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With CBS chief executive wife Julie Chen safely ensconced in CBS's new daytime gabfest "The Talk," CBS News got the all-clear to announce, just in time for the holiday season, that it was giving other members of "The Early Show" on-air team the old heave ho-ho-ho. Gone, as of Jan. 3, will be anchors Harry Smith and Maggie Rodriguez and weatherman Dave Price. The network wants you to know, however, that they will continue to be employed on air by CBS News - just elsewhere.

It's "royal." It's of "historic proportions." It's Chelsea Clinton's wedding, and CBS apologizes for letting actual news get in the way of its breathless coverage. Anchoring the coverage in Rhinebeck, Early Show weekend co-host Erica Hill, after referring to the event as "America's royal wedding," threw it back to a remorseful Chris Wragge in the studio, who promised to get back to Erica in "just a couple of minutes" after a couple of news items "we have to address." When she got the ball back, Hill described the wedding as being of "historic proportions. View video here.

Diabetic or not, you might want to have a dose of insulin handy while watching this morning's video clip. The Early Show's review of the past year this morning was one sicky-sweet adoration--in overtly religious terms--of Barack Obama. Harry Smith set the tone with his opening comments: "Politics, and patriotism and the presidency: it is the place where the secular and the religious merge. One of the sacraments of our national religion is the inauguration. So it was that as many as two million pilgrims made their way to Washington and the Mall to witness this most sacred event." Back...

Here is the video of Levi Johnston on CBS's "Early Show." Johnston said that he's hiding "huge" things about Palin that "would get her in trouble, and could hurt her. Will hurt her." When asked if he was doing all this for "revenge" he answered "that's part of it." (Video)

Imagine the MSMer’s dilemma: as a financial professional, she wanted to tell the truth–that the taxpayer is going to be a loser in the GM bankruptcy. But that would require her to reject the Obama administration’s line that taxpayers will get their billions back in a few years. What’s a good liberal media member to do? Jill Schlesinger’s solution was to tell the truth . . . but to preface it letting the world know “I love the government.” View video here.

With Pres. Obama about to meet Queen Elizabeth, the Early Show decided to focus on gaffes various past presidents have committed when encountering Her Majesty. Surprise! All the socially maladroit moves mentioned were by Republicans. Katie Couric sniped from London . . . KATIE COURIC: She’s met with every president since Harry Truman and many of them by the way have committed a few faux pas along the way. The first President Bush apparently sat before Queen Elizabeth, which was a real no-no. But my favorite story was at a state dinner during the Ford administration. When the Queen started...

Yes, Bill Plante did acknowledge that the stem cell issue has “deep moral and political implications.” And yes, we did hear from a representative of the Family Research Council speaking in opposition to Pres. Obama’s decision to lift the Bush-era ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. But that said, was it right for the Early Show to air the most inflammatory possible accusation against Pres. Bush? Recounting the story of a young boy who died of a rare and fatal genetic disease Plante stated that the boy’s parents: “believe their son’s chance of survival ended when President...

It didn’t have all the drama of a Rick Santelli on the floor of an exchange, revving traders up with a call for a tea party. But in his own way, CBS’s Ray Martin struck a forceful blow against the mortgage bailout plan this morning. And like his CNBC counterpart, Martin called out the president by name. Today’s Early Show ran a feature in which average citizens submitted questions to two experts, including Martin, a CBS financial consultant. Using taped questions, the network of course exercises total control over what issues will air. It was telling, then, that the Early...

Man, am I glad to be wrong. When economist Peter Morici, appearing on the Early Show in December, placed much of the blame for the automakers’ woes on the UAW, I imagined that we might have seen the last of him on CBS. I’m happy to report that my fears were unfounded. Morici was back with a vengeance this morning, absolutely shredding Pres. Obama’s plans for the economy. Highlights: * There’s no end in sight to bailout billions, given the wrong-headed policies the Obama admin is pursuing. * Until a “bad bank” of bad assets is created, the “one-off” bailouts...

