| |
|
By Kyle Drennen
After helping sell President Obama’s unilateral executive overreach on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in 2012 and 2014, on Wednesday morning, the broadcast networks eagerly promoted the former president blasting the Trump administration’s “cruel” plan to end the policy.
On NBC’s Today, White House Correspondent Kristen Welker touted: “Former President Obama, who enacted the original policy, called President Trump’s decision ‘cruel,’ adding, ‘This is about whether we are people who kick hopeful young strivers out of America, or whether we treat them the way we’d want our own kids to be treated.’”
“It was enough to bring two former presidents back into the spotlight,” enthused correspondent Cecilia Vega on ABC’s Good Morning America. She proclaimed: “President Obama called the move to rescind DACA ‘cruel, wrong, and self-defeating,’ saying, ‘Ultimately this is about basic decency.’” The reporter also cited how “President Clinton called it ‘irresponsible, passing the buck instead of offering sensible solutions for immigration reform.’”
Introducing a report on the topic for CBS This Morning, co-host Norah O’Donnell read from the same liberal media script: “Former President Obama, who created DACA after Congress failed to produce a bill, called President Trump’s reversal ‘wrong, self-defeating, and cruel.’”
Only the CBS coverage mentioned the Republican position that Obama’s executive action was unconstitutional, as correspondent Nancy Cordes noted: “The President’s move put nearly a million people in legal limbo after the White House said former President Obama’s 2012 order protecting young immigrants from deportation was unconstitutional.”
Similarly on Tuesday, CBS This Morning was the only morning show to explain that 10 states were planning to challenge DACA’s constitutionality in court.
In their rush to herald Obama bashing Trump, the NBC and ABC broadcasts forgot that it was Obama who created the current situation by enacting a policy of questionable legality.
The biased coverage across all three networks was brought to viewers by Hersey’s, Febreze, and Walgreens.
|
|
By Nicholas Fondacaro
 Just a few hours after President Trump sent out Attorney General Jeff Sessions to announce the rescindment of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), Trump signaled on Twitter that if Congress couldn’t codify DACA in 6 months, he would “revisit this issue.” But despite what seemed like the President looking for a way to handle the issue with “heart,” like he said he wanted too, CBS Evening News continued to decry Trump’s decision while touting his detractors on Wednesday.
To kick off the DACA segment, Anchor Anthony Mason he praised the fact that 15 states had signed on to sue the Trump administration over the future of the program. “Today, 15 states and Washington, D.C., filed a lawsuit challenging the President's action. They want to protect undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from deportation,” he said.
There was no mention of the fact that the lawsuit would be on shaky legal ground, seeing as DACA was created through an executive order and not a law passed by Congress, which was something the Trump administration was asking for.
Although, in his report, Correspondent Major Garrett did note that “President Trump said he has no regrets about ending the DACA program and throwing it to Congress to implement a permanent fix.”
But Garrett stacked his report with the condemnation of those who opposed the President’s move. “Backlash to the President's decision has come from education, business, and religious leaders,” he hyped.
He spoke with the president of the University of Maryland who was an immigrant himself and opposed the President’s decision. “It is so antithetical to the values of our nation,” University President Wallace Loh told Garrett.
“In a statement, Microsoft called the move, quote: ‘A big step back for our entire country’ and vowed to protect its Dreamer employees,” Garrett reported. “Facebook C.E.O. Mark Zuckerberg spoke out on a live chat today.” “I think rescinding DACA is a particularly cruel decision to make,” Zuckerberg said in a clip.
As for the religious leader, Garrett cited Archbishop Timothy Dolan who suggested Trump’s decision was “contrary to the spirit of the Bible and of our country.”
The only voice of support for the President’s move came in the form of a paraphrased quote from House Speaker Paul Ryan, which was buried near the end of Garrett’s segment. “House Speaker Paul Ryan said President Trump made the right call ending DACA, and he expressed confidence legislative compromise can be found,” he recalled.
CBS’s pro-DACA report came a day after they dedicated 100 percent of their evening news coverage to the program’s advocates.
The network’s pro-DACA bias was sponsored by Trivago, Xeljanz XR, and Ford.
