With Massachusetts State Senator Scott Brown surging in the polls, NBC's
Today show, on Friday, assigned Kelly O'Donnell to highlight the race for the
open Senate seat in Massachusetts pitting Brown against Martha Coakley and the
NBC reporter – even after airing Brown's zinger that "it's not the Kennedy
seat...it's the people's seat," – ordained it "the Kennedy seat."
Today co-host Matt Lauer, in introducing the O'Donnell piece (that
incidentally was accompanied by the on screen headline: Will Democrats Lose Ted
Kennedy's Seat?") also read from the same song book: "Now to politics and the
race to fill Ted Kennedy's Senate seat."
Over on ABC's Good Morning America Jake Tapper avoided describing the seat as
the Kennedy family's personal property in his report that noted "there's a big
question...as to whether President Obama will campaign in that special election
for the Massachuset's Senate seat...because if the Democrat loses, all bets are
off," and warned "It looks like health care might sink." CBS's The Early show
aired nothing about the Senate race.
The following is a complete transcript of O'Donnell's profile of the race as
it was aired on the January 15 Today show:
MATT LAUER: Now to politics and the race to fill the late Ted Kennedy's
Senate seat. A special election will be held next week in Massachusetts, and
right now, a Republican leads in the polls. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell's in
Washington. Kelly, good morning to you.
KELLY O'DONNELL: Good morning, Matt. This really is a stunner. Even a week
ago, few would have imagined that the seat held by the late Ted Kennedy, John F.
Kennedy, for half a century could be in trouble for Democrats, but now two
candidates who are very interesting are getting a lot of attention. Predictions
that Martha Coakley could raise a glass to an easy win faded fast. The popular
Massachusetts attorney general has the national Democratic Party nervous. The
60th seat needed for their majority, on the line.
[On screen headline: "Senate Showdown, Will Democrats Lose Ted Kennedy's
Seat?"]
MARTHA COAKLEY: We know the whole country's looking at this race.
O'DONNELL: While Republicans across the country are delighted about their
less well-known candidate, state senator Scott Brown.
SCOTT BROWN: With all due respect, it's not the Kennedy seat and it's not the
Democrat's seat. It's the people's seat.
O'DONNELL: The idea that the Kennedy seat could go red jolted the Democrats'
national campaign team to spend hundreds of thousands on TV time.
(Begin ad clip)
ANNOUNCER: Brown wants to be the deciding vote to kill Ted Kennedy's
legislation.
(End ad clip)
O'DONNELL: Politics can be full of hard knocks, but even this is unusual. A
Coakley aide seen on video body-blocking a reporter from the conservative Weekly
Standard.
(Clip of confrontation)
O'DONNELL: And Scott Brown's campaign has its own twists. First, Brown's
wife, Gail Huff, a veteran Boston TV reporter, stays out of his campaign ads and
events to avoid a conflict as her TV station covers the race.
GAIL HUFF: Live from Harvard I'm Gail Huff, Newscenter 5.
O'DONNELL: While their daughter-
(Clip from American Idol featuring daughter singing on American Idol)
SIMON COWELL: For the first time, for me, I saw some emotion.
(End clip)
O'DONNELL: -is very visible and earned her own pop fame. An American Idol in
2006. And wow! Voters have seen a little bit more than they expected of Scott
Brown, when this 1982 nude photo layout resurfaced. Brown had won a sexiest man
contest in Cosmopolitan magazine. For Coakley, her first international attention
and controversy came in 1997, prosecuting the case known as the shaken baby
nanny trial of Louise Woodward. The verdict from Massachusetts voters could come
down to turnout.
GLENN JOHNSON, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS: Nobody's really sure of the group who's
going to turn out and how best do you actually measure who's gonna go out on a
cold winter day and vote in an election that a lot of people still haven't even
actually heard about.
O'DONNELL: And that's really the key, because a special election tends to
only draw the most fervent voters. Democrats do have an advantage in numbers.
There are more registered Democrats in Massachusetts, but the intensity seems to
be on the conservative side. And of course, this has so many implications, Matt.
The Obama White House is watching it very closely. Matt?
LAUER: I would imagine, Kelly. Thank you very much.
—Geoffrey Dickens is the senior news analyst at the Media Research
Center.