Free Republic

Are reporters in the business of reporting facts or rumor? Andrea Mitchell, for one, has no problem sending along "scuttlebutt" that if true would be deeply damaging to John McCain. Barack Obama's cancellation of plans to visit injured military members at bases in Germany has drawn considerable attention and criticism. On today's Morning Joe, Mitchell passed along a rumor that McCain used his Pentagon connections to sabotage the Obama visit. View video here.

You think the mainstream media aren't trying to build Barack Obama up as high as possible? Here is a brief video of NBC Nightly News on July 20, where they led the broadcast by referring to BO's trip as his "Tour of Duty." I'm sure our men and women in uniform would agree with that characterization. You can't make this stuff up. . . (see video)

It's bad enough that Barack Obama's trip to the Middle East is getting an insane amount of MSM coverage (the three big network news anchors? Whoa!); now, NBC News believes it apt to compare Obama's sojourn to ... an actual military tour of duty.

I can't believe NBC 6:30 PM news tonight would Label Obama's trip "Tour of Duty"!!!!! Anybody else have a problem with this?

<p>The remaining (few) conservatives at NBC are angry about The Suits plan to replace a show host, probably Chris Matthews, with faradical far-left openly lesbian Air America host(ess) Rachel Maddow.</p> <p>Maddow makes no secret of her beliefs, or her ability to use her time on the air to promote them.</p>

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...

Media Stars Will Accompany Obama Overseas By JIM RUTENBERG WASHINGTON — Senator John McCain’s trip to Iraq last spring was a low-key affair: With his ordinary retinue of reporters following him abroad, the NBC News anchor Brian Williams reported on his arrival in Baghdad from New York, with just two sentences tacked onto the “in other political news” portion of his newscast. But when Mr. Obama heads for Iraq and other locations overseas this summer, Mr. Williams is planning to catch up with him in person, as are the other two evening news anchors, Charles Gibson of ABC and Katie...

NBC News may actually be more pro-Obama than Barack Obama himself. Back in March, a celebratory NBC Nightly News story about Obama’s childhood in Indonesia described the future candidate as “mastering the Indonesian language.” But Obama — who this week has voiced displeasure that many Americans do not speak a foreign language — admitted on Friday: “I don’t speak a foreign language. It’s embarrassing!” he said. On Tuesday, Obama voiced regret over Americans’ lack of language skills. He revisited the topic on Friday, this time admitting that he speaks no foreign languages himself. Via Jake Tapper’s “Political Radar” blog: At...

Rolling Stone is a left-wing magazine which puts liberal politicians on its cover and this year has already featured a cover story on Barack Obama, yet despite the seeming lack of any newsworthiness in a second Obama cover story, this one written by an "unabashed Obama supporter," on Wednesday morning NBC's Today show devoted a full story to how the just-released issue of the magazine illustrated "fascination" with Obama. Co-host Matt Lauer marveled: "On the cover not a musician but a politician, Barack Obama. It's the second time he's been featured there but this time there will be no cover...

Keith Olbermann had a temper tantrum at a memorial reception for the late Tim Russert.

WHEN the NBC News host Tim Russert died on June 13, NBC tried to hold back the news from going public for more than an hour to notify his family vacationing in Italy and presumably to prepare for what became six hours of coverage on its cable news outlet, MSNBC. And King Canute, ancient legend has it, tried to hold back the tide. Mr. Russert collapsed from a heart attack in NBC’s Washington newsroom around 1:40 p.m.; he was treated there and then taken to a hospital, arriving at 2:23 and being pronounced dead shortly thereafter, according to press accounts....

Tom Brokaw will replace Tim Russert as moderator of NBC’s “Meet the Press” through the November presidential election, the network announced today. Brokaw, 68, filled in for the first post-Russert week. “NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams was the host today, and revealed Russert's interim successor during the broadcast. NBC News President Steve Capus said: "A lot has been said in recent days about what 'Meet the Press' means to NBC News and to the nation. To have someone of Tom's stature step up and dedicate himself to ensuring its ongoing success is not only a testament to his loyalty...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - NBC News picked veteran Tom Brokaw to moderate "Meet the Press" through the 2008 U.S. election season, NBC News President Steve Capus said on Sunday. Tim Russert, the longtime host of the Sunday morning news program who was known for his interviews of leading U.S. political figures, died of a heart attack on June 13. He was also the television network's Washington bureau chief.

