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CBS News sinks to new low; publishes crackpot global warming story, attributes it to Associated Press, kills it with no retraction Yesterday I posted a story from CBS News: Quake n’ Bake: Global Warming Causes More Energetic Earthquakes? The main headline was this: Seismic Activity 5 Times More Energetic Than 20 Years Ago Because Of Global Warming This drew a lot of attention because of the total lack of verifiable science associated with it. I posted some graphs of USGS data showing that the opposite was true, that recent earthquake energy was actually less that in the early 1900’s, and...

On Wednesday’s CBS "Early Show," co-host Julie Chen teased an upcoming segment on Barack Obama: "...during the long primary season, we all learned a lot about Barack Obama. He is a Senator. He's a Harvard grad. He's a husband. And he is a father. But this morning, you're going to learn five things you probably don't know about Barack Obama." Later, in David Letterman style, correspondent Jeff Glor introduced the story: "...here are the top five things you likely don't know about Barack Obama." Among those things, were important facts such as "Number four -- in addition to enjoying basketball...

“My grandfather marched in Patton’s army, but I cannot know what it is to walk into battle like so many of you,” he told a small group of veterans here Obama also spoke about his uncle, who was part of the American brigade that helped to liberate Auschwitz.

"Vinegar Hill," starring Mary-Louise Parker and Tom Skerritt, will be the first to air on May 24. Based on the novel by A. Manette Ansay, the movie centers on a schoolteacher (Parker) and her husband (Skerritt), who move in with his dysfunctional parents when the family falls on hard times. Tony Award-winning actress Betty Buckley will portray Skerritt's mother.

Dan Rather fired another round against his former network Tuesday, charging in an amended lawsuit that CBS News labeled the anchor "too hot to handle" and prevented him from being hired by other networks following his acrimonious departure. Rather was rebuffed in an earlier attempt when many of his claims were knocked down by a New York state judge. But the judge also allowed Rather to resubmit his claims. In the latest filing, Rather claimed that CNN, ABC, NBC and other networks met to talk about possible employment but that all eventually declined for reasons that included, in the lawsuit's...

Last week I wrote that it would be hard to determine the political impact of either Barack Obama's pastor's comments, or Obama's subsequent speech about those various comments. I also wrote that our own polling firm would attempt to measure exactly that. (For the record, our polls have correctly polled the winner in every presidential primary race we've surveyed this year, except the Tennessee Republican primary.) In our survey of the Wright/Obama situation, we merely asked if respondents were aware of the pastor's "past comments," and of "Sen. Obama's speech about the remarks made by his pastor." We did not...

MONTGOMERY - The chairman of the Alabama Republican Party sent a letter to "60 Minutes" producers asking for a retraction unless they could provide evidence backing up a segment on former Gov. Don Siegelman's prosecution. In the segment aired Sunday, north Alabama lawyer Jill Simpson said Republican strategist Karl Rove in 2001 asked her take a compromising photo of Siegelman with one of his aides. "Only the most committed anti-Rove/Bush activist could swallow such a tale," party chairman Rep. Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, wrote in the letter to "60 Minutes." "If you are unable to publicly produce hard and convincing evidence...

60 Minutes on Sunday night ran back-to-back interview segments with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and while Steve Kroft's session with Obama provided a friendly forum in which Kroft admired how “through twelve long months of mind-numbing, muscle-aching, adrenaline-fueled monotony and exhaustion, there has been barely a misstep” by Obama, it was devoid of anything approaching the giddy girl talk about mainlining coffee and high school boys Katie Couric put into her segment with Clinton. Couric set up the story by trumpeting how Clinton “remains focused, energized and anything but defeatist.” She soon wondered: “How do you do it? I...

Fortunately, most people will likely be watching the Giants-Packers game Sunday evening, and will therefore miss the one-sided hysteria. However, for those that mysteriously don't switch channels after the Chargers-Patriots game, CBS will offer a special about global warming this Sunday instead of "60 Minutes." How marvelous. The CBS News website hysterically described this installment of "The Age of Warming": Nowhere is the evidence of global warming as striking than near the earth's poles. CBS News correspondent Scott Pelley's report brings him to the top and the bottom of the world, where scientists point out the effects of the warming...

A suspected bias attack on four Jewish subway riders in New York City has resulted in a friendship between the Jewish victims and the Muslim college student who came to their aid. Walter Adler is calling Hassan Askari a hero for intervening when Adler and three friends were assaulted on a subway train in lower Manhattan on Friday night.