When it comes to marketing, Dennis Kucinich has a lot to be modest about. In the two presidential races he entered, Kucinich went 0-100 in primaries and caucuses, posting a nice round .000 batting average. But while he’s batting well below the Mendoza line when it came to marketing himself in national politics, Dennis Kucinich apparently feels qualified to serve as marketing director for corporate America. The Early Show aired clips this morning of Kucinich going after Citigroup for having purchased the naming rights for the New York Mets new baseball stadium: CitiField. KUCINICH: They just act as though the...

The link by the title is to The Early Show appearance this morning.The link to the Hannity Show is just before the "is" 5 words ago.

What better way for members of the MSM to show their allegiance to the new president then to have themselves posterized in the artistic style associated with Barack Obama? And so it was that the two Saturday anchors of the Early Show proudly displayed this morning the poster of themselves that they had produced via the website Obamicon.me with the iconic look that Shepard Fairey inspired. Co-anchor Wragge plugged the site. CHRIS WRAGGE: You might not be Barack Obama, but you can have your very own poster. The website Obamiconme let’s you take that iconic red, white and blue Obama...

Barack Obama nominates someone to head the CIA whose major qualification is his inexperience. Even Democrats are dismayed. John Travolta's son, sadly, died. So in its crucial first half-hour this morning, the Early Show naturally devotes almost five minutes to the Travolta story while ignoring the controversy surrounding Leon Panetta's appointment. Far from revealing that even senior Dems like Senators Feinstein and Rockefeller have signalled their displeasure over the naming of Panetta, CBS' Chip Reid painted the pick as a sign of how Obama is briskly taking charge. Here was the sum total of the Early Show's discussion of the...

Drumstick or breast for accused daddy killer? Details at 11! If that wasn't quite how the Early Show played it, it's not far off. Of all the angles to promote its coverage of the story of the eight-year old accused of killing his father, CBS highlighted the issue of . . . where the boy would celebrate Thanksgiving. View video here.

At the top of Thursday’s CBS Early Show, co-host Julie Chen praised Barack Obama’s election as the first African-American president but lamented the passage of California’s Proposition 8, preventing gay marriage: "One barrier falls, another returns. Married gays in legal limbo protest through the night as California voters ban same-sex unions." At the top of the 8AM hour, correspondent John Blackstone reported: "In disappointment, supporters of same-sex marriage gathered in Los Angeles last night, after the hard-fought campaign over California's Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage, they were on the losing side, but not ready to give up." Blackstone went...

My NewsBusters colleagues, and conservatives across the blogosphere, are sure to be vying to document the most outrageous examples of the MSM's fawning reaction to the Obama victory. Hopefully I'll have the honor of at least a brief clubhouse lead with my entry, the words of CBS Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen during this morning's opening segment. JULIE CHEN: Yeah, it was so moving, um, last night. You couldn't help but feel so emotional, and I agree with you [Maggie Rodriguez], I think John McCain did a really classy job in his speech [he did, but MSM loves Republicans best...

When This Week assembled a round-table of four liberals versus one conservative yesterday, I kvetched. Maybe I should have cheered. ABC's idea of balance looks good compared to that of CBS. This morning's Early Show segment on the Bush admin's plan, to be announced later this morning, to regulate the financial industry was essentially conservative-free. OK, to be absolutely accurate, there was a brief clip of Treasury Secretary Paulson saying the plan would protect the Fed's balance sheet and US taxpayers. But in her set-up piece, CBS's Kimberly Dozier emphasized the negative: "critics say it's win-win for banks, not the...

On Wednesday’s CBS "Early Show,"co-host Hannah Storm, who tvnewser.com reports will soon be leaving the show, teased an upcoming segment about the controversy over the atheist-inspired movie, "The Golden Compass": "And Nicole Kidman on why the Church doesn't want your children to see her new movie." Of course, the "Church" has said no such thing, but rather the Catholic League has called for a boycott of the movie. Later during the segment, Storm talked with Catholic League President, Bill Donohue, as well as Ellen Johnson, the president of American Atheists. To Storm’s credit, she challenged Johnson by quoting the atheist...

