles Gibson that ran on ABC's 20/20 last night. ABC did such a cut and paste job on this interview that it is impossible to only post new portions of the interview. Much of parts one and two contain what has already been posted, with a few portions of new material interspersed. Part 3 is new material not previously posted. As a whole, the interview was clearly a "hitpiece" in my opinion. Gibson had a condescending attitude for the most part, and did everything he could to ask "gotcha" questions. At...

Did ABC cheat in Palin interview? Perhaps. It’s not unusual for news anchors to wear almost hidden earpieces during their live anchoring. It allows the producers to clandestinely talk to the anchors during the newscast and anchors to hear reporters in the field, receive time cues and other important audio. It’s not unusual to see anchors holding their earpiece a little tighter into their ear if they are having trouble hearing what is being fed and said to them. But an earpiece during a supposedly one-on-one interview would be very unusual. Why would the interviewer need support from producers or...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 (UPI) -- There were no surprises, no knockout zingers, but also no bloopers Thursday night in Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's first TV interview since becoming the Republican vice presidential nominee. Charles Gibson of ABC News was out for blood and inherently applied a double-standard compared with the kid gloves George Stephanopoulos used on Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois on Sunday night. Gibson was out to embarrass Palin and expose her presumed ignorance from the word go. By contrast, when Obama referred to his "Muslim faith" on Sunday and did not correct himself, Stephanopoulos rushed...

A transcript of the unedited interview of Sarah Palin by Charles Gibson clearly shows that ABC News edited out crucial portions of the interview that showed Palin as knowledgeable or presented her answers out of context. This unedited transcript of the first of the Gibson interviews with Palin is available on radio host Mark Levin's website. The sections edited out by ABC News are in bold. The first edit shows Palin responding about meeting with foreign leaders but this was actually in response to a question Gibson asked several questions earlier: GIBSON: Have you ever met a foreign head of...

The first cut of Charlie Gibson's interview with Sarah Palin reveals someone embarrassingly unprepared. His name is Charlie Gibson. Here's the transcript: Gibson: You said recently, in your old church, "Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God." Are we fighting a holy war? Palin: You know, I don't know if that was my exact quote. Gibson: Exact words. Palin: But the reference there is a repeat of Abraham Lincoln's words when he said--first, he suggested never presume to know what God's will is, and I would never presume to know God's will or...

BRING YOUR OWN CAMERA By GLENN HARLAN REYNOLDS CHARLIE Gibson's ABC interview with Republican veep candidate Sarah Palin produced a lot of complaints from Palin fans. There's not much anyone in the campaign can do about journalists like Gibson misstating candidates' "exact words," but there is something that candidates - and anyone else interviewed by a possibly hostile media - can do to make sure that things get played straight in the editing process. You just have to break the camera monopoly. Luckily, that's become easy. An episode of "The Simpsons" a few years back centered on Homer facing bogus...

I guess newsboy Charlie Gibson was the one who didn't do his homework. If, instead of being cute and trying to play gotcha, he had simply asked whether she agreed with the policy of preemptive strikes on America's would-be enemies, he would have been fine. But he was too clever by half. From The Washington Post. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin seemed puzzled Thursday when ABC News anchor Charles Gibson asked her whether she agrees with the "Bush doctrine." "In what respect, Charlie?" she replied. Intentionally or not, the Republican vice presidential nominee was on to something. After a brief exchange,...

Charlie Gibson Asks Sarah Palin if Obama should have picked Hillary Clinton as his Vice Presidential Candidate. She says Obama probably is regretting not making her is VP Choice.

ABC News’ Charles Gibson, who is being credited with stumping Sarah Palin on the definition of the “Bush Doctrine,” has himself defined the nebulous phrase in a variety of ways, including one that mirrored Palin’s disputed explanation. Gibson and his colleagues have been all over the map in defining the Bush Doctrine over the last seven years. In 2001, Gibson himself defined it as “a promise that all terrorists organizations with global reach will be found, stopped and defeated.” But when Palin tried to give a similar definition on Thursday, Gibson corrected her.