But it was another type of slime that hit the Nickelodeon screen during a segment of Nick News, hosted by Linda Ellerbee. Presented as a news program for kids, the recent episode “Rebels with a Cause”, featured, among others, two anti-war teens.

Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, claims he converted from Islam to Christianity, Scott Pelley reports in a story that brings viewers inside the secretive "Supermax" prison where he is being held. Pelley also reports that some 900 force feedings were performed on other al-Qaeda terrorists who went on repeated hunger strikes to protest conditions at the Colorado top-security federal prison. The 60 MINUTES segment will be broadcast Sunday Oct. 14 (7:30-9:00 PM, ET/7:00-9:00 PM, PT) on the CBS Television Network. The prison in Florence, Colo., which the government calls ADX-Florence for...

Abstinence advocate calls on CBS to apologize Program ridicules Christians, has hypocrites stone club member The leader of an organization that advocates abstinence is demanding CBS apologize for portraying Christian members of an abstinence club as sexually active hypocrites who stone another member to death. "CBS should apologize to America for its reckless episode," said Leslee Unruh, president of National Abstinence Clearinghouse. "With visibility comes responsibility, and CBS didn't take that into account when airing this tainted show. Abstinence education works." The episode at issue is of the CBS crime show "Cold Case," which depicts presumably devout Christian teens in...

In a recent speech at the National Press Club, Katie Couric expressed somber disapproval of the jingoistic excesses after 9/11. Among the things that vexed her: "The whole culture of wearing flags on our lapel and saying 'we' when referring to the United States." From what I can tell, nobody among the journalistic swells bothered to ask, "Who isn't 'we,' Kemo Sabe?" I don't want to revisit those supposedly Orwellian flag pins, which sat so heavily on so many journalistic lapels. But it's worth recalling that during World War II, civilian correspondent Walter Cronkite -- whose anchor job Couric now...

A CBS producer was arrested Saturday after deputies say he attempted to arrange sex with 11-year-old girl by communicating with undercover investigators posing as the fictitious girl's father, authorities said. Daniel J. Barron, 56, a 15-year producer with CBS News who lives in New Jersey, allegedly told an undercover St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office detective to bring his 11-year-old daughter to the Fort Lauderdale hotel where he was staying while in town to cover Sunday's Miami Dolphins game, according to an arrest report. Barron allegedly told the undercover detective, whom he met Saturday afternoon in an America Online chat room...

Before Katie Couric's confession that "saying 'we' when referring to the United States" makes her uncomfortable fades from the news cycle, two observations: ...snip... 2) It does help explain one of Katie's sillier comments, a few years back when the space shuttle Columbia crashed. On the Today show, she saluted the fallen crew as follows: "They were an airborne United Nations - men, women, an African-American, an Indian woman, an Israeli…." No, they weren't an "airborne UN". They were an airborne America. For a start, if there was such a thing as a UN rocket, the Israeli guy wouldn't get...

Scott Pelley conducted a very tough interview with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad which aired on Sunday's 60 Minutes, but on Monday’s Early Show Pelley was very generous in his personal assessment of the man. Host Harry Smith and Pelley agreed that Ahmadinejad is "crazy like a fox" while Pelley also hailed Ahmadinejad as "incorruptible" and "modest." Pelley contended the dictator, who denies the Holocaust, wants Israel destroyed and is causing the deaths of U.S. soldiers in Iraq, is a lot smarter than Westerners believe and is even a "friendly" guy: The important thing, I think, Harry, to understand, he's described...

I have obtained new documentary evidence regarding Dan Rather's relationship with his former bosses at CBS News. Obviously, I cannot identify my source. But he told me during a collect call from Sofia, Bulgaria, that he has access to Rather's "personal files" and that his typewriter was built after 1966. To authenticate the document, I showed it to some of my kids' friends, and they said it was awesome. Here, then, the letter -- written by Dan Rather and dated Nov. 31, 2006: "Dear CBS News: "My new career at HDNet is keeping me busier than a bordello at Mardis...

CBS) The president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, knows how to infuriate the Western world and he did it again last week when he asked to visit ground zero. Ahmadinejad plans to be in New York this week for the U.N. General Assembly meeting. The man who questions the truth behind the Holocaust is expected to demand, once again, the elimination of Israel. 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley spoke with Ahmadinejad on Thursday in the garden outside his office in Tehran. Pelley spoke to the president about America's angry reaction to his plan to visit the World Trade Center site. The...