Nothing says "idealistic" like brutally suppressing freedom and imprisoning courageous advocates of democracy. At least in the view of CBS News, apparently. At 7:21 a.m. EDT on this morning's "Early Show," CBS's Kelly Cobiella reported from Havana on the occasion of Cuba's national day. Co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez asked Cobiella about the prospects for change. CBS "EARLY SHOW" CO-ANCHOR MAGGIE RODRIGUEZ: There's no question that Fidel and [his brother] Raul are different types of leaders. I'm sure we'll see it when he speaks later. He doesn't have Fidel's charisma and he seems a little bit more open to change. As he...

Jeff Greenfield has called it "the ultimate act of hypocrisy and cowardice" for long-time guests of the Imus show [file photo] to stay away now. Greenfield, who is leaving CNN to return to CBS as Senior Political Correspondent, appeared on this morning's "Early Show" and was interviewed by co-host Julie Chen. CHEN: Did you hesitate to go on the show yesterday? GREENFIELD: No. If you have the benefit of being on his show for 15 years -- and there is a benefit -- there's visibility, if you have a book [you can promote it], and also, to be blunt, it's...

Who needs Chuck Schumer, so long as you have Harry Smith [file photo]? Dems might well be asking themselves that this morning, after the Early Show host went after Tony Snow on the attorney firings in a manner that might have made the senior senator from New York look statesmanlike in comparison. Things got so bad that at one point, the eminently affable Snow accused Smith of badgering him, and later suggested the CBS anchor was acting like a partisan, not a reporter. Things ended on the worst possible note, as Smith effectively accused Snow of hiding the truth...

How slow was the news this morning? Bianca Solorzano, the CBS reporter covering the Anna Nicole Smith funeral in Nassau, Bahamas was reduced to chatting with a local florist. Turns out Anna's favorite color was pink. Who knew? Solorzano also scored an exclusive with a fellow supervising the placing of crowd control barricades at the cemetery. But along the way, co-host Tracy Smith [who normally works the weekend show], did pose a pertinent question when Obama tried to sneak an answer by her that was so disingenuous it might have made Bill Clinton blush. Smith mentioned that this weekend,...

Particularly when you consider the ramifications for millions of children growing up without a two-parent family, the news that 51% of women in America now live without a spouse is serious indeed. But the decline of our culture was nothing but a laughing matter for the boys of the Early Show. Rather than seeing any cause for concern, CBS displayed the graphic seen here blithely informing viewers: "No Husband Needed." As Russ Mitchell threw the story to Harry Smith, he mirthfully proclaimed: "So Harry, now there's now statistical data for what we always knew: they really don't need us,...

It's not too early to declare Katie Couric a failure as an evening news anchor and to suggest she return to her successful slot as a morning news show host. That's the considered opinion of Jon Friedman, "Media Web" author at Dow Jones's Market Watch. Read Friedman article here. Friedman's frank assessment:: "America loved the early-morning Katie. Whether she likes it or not, it's evident that viewers embraced her for the 'P' word: perkiness. Fair or not, however, the nation isn't willing to accept her in the traditionally solemn evening-news time period." Friedman notes that Renee Syler recently exited The...

by Mark Finkelstein October 11, 2006 - 08:17 A phalanx of Democrats, led by Hillary Clinton, claims the Bush administration is to blame for the N. Korean nuclear test. John McCain responds, pointing out that it was the Clinton administration's failed "agreed framework" that let Kim Jong Il merrily go about his bomb-and-missile-making ways. So how does Hannah Storm of CBS' Early Show frame the state of play? "Sen. John Kerry said that you must be trying to burnish your credentials for the nomination process, he's referring of course to your presidential aspirations. I mean, what do you say to...

