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ABC, CBS & NBC Wait Five Days to Report Obama's 'You Didn't Build That' Attack on Business
NewsBusters.org ^ | July 18, 2012 | Geoffrey Dickens

Posted on 07/18/2012 7:09:10 PM PDT by Kaslin

When Barack Obama insulted job creators everywhere, last Friday, by charging: "If you've got a business, you didn't build that, somebody else made that happen," the Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) networks didn’t pounce on the politically damaging remark. It took five full days and Romney making it the centerpiece of his speech on Tuesday before the first network mention - by Peter Alexander on last evening’s NBC Nightly News. In fact, Obama’s soundbite was ran exactly once, in the aforementioned Alexander report. Neither CBS or ABC ran Obama’s actual quote.

However, when former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu, on Tuesday, said he wished Obama "would learn how to be an American" NBC jumped to report the story on the very same day on that evening’s Nightly News. CBS got to the Sununu remark on Wednesday’s This Morning. ABC’s World News and Good Morning America have yet to mention the Sununu statement.

Both NBC and CBS used Sununu to bury Romney’s attack on Obama’s "you didn’t build that" charge. After Alexander relayed Romney’s criticisms of Obama, he reported: "The Romney campaign is fighting to redirect the debate, away from his tax returns and tenure at Bain Capital" with "Romney surrogate John Sununu briefly" changing the subject "but not the way he intended." After playing a clip of Sununu saying, "I wish this president would learn how to be an American," Alexander noted he was forced "to clarify" his statement then included a dig from an Team Obama: "An Obama campaign spokeswoman weighed in writing, ‘The Romney campaign has officially gone off the deep end.’"

On this morning’s Today show Alexander reported on "a fiery Mitt Romney" accusing the president of "being anti-entrepreneur" but then later noted: "Romney surrogate John Sununu tried to hammer the President on the same theme...but Sununu may have overshot his target."

Over on Wednesday’s CBS This Morning, Dean Reynolds noted: "Romney tried to turn the conversation back to the economy, saying it's hurting because of what he suggested was the President's hostility to business." After playing a soundbite from Romney, Reynolds undercut the GOP challenger’s argument: "But his point was overshadowed all day, after Romney supporter and former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu tried to push the argument with words that questioned Mr. Obama's patriotism." After the Sununu soundbite Reynolds slammed: "It was the kind of statement usually emanating from the political fringe, and Sununu apologized within hours. But it was another off-message distraction, as Romney struggled to gain the upper hand, turn the spotlight on Mr. Obama, and talk about something other than how much or little he paid in taxes."

ABC has yet to run a clip of Obama’s anti-business rant. Instead Josh Elliott, on Wednesday’s Good Morning America, could only offer this vague recounting of the most recent campaign fight: "The latest attacks between the two stem from the President's comments that business owners alone are not responsible for their successes. Romney called that an insult. Meantime, Romney is under increasing pressure to release more of his tax returns amidst relentless questioning about his financial dealings."

The following are the relevant transcripts from ABC, NBC and CBS evening and morning shows:

NBC

Nightly News

July 17, 2012

PETER ALEXANDER: An unusually animated Mitt Romney today seized on some of President Obama's own words, charging that they reveal an anti-business bias.

MITT ROMNEY: If you want to understand why his policies have failed, why what he has done has not created jobs or rising incomes in America, you can look at what he said.

ALEXANDER: What did the President say? While outlining his vision of American progress as a partnership between business and government last Friday, he included this line.

BARACK OBAMA: If you've got a business, you didn't build that, somebody else made that happen.

ALEXANDER: With both sides angling for any advantage, Romney today pounced.

ROMNEY: To say something like that is not just foolishness, it's insulting to every entrepreneur, every innovator in America, and it's wrong.

ALEXANDER: And he added this about the President's view of the role of government services in economic development.

ROMNEY: We pay for those things, alright? The taxpayers pay for government.

ALEXANDER: The Romney campaign is fighting to redirect the debate, away from his tax returns and tenure at Bain Capital.

NARRATOR [OBAMA AD]: Tax havens, offshore accounts, carried interest. Mitt Romney has used every trick in the book.

ALEXANDER: Romney surrogate John Sununu briefly changed the subject today, but not the way he intended.

JOHN SUNUNU: I wish this president would learn how to be an American.

ALEXANDER: Challenged by reporters, Sununu later tried to clarify.

SUNUNU: The president has to learn the American formula for creating business.

