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When Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) took the role of Speaker of the House on January 4, 2007, the national average price of gas was $2.33 a gallon, according to the Energy Information Administration. Now the average price is hovering around $4 a gallon. But Pelosi deserves no part of the blame, she told NBC “Today” co-anchor Meredith Vieira during an interview that aired July 28. “But the very idea that the Republicans would say, but for offshore drilling our economy would be great – it’s really, it’s a hoax,” Pelosi said. “It’s really a hoax on the American people.” ...more...

Chalk up another mis-speak - Obama/Osama...

Scholars have often wondered how the practice of Christian Eucharist could have arisen from the Lord’s Supper, which occurred in the context of the Jewish Passover. Since Passover occurs only once a year, how is it that the Christians got the notion that they could celebrate Jesus’ sacrificial meal weekly, if not daily? The Last SupperGustave Dore The answer is found in the ancient Israelite sacrifice called the todah. While most people have heard of Old Testament sacrifices such as the holocaust offering or burnt offering, those who have heard of the todah sacrifice are as rare as lotto winners....

On the Monday "Today" show co-host Ann Curry was breaking down the delegate counts for each Super Tuesday state with NBC's political director Chuck Todd but when it came to finding Barack Obama's home state of Illinois on the map, Curry pointed to Minnesota instead.Video (10 secs): Windows (567 kB), plus MP3 audio (60.7 kB).

On Tuesday's "Today" show Matt Lauer discovered the solution to all the environmental crises Al Gore and his ilk have warned about, there's just one hitch, it involves the extinction of all mankind. Promoting a book that examined how long it would take for the Earth to clean up "the mess we've made" Lauer and his co-host Meredith Vieira pondered how pristine the planet would be without us: Matt Lauer: "Then we're gonna talk to the author of a book and this is, really asks an interesting question. The book is called The World Without Us and it asks the...

Video (0:55): Real (1.51 MB) or Windows (1.74 MB). As part of a new segment on the "Today" show, "Candidate Cribs," NBCÂ’s Jonathan Alter went on a cab ride, with Democratic candidate Mike Gravel behind the wheel, and got more than the expected anti-Iraq war rant from the former Alaskan senator. In a gimmicky stunt, to showcase the candidateÂ’s past life as a former New York City cabbie, Alter got in the back seat as Gravel took the reporter for a ride but just after Gravel started griping about Iraq they got into a car crash. Alter: "Gravel is best...

Born to Sag Banana Boobs as Darwin's Clock July 8, 2007 Oh god, the endless, thumping, hope-draining, drab, repetitive soul-crushing tiresomeness of it. I find in Psychology Today a piece called “Ten Politically Incorrect Truths about Human Nature,” explaining various aspects of behavior in Darwinian terms.* The smugness of that “politically incorrect” is characteristic of those who want a sense of adventure without risk. Nothing is more PC than an evolutionary explanation, unless it explains obvious racial differences that we aren’t supposed to talk about. OK, the authors are going to explain why we mate as we do. “Blue-eyed people,”...

First on TVNewser: Maybe Katie Couric should have stayed on The Today Show. On Friday, Today outrated the CBS Evening News by 200,000 viewers and a full rating point in the demo. According to fast affiliate data, Today on NBC had 5,100,000 viewers, while the Evening News on CBS had 4,900,000. In the demo, Today had a 2.2 and EN had a 1.2. "It happens in the metered markets all the time. But this is the first time I've seen it in the national numbers," a competitor says. "I wonder if this will become a regular occurrence?"

Trying to stir up trouble for Rush Limbaugh this morning over his "Magic Negro" parody about Barack Obama, "Today" relied on comments from a left-wing outfit without bothering to mention its highly-partisan orientation. NBC's Michael Okwu narrated the segment, aired during the second half-hour of this morning's show. He began by harkening back to Don Imus's MSNBC career-ending comments about the Rutger's women's basketball team. Fretted Okwu: "which leads some to wonder: has Limbaugh been getting a free pass?"