Posted by Michael Rule on October 5, 2006 - 16:26. What did Speaker Hastert know about former Congressman Foley’s lurid communications with a former page, and when did he know it? This is an open question that will be resolved through investigations by the House Ethics Committee and the FBI. Yet before all the facts are known, "The Early Show" continued to clamor for Hastert’s resignation. The "Early Show" has raised the subject of Speaker Hastert resigning in at least two stories in each of the last four days. On Thursday’s program, Hannah Storm spoke with CBS’s idea of a...

by Mark Finkelstein September 27, 2006 - 08:05 "Good morning, this is Harry Smith reporting from London today, June 10th, 1940. With Luftwaffe pilots now brazenly carrying out daylight bombing raids on London, it's clear that Britain's war against Nazism is a failure." Judging by his take on Iraq, that's presumably how Harry would have reported matters had he been around during the dark days of WWII. Fortunately, Churchill was there: "Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and...

by Mark Finkelstein September 11, 2006 - 09:00 Matt Lauer gave it the old college try, doing his best to lure Hillary Clinton into some Bush-bashing on the fifth anniversary of 9/11. But demonstrating savvy political instincts, or at least those of her advisers, Clinton held fire, not deigning to swing at the anti-Bush softballs Lauer served up on this morning's 'Today.' Lauer: "Are we safer today five years after the attacks of 9-11?" Hillary: "I think it is fair to say we are safer but not safe enough. We have a lot of work to do." Lauer lobbed a...

by Mark Finkelstein August 9, 2006 - 09:39 Q. How can you tell when the MSM's liberal slip is showing? A. When a host argues from the left with his own non-partisan expert! That's just what happened on this morning's Early Show. Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report was brought on to analyze yesterday's CT senate primary results. Cook presents itself as non-partisan, and certainly no one can accuse Walter of being a closet conservative. As per her bio, "prior to joining The Cook Political Report, she served as Political Director of the Women's Campaign Fund and worked for...

view edit Posted by Mark Finkelstein on August 1, 2006 - 08:09. In Miami, Cuban-Americans were literally dancing in the street at the prospect that the repressive regime of Fidel Castro might finally be drawing to an end. But back in Cuba, people greeted the news of the great liberator's illness with dismay. At least they did according to CBS News' woman-on-the-spot. On this morning's Early Show, CBS ran a brief clip of a phone interview with Portia Siegelbaum, a CBS News producer based in Cuba. Here is the entirety of her report: "The news of Castro's illness was most...

by Mark Finkelstein July 19, 2006 - 08:08 It's been a tough week for the MSM. You just know they'd like to find a way spin events in Lebanon and Israel for purposes of criticizing the Bush administration. But one senses they have had a tough time getting traction. Even for our liberal media heroes, making common cause with Hezbollah might be a bridge too far. When the MSM is reduced to fixating on a mild four-letter word that Pres. Bush let fly, and to second-guessing tactics - as opposed to goals - you know the media's Bush-bashing cupboard is...

<p>Is Harry Smith's goal at every stage of every war to stop it? If he had been around on June 6, 1941, would he have been asking what could be done to stop D-Day? The question arises in light of Smith's questions on this morning's Early Show to Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution.</p>

by Mark Finkelstein July 13, 2006 - 08:03 Let's imagine an American World Cup team member 'of pallor' had head-butted, oh, an Arab or African player. Would the MSM be quick to excuse, even make the incident the object of humor? Or would we have been treated to mind-numbing disquisitions on racism in sport as a microcosm of society at large? But when a French player of Arab ancestry head-butts an Italian? Well, CBS tells us, boys will be boys. CBS's Elizabeth Palmer, who narrated a segment on the incident on this morning's Early Show, informed us that "it's a...

by Mark Finkelstein June 27, 2006 Given NewsBusters' goal of exposing outrageous liberal media bias, perhaps I should switch focus from the Katie-less Today to Harry Smith & Co. at the Early Show. I rarely check in on the show, which has languished seemingly forever in last place. But, happening upon it this morning, Smith's bald-faced bias left me breathless. Smith's guest was Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report. Talk was first of the proposed flag-burning amendment. Disdain dripping, Smith observed "I'm just curious about this. Because somewhere I read in the last couple of days in the entire...