ALEXANDER: Still, an Obama campaign spokeswoman weighed in, writing, "The Romney campaign has officially gone off the deep end."

...

NBC

Today

July 18, 2012

PETER ALEXANDER: In Pennsylvania Tuesday, a fiery Mitt Romney accused the President of being anti-entrepreneur.

ROMNEY: To say that Steve Jobs didn't build Apple, that Henry Ford didn't build Ford Motor, that – that Papa John didn't build Papa John pizza.

ALEXANDER: Romney surrogate John Sununu tried to hammer the President on the same theme.

JOHN SUNUNU: The men and women all over America who have worked hard to build these businesses...it is the American way.

ALEXANDER: But Sununu may have overshot his target.

SUNUNU: I wish this president would learn how to be an American.

ALEXANDER: Team Obama quickly pounced, writing, "The Romney campaign has officially gone off the deep end."

SUNUNU: I probably was a little bit too harsh there. That's not the best choice of words, but the message was clear. This President doesn't understand the American free enterprise system.

...

CBS

This Morning

July 18, 2012

DEAN REYNOLDS (voice-over): In Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Romney tried to turn the conversation back to the economy, saying it's hurting because of what he suggested was the President's hostility to business.

ROMNEY: Look, President Obama attacks success, and therefore, under President Obama, we have less success. And I will change that. (audience cheers and applauds)

REYNOLDS: But his point was overshadowed all day, after Romney supporter and former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu tried to push the argument with words that questioned Mr. Obama's patriotism.

JOHN SUNUNU, ROMNEY SENIOR ADVISOR: I wish this president would learn how to be an American.

REYNOLDS: It was the kind of statement usually emanating from the political fringe, and Sununu apologized within hours. But it was another off-message distraction, as Romney struggled to gain the upper hand, turn the spotlight on Mr. Obama, and talk about something other than how much or little he paid in taxes.



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: abc; cbs; nbc
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1 posted on 07/18/2012 7:09:13 PM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

As I have said all along, we have to run against 3 . . . Obama, the RAT Party, and the lame-stream media.


2 posted on 07/18/2012 7:12:20 PM PDT by Mr. Wright
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To: Kaslin
It took five full days and Romney making it the centerpiece of his speech on Tuesday before the first network mention

Good things happen when Republicans fight back.

Mitt basically forced the networks to mention the now-infamous "You didn't build it speech". They would have preferred to cover it up, but after Mitt made an issue of it, they had no choice.

3 posted on 07/18/2012 7:14:47 PM PDT by denydenydeny (Admiration of absolute government is proportionate to the contempt one has for others.-Tocqueville)
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To: Kaslin

I wish this president would learn how to be an American.

But it just isn’t in his nature.


4 posted on 07/18/2012 7:14:56 PM PDT by Fester Chugabrew (I wish this president would learn how to be an American)
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To: Mr. Wright
I cannot fathom how the MSM is so allied as to bring our freedoms and culture to an end.

It is unbelievable to me as if some evil empire is behind the networks, etc.

5 posted on 07/18/2012 7:16:56 PM PDT by oldtimer
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To: Kaslin
REYNOLDS: It was the kind of statement usually emanating from the political fringe, and Sununu apologized within hours. But it was another off-message distraction, as Romney struggled to gain the upper hand, turn the spotlight on Mr. Obama, and talk about something other than how much or little he paid in taxes.

The MSM is digging deep to protect the Whiner.

6 posted on 07/18/2012 7:18:30 PM PDT by liberty or death
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To: oldtimer
The only answer I have is that leftists are totalitarian, and so are controlling by nature. So they gravitate towards professions where they can control & manipulate knowlege and opinion - teachers, journalists, lawyers, politicians.

And increasingly, clergy.

7 posted on 07/18/2012 7:20:33 PM PDT by skeeter
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To: Kaslin

I hope one day that the American people and the hyphenated American people learn to go to original sources than rely on the lame stream media for their news. There are some great people on Free Republic that follow things and do research. I first read about Barry’s anti-business statements on here, on Saturday. There wasn’t a video. It wasn’t a news story. It was the actual transcript of the speech from whitehouse.gov. I have to wonder if it was FR that caused the story to take off. Since then we have the video. It has been on every conservative talk radio show. It has been on Foxnews three nights running. And now the lame stream media has finally picked it up.


8 posted on 07/18/2012 7:26:50 PM PDT by ConservativeInPA
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To: liberty or death

The MSM has become increasingly hysterical and corrupt as they have lost their monopoly with the advent of FOX, talk radio, email, and the internet - much like Obama’s campaign and the freaks in Hollywood will become when they see that Obama is going to lose.