In an extraordinary move that reflects the depth of his resentment toward his former network, Dan Rather sued CBS yesterday, charging that he was made a "scapegoat" for a discredited 2004 story about President Bush's National Guard record because CBS wanted to "pacify the White House." CBS management "coerced" the veteran news anchor "into publicly apologizing and taking personal blame for alleged journalistic errors in the broadcast," says the $70 million suit, which also names Sumner Redstone, chief executive of the network's then-parent company, Viacom; CBS Chairman Les Moonves; and former CBS News president Andrew Heyward.... Gold, Rather's lawyer, maintained...

NEW YORK (AP) — If some people thought traveling to Iraq and Syria was a ratings stunt for Katie Couric, it didn't work out that way. The "CBS Evening News" tied a record low with just under 5.5 million viewers last week, Nielsen Media Research said Tuesday. Last week and Memorial Day week are the two least-watched CBS evening newscasts since at least 1987, and probably far earlier. CBS said it wasn't surprising, and argued that last week's numbers were artificially deflated because of U.S. Open coverage.

CBS EVENING NEWS anchor Katie Couric is being accused of slapping an editor -- after he injected a word she detested into a script! "The stress has caused her to blow up at her staff for small infractions on the set," charges NEW YORK magazine reporter Joe Hagan, in a story set for publication on Monday. "During the tuberculosis story in June, Couric got angry with news editor Jerry Cipriano for using a word she detested— 'sputum' —and the staff grew tense when she began slapping him 'over and over and over again' on the arm, according to a source...

Fox, CBS Ban Pig 'Condom' Ad The Fox and CBS networks have both declined to air an ad for Trojan condoms that features cellphone-carrying pigs on the prowl. The ad depicts women in a bar surrounded by cellphone-toting pigs. One of the swine heads off to the men’s room where it obtains a condom from a vending machine — and "is transformed into a head-turner in his 20s,” The New York Times reports. "When he returns to the bar, a fetching blonde who had been indifferent now smiles at him invitingly.” The commercial is part of a new ad campaign...

CBS Poll: 76% Say War's Going Badly Record Number In CBS/NYT Survey Say Getting Involved In Iraq Was A Mistake Complete Poll Results: President, Congress And The War in Iraq CBS News Interactive: Bush's Approval Ratings (CBS News) NEW YORK As President Bush and Congress hammer out an Iraq war funding bill, a CBS News/New York Times poll shows the number of Americans who say the war is going badly has reached a new high, rising 10 percent this month to 76 percent. Nearly half of all Americans (47 percent) say the war is going very badly, while just 20...

I hadn't planned on writing another column about Hillary Clinton, but the one I wrote last week has been so widely misunderstood that I feel compelled to do so. To recap, I said that no Republican can win the presidency next year. If one accepts this premise, then if follows that it is in the interest of conservatives to support the most conservative Democrat running for that party's nomination. I went on to say why I think Hillary Clinton may be the most conservative Democrat. To begin with, it is obviously not impossible for a Republican to win next year....

Hawking his new book, At the Eye of the Storm, former CIA Director George Tenet bared his soul Sunday night to Scott Pelley of the CBS news magazine, 60 Minutes. Some preliminary thoughts about his jaw-dropping performance are in order. 1. Tenet met every morning with President Bush. Indeed, he was the point person at the national-security briefing — the daily session Bush, from the beginning of his presidency, has made a point of taking more seriously than his predecessor did. Tenet now claims that in the summer of 2001, he was convinced al Qaeda was on the verge of...

By the time Fred Thompson decides whether or not to join the presidential fray, you will have heard the story of his red pickup truck at least a dozen times. The truck in question is a 1990 Chevy, which the famed statesman-thespian rented during his maiden Senate campaign in 1994. The idea was that Thompson would dress up in blue jeans and shabby boots and drive himself to campaign events around the state. Upon arriving, he'd mount the bed of the truck and launch into a homespun riff on the virtues of citizen-legislators and the perils of Washington insider-ism. For...

CBS News: Shooter Used Pistol, Handgun In State With No Registration, Gun-Waiting Period(CBS) A well-placed law enforcement source tells CBS News the weapons used in the massacre were a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun and .22-caliber pistol. Both are readily available in gun shops across the United States and particularly accessible in the commonwealth of Virginia, which recently earned a C-minus rating by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

In time for the Persian New Year, CBS's Melissa McNamara trawled the blogosphere (including MySpace blog entries) and found bloggers who think Iran's Islamic extremist government has a point about "300" being "anti-Persian." In doing she, she produced a handful of blogs that appear to generate light traffic and in at least one case is just a rambling screed. McNamara told readers that the "Islamic Republic News Agency" (IRNA) finds fault with the film's version of historical events. She left out that IRNA is Iran's official state-controlled news/propaganda service. CBSNews.com's resident "Blogophile" also noted objections from an Iranian newspaper, Hamshahri,...