Tim Russert has been dead a week but that hasn't stopped the nakedly ambitous potato heads at MSNBC from lusting after his Meet The Press job. Word is out and reported by Page Six at the New York Post that both hysterically hyper Chris Matthews and that bumbling bufoon Keith Olbermann are both jockeying for position in the MTP sweepstakes: TIM Russert's body wasn't even cold in the ground before MSNBC anchors Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann started jockeying for his job, sources claim. .....

TIM Russert's body wasn't even cold in the ground before MSNBC anchors Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann started jockeying for his job, sources claim. Matthews was heard loudly discussing what seemed to be his strategy for landing Russert's "Meet the Press" show at Wednesday's memorial reception for the NBC Washington bureau chief at the Kennedy Center in DC. After Brian Williams, Carl Bernstein, David Gergen, Barbara Walters and NBC brass eulogized their friend, Matthews huddled with an unidentified "agent type" and seemed to be plotting... Meanwhile, Matthews' MSNBC cable cohort Olbermann, who was also at the memorial, is "threatening to...

MSNBC/NBC News announce that Brian Williams will take over Meet The Press on a trial run starting this Sunday.

NBC anchor Brian Williams will be the first to fill in for Tim Russert as the host for "Meet the Press" this Sunday, the network said today. Russert died suddenly last week of cardiac arrest. After Williams, several different NBC news personalities are expected to rotate as the host of the Sunday morning interview show until a permanent replacement is named - sometime later this year or early next.

One of the names being mentioned as a replacement for Tim Russert on "Meet the Press" is Chris Matthews. Matthews is one of the biggest horse's patooties on television, if not the biggest, a man so enamored of of his own grating voice that he can barely stop talking long enough to let a guest get a word in. Much like Charley Rose, only worse, Matthews is master of the run-on question. He goes on and on, and just when the guest detects that Matthews is about to take a breath and tries to jump in with an answer, Matthews...

Still reeling from Tim Russert's death, NBC News must now contemplate replacing the man who not only dominated the Sunday morning talk shows, but served as chief political commentator and ran the Washington bureau. The "Meet the Press" host had what was arguably the most important and far-reaching job in television news, particularly in an election year. He died of a heart attack Friday while preparing for another week's edition of "Meet the Press." NBC wasn't talking about potential successors while planning Russert's wake on Tuesday and memorial service Wednesday that will be televised on MSNBC from the Kennedy Center....

Here's one thing you can say about journalists: Surely no one loves us as much as we love ourselves. That's one lesson of the Tim Russert coverage. A friend told me Sunday: "I now know more about Tim Russert than I do many members of my family." After Russert's shocking death Friday at age 58, television kept serving up witnesses to his expertise, intelligence, diligence, kindness, faith, love of family, Buffalo and the Buffalo Bills. The self-indulgence was breathtaking. On Monday's "Today," Matt Lauer interviewed Russert's son, Luke. The show basically gave over the first half-hour to the Russert story....

NBC's Tim Russert died of a heart attack on Friday. Only the deaf, dumb and blind can be unaware of this fact. Ever since the unfortunate death of one of the major players in the field of media and politics, non-stop media coverage has drummed this fact home to millions of Americans. Enough, already. This media coverage, still going strong, is becoming quite unseemly.

Watch this video where Chris Matthews displays his utter lack of class with Keith Olbermann. While almost every other journalist and blogger on both sides of the political spectrum are giving condolences and highlighting Russert’s deserved credit of being one of the most fair and unbiased journalists of today’s media, Chris Matthews used the opportunity to go off on an anti-war rant. He added insult by comparing him to the “American people” in the sense of being fooled by the Bush administration into supporting the war. Besides displaying how opposite he is than Russert on the subject of bias, he...

I know this may come off as callous and insensitive to some, but it has to be said. While I have no animus against Tim Russert, I am again in amazement how thoroughly the news world has been turned on its head because of the death of one journalist. One of them.

WASHINGTON — Veteran NBC newsman Tim Russert died Friday of an apparent heart attack. The host and managing editor of NBC's "Meet the Press" was 58. Longtime NBC anchor Tom Brokaw went on the air with an emotional special report to confirm Russert's death. Brokaw said his colleague died at his desk in the network's Washington bureau.