9 posted on 07/18/2012 7:29:11 PM PDT by profit_guy
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To: oldtimer

“I cannot fathom how the MSM is so allied as to bring our freedoms and culture to an end.”

There has to be a way to take down the MSM.


10 posted on 07/18/2012 7:30:24 PM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (ABO 2012)
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To: Kaslin

The media hasn’t been the media for a long time..they are nothing more than the arm of the Democrat/Socialist/Progressive/Communist party..the “Media” will stop at nothing to protect Obama, who they see as the only person who can bring forth the Utopian Socialist society they have always dreamed of


11 posted on 07/18/2012 7:31:42 PM PDT by Sarah Barracuda
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To: oldtimer

The networks are blinded by their ideology. Assuming they try to be balanced, they see the world through a very narrow, liberal lens. In other words, it’s impossible for them to report the news objectively even if they try. I believe Bernard Goldberg wrote a book about this.

http://www.amazon.com/Bias-Insider-Exposes-Media-Distort/dp/0895261901

He was an insider, so he saw first hand how the news was unintentionally slanted. I’m not saying there isn’t also a great deal of intentional propaganda out there, but I’ll trust that some of the journalists try to be balanced. The problem is, they see us as backward, racist, bitter clingers. For them, it’s like trying to be balanced between reporting on Hitler versus the allies (we’re the Hitlers from their perspective btw).

I really don’t know what can be done about it all other than to continue battling them on every front. The left holds a distinctive advantage in the media, education, organized labor, and government, but WE hold the advantage of being right and true.


12 posted on 07/18/2012 7:35:30 PM PDT by CitizenUSA (Why celebrate evil? Evil is easy. Good is the goal worth striving for.)
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To: Kaslin
The communists empire with King Obama at its head have tentacles into most of the MSM. Communism is here and will stay for many years even if we get the Presidency, Senate, and keep the House. It's really a shame that the MSM willfully support the communists.
13 posted on 07/18/2012 7:35:35 PM PDT by Logical me
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To: Kaslin

Did y’all know that the current PC medical term for flaming fudge-packers is “MSM” as in “Men who have Sex with Men”?

There has to be a deeper meaning here...


14 posted on 07/18/2012 7:43:31 PM PDT by 43north (BHO: 50% black, 50% white, 100% RED)
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To: Kaslin

Imagine, for a moment, Obama saying something like this, “Beyonce did not get ahead in show business on her own. She is not any more talented than anyone else. Lots of people work hard on their singing and dancing. She got there with the help of lot of people.” !!! ???

Imagine what the uproar would be. Or, maybe, “Steven Spielberg, is not a harder worker than Joe Blow from hoboken. Spielberg got there because the country helped him.”

For some reason, mostly Comunist ones, disrepecting the talents and plain-old-hard ethic of working business people is respectable among the elite liberls in aceademia and the press.

We need to point out the ridiculousness of this attitude by Obama and his friends. Change the subject to artists, athletes, etc., and then hear the response!!!

I wonder how Obama has the nerve to go around taking credit for the death of Osams bin Ladn - when the Navy Seals and our military did all the hard work, the planning, and the dangerous encatment of the plan. He seems to think he is OK inn taking credit for it himself - yet business people he disses repeatedly.


15 posted on 07/19/2012 1:23:36 PM PDT by Gumdrop
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To: EQAndyBuzz
There has to be a way to take down the MSM.

Their own smug righteousness is driving their audience away.

16 posted on 07/19/2012 1:24:47 PM PDT by bimbo
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To: Kaslin

Somewhere along the line the MSM stopped reporting the news and started reacting to news.


17 posted on 07/19/2012 1:26:09 PM PDT by GSWarrior
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To: Kaslin
News media is frantically covering up for B. Obama. It spills over into general entertainment as J. Leno and D. Letterman have become cheerleaders for him.
18 posted on 07/19/2012 1:28:31 PM PDT by apocalypto
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To: 43north

I’m sure a lot of MSM work for the MSM.

BTW, I love your tagline.


19 posted on 07/19/2012 1:33:11 PM PDT by samtheman (The Trillion Dollar ObamaCareTax definitely is a tax; just ask the US Supreme Court.)
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To: Kaslin

If a story won’t go away ABC, CBS, NBC come up with a white eash plan,but it’s not working.


20 posted on 07/19/2012 1:36:09 PM PDT by Vaduz
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