<p>They say they are not disloyal. They say they are not shirking their duty and that they do not oppose war. But over 1,000 active-duty and reserve members of the U.S. military are against the war in Iraq and have said so in an unusually public way -- by petitioning Congress last month. Several of them appear to explain their actions in a Lara Logan report to be broadcast on 60 MINUTES Sunday Feb. 25 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.</p>

(CBS) Senator John McCain of Arizona and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani – two of the front-runners for the Republican Presidential nomination in 2008 – both enjoy favorable views from both Republican primary voters, a new CBS News poll finds, but early on in the race, voters favor Giuliani in a head-to-head match up. Views of Giuliani are especially positive among both moderates and the conservatives that he and McCain are courting. Voters planning to take part in a Republican primary next year think both McCain and Giuliani share their values, but would currently prefer Giuliani over McCain...

Pasadena -- Katie Couric's going to the Super Bowl. The "CBS Evening News" anchor will contribute a feature to CBS' four-hour Super Bowl pregame show on Feb. 4, the network said on Thursday. She will also anchor the evening news from Miami, the site of the big game, on the Friday before the game. There's precedent at other networks for the news anchors to be involved in sports coverage, including Brian Williams and Couric during NBC's Olympic broadcasts, said Sean McManus, president of CBS News and Sports. "It is the biggest event of the day and it makes sense for...

CBS's Lara Logan Declares US Defeated In Iraq; General Abizaid Disputes Claim Posted by Michael Rule on November 27, 2006 - 16:09. On Sunday’s "60 Minutes," CBS News Chief Foreign Correspondent Lara Logan insisted the US had been defeated in Iraq. During an interview with General John Abizaid, the top US Commander in Iraq, Logan asserted, "We hear very little about victory in Iraq these days. We hear a lot about how to manage the defeat." It appears Ms. Logan suffers from selective hearing. While many Democrats and some Republicans talk about Iraq as a lost cause, sources such as...

Ed Bradley, the veteran "60 Minutes" correspondent and one of the pioneering black journalists of his generation, died today. He was 65. Bradley, who had won 19 Emmy awards, covered an incredible array of stories after joining the CBS newsmagazine in 1981, from brain cancer to sexual abuse in the Catholic Church to the high school shootings at Columbine. He also reported a number of award-winning documentaries, covered political conventions and filled in on the "CBS Evening News" and other programs. Bradley remained active on "60 Minutes," but he had been ill for some time and underwent heart surgery about...

The television networks could be in for a long night on Tuesday. "Mathematically," CBS Senior Vice President Linda Mason says of the election coverage, "you could know by 10 for the House and 11 for the Senate." But, she says, "it could go on until all hours of the early morning." "We have learned from past mistakes," says NBC anchor Brian Williams. "I start from the assumption I will wake up with a sore back on my couch" after an all-nighter. "There's likely to be a lot of hedging," says ABC's George Stephanopoulos. "You may know it, but you can't...

CBS Evening News to Showcase Michael J. Fox Interview on Thursday Posted by Brent Baker on October 25, 2006 - 20:02. Katie Couric touted, on Wednesday's CBS Evening News, how her Thursday broadcast will feature an interview with actor Michael J. Fox. It will air just three days after conservatives denounced as misleading and distorted his TV ads, about stem cell research, against Republican Senate candidates. In a spot for Democratic Missouri Senate candidate Claire McCaskill, for instance, Fox, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, charged in reference to the Republican incumbent: “Senator Talent even wanted to criminalize the science that...

You’d think nothing good could be said for the White House Faith-Based Initiative, which is currently being trashed by David Kuo in his new book, on cable and broadcast TV, and by thousands of bloggers in the know. Kuo, in “Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Seduction,” charges Bush operatives called Christian evangelical leaders they were courting names and tried to funnel monies to conservative groups.If only it were true. Or important.The book is to be released today by Simon & Schuster, which is owned by CBS. So what better way to flex corporate media muscle to make a dime...

Many adults in the United States believe the current federal government has not been completely forthcoming on the issue of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, according to a poll by the New York Times and CBS News. 53 per cent of respondents think the Bush administration is hiding something, and 28 per cent believe it is lying. Only 16 per cent of respondents say the government headed by U.S. president George W. Bush is telling the truth on what it knew prior to the terrorist attacks, down five points since May 2002. On Aug. 6, 2001, a Presidential Daily Briefing titled...