Transcript below:
CBS Evening News
September 6, 2017
6:39:47 PM Eastern
ANTHONY MASON: Hours after the President announced plans yesterday to scrap the DACA program, he tweeted that he may revisit the issue six months from now. Today, 15 states and Washington, D.C., filed a lawsuit challenging the President's action. They want to protect undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from deportation. Here's Major Garrett.
[Cuts to video]
DONALD TRUMP: No second thoughts.
MAJOR GARRETT: President Trump said he has no regrets about ending the DACA program and throwing it to Congress to implement a permanent fix.
TRUMP: I hope they do. I certainly hope they do.
GARRETT: The Trump administration called the Obama-era program unconstitutional and faced a lawsuit from Republican-led states making that argument. But Ohio Governor John Kasich, himself a Republican, disagreed on CBS This Morning.
 JOHN KASICH: I would have said to him, all right, sue me. And by the way, I'm going to expose you for what you are, because you're putting kids at risk.
GARRETT: Backlash to the President's decision has come from education, business, and religious leaders.
WALLACE LOH: It is so antithetical to the values of our nation.
GARRETT: Wallace Loh is the president of the University of Maryland where 110 so-called Dreamers are enrolled.
(…)
GARRETT: In a statement, Microsoft called the move, quote: "A big step back for our entire country" and vowed to protect its Dreamer employees. Facebook C.E.O. Mark Zuckerberg spoke out on a live chat today.
MARK ZUCKERBERG: I think rescinding DACA is a particularly cruel decision to make.
GARRETT: Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, called DACA's termination “contrary to the spirit of the Bible and of our country.” At the University of Maryland, President Loh says the school is now facing uncertainty.
(…)
[Cuts back to live]
GARRETT: House Speaker Paul Ryan said President Trump made the right call ending DACA, and he expressed confidence legislative compromise can be found. But Ryan stressed he will bring no bill to the floor that does not have the President's vocal support. Anthony?
|
|
By Kristine Marsh
 On Tuesday night’s CNN Tonight With Don Lemon during the 10pmhour, host Don Lemon led a discussion on DACA, arguing that Trump must be racist for even broaching rescinding the controversial immigration act. Of course his panel ate up the anti-Trump rhetoric, with senior political analyst David Gergen going so far as to say that your opinion on DACA revealed whether or not you “have a respect for minorities” and “whether you have a belief in diversity.”
After just a few minutes covering the impending category five Hurricane Irma, Lemon shifted gears to talk about “the political storms raging tonight,” with reporters Dana Bash, Manu Raju and political analyst David Gergen. After criticizing Trump for threatening to leave the DACA decision to Congress, Dana Bash said that would be hard to square away for Trump’s supporters, who are “apoplectic” about letting dreamers stay in this country.
Gergen then blasted Trump for creating “uncertainty” for “tens of thousands of lives of young people in this country” who are heading off to college and “have no idea” whether or not they’ll be deported. “I don’t think there are a lot of excuses for wavering at the expense of people’s lives,” Gergen wagered.
Lemon then read President Obama’s Facebook post last night condemning Trump for considering rescinding DACA. Lemon called it “forceful” and “very clear,” before getting Gergen’s take on Obama’s statement.
Gergen obliged with a glowing review of Obama’s words, arguing that Trump’s “values” are anti-minority and anti-diversity, and don’t resonate with most Americans who “are closer to President Obama’s values.”
“[I]f you’re not white, you’re not especially welcome,” Gergen claimed about the messaging from the White House.
LEMON: David Gergen, what do you think of this rare review from the former president?
GERGEN: I thought he was eloquent and he was right. This is one of the most cruel acts we've seen in the presidency in a long time. President Obama and president Trump not only disagree on policies, they disagree on values. It goes to very basic things, whether you have a respect for minorities, whether you have a belief in diversity, whether you think this country should welcome and continue to hold up the statue of liberty as a symbol of what we believe in.
To go back to what you started with, Don, I'm afraid since Charlottesville and the talk about the white supremacists and putting them on the same level as protesters, we've seen now a series of -- Arpaio and now this. I don't know what it's like to be a minority person in this country, and I just often wonder about it, but I must say if I were in your shoes, and you can speak to this, I would feel increasingly there is a sign out there that's been hung up in the White House or outside the White House saying, if you're not white, you're not especially welcome. That is so sad. It's just not who we are. The vast majority of American people do not believe that. They are much closer to president Obama's values.