The Rumblings In The Jungle – Journalists Turn On Charlie Gibson. The phone lines are again rumbling in New York and Washington. The overriding question: Et Tu, Charlie? I have spoken with a number of old TV journalist friends in last 12 hours. The haze of amazement hanging over the network newsroom is palatable. It’s as if old truths have been proven wrong, old friends abandoned their dearest comrades, and we all awakened up to find out that 2 + 2 really does equals 7. Charlie Gibson’s (well, he has been “Charlie” for years, but since he apparently is not...

I look forward to Charlie Gibson interviewing Joe Biden. 1. What’s your favorite color? 2. If you were an animal, what kind would you be? And as a follow up…why? 3. Given that Sarah Palin is a terrible choice for Vice President, don’t you think you are better? 4. As far as domestic policy goes, what is your favorite NFL team? 5. As far as foreign policy goes, have you ever eaten arugula in France? Wow, it’s expensive. 6. Global warming – now I know this is a tough area for a lot of candidates, but thinking globally now, how...

Sarah Palin on Climate Change: GIBSON: Let me talk a little bit about environmental policy because this interfaces with energy policy and you have some significant differences with John McCain. Do you still believe that global warming is not man-made? PALIN: I believe that man's activities certainly can be contributing to the issue of global warming, climate change. Here in Alaska, the only arctic state in our union, of course, we see the effects of climate change more so than any other area with ice pack melting. Regardless though of the reason for climate change, whether its entirely, wholly caused...

A note from Radarsite: It is a rare event that will bring me to watch MSM these days. Tonight's Charlie Gibson interview with Gov. Sarah Palin was one of these exceptions. And I am still trying to get the bad taste out of my mouth. If I ever doubted my reasons for refusing to watch the Big Three MSM networks, tonight's stain on the face of objective journalism did more than enough to confirm it. There was indeed great hubris revealed during this first interview. But not the hubris of Sarah Palin's response that she did feel comfortable about...

".....but that’s what he gets for relying on the Associated Press, which took the liberty of bowdlerizing her quote mid-sentence in order to make it fit the narrative they were trying to build of her as some fundie who thinks she can read God’s mind..."

These are the first excerpts to released by ABC of the interview Charlie Gibson had with Sarah Palin in Alaska.

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.

by Mark Finkelstein May 11, 2006 Maybe the ABC show should change its name to 'Demagogue Morning America'. Earlier this week, Charlie Gibson trotted out windfall-profit taxes and limits on executive compensation as 'solutions' to high gas prices. This morning, Kate Snow took the demagoguery up-close-and-personal, flashing a $20 bill in the faces of modest-income Americans to elict predictable responses about the tax cut they would be receiving under a Republican-backed plan. Snow set the tone by announcing that the proposed extension of the tax cuts "would cost the federal government $70 billion." Of course tax cuts don't cost the...

by Mark Finkelstein May 8, 2006 The worst possible 'solution' to the high cost of gasoline would be price controls, since they would simultaneously drive down production and drive up demand. But running a close second and third in the bad-idea sweepstakes would be a windfall-profits tax on oil companies and a cap on the amount oil companies can pay their executives. Two out of three ain't bad, so let's give GMA's Charlie Gibson an A- in his attempt to demagogue the gas-price issue this morning. His guest was the soft-spoken James Mulva, Chairman and CEO of ConocoPhillips, the nation's...

by Mark Finkelstein February 24, 2006 If NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman is for many the voice of the center-left foreign policy establishment in the U.S., then his nuanced and not-altogether-bleak assessment of the situation in Iraq on this morning's GMA merits consideration. It was tempting to headline this entry with the provocative notion Friedman floated that perhaps only a Saddam was capable of holding Iraq's fractious components together. But Friedman was by no means endorsing Saddam's despotic rule, musing rather whether Saddam was a cause or an effect. As Friedman put it: "Is Iraq the way Iraq is because...