CyberAlert for September 23 2008

CyberAlert for September 23 2008

1. Couric Has Cushy Chat with Biden, Will She Be as Warm with Palin? If Katie Couric is to be consistent and treat Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, whom Couric is scheduled to interview this week, as gently as she did Democratic VP nominee Joe Biden in her day with him Thursday in Ohio which became a story on the Monday night CBS Evening News, she will (Couric quotes from the Biden story in the parentheses): Not apply any ideological label: ("We decided to take a closer look at the 65-year-old Senator from Delaware"); Hail her outspokenness: ("You say what's on your mind and I think people appreciate that"); Ignore obvious factual/historical flubs: (Biden: "When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on television...") FDR was not in office at the time of the 1929 crash and his "fireside chats" were on the radio; Relay as reality positive campaign spin about her attributes: ("Relating to the fears of the average American is one of Biden's strong suits"); Cue up campaign rally attendees to praise her: ("What was it about what he said that really resonated with you in particular?" Answers: "I think he expressed what most working Americans feel at the moment. He seems to relate to our pain" and "I want him in office because I believe he will do things for women.")

2. CNN's Jim Acosta: Palin 'Still Very Much on Script, Teleprompter' On Monday's American Morning, CNN correspondent Jim Acosta tried to throw a bit of cold water on the news that tens of thousands showed up in central Florida for a Sarah Palin campaign rally on Sunday. When co-host John Roberts asked about the high turnout, Acosta replied: "[T]his was an enormous crowd out here in Florida. She is still very much on script, John -- still very much on that teleprompter, talking mainly in generalities." Roberts, besides asking about the Palin rally, asked if the Alaska Governor had mentioned the proposed financial bailout during her speech, since the two of them had discussed Barack Obama and John McCain's responses to the proposal and how it may affect how the two will campaign on the issue of the economy. Besides mentioning the "enormous crowd," he referenced how the campaign stop was located in "that central Florida -- critical I-4 corridor area," and how Palin played up McCain's credentials with economic issues.

3. NYT: Palin 'Petty'; McCain Guilty of 'Demonstrable Falsehoods' New York Times Public Editor Clark Hoyt evaluated two tough political stories in the Sunday Week in Review, one anti-McCain, the other anti-Palin. While he found the McCain piece fair, he faulted the anti-Palin piece. In both cases, Times reporters and editors rallied to the defense of the pieces. Political editor Richard Stevenson found McCain guilty of "demonstrable falsehoods" and Executive Editor Bill Keller accused Sarah Palin of "sometimes petty, peremptory" political leadership in Alaska.

4. Cokie Roberts Links McCain's Fannie Mae Plans to Herbert Hoover On Sunday's This Week, journalist Cokie Roberts indicated that, in regards to John McCain's reaction to the ongoing financial problems on Wall Street, "...He's a Republican and whenever Republicans get into this kind of mess, everybody, even people who were not born or close to being born, the specter of Herbert Hoover comes out to, to haunt them." Roberts didn't clarify just who the "everybody" is that would connect McCain and the Depression era President. Roberts, who appeared on the ABC program's panel to discuss last week's Fannie Mae meltdown and the government's planned bailout, also asserted a "stark contrast" between the economic advisors of Senators McCain and Barack Obama. She then added that the Democrat's liberal advisors reassure her: "I mean, the Obama advisers, with, looking at Bob Rubin and Warren Buffett and Paul Volcker in there, you know, you do feel a sense of security there."

A usually-daily report, edited by Brent H. Baker, CyberAlert is distributed by the Media Research Center, the leader since 1987 in documenting, exposing and neutralizing liberal media bias.

The 2,734th CyberAlert. Tracking Liberal Media Bias Since 1996 7:10am EDT, Tuesday September 23, 2008 (Vol. Thirteen; No. 179)

20080923 CyberAlert for September 23 2008