Lemon agreed, saying that “the vast majority of American people,” are “appalled” by Trump’s actions. He repeated an inflammatory question he led with twice at the beginning of the show, asking, “What does this say to Americans of color?” He answered his own question: “It says, what you said, you’re not wanted,” Lemon stated.
He continued, arguing that the White House has been “gaslighting” about its racial agenda since Trump took office. “It’s so obvious it isn’t even a dog whistle anymore. It’s just flat out bias, flat out discrimination that they're touting coming from this White House,” Lemon charged. If you don't want to listen to the words, just look at the policies. Look at the policies that have been put into place mostly by executive action that they have said now was illegal when President Obama did it, but when this president does an executive action, it's all of a sudden not illegal and should be law. Its hypocritical
Later on in the same hour with guest Fareed Zakaria, Lemon made the same allegation again, more forcefully:
Don't you think those signals-- if you're a person of color in this country-- what does it say to you? We're not just talking about rhetoric, what you see on the campaign trail. These are actual policies you're trying to put in place. This is not an executive order by him, but he's pawning it off on someone else. What does this say to you if you're not white-- specifically a white male American or just a white American? If you’re a person of color?
|
|
By Nicholas Fondacaro
 Wednesday was the first day of Democratic Senator Bob Menendez’s federal trial for bribery, but you would barely know it was occurring if you were only getting your news from the liberal Big Three Networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC). CBS News did briefly mention the trial in the morning, but they failed to follow up on the heated courtroom exchanges during CBS Evening News later in the day. Meanwhile, both ABC and NBC continued their complete and utter blackout of the story.
Fox News Correspondent David Lee Miller was on Special Report where he reported that Menendez “faces a dozen criminal charges, accused of accepting more than $700,000 in campaign related cash and thousands of dollars in free hotel rooms and air travel from a longtime friend, Doctor Solomon Melgen.”
There were flare-ups between Menendez’s attorney and the federal judge that went unreported by the Big Three Networks because of their blackout. “In a testy exchange, Menendez's attorney accused the judge of disparaging the defense in his written opinion,” noted Miller. “At one point the judge told Menendez's lawyer, quote: ‘Shut up for a moment if you don't mind.’”
When it came to the opening statement from the prosecution, they unloaded the highly damaging allegations against the Democratic Senator. As reported by Miller:
During opening statements, the prosecution told the jury that is part of the bribery scheme, Menendez sent the doctor an email asking him to provide a $1500 a night Paris hotel room with a limestone bath and a view of the courtyard. Prosecutors say Menendez in exchange helped the doctor and multimillion dollar business deals and allegedly tried to get visas for the doctor's foreign girlfriends.
Instead of following up on their morning report, CBS News chose to run an entire report touting the newly leaked excerpts from two-time failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s new book. “Hillary Clinton on who is responsible for her historic loss,” hyped Anchor Anthony Mason.
CBS White House Correspondent Nancy Cordes went on about how Clinton blamed the public’s “unhealthy fixation” on her marriage. Cordes also noted that Clinton blamed sexism, Democratic opponent Bernie Sanders, and former Vice President Joe Biden for her truly historic defeat.
Meanwhile, on ABC and NBC, they went wild over a viral video showing a shoplifting suspect slipping out of her cuffs, then stealing the cop car she was in, and the ensuing car chase.
The Big Three Networks would rather lift up their failed presidential candidate or pretend to be a local news station than report on the bribery trial of an allegedly corrupt Democratic Senator.
Transcript below:
Fox News Channel
Special Report
September 6, 2017
6:29:15 PM Eastern
BRET BAIER: New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez has he will be vindicated in his corruption trial that began today. Menendez is accused of taking bribes from and doing favors for a Florida doctor. The trial has also serious ramifications for the U.S. Senate and Senate math for the leadership. Correspondent David Lee Miller is in Newark, New Jersey tonight.
[Cuts to video]
BOB MENENDEZ: Never, not once, not once have I dishonored my public office.
DAVID LEE MILLER: New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez on trial for bribery was on the verge of tears as he proclaimed his innocence outside federal court in Newark.
MENENDEZ: I appreciate my family being here, my son and daughter, being here today. I appreciate my supporters.
MILLER: He faces a dozen criminal charges, accused of accepting more than $700,000 in campaign related cash and thousands of dollars in free hotel rooms and air travel from a longtime friend, Doctor Solomon Melgen.