"Today" Lines Up A Republican Story -- But Only Bush Surge Critics Posted by Justin McCarthy on January 26, 2007 - 14:05. The lead story on Friday’s Today, in a surprising and uncommon move, featured all Republicans. Of course, all of these Republicans are opposed to the president’s plan in Iraq. NBC’s Chip Reid profiled the sponsor of one of the resolutions opposing the surge, Republican Senator John Warner of Virginia.Reid high lighted Warner’s service in both World War II and Korea, then played a sound bite of Senator Susan Collins of Maine, another Republican opponent, stating "when a distinguished...

"Have you no sense of decency, sir?" These words rang out in a Senate subcommittee hearing in 1954 from the U.S. Army attorney, Mr. Joseph Welch, signaling the beginning of the end of Senator Joseph McCarthy's witch hunt aimed at anyone suspected of even knowing a Communist. Eventually censured by the Senate, McCarthy became a pariah because he fell into a trap common to people who become passionate about an agenda. They become so busy storming the walls of their enemy's fortress that they forget to ask, "Is this the right wall?" or "Is this the right fortress?" or even...

So much for the tumble many foresaw By Toni Fitzgerald Nov 16, 2006 When "Today" co-host Katie Couric announced she was leaving NBC’s long-dominant morning show for the CBS "Evening News," it seemed a big shakeup in morning show ratings could follow. Couric had been there for more than a decade, and it seemed doubtful the show could remain so dominant without her, especially with ABC's "Good Morning America" long gaining and a former "Today" executive producer joining CBS's "Early Show." But nearly six months after Couric left, not only is “Today” still the dominant morning news program, it’s actually...

The annual Halloween extravaganza on the "Today" show took a rather ghoulish turn on Tuesday morning, when Meredith Vieira's first big entrance as a "Today" co-host was conspicuously unseen. After Ann Curry and Natalie Morales sauntered somewhat awkwardly onto the stage as Cher and Madonna, respectively (the theme: divas), the big reveal -- Vieira coming out Bette Midler-style as a mermaid in a clamshell -- fell flat, and viewers were treated to the truly horrifying sight of a stagehand's denim-ed bottom, and several seconds of confused fans in Rockefeller Plaza.

You've probably heard it said over and over: Saddam Hussein's regime was strictly secular ! That's not what the captured Iraqi Intelligence Service documants show ! But wait: There's more !

Today Show Groupies Swoon Over 'Rock Star' Obama Posted by Geoffrey Dickens on October 19, 2006 - 14:01. Senator Barack Obama got NBC's Meredith Vieira, Matt Lauer and even Al Roker in a tizzy as he made this morning's Today show his latest tour stop. Vieira called the Democratic senator an "electrifying," "rock star" and never once threw a tough question his way, even getting him to call for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq. On to promote his book and Democrats in the midterms, Obama received the full TRL treatment on the October 19th Today show, complete with Vieira offering...

FORT HUACHUCA — The final journey of Cpl. Casey Lee Mellen begins today with a noon funeral service at the Main Post Chapel on Fort Huachuca, followed by his burial at the Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery at 2 p.m. Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano has ordered all flags in the state to be lowered to half staff today to honor Mellen. On Tuesday, the flags were ordered to half staff by the governor to honor Army Lt. Col. Douglas Mann, of Sierra Vista, who was killed in an accident in San Antonio, Texas, as he was preparing for deployment to...

I just turned on the Today Show and saw Meredith Viera repeatedly interrupting the First Lady -- it was incredibly rude and disrespectful -- I couldn't bear to watch it, so I turned it off after about 1 minute. Whatever happened to respect and civility in this country? Is this what the mainstream media thinks we want to watch?