The first funny thing about seeing the mask drop and the real politics of people high and low in the Mainstream Media revealed is how regularly these sorts of things show not just liberalism, but nasty, gloating, scornful leftism of the most unappealing sort - the very antithesis of the kind of attitude one would want from even a fair-minded journal of liberal opinion, let alone a news source that at least pretends to be objective. The second funny thing is we get revelations of this nature because people employed by news organizations are apparently unaware that things they say...

With barely seven weeks until the midterm elections, Americans have an overwhelmingly negative view of the Republican-controlled Congress, with substantial majorities saying that they disapprove of the job it is doing and that its members do not deserve re-election, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. (snip) Mr. Bush’s job approval rating was 37 percent in the poll, virtually unchanged from the last Times/CBS News poll, in August. On the issue that has been a bulwark for Mr. Bush, 54 percent said they approved of the way he was managing the effort to combat terrorists, again unchanged from...

Remember the "Arab street," that riot-in-the-road featuring flammable Israeli flags, Saddam Hussein posters, clenched fists and chants threatening "Death to America"? The street may have lacked pavement and a fire hydrant, but it had beaucoup television cameras. Flames, clenched fists and death threats -- a heart-pounding collage of sensational imagery and rhetoric. What more could a TV exec need to attract audience eyeballs? Recall the talking heads who told us in 1990, after Saddam invaded Kuwait, that "the Arab street" was going to rise en masse, as an ur-proletariat, which would support Saddam against the West. If you need documentation,...

Judge Sides With Original Supernova In 'Rock Star' Suit Ruling requires Tommy Lee's band to change name following show's finale. David has defeated Goliath. According to a Tuesday (September 12) ruling by San Diego Judge John Houston, the producers of CBS' "Rock Star" are going to have to come up with an alternate name for Supernova, the band made up of Mötley Crüe's Tommy Lee, Voivod's Jason Newsted and former Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke. Last month, the original Supernova — an Orange County, California, punk trio — filed for a preliminary injunction in San Diego's U.S. District Court...

Katie Couric CBS 'EVENING NEWS' premiered with a 9.1 household, metered market rating and fell continuously (each day) thereafter: 9.1--7.0--6.5--4.9. Friday's household rating earned Katie third place... Developing

No one should be forced to watch that commie uh, I mean Katie, in order to hear Limbaugh, so here you go!

"I've said to people we don't torture. And we don't." That's what President Bush told Katie Couric yesterday. That was a very odd thing to say on the very day his Pentagon repudiated interrogation "techniques" it had been using and embraced international standards for humane treatment of all detainees in military custody. These standards, by the way, will still not apply to detainees in CIA custody who can still be subjected to "techniques" — translation: torture. The president also told Ms. Couric that one of the things he felt badly about from his tenure was Abu Ghraib. Now Abu Ghraib...

At the Kettle Diner in Jacksonville, N.C., it's faith, family and the Corps. Jacksonville is home to Camp Lejuene, the largest Marine Corps base on the East Coast...Even some lifelong conservatives aren't hearing the president's message anymore. "I've turned him off," said retired Marine Col. Jim Van Riper. "I've tuned him out." Van Riper is a Christian, card-carrying member of the National Rifle Association who voted for President Bush twice. But as more Marines have died, his confidence in the Bush administration has died as well.

K-K-K-Katie Couric begins her transmissions this evening. I think this is the CBS video LINK.

Tonight, I'm... Watching Katie Not

Confirming weeks of rumors, CBS has revealed the identities of the twenty castaways who will be competing in this fall's Survivor: Cook Islands and announced that the castaways will -- in what the show's producer and host both acknowledge to be a controversial move -- initially be organized into four tribes divided along ethnic lines (African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic and White.) "We're going to take some heat for it," Survivor executive producer Mark Burnett acknowledged to People about the segregated tribe decision that will no doubt give the thirteenth edition of the long-running reality series -- which will also include the...

A little over three years ago, CBS sent Dan Rather to Baghdad to ask meaningless questions to, and provide a propaganda vehicle for, Saddam Hussein. Last night, Communication for Barbarians Service broadcast Mike Wallace's equally meaningless interview with the Islamic Republic of Iran's fanatical leader. Interviews with evil leaders are meaningless at best and destructive at worst. Few reporters will ask real questions or challenge the propaganda responses of these leaders. These interviews merely offer them invaluable "humanizing" time and ask questions that reconfirm the low state of television news. Mike Wallace And The Barbarian In Teheran In this image...