CyberAlert for Monday November 17 2008

CyberAlert for Monday November 17 2008

The 2,772nd CyberAlert. Tracking Liberal Media Bias Since 1996
9:05am EST, Monday November 17, 2008 (Vol. Thirteen; No. 217)

1. CBS's Kroft Pushes Obama to See U.S. in 1930s-Like Depression 60 Minutes viewers got better economic rationality Sunday night from President-elect Barack Obama than from the journalist who interviewed him. CBS's Steve Kroft proposed: "People are comparing this to 1932. Is that a valid comparison, do you think?" Obama didn't accept the comparison: "Well, keep in mind that 1932, 1933 the unemployment rate was 25 percent, inching up to 30 percent. You had a third of the country that was ill housed, ill clothed..." But Kroft wouldn't let go of trying to paint the America of 2008 as dire as 1932. Eight minutes later in the interview, when Obama related how he was reading briefing papers and had read about Abraham Lincoln putting political rivals in his cabinet, Kroft returned to the Depression: "Have you been reading anything about the Depression? Anything about FDR?"

2. Howell: 'Most Washington Post Journalists Voted for Obama. I Did' A week after Washington Post Ombudsman Deborah Howell agreed with readers who saw "a tilt toward Democrat Barack Obama" in the paper's campaign coverage, Howell this Sunday admitted she voted for Obama and "bet" that so did "most" in the Post's newsroom: "I'll bet that most Post journalists voted for Obama. I did. There are centrists at The Post as well. But the conservatives I know here feel so outnumbered that they don't even want to be quoted by name in a memo."

3. ABC's Cuomo Has Few Follow-ups for 'Campaign Boogeyman' Ayers Good Morning America news anchor Chris Cuomo on Friday conducted an interview with former bomber William Ayers that qualified as neither a softball or a grilling of the ex-domestic terrorist. Although he did challenge Ayers, he didn't interrupt when the Chicago professor insisted that America fought a "violent terrorist war" or when the '60s radical characterized the U.S. government as murdering thousands "every month" during Vietnam. Additionally, the online version of the ABC story referred to Ayers as a "campaign boogeyman," while co-host Diane Sawyer in an introduction for the piece defensively explained: "The name of Bill Ayers, William Ayers, was used as kind of a political weapon by the Republicans." During the segment, Cuomo even editorialized that Ayers is now a "respected professor" at the University of Illinois. Respected, perhaps, by leftists and radicals, but many Americans still hold great anger towards Ayers and his terrorist group the Weather Underground.

4. Chris Cuomo Hits Ayers on Bombings; Skips Specific Victims In part two of Good Morning America's Friday interview with former bomber William Ayers, news anchor Chris Cuomo did challenge the ex-'60s radical on whether or not he was a terrorist. But after Ayers contended "It's not terrorism because it doesn't target people. It doesn't target people to either kill or injure," the journalist failed to offer specifics that would refute that point. Cuomo could have easily cited the example of John Murtagh. He was a child in 1970 when the Weather Underground, founded by Ayers, placed multiple bombs, one underneath the gas tank of the family car, at the home of his New York judge father. However, while not pressing Ayers on specific victims, he did skeptically wonder: "How can a sophisticated academic like yourself believe that the inherent recklessness of exploding bombs that you know too well killed three of your own- you know the potential for deadliness there."

5. CNN's Quest: Europe 'Starving' for Obama, Want Bite of Hillary During Friday's Situation Room, CNN correspondent Richard Quest predicted that the international community would react favorably if Hillary Clinton would become the next Secretary of State: "Absolutely amazed, outstanding reaction -- I've little doubt. Remember, Hillary Clinton is an international superstar, known around the world. There would be some reservations, bearing in mind everyone saw the bruising Democratic primary....But no question, the gravitas -- the authority that she would bring would be welcomed around the world." He later made a bizarre analogy about European reaction to the election of Barack Obama: "You're talking about people who have been like starving men, who have suddenly been given a food [sic] and a meal and it tastes brilliant to them."

6. So Eager for Obama Neuharth Wants Inauguration Moved to December "People who elect a new President are eager for the change to take place. The sooner the better," USA Today founder Al Neuharth argued in his Friday column in which he asked, coincidentally just a week-and-a-half after Barack Obama's election: "Why wait until late January to turn the Oval Office over to a new President elected in early November?" He proposed: "We should move the President's inauguration up to the first Tuesday in December, one month after the election." After all, "the time lag" is "too long in these modern times when crises need the earliest possible attention."

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.

20081117 CyberAlert for Monday November 17 2008