Free Republic

As this campaign season draws to an end, doubtless many will comment on what was right and what went wrong for each party. Let me beat the crowd by stating whatever the outcomes of the Congressional and state races the notion of Republicans continuing to allow Democratic operatives posing as newsmen and women to act as moderators in candidate debates is one of the most inexplicably stupid blunders of all. And yet each election it is repeated. Let this be the last time. Here are some names and incidents that should be engraved forever on the RNC steps and in...

Nothing is quite so damaging to the mainstream media as publishing their own words in context. In her new book, Bring Her Down: How the American Media Tried to Destroy Sarah Palin, conservative author and C4Per Gina Dalfonzo does just that – in chilling fashion. Ever wanted to compare ABC News anchor Charles Gibson’s fawning interview with Obama to his condescending inquisition of Palin? Dalfonzo has it for you. Here’s a fair representation of the questions which Dalfonzo has in longer form … I can’t think of a better way to illustrate liberal media bias than this. Gibson to Obama:...

It's no secret that [Nicolle] Wallace is no fan of Sarah Palin. But the former Bush communications director and McCain campaign aide perhaps took things to another level with her attack on Palin on today's Morning Joe. Wallace was on to comment on Joe Scarborough's astonishing claim of yesterday, noted here, that "all" conservatives and talk radio hosts with whom he's spoken are harshly critical of Palin off the record, but are afraid to express their views publicly. Wallace opined that if it ever looked as if Palin were close to copping the Republican presidential nomination, many GOP leaders who...

Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz presented quite a paradox in a Charlie Gibson profile Monday. The retiring ABC World News anchor said that "it’s time to move on" since objectivity is "less of a marketable commodity." But Kurtz also underlined how Gibson dared to keep airing live coverage of Ted Kennedy’s funeral until they were able to broadcast the reading of Ted Kennedy’s letter to Pope Benedict. These passages came late in the article: Gibson worries whether broadcast networks will be able to support sizable editorial staffs in an era of declining audiences, when cable news channels are louder...

This morning, the ACORN scandal was raised to Charlie Gibson in an interview on WLS AM Chicago’s “Don Wade & Roma Morning Show.” TRANSCRIPT:Don: Ok here’s my question, Senate bill yesterday passes cutting off funds to this group called ACORN. Now we got the…we got that bill passing, we got the embarrassing video of ACORN staff giving tax advice on how to set up a brothel with 13 year old hookers. It has everything you could want corruption and sleazy action at tax funded organizations that’s got government ties. But nobody’s covering that story why?Charlie Gibson: (laugh) I don’t even...

Don: Okay, here’s my news question. A Senate bill yesterday passes, cutting off funds to this group called ACORN. Now, we got that bill passed and we have the embarrassing video of ACORN staffers giving tax advice on how to set up a brothel with 13-year-old hookers. It has everything you could want – corruption and sleazy action at tax-funded organizations and it’s got government ties. But nobody’s covering that story. Why? Gibson: HAHAHAHAHA. HEHEHE. I didn’t even know about it. Um. So, you’ve got me at a loss. I don’t know. Uh. Uh. But my goodness, if it’s got...

ACORN Watch: Charlie Gibson and the ostrich media By Michelle Malkin • September 15, 2009 09:52 AM Several Chicago readers and Twitterers report that ABC News anchor Charlie Gibson told WLS-AM Chicago talk show hosts Don Wade and Roma this morning that the reason he hasn’t covered the ACORN scandal is that he didn’t know about it. Reader Patrick M. e-mails: "While listening to Don Wade and Roma this morning on WLS AM Chicago, they had Charlie Gibson on as their usual Tuesday morning guest. Don asked Charlie, why, after the senate last night voted to halt funding to ACORN...

EXCERPTS: Charlie Gibson Interviews Sarah Palin (September 11, 2008)THE BOLDED & UNDERLINED PARTS WERE EDITED OUT OF THE INTERVIEW GIBSON: Governor, let me start by asking you a question that I asked John McCain about you, and it is really the central question. Can you look the country in the eye and say “I have the experience and I have the ability to be not just vice president, but perhaps president of the United States of America?” PALIN: I do, Charlie, and on January 20, when John McCain and I are sworn in, if we are so privileged to...

"At times visibly nervous . . . Ms. Palin most visibly stumbled when she was asked by Mr. Gibson if she agreed with the Bush doctrine. Ms. Palin did not seem to know what he was talking about. Mr. Gibson, sounding like an impatient teacher, informed her that it meant the right of 'anticipatory self-defense.' " -- New York Times, Sept. 12 Informed her? Rubbish. The New York Times got it wrong. And Charlie Gibson got it wrong. There is no single meaning of the Bush doctrine. In fact, there have been four distinct meanings, each one succeeding another over...