by Mark Finkelstein March 8, 2006 Bear with me. It's something of a slow news day. No Matt Lauer offering a 'he-set-me-up' defense for a lefty schoolteacher. Not even a Katie Couric plumping for more post-Katrina public housing. But perhaps, in a small way, an insight into how little hosts on the major morning news shows know about . . . the news. All the shows ran segments this morning about a new book, 'Game of Shadows', by San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams. With a release timed to coincide with the beginning of the baseball season,...

by Mark Finkelstein February 22, 2006 When it comes to the controversy surrounding the UAE port operations deal, left is right, right is left and the MSM seems caught somewhere in the middle, trying to balance its cultural instincts against its political interest. Last night's Scarborough Country thus treated us to the odd spectacle of Barbara Boxer doing her best Tom Tancredo impersonation, opposing the deal because "two of the 9/11 hijackers came from the UAE." Then, on this morning's Early Show, Dan Bartlett sounded more like a multi-cultural sensitivity trainer than the presidential counselor he is when he declared:...

Some people may have been wondering if the nine-day old Dick Cheney hunting story would be going away. Don’t count on it. On the February 20 edition of the Early Show, Evan Thomas, assistant managing editor at Newsweek, told Harry Smith that "People who don’t like [Cheney] think this is the dark, Darth Vader type." His analysis coincided with the new issue of Newsweek that features a cover story, written by Thomas, on "Cheney’s Secret World." The online edition features this sub-headline: "He peppered a man in the face, but didn’t tell his boss. Inside Dick Cheney’s dark, secretive mind-set-and...

by Mark Finkelstein February 20, 2006 Things didn't work out well at the Olympics for Johnny Weir, the flamboyant American figure skater. Favored to take home a medal, he finished a disappointing fifth after a very rugged long program. But Johnny shouldn't feel too bad. When he hangs up the skates, there could be a promising second career for him . . . as a member of the liberal media. Interviewed on CBS' Early Show this morning, Weir explained that he knew he wasn't at his best on the day of the long program, and in particular wasn't "feeling pretty."...

by Mark Finkelstein February 14, 2006 - 07:33 Imagine you're a member of the media, and in your heart you believe that a major official wouldn't mind seeing you burn to death. Think that might affect the way you cover him? A comment this morning by veteran CBS reporter Bill Plante, while perhaps intended to be light-hearted, pulled back the curtain on just how antagonistic the White House press corps believes VP Cheney to be toward them. But more importantly, it suggests how antagonistic they likely feel in return. The topic was the Veep's accidental shooting of hunting partner Harry...

by Mark Finkelstein February 8, 2006 - 08:00 It wouldn't have been more than a couple years ago that had headlines invoked Britney Spears in a "lap" controversy, images of graphic goings-on in the Champagne Lounge might have come to mind. But time marches on, and Britney-the-new-mother is now caught in a lap-gate of an altogether different sort, after photos of her were snapped driving her car with her four-month old son in her lap rather than secured in a car seat. In the latest development, according to this LA Times article, a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy went to...

by Mark Finkelstein December 14, 2005 - 07:04. "We recognize the right of all women to choose whether, when, and under what circumstances to bear children. Reproductive freedom and responsibility are essential to other rights and opportunities, including pursuit of education, employment, financial security and a stable and fulfilling family life. Restrictions of reproductive choice are especially burdensome for young women and poor women. Girls Incorporated supports a woman’s freedom of choice, a constitutional right established by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973 in Roe vs. Wade." Would you say the foregoing statement, from Girls Inc. [see it here http://www.girlsinc.org/ic/page.php?id=4.3.4...

Will Tom Brokaw, the Today show, Chris Matthews and CBS's Early Show offer a correction? As Brit Hume noted Thursday night, the Washington Post corrected a Wednesday article which reported, that on Hardball Tuesday night, Pat Buchanan had called Mark Felt a "traitor." The correction explained: "Buchanan said that Felt had no personal loyalty to President Richard M. Nixon, 'so I don't consider him a traitor in that sense.'" In fact, it was Matthews who first falsely claimed that Buchanan had tagged Felt a "traitor." On Wednesday's Today, Brokaw was appalled by Buchanan's supposed characterization: "I think Pat said yesterday...