Matt Lauer had a chuckle at the expense of his guests - then took Dems to task. Michael Smerconish scolded a Republican. And Meredith Vieira gave further evidence of a style looser than that of her perky predecessor. That's the nutshell wrap on the first half-hour of this morning's Today. Politics first. Lauer opened his interview with the folliclely-challenged duo of James Carville and Philly radio host Michael Smerconish by rubbing his own less-than-hirsute pate and observing with a laugh in the shot captured here: "First time in a long time I feel like I have a luxuriant head of...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 11, 2006 – One result of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was the establishment of U.S. Northern Command to deal with threats aimed at the United States, the organization’s commander said here today. During an interview at the Pentagon’s Radio Day event, Navy Adm. Timothy Keating spoke his personal experiences during the attack and about his command. Keating, who is also the commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command, was the Navy’s director of operations in the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. “I was in the operations update when the news hit of the first plane...

by Mark Finkelstein August 31, 2006 - 09:27 If the Today show were ever to air the opinions of a think tank founded, say, by a former Reagan administration official and free-market economist Milton Friedman, and funded by large corporations, it's inconceivable that the show would have failed to identify the organization's conservative leanings. Yet Today didn't feel the need to do the obverse when relying extensively on a liberal think tank founded by a former Clinton official and far-left economists and largely funded by Big Labor. From a New York Times editorial to a Boston Globe political cartoon, the...

BISBEE — U.S. House Intelligence Committee members will be in Sierra Vista today to hold a hearing on the role of intelligence in protecting the border. The event is part of a slate of 21 immigration hearings in 13 states sponsored by House Republicans during the August legislative recess in hopes of winning support for an enforcement-first immigration bill. Today’s hearing, titled “What is the state of technical surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities for monitoring the efforts of terrorists and drug cartels to infiltrate American soil through the Southern border?”, will begin at 10:30 a.m. at Buena High School. Members of...

WASHINGTON, July 21, 2006 – Military aircraft and sea vessels will evacuate more than 4,000 Americans from Lebanon today, DoD officials said. Officials expect the USS Trenton, the USS Whidbey Island and the contract carrier Rahmah to carry around 4,200 American citizens to safety, Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Gary Keck said. The Navy ships will carry evacuees to Cyprus, and the Rahmah will carry roughly 1,400 Americans to Mersin, Turkey. Cypriot officials said they expect roughly 60,000 evacuees of all nationalities in the country, and the evacuation is straining its resources. Turkey has offered the seaport of Mersin as an...

by Mark Finkelstein July 21, 2006 - 07:41 The Today show never showed us just who was holding that placard. But judging from his comments this morning, just how surprised would we be to find it was David Gregory himself? Did David perhaps rev up for his appearance by reading this all-out assault on Bush foreign policy from in the LA Times? In any case, he came loaded for Bush bear with a totally bleak tour d'horizon that included these gems: "The president's foreign policy was designed to make the the Middle East safer. It's not." "Crisis after crisis has...

by Mark Finkelstein on July 14, 2006 - 08:26. Israel might be defending itself on two fronts this morning, but that might not be enough. The Today show was attacking on at least three. And in a brief but telling moment, Andrea Mitchell gave away the blame-Israel game with a spontaneous shake of the head. Here's the gist of Today's reporting: * Israel's offensive against Hezbollah is based on a 'pretext.' * The Bush administration has dropped the diplomatic ball. It should have sent higher-level people in to mediate sooner. In the meantime, despite the concerns of America's European allies,...

by Mark Finkelstein July 11, 2006 Here at NewsBusters, we keep close tabs on the MSM. That's why I can say with considerable certainty that this morning, the Today show ran its . . . nth segment on 'soaring gas prices.' The template is time-honored: reporter standing in front of gas pumps with scary-high price placard in background. Cut to clips of regular folks filling up, expressing varying degrees of outrage. Bring in an 'oil industry expert' for some words of wisdom. Back to reporter at pump, warily wondering just how much higher prices can go. Conclude with hosts back...

A Fort Lewis Army officer who refused to serve in Iraq could face seven years in prison under charges filed Wednesday. The Army accused 1st Lt. Ehren Watada of missing his brigade's troop movement to Iraq, twice speaking contemptuously of the president and three acts unbecoming an officer. The alleged actions are violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The charges come about a month after Watada announced his decision not to deploy with the 3rd (Stryker) Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division at a June 7 news conference in Tacoma with opponents of the Iraq war. Watada said he was...