In this natural flurry of news following NBC's Tim Russert's too-early death, I am struck by a fact that exists barely under the popular perception. In these rememberances about Mr.Russert, clear mention is made of him first working for the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynahan, Hillary Clinton's immediate predecessor as Senator from New York. It was following this period as a Democrat Party Functionary (DPF), that he joined NBC. Similarly (more recent and famously) George Stephanopoulis went almost directly from the Clinton White House to anchoring ABC's Sunday interview program. Chris Matthews of NBC's cable channels worked for Tip O'Neil,...

Tim Russert, the Democratic operative turned NBC commentator who revolutionized Sunday morning television and infused journalism with his passion for politics, died this afternoon. Russert, 58, collapsed while recording voiceovers for his Sunday morning interview program, NBC reported. He was initially reported to have suffered a heart attack while working in his office on Washington's Nebraska Avenue, but the network said later only that he was "stricken at the bureau" and subsequently died. Further details were not immediately available. Russert served as NBC's Washington bureau chief and the host of "Meet the Press," the top-rated Sunday talk show, which had...

Has NBC White House Correspondent David Gregory turned over a new leaf? Gregory, who has earned a lot of critics for having an anti-Bush/liberal bias, made it seem that way during a discussion about ethics in politics and journalism Thursday. He claimed to struggle with Jewish teachings about saying bad things about others - at least when it comes to Democrats. Gregory, who is Jewish, said he relies on the Jewish law on speech to make editorial decisions for his MSNBC daily afternoon show "Race for the White House."

NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams pleaded with graduates from Ohio State University in Columbus to repair America during a commencement speech Sunday. "I come here today with a request for the Class of '08: We need you to fix the country – and I'm sorry to ask this of you," Williams said, suggesting that the U.S. is broken. "And I'm deadly serious and we really do. I am 49 and on behalf of my generation, I'm so sorry …" The news anchor, who was awarded an honorary Doctor of Journalism degree from the university, said the Internet has distracted...

ALBANY, N.Y. -- MSNBC pundit Keith Olbermann, who spotlights misbehavior nightly with his "Worst Person in the World" recognition, owes New York state for unpaid business taxes, according to a tax warrant notice. And his conservative counterparts and bloggers are making sure the debt is fodder in the ongoing political commentators' feud. Olbermann, the host of "Countdown," owes New York $2,269.50, according to a tax warrant obtained by The Associated Press. State Tax and Finance Department spokesman Tom Bergin said the debt recorded against the TV host's Olbermann Broadcasting Empire Inc., based in Los Angeles, is still open. MSNBC spokesman...

May 19, 2008 -- IS Keith Olbermann, MSNBC's top-rated anchor, on the verge of yet another professional meltdown? His feuding with "Hardball" host Chris Matthews is nothing new. But now we're told notoriously odd Olbermann is lashing out at the rest of his network's talking heads. During West Virginia primary coverage the other night, Olbermann began pounding the table when lead White House reporter David Gregory didn't wrap his segment quickly enough to satisfy him.

A "high level source inside MSNBC" tells the TVNewser blog that network stars like Tim Russert and Chris Matthews are "upset" and "pissed" that the far-left Keith Olbermann is tainting the network's credibility with his "activism," such as blogging for the hard-left Daily Kos site. "What's it going to be like in the general election now that everyone knows we're the in-house network of Barack Obama," TVNewser's Steve Krakauer quoted the MSNBC insider as fretting... A network spokesperson dismissed the complaint, telling TVNewser, "Your source is ill-informed and the assertions are laughable." ... "What's it going to be like in...

The White House on Monday sent a scathing letter to NBC News, accusing the news network of “deceptively” editing an interview with President Bush on the issue of appeasement and Iran. At issue were remarks Bush made in front of Israel's parliament earlier this week. Specifically, White House counselor Ed Gillespie laments that the network edited the interview in a way that “is clearly intended to give viewers the impression that [Bush] agreed with [correspondent Richard Engel's] characterization of his remarks when he explicitly challenged it. “This deceitful editing to further a media-manufactured storyline is utterly misleading and irresponsible and...

"She has changed her rhetoric and for the first time now her people, her closest aides ... are acknowledging she is not going to win this"

Clip featuring WNBC's Sue Simmons from WNBC-TV in New York.

How could job loss for 80 small-town residents be a "great story?"

ON THE NBC nightly news there was a heart-throb report of an attractive British teen-ager who had skied across the North Pole with her father to demonstrate how the Arctic ice pack is receding in the face of global warming. Oh, horror. Oh, how terrible. The pictures were beautiful: Her pretty face, her gentle smile, her soft voice, her snow-crusted parka, the blue skies, the brilliant white ice, the cascading chunks of ice calving from glaciers, the two penguins standing on an ice flow. Wait a minute. Penguins? At the North Pole? Not that we ever heard of. So much...