During opening statements, the prosecution told the jury that is part of the bribery scheme, Menendez sent the doctor an email asking him to provide a $1500 a night Paris hotel room with a limestone bath and a view of the courtyard. Prosecutors say Menendez in exchange helped the doctor and multimillion dollar business deals and allegedly tried to get visas for the doctor's foreign girlfriends.
Both Melgen, who has a previous conviction for Medicare fraud, and Menendez are on trial. But there is more at stake. The trial could change the balance of power in the U.S. Senate. The judge rejected a motion by Menendez to change the trial schedule to allow him to attend crucial votes such as health care.
In a testy exchange, Menendez's attorney accused the judge of disparaging the defense in his written opinion. At one point the judge told Menendez's lawyer, quote: "Shut up for a moment, if you don't mind."
Menendez says he will exercise his constitutional right to attend the trial but acknowledged the conflict he faces if Democrats need his vote in the Senate.
(…)
[Cuts back to live]
MILLER: During opening statements, Menendez's lawyer told jurors “a single word can cut through a mountain of evidence. That word: Friendship.” The defense says it isn't a case of bribery, just one friend helping out another.
|
|
By Curtis Houck
On Wednesday, NBCNews.com published an Associated Press dispatch on the bribery trial of Democratic Senator Bob Menendez (N.J.), but there was one huge problem in that Menendez was labeled a Republican. Translation? NBC News saw no reason to engage in basic proofreading or got caught red-handed in the act of liberal bias.
The unauthored post sat for well over two hours before being changed. NBCNews.com offered a correction at the bottom of the story: “CORRECTION (Sept. 6, 2017, 5:35 p.m.): An earlier version of this article misstated the party affiliation of Menendez. He is a Democrat, not a Republican.”
Seeing as how NBC’s Today wasn’t interested in the trial, it wasn’t shocking that they’d punt coverage to AP wire stories. Again, it’s still troubling that this liberal network didn’t engage in any serious proofreading.
Here’s a screen-cap of the NBCNews.com story with a time-stamp of 3:31 p.m. Eastern:
Likely attempting to stop the verbial bleeding from this embarrassment, NBCNews.com edited the story by changing the time-stamp to 5:26 p.m. Eastern and correcting Menenedez’s party label:
It was then changed again to a 5:35 p.m. Eastern publication time in order to add the correction at the bottom of the story.
A separate AP story had no such problem with party affiliation, as exhibited by the screen-cap below:
|
|
By Kristine Marsh
 Wednesday on The View, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her father, former Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee, spent the entire last half of the show fielding questions about Trump from the liberal hosts. But The View hosts never got their “gotcha” moment, as the pair always had a rebuttal for the panel’s heavily loaded questions.
The White House Press Secretary even called out the media for using reports to “editorialize” rather than give the American people“facts,” and mocked the media’s persistence at harping on certain issues.
The majority of the interview’s questions were actually accusations directed at Huckabee Sanders, about her experience in the White House and working with President Trump. But a handful were lobbied at her father as well:
BEHAR: Trump, the things he says about women are just horrendous and we all know that. So let's not pretend that he hasn't said some horrifying things about women. We know that. Just nod. You don't have to say anything, just nod because you know it's true. Having said that, how can you let your daughter defend him?
HOSTIN: There's a well documented history of racism. How can you sit here and say he’s not a racist?
BEHAR: I don’t understand how the evangelicals can support him. You're a religious person. Some of the things that have come out of this mouth, are so against the Bible, so unreligious of him. How can you support someone like that?
However, the show started off friendly for a brief moment, with the panel praising Huckabee Sanders for being the third woman to take the role of WH press secretary, and the first mother to do so. While Whoopi tried to make a dig at Trump, Sanders turned the question around to mock the media as childish:
WHOOPI: So you're not only -- you're only the third woman to serve as the White House press secretary. [ Applause ] You're also the first mom, the first mother to hold the job.
HOSTIN: Unbelievable.
WHOOPI: So when you get those calls uh-oh he's tweeting and it's 2:00 in the morning, how do you do everything with the kids and trying to do your job and --
SANDERS: Well I'm already up. As a parent you're up 24/7 a day. So it's an easy transition.
WHOOPI: How old are your children, I should ask?