Noon Status Update The astronauts walked out of the Operations and Checkout Building to cheers and applause from the crowd wishing them well for mission STS-121. They appreciatively waved back and boarded the silver NASA Astrovan that took them on the 20-minute trip to the launch pad. Steven Lindsey commands a crew of five American astronauts, Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission Specialists Michael Fossum, Lisa Nowak, Stephanie Wilson and Piers Sellers, and one astronaut from the European Space Agency, Thomas Reiter. This is the 18th U.S. flight to the International Space Station and the 32nd flight for Space Shuttle Discovery....

by Mark Finkelstein June 14, 2006 Has Katie Couric's departure had a salubrious effect on Matt Lauer? Freed his inner moderate? The jury's still out. And to be sure, in his interview of Bill O'Reilly this morning Lauer managed to take shots at Ann Coulter and the Iraq security situation. Still, when an MSM host suggests that releasing prisoners from Guantanamo could result, of all things, in an 'international Willie Horton,' it does make you sit up and take notice. Meanwhile, BOR himself, fresh from his visit to Guantanamo, energetically made the case for the current system of detaining enemy...

by Mark Finkelstein June 12, 2006 Here's a strategy for pro-life activists: start talking up the fact that humans share 90% [or whatever the number is] of their DNA with seals. It might win them more sympathy from the MSM. For while the liberal media love to celebrate 'a woman's right to choose', they go all weepy at the prospect of baby seals biting the dust, er, ice. The Today show was at it again this morning with a segment on the baby seal harvest in Canada, complete with the predictable footage of those cuddly baby seals at the mercy...

by Mark Finkelstein June 12, 2006 Talk about you're damned-if-you do moment . . . What have the Dems and their MSM echo-chamber been clamoring for, nay, demanding, when it comes to Iraq? Why, a troop withdrawal, of course. Yet there was Matt Lauer on this morning's Today, fretting that President Bush might . . . withdraw troops. Lauer's lament came in the course of his interview of former General Barry McAffrey, looking ahead to the Iraq summit that Pres. Bush is holding at Camp David beginning today with his top national security advisers. Said Lauer: " Do you worry...

WASHINGTON - Legislation offering millions of illegal immigrants a chance at U.S. citizenship moved to the brink of Senate passage Thursday, a rare reach across party lines and a triumph for President Bush. Majority Leader Bill Frist called for swift talks with the House, which has passed its own version, in what loomed as an arduous search for compromise. Underscoring bipartisan support in the Senate, Frist, R-Tenn., and Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada announced in advance they would support the measure. It was months in the drafting and narrowly survived several brushes with disaster across more than a week...

by Mark Finkelstein May 20, 2006 In its segment on illegal immigration and the proposed amendment to make English the country's official language, this morning's Today show pitted the following against one sole Republican senator: another senator who just happens to be the Minority Leader, the director of a school that teaches English to immigrants, the head of the association of immigration lawyers, and the NBC reporter himself, Mike Taibbi, who described the current atmosphere as 'nasty' and implied that the English language amendment was unnecessary. Along the way, Today even managed to coin a new term for 'illegals.' Taibbi...

by Mark Finkelstein May 15, 2006 So much of the debate about high gasoline prices involve allegations that oil companies are 'gouging' and making 'windfall profits.' So if you were a TV show preparing a graphic display of the various components that add up to the price of gas at the pump, the one thing you would be sure to separately break out would be profit, wouldn't it? Not if you're the Today show. Not if you want to camouflage the fact that, in fact, the government's take via taxes dwarfs the amount that the various levels of commerce take...

An outspoken political activist is planning to lead an anti-illegal-immigration rally Saturday outside the Mexican Consulate in west Phoenix. ........... demand the U.S. government label Mexico a "threat nation"......

by Mark Finkelstein April 19, 2006 On this morning's Today show, NY Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas Friedman expressed the astonishing wish that the price of crude oil . . . go to $100/barrel ASAP. Friedman's theory is that extremely high oil prices are desirable because they would induce behavioral changes that would ultimately decrease demand and force oil prices way down. Here's how the exchange with host Matt Lauer unfolded: Friedman: "I hope the Iranians get as crazy as they want. My attitude toward the president of Iran is 'you go, girl', because the faster we get to $100...

Russia has insisted it is opposed to moves by the United States and its allies to impose sanctions against Iran. At a meeting in Moscow, Russian officials met delegates from the US, Britain, France, Germany and China to discuss the latest moves in Iran's disputed nuclear programme. Afterwards Russian spokesman Mikhail Kamynin insisted that neither the sanctions route nor the use of force would lead to a solution of the problem. In Washington, the Bush administration says further action is needed. White House spokesman Scott McLennan said: "Violations and failures by the regime to comply with its international obligations run...

Emperor Nero fiddled while Rome burned, according to tales of ancient history. So did Katie Couric, sort of. She played badminton in New York while other news anchors were in Baghdad to cover the opening day of Saddam Hussein's trial. Couric was recently plucked from NBC's Today show to read the evening news on competing CBS. I wish her good luck; she's certainly going to need it. Couric's new job probably saves NBC the possibility of letting her go when her contract expires next month; 15 years is a longtime for a TV personality to stay in one place. CBS...

NEW YORK - A day after Katie Couric announced she was leaving for CBS, NBC has chosen Meredith Vieira as Matt Lauer’s new partner on the “Today” show. NBC scheduled a news conference for Thursday afternoon to announce its new “Today” host, and confirmed in a statement that Vieira had been selected. “Meredith's vast experience as an award-winning journalist, as well as talk show host, make her the ideal candidate for this job,” said network CEO Jeff Zucker.

Meredith Vieira, the widely presumed replacement for Katie Couric as co-host of NBC's Today this fall -- Wednesday's New York Times reported that “NBC has nearly concluded an agreement with Meredith Vieira of ABC to replace Ms. Couric as co-host of the Today morning show” -- marched in an anti-Iraq war protest back in August of 2004. On the Monday, August 30, 2004 edition of the ABC daytime show she quad-hosts, The View, the former CBS 60 Minutes reporter told viewers that she attended the anti-Bush protest held in New York City on the Sunday before the Republican convention opened,...

BISBEE — To some, they are grass-roots citizen activists who are helping bring much-needed attention to the problem of border security. To others, they are vigilantes who fan the flames of xenophobia and intolerance. Either way, the Minuteman Project is back and ready to send 1,200 of its Civil Defense Corps volunteers into the Arizona desert for a month-long border vigilance campaign beginning today. “We’re going to get out there and do the same thing we’ve always done: observe, spot and report,” said Al Garza, the national executive director of the Minutemen and a resident of Huachuca City. “And we’re...

by Mark Finkelstein March 27, 2006 Wouldn't you think that someone who fashions his show "Hardball" would have the intestinal fortitude to invite on at least one guest who disagrees with his world view? At least tonight, Chris Matthews apparently thought that unnecessary. Here was Matthews guest line-up this evening: Philippe Sands: left-wing Brit, author of a new book, Lawless World, accusing Bush of having decided very early on in the game to go to war against Iraq. John Podesta: the lugubrious former chief-of-staff to Bill Clinton and member of Hillary's inner circle. Pat Buchanan: while the Today show had...

by Mark Finkelstein March 21, 2006 I will always have a soft spot for NBC reporter Michelle Kosinski. After all, it Michelle's Canoe-Gate stunt, http://newsbusters.org/node/2199, that got my NewsBusters career off to a nice start. Michelle was back on the weather beat on this morning's Today show. And once again she came up with an weather-related allegation that strained credulity. As we know, in MSM-land, all extreme weather events, from the very hot to the very cold, are somehow attributable to global warming. Michelle's topic this morning was the record-breaking cold and heavy snows that have swept the nation's mid-section....

WASHINGTON, March 10, 2006 – Al Qaeda is still the biggest short-term threat facing the United States, President Bush said here today, adding that North Korea and Iran pose equal security threats to the U.S. "They would like to attack us again," Bush said of al Qaeda at the National Newspaper Association's Government Affairs Conference. "I think about al Qaeda and their potential to attack all the time." The president also recalled his "axis of evil" remark in his 2002 State of the Union Address, in which he said North Korea, Iraq and Iran were threats to the United States....

SIERRA VISTA — After completing a trip to Mexico that included meeting with Mexican counterparts and touring border areas, a congressional delegation led by Arizona Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe will talk today about their views before taking off from Fort Huachuca. Kolbe led a delegation consisting of six Republicans and three Democrats on a weekend tour of the Arizona-Mexico border, according to Kolbe’s press secretary Kristen Hellmer. The trip came after the group took part in an earlier Mexico-U.S. Interparliamentary Meeting held in Valle de Bravo, Mexico, late last week. Saturday’s trip to the border area included a helicopter...

It would have been so perfect. Rodney King redux! Another chance for the MSM to portray law enforcement as a bastion of white racism using potentially lethal force against an innocent member of a racial minority, with a Good Samaritan exposing the wrongdoing via videotape. But darn it, some of those pesky facts spoiled the script. We're talking of the shooting in Chino, California of Elio Carrion, a U.S. Air Force security officer who had served in Iraq, by a San Bernardino County deputy sheriff after a car chase. The shooting was captured on amateur videotape, which can be seen...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15, 2005 – Today is "a new day for Iraq," regardless of who wins in the country's parliamentary elections, an Iraqi-American who emigrated here 12 years ago and became a U.S. citizen in 1995 said here today. Ali Sadoon al-Timimi, a Shiite Muslim from Basra, proudly held up his ink-stained finger to show he'd been to the East Coast polling station in nearby McLean, Va., set up where Iraqi expatriates could vote. After three and a half decades under Saddam Hussein's bloody dictatorship, Timimi acknowledges he and many of his countrymen never dreamed they'd live to see the...

Couric set up the October 31 session: "Now to the man in the middle of the CIA leak case. No one was following the progress of the investigation into who revealed the identity of a CIA operative named Valerie Plame more closely than her husband Joe Wilson. His op-ed in the New York Times taking on the Bush administration's rationale for going to war in Iraq allegedly led to his wife's outing. Ambassador Wilson good morning, welcome back." Couric's questions: -- "First and foremost what was your reaction to the indictments announced on Friday?" -- "Meanwhile Patrick Fitzgerald, as you...

WASHINGTON - Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald huddled with his legal team Thursday as two key White House aides awaited their fate in the CIA leak probe. A spokesman for the prosecutor said there would be no public announcements Thursday. The term of the grand jury that could bring indictments expires Friday. The White House braced for the possibility that Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, could become a criminal defendant by week's end. Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, remained in jeopardy of being charged with false statements. Libby and Rove arrived for work at...

On this morning's (Tuesday) Today, at 8:52am, Al Franken was on to promote his new book The Truth (with Jokes) and repeated his twisted quip from Friday's Late Show with David Letterman in which he predicted that Karl Rove and Lewis "Scooter" Libby will be "executed" for treason. Franken's "joke," that "George H.W. Bush, the President's father, said...that outing a CIA agent is treason. I agree. So I think that Rove and Libby will be executed," drew laughter from Matt Lauer and those in the Today show studio. [This item, by the MRC's Geoffrey Dickens, was posted late this morning...

If Michelle Kosinski's canoe had sprung a leak on NBC's "Today" show Friday, she didn't have much to worry about. In one of television's inadvertently funny moments, the NBC News correspondent was paddling in a canoe during a live report about flooding in Wayne, N.J. While she talked, two men walked between her and the camera _ making it apparent that the water where she was floating was barely ankle-deep. Matt Lauer struggled to keep a straight face, joking about the "holy men" who were walking on water. "Have you run aground yet?" Katie Couric asked. "Why walk when you...