What legitimate journalistic purpose did this serve? In a segment narrated by Pete Williams on the apparent suicide of Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the so-called DC Madam, this morning's Today played the tape of the 911 phone call made by Pelfrey's 76-year old mother, who had discovered her daughter's body. Of all the 911 calls I've heard, this was the most anguished and heart-rending.

Meredith Viera gets the big scoop on the Today show, doing the first post-repudiation interview with Barack and Michelle Obama, as they have to regroup after a series of stumbles over the last two months. Obama to some degree took responsibility for his own woes, although Michelle wanted to "move forward" instead. However, Obama let loose a glimpse of his aggrieved status when talking about how hard it is for a man with his name to run for President:

Near the end of Sunday's Meet the Press, NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell boldly stated that racism has been a "real factor" in the Obama vote on the ground in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

April 13, 2008 Mr. Dan Abrams MSNBC 30 Rockefeller Plaza New York, N.Y. 10112 Dear Mr. Abrams: On April 7th, you again devoted a substantial part of your show to the claim of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman that I was behind his prosecution. Your continued coverage of this issue raises questions about your journalistic standards and those of MSNBC and NBC. During your broadcast, Mr. Siegelman referred to Ms. Dana Jill Simpson as a “respected Republican political operative,” a reference it seems you accept because of the frequent attention you give her in your broadcasts. Have you, during...

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...

A pro-Clinton blogger busted the latest NBC/WSJ poll touting no Wright's effect on Obama's popularity. NBC/WSJ oversampled African American voters to shrill for Obama. http://www.taylormarsh.com/archives_view.php?id=27301

Two weeks since the ABC and NBC evening shows took multiple days before getting around to informing viewers that disgraced New York Governor Eliot Spitzer belonged to the Democratic Party -- after every ABC, CBS and NBC morning and evening news program last year immediately highlighted the party of Republican Senators David Vitter and Larry Craig -- Monday's broadcast network evening newscasts all failed to note, verbally or on-screen, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's party. ABC anchor Charles Gibson announced on World News: “Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was charged today with felonies that could cost him his job and 15 years...

NBC Plans Countdown with Keith Olbermann Anniversary Special Broadcast Network Hopes to Expand Audience for Sister Cable Network MSNBC’s Series By Alex Weprin -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/20/2008 3:26:00 PM NBC will broadcast an anniversary special commemorating five years of Countdown with Keith Olbermann, the top-rated program on sister channel MSNBC.NBC will air the Countdown special March 30 at 7 p.m.The network hopes to expand the program’s audience by giving broadcast viewers a look at the show.  Countdown last appeared on NBC in a special edition slated before Sunday Night Football last August. That special did not score with viewers, finishing...

NBC Universal is shopping WTVJ Miami and WVIT Hartford, Conn., as the NBC Local Media Division seeks to focus on top 10 markets and its growing stable of digital assets. for sale WTVJ does business in the No. 16 Nielsen DMA, and NBCU will hold onto its WSCV Telemundo outlet there. WVIT is in the No. 28 DMA and pulls in about 26% of the TV revenue in Hartford, according to BIA Financial Networks, good for second in the market. “We're in the process of re-engineering the way we think, shifting our focus from a traditional stations business to becoming...

Friday's NBC Nightly News allocated a mere 22 seconds to Barack Obama's condemnation of what fill-in anchor Ann Curry vaguely described as “inflammatory remarks that his long time pastor made about Hillary Clinton and the nation,” but instead of informing viewers of any of those remarks, such as Reverend Jeremiah Wright's suggestion that the U.S. deserved 9/11, the newscast then devoted three minutes to a celebratory piece about how excited Obama's childhood friends in Indonesia are about his candidacy.

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,...

Insiders tell TVNewser Tucker Carlson's 6pmET show Tucker is getting the axe, but Carlson stays on as a political contributor to all MSNBC shows at least through the 2008 election. The official announcement, expected tomorrow, will include details about who will replace Tucker at 6pmET as well as other political programming additions. Sources say the network is going to beef up its schedule with more NBC News talent. In recent days, Jossip, as well as other blogs, ratcheted up the talk that Tucker would be replaced "for a new project." In its 33-month run, Carlson's show has had two names,...