Here is the third and fourth parts of Charlie Gibson's interview with Gov. Sarah Palin which aired tonight on World News Tonight. Gibson continued in "gotcha" mode, not really wanting to get to know who Sarah Palin is, but trying every conceivable angle to trip her up. . . . (see videos at link)

Did ABC use particular camera tricks to make Governor Palin look small and powerless in their Charlie Gibson interview? I've been pointed to a blog that makes a compelling case that they did just that. Using still shots of the Gibson interview with Palin compared to similar Gibson interviews with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, it seems this blogger has proven it to be an open and shut case of manipulation of the viewer. The writer shows how ABC used special camera placements and lenses to make Governor Palin seem small and Charlie Gibson seem overpowering and large by comparison....

ABC "News" Charles Gibson Interviews Barack Obama Presumptive Democratic Presidential Nominee June 4, 2008 (after Hillary Clinton concedes) http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=5000184 GIBSON: Senator, I'm curious about your feelings last night. It was an historic moment. Has it sunk in yet? GIBSON: What did your grandmother say? GIBSON: Public moments are not your own. There's a million people pulling you in a million different directions, but when everybody clears out, the staff is gone, you're in your hotel room at night and you're alone -- do you say to yourself: "Son of a gun, I've done this?" GIBSON: (inaudible) when you announced, did...

Several Chicago readers and Twitterers report that ABC News anchor Charlie Gibson told WLS-AM Chicago talk show hosts Don Wade and Roma this morning that the reason he hasn’t covered the ACORN scandal is that he didn’t know about it.

TVNewser has learned ABC News will announce today that Charlie Gibson will leave "World News" in January and that Diane Sawyer will be named the new anchor of the network's evening newscast. Gibson has been the anchor of "World News" since May 2006, after the pairing of Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff was broken up when Woodruff was seriously wounded in an IED attack in Iraq. Woodruff and Vargas were named co-anchors of the program in Dec. 2005 after the death of longtime anchor Peter Jennings. DEVELOPING > More: ABC News tells us Gibson is announcing his retirement from ABC...

ABC has Gotcha Gibson. NBC has Williams. CBS has Couric. Fox has............ Nothing. There is no national broadcast coming from Fox news. This needs to change.

From McCain's interview with ABC's Charles Gibson, airing tonight: GIBSON: Does this almost monolithic focus on the economy in the news and in people's minds in recent weeks ... MCCAIN: I totally understand it. GIBSON: Hurt your campaign? MCCAIN: I don't know, Charlie. I think by offering wise solutions and providing mature leadership that it'll redound in my behalf. Look, in my favor. But this is a tough campaign. I'm the underdog. I've always been the underdog from the beginning. I was the underdog in the primaries. I can remember when you and I were in a debate and I...

So, instead of merely reporting the news, now reporters are the news? Apparently Charlie Gibson thinks he is, anyway. He gave an interview to the Toledo Blade on October 5 as if his opinions of the race for the White House are somehow more important than the news of the candidates. You remember the candidates, don't you Chuck? You know, those guys who are actually going to be elected, the ones that you are supposed to be reporting on? Gibson spoke to the Toledo Blade's TV beat reporter Kirk Baird about an upcoming visit to Ohio's Bowling Green State University...

During Charlie Gibson's interview with Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, millions of Americans did not notice something very important. As Gibson was looking down his pointy nose at Palin, some of his notes slipped from his lap onto the floor. RFFM.org has been fortunate enough to obtain the lost Gibson questions and we hope they will shed more light on Gibson's journalistic style and some of the preparation he used to get ready for the first national interview with Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin. Q. Governor Palin, ...

After Charlie Gibson arrogantly misquoted Sarah Palin's prayer for the troops back to Sarah Palin, he followed up by asking her if we were fighting a holy war. He was, of course, trying to paint her as the Crusading Christian Zealot, who would bleed a generation of America's youth fighting for God against the heathens in the sands of the Middle East. All she was doing was praying that God protect the troops and our country and praying that our leaders' plans are part of God's plan. Her prayer was sorta like the ones these other guys made. Nobody seemed...

In her first post-nomination interview, Governor Sarah Palin was confronted by ABC's Charlie Gibson with the following question: "You said recently, in your old church, 'Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from G-d.' Are we fighting a holy war?" The record after this is a little confusing because ABC has edited the video and their transcripts several times, before and after it first aired. ..... Some commentators have noted that Gibson's question and quote were "out of context," but they do not point out the obvious intellectual dishonesty at play. In all likelihood most...