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Obama Is
“Something Special” |
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 “Presidential campaigns have destroyed many bright and
capable politicians. But there’s ample evidence that [Senator Barack] Obama
is something special, a man who makes difficult tasks look easy, who seems
to touch millions of diverse people with a message of hope that somehow
doesn’t sound Pollyannaish.”
— AP writer Charles Babington in a May 10 dispatch. |
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Following Her Liberal Heart |
“I see this as a
moment of transformational change in the country and I have spent my lifetime
sitting on the sidelines watching people attempt to make change. I just decided
that I can’t sit on the sidelines anymore.”
— Former ABC and
CBS correspondent Linda Douglass confirming that she was going to work for the
Obama campaign, as recounted by The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder in a
May 21 blog entry. |
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Beware GOP Vote Thieves |
“They’ve [the Obama camp] been arguing that their
electoral map is different, that they can do this with North Carolina and
Colorado, and other places where they have won either primaries or caucuses.
Other people, I should point out, other Clinton loyalists, but realists, say
that that electoral map is a stretch in one regard: There are, you know,
Republican governors and Secretaries of State, if you will, Katherine
Harris-type election officials in those states. So, even though he may have
won primaries or caucuses in those states, he has to go up against the
establishment, which would be Republican, and he has to figure out a way to
get a fair vote if he’s the nominee in those red states.”
— NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell during MSNBC’s live primary night
coverage, May 20.
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CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin: “There are
four very conservative Justices there [on the U.S. Supreme Court]. They
decided a case about Indiana election law.”
Host Bill Moyers: “Upholding the state’s voter identifica-tion....What
did you think about that?”
Toobin: “Well, I thought it was a bad decision, but a predictable
one, because it was a very clear attempt by Republicans to stop Democrats
from voting. I don’t think there’s any doubt about what the motivation was
of that law....The fact is electoral fraud scarcely exists in this country.
The real agenda was to help Republicans.”
— PBS’s Bill Moyers Journal, May 23.
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Democratic Racists vs. Obama |
MSNBC’s Chris Matthews: “You could have
predicted West Virginia 20 years ago....These people made up their mind in
’57. I mean, I don’t think any other argument — should it be Barack Obama or
Hillary Clinton?”
Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan, laughing: “What an indictment!
What an indictment of your party, Chris!”
Matthews: “No, it may be a suggestion of understanding the geography
of America.
— Exchange on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on May 13, previewing that day’s
Democratic primary in West Virginia.
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“Grotesque” and a “Sucker Punch” |
“What was he up to in the Knesset today with that, well,
you’d have to call it a sucker punch over there? In the Knesset, in Israel,
which was, you know, so much to do with the Holocaust, let’s be honest. In terms
of the world and the way it looks, the necessity of a state of Israel, a Jewish
state. And to go in there and basically accuse the Democrats of selling out the
Jews of Europe. I mean, an amazing charge right there in, in the homeland!
Incredible!”
— MSNBC’s Chris Matthews talking about the
President’s speech before the Israeli parliament, May 15 Hardball.
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“John McCain was trying to say in his speech yesterday that
he stands for a new kind of politics, that he’s above of this sort of
traditional, slash and burn politics and, yet, he then embraces in what is
clearly an intellectually grotesque and dishonest statement by President Bush.”
— MSNBC’s David Shuster on MSNBC News Live,
May 16.
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NBC Scolds the President |
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 “How
do you feel that Iran is — its position in the world is rising because of your
actions in Iraq?”
“If you look back over the last several years, the Middle East that you’ll be
handing over to the next president has, is deeply problematic. You have Hamas in
power, Hezbollah empowered, taking to the streets, Iran empowered, Iraq still at
war. What region are you handing over?”|
“The war on terrorism has been the centerpiece of your presidency. Many people
say that it has not made the world safer, that it has created more radicals,
that there are more people in this part of the world who want to attack the
United States.”
— NBC’s Richard Engel to President Bush in an
interview shown on NBC’s Today, May 19. The White House later complained
to NBC that the network “deceitfully” edited the President’s answers. |
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No Mention He’s a Psycho |
What I didn’t see I thought was interesting as well. There
was hardly any mention of his mental health. There was no mention of depression.
You know, this is a man who had two admittedly weak suicide attempts when he was
a prisoner of war. There was no mention of post-traumatic stress disorder or
anything that may have been asked, or substance abuse. None of that was even
mentioned.”
— CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta discussing John McCain’s medical records on the
CBS Evening News, May 23.
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Missed Chance to Loathe America |
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“In private discussions with friends and colleagues,
some of them have pointed out that McCain, who was shot down and captured in
1967, spent the worst and most costly years of the war sealed away, both from
the rice paddies of Indochina and from the outside world. During those years,
McCain did not share the disillusioning and morally jarring experiences of
soldiers like Kerry, Webb and Hagel, who found themselves unable to recognize
their enemy in the confusion of the jungle; he never underwent the conversion
that caused Kerry, for one, to toss away some of his war decorations during a
protest at the Capitol. Whatever anger McCain felt remained focused on his
captors, not on his own superiors back in Washington.”
— Contributing writer Matt Bai profiling John McCain in the New York
Times Magazine, May 18.
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Obama Gets a Freebie from ABC |
“Timed for maximum exposure, timed to coincide with the
evening newscasts, timed to give