SANDERS: 5, almost 4 and 2.
PANEL: Wow.
SANDERS: Little babies. So they have perfectly prepared me to deal with the White House press corps. I get to answer the same question all day long.
[panel reacts]
WHOOPI: As the president, c'mon now.
SANDERS: And I've gotten pretty good at saying no. I think my kids have been a perfect foundation for my job.
After that slam, Joy Behar tried to badger Sanders for saying “I’ll get back to you” during press conferences. Sanders explained that she is communicating with reporters all day long, not just in the press room, so she does follow up with reporters off camera. Behar then shifted gears, and essentially admitted that the show was biased to conservatives, so she was surprised that the pair showed up:
JOY BEHAR: I have to say Sarah, that I’m surprised you--Who approved you coming here? The mooch? [laughter] I mean -- you know. I mean, is that why he was fired? I'm shocked that you're here. Both of you. Even though you were my favorite Republican.
MIKE HUCKABEE: Was?
BEHAR: Back in the day.
For the rest of the interview, nearly a half hour, the hosts didn’t let up, trying every subject they could think of to trip up the pair, on DACA, Trump’s past comments about women and his alleged racism. Even libertarian host Jedediah Bila pressed Sanders about Trump’s attitudes towards women asking if it was “hard” for her to defend him to the media:
Personally, as a person, as a woman, as just a person out there, have you struggled with some of the stuff he has said and has that made it harder for you to defend -- maybe his policy is okay but the person, the man behind the presidency is it hard for you sometimes?
After a commercial break, host Sara Haines brought up the media and Trump’s hostile relationship. Haines Asking if it wasn’t the burden of Sanders, and the White House to “mend” the relationship between the press and the administration. But Sanders said the media had an equal responsibility to be honest and report the facts:
HAINES: The president has said he's at war with the fake news media. We can agree that this hostile dynamic doesn't serve the American people. We have heard what he and the administration feel the media should be doing on what they're doing wrong. What do you think is on the responsibility of the administration and people like yourself to help on your end to mend these fences?
SANDERS: I think going back you look at every administration and you're always going to have a bit of friction between the press corp. And the White House. We have seen that escalate in this administration. I think that there is responsibility certainly on both sides. We have to be forth coming, we have to be honest, that's our obligation to the American people. But it's also journalists obligation to present facts, not opinions. It's the American people's ability to get to take those facts and decide where they want to come down on an issue. To me, a good news story is if all the facts are presented and you don't know which side the author of that story is on.
I think we need to get back to a little bit less editorial comments from the media and a little bit more fact delivering to the American people.
After Haines pushed back, saying that Trump demonized good reporters when he called the media as a whole, the “fake news media,” Sanders pointed out that the media also generalizes when it comes to conservatives:
“I think that goes both ways. The media often characterizes all Republicans, all conservatives, all Democrats. I think that happens certainly on both sides,” she stated.
“Is the media supposed to not report on the fact that 95% of what he say is a lie?” Joy Behar asked, to thunderous applause.
“The problem with that, Joy, is that -- you are doing exactly what we're talking about and pushing a false narrative,” Sanders responded.
Behar then wrongly cited the left-leaning fact-checking website Politifact as being part of “Politico,” to claim that only 5% of what Trump says is true, with backup from host Sunny Hostin.
BEHAR: No it’s not. It’s from Politifact from Politico. It's not just the dreaded "New York Times." It is other outlets that say it. 5% of his statements are true. 5%. And you, I feel for you. I feel sorry for you. That you have to go out and defend those lies every day.
HOSTIN: And that has been documented. So as the face of really the administration, what do you say to the American people when you have a boss that engages in untruths?
SANDERS: Well, again, I completely disagree with the fact that what you're saying is only 5% of that is true. I know that is simply not accurate and I think that's one of the dangers that we have right now is we are pushing so many false narratives every day. We are creating false perceptions about the president and frankly inhibiting his ability to succeed. I think America should want him to succeed. He is the president whether they voted for him or not and I think we have to get behind him. We should be championing for his success because his success is America's success.
“But you also have to get somebody in the office who recognizes what the truth is,” host Whoopi Goldberg used as a segueway before actually asking Sanders point-blank: “Where was president Obama born and is he an American citizen?”
“I think this has been pretty well addressed,” Sanders laughed.
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment