:)
Posted on 08/31/2004 4:40:16 AM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
As your intrepid reporter on liberal bias at the morning news shows, a thought was running through my mind as I watched last night's speeches by McCain and Giuliania: "these are so good, there is no way the morning shows can spin these as anything but a major blow to John Kerry."
Apparently the morning shows agreed, because to varying degrees they adopted the strategy that the best coverage was limited coverage, or in the absolutely mind-blowing case of CBS' Early Show, NO COVERAGE AT ALL!
OK, in fairness, there was some brief mention of the convention during the Early Show's news recap at the very top of the hour.
But when it came to the extended segments during the first half-hour, first up was a rehash of the Kobe Bryant case. Surely, I thought, the convention must be next. But no, it was an update on surgery on conjoined twins. "No, this can't be happening," I thought. "They must be building toward a big conclusion to the half-hour with a major convention segment."
Uh, no. The final segment was devoted to informing us that it was rainy in Richmond yesterday.
Over at the Today Show, rather than extended coverage of the convention, we were treated to the second installment of a near week-old interview that Matt Lauer had done with Pres. Bush. OK, not as bad as CBS' Richmond weather report, but the big news of yesterday was what happened in the convention, and we saw very little of it. Rather than any extended excerpts from the McCain/Giuliani speeches (and don't forget that NBC did not broadcast the convention last night), we were treated to another soporific interview between Katie and Tim Russert.
Finally, at GMA, Diane Sawyer conducted a live interview with First Lady Laura Bush. I must say that Laura looked absolutely beautiful and conducted herself with her characteristic charm and class. That was put to the test when Diane Sawyer crudely asked her "so, are you going to attack John Kerry tonight?" "Of course not," replied Laura, maintaining her good-natured composure as someone might when a visitor's dog soils the living room carpet.
Both Today and GMA focused of course on W's inelegant phrase yesterday regarding our ability to win the war on terrorism. Nice try, but that would only stick if people thought for a second that W wasn't tough on terrorism or that Kerry was tougher. Don't make me laugh.
I thought a clear highlight of last night's speeches was Giuliani's parody of Edwards' 'two Americas' theme, when Rudy suggested that perhaps Kerry needs two Americas: one to take one position, the other to take exactly the opposite position on the same issue. But of course none of the networks let Americans see that this morning.
All in all, an infuriating performance by the MSM. But let's take it as a compliment and a good sign: they know how devastating the McCain/Rudy one-two punch was last night, and didn't dare let the American people see too much of it this morning.
It's getting a decent amount of coverage this morning on the local news stations that air in the NYC-NJ-CT area. Heavily watched by the morning commuter block.
:)
Yep... they wouldn't dream of putting a prick in their Golden Boy TM Pinata.
I wish Republicans would answer these questions like this:
"Oh, that's an easy question! I was worried you were going to ask me 'When did you stop beating your wife?' but instead, you're going with the 'why is the war divisive' question. Great! My answer is very simple: The Leaders of the Democrats are trying to divide this country and they are bending over backwards to disagree with the President as much as possible. Even issues like definding our country from terrorist attacks can become "divisive" if you really try hard enough. And Democrat leaders are sure trying hard."
Diane Sawyer has one of the weirdest media personas around. Some kind of saccharine, self-appointed member of a non-existent American nobility. But once in a while she'll bare her partisan teeth, as with this morning's ugly question to the First Lady.
I watched C-SPAN's coverage and deliberately switched to the cable networks at the end to see the reactions. Brokaw, Russert, Andrea Mitchell, Aaron Brown.... they all looked like they knew it was over.
Hee hee. You have captured the essence of Diane Sawyer.
Always expect the worst from the paleomedia.
Call me naive, but I couldn't have imagined that CBS would flatly ignore the convention in its first half hour.
ping. Hope you were able to catch some of this on C-Span last night. It was awesome.
ROFL I found this an interesting comment as in 1966 I was one of a handful of teenagers sitting in George H. W. Bush's den when the Bush dog decided it was time to go on the near white carpet. Barbara Bush never said a word and acted as if nothing had happened but excused herself to get us cokes. As she walked to the kitchen, kleenex appeared in her hand, she swooped down on the mess, hardly breaking stride, and it was gone! By the time we left, it was as if it had never happened.
Of course, they probably bypassed the Daschle revelation yesterday--the Daschle ad showing him with GWB and the headline of how Daschle and GWB work together.
[Daschle forgot the freeze on Judicial nominees. But Daschle realizes that he needs to run his re-election bid on GWB's side, not against GWB.]
Guilty as charged. I also made no effort to keep up with the live thread.
Guess I was on to something! Great story, thanks for passing along. And of course you've made us FReepers jealous for the experience you had of being a guest of the GHW Bushes.
*sigh* Tell me that story again, please, Uncle Keysguy. Then every night I can dream about Katie fading away, fading away, fading away......
New media trumps old media...in my opinion. I was watching msnbc at times...Mike Barnicle (can you believe it)said 'Kerry's campaign has a long way to go, and the speeches knocked the pins out from under Kerry'. He was watching with regular folks in Queens...he said it was powerful. When the lady who's husband was killed on 9-11 and who's navy son is going to Iraq. People stood and applauded and wept. He also went out with the tourists to Empire State Building and every single tourist looked out in to the distance looking for buildings that were no longer there.Americans are hungrgy to remember 9-11; they don't want to pretend it didn't happen like the media. I think Fox's coverage is lame...from the O'Reilly 'I won't cover partisan speeches', to having to listen to Alan Colmes mouth the Dem talking points to Greta ( I only watched briefly). Brit was the best, but I watched on C-Span and MSNBC. Even Brit seemed a bit cynical. I had stars in my eyes last night. I didn't want to hear the speeches dissected. Ron Silver was amazing. He tore Ron Reagan a new clymer-(officious little troll). Mike Barnicle was excellent too. I have to say, I think MSNBC has had good coverage at times. Although C-span is wonderful-see the entire thing.
I had mentioned earlier that for me, last night's highlight was Rudy's joke about the Two Americas giving Kerry a chance to take two positions on the same issue. I observed that none of the MSM shows aired the clip. Fox & Friends just did.
I did see that footage on ABC. They didn't say anything about anybody in critical condition. They said the protestors "tried to shove their way through the barricades" but what I saw was people punching and kicking someone on the ground.
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