Asked on CBS's Early Show to explain "Healing the Divide," actor Richard Gere bafflingly replied that "the world is a symbolic representation." Gere incomprehensibly elaborated about the group he supports: "You and I are not separate. The Iraqis and us are not separate. Even Saddam Hussein and us, we are not separate. We're all in this together. All deeply connected. And when we can start bridging that divide -- the primitive, ignorant divide of that -- then wars go away. All wars go away." No mention of bringing democracies to nations, a proven way to avoid wars. In a graphic,...

Media Reality Check. "The TV Elite Downplays Kerry vs. Russert: Papers Highlight Kerry Backing Away from Vietnam ‘Atrocity' Claims, But TV Networks Stay Quiet" Below is the text of a Media Reality Check, by the MRC's Director of Media Analysis, Tim Graham, which was distributed by fax earlier today. For the Adobe Acrobat PDF version:http://www.mediaresearch.org/realitycheck/2004/pdf/fax0421.pdf Now, the text of the April 21 Media Reality Check On Monday, Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz presented results of a Post study of cable news coverage from March 3 to April 16. The main finding: President Bush received three times as much live...

When The Today Show chose to make a procedural move in the Kobe Bryant case the focus of its first segment this morning, I decided to flip to CBS' "Early Show" to see what they might be featuring. Sure enough, they were airing a segment on Iraq and Pres. Bush's $87 billion request to Congress to fund the war against terrorism. Harry Smith first interviewed Teddy Kennedy. In the space of 2 minutes, Kennedy found occasion to condemn W's policy in Iraq as a "disaster" or "disastrous" at least three times. And of course Teddy wrung his hands at the...

Network insiders have claimed for more than a year now that (CBS Chairman) Les Moonves, 53, had a 'special rapport' with Julie Chen the 33 year old anchor of the CBS Early Show.When some criticized Ms. Chen for tainting the news with entertainment by hosting the network's reality show 'Big Brother,' Moonves lept to her defense.'Julie Chen has had a very difficult job,' Moonves told cynical television critics in the year 2000. CBS Spokesmen have brushed away suggestions that she owed her morning slot to Moonves or that there is anything more than a professional relationship.Seemingly award of such talk,...

<p>NEW YORK (AP) --  Two months after Bryant Gumbel exited as host of "The Early Show," CBS still hasn't named a successor. But the pool of potential replacements shrank on Monday.</p> <p>The network gave Russ Mitchell, host of CBS' Saturday morning news show, additional duties as a correspondent on "CBS News Sunday Morning."</p>

The CBS bosses are hunting some faboulous male type to sit aside Jane Clyson. (On the CBS 'Early Show') What have gotten thrwon around are names that until now will not have known that they were names that have gotten thrown around.Like Peter Gallagher.Handsome, personable, chatty.Yeah, he's in 'Noises Off' So? That's no eternal deal.Like a longtime major time movie box office star who at this millisecond isn't busting box office records.Like ready? Kevin Costner. Talks easily has a Rolo Dex that stretches from here to eternity.

KDKA radio reports at 6AM that William Jefferson Clinton is being seriously considered as a replacemnet for the departing Bryant Gumbel on the CBS Morning Show. They gave a source, but I was so stunned (Shouldn't have been. After all they're ready to sign D. Rather through 2006...sigh) I didn't catch it. Hopefully another FReeper did and can post the source. Seems to me this was a trial balloon going up and it might be a good time to start ringing the phones, stuffing the e-mail boxes and otherwise letting CBS know they could suffer the same fate as the...

Clinton in running for TV job From correspondents in Washington 27apr02 FORMER US president Bill Clinton could soon start a gig as the co-host of a morning television program, US media reported today. ABC-TV's gossip show "Extra" reported that Clinton is a candidate to succeed retiring television host Bryant Gumbel as the co-anchor of "The Early Show" - a breakfast news program on rival network CBS-TV. The ex-president, who left office 15 months ago, already has been busy in retirement: his William J Clinton Foundation is assembling teams of business experts to provide financial, marketing and other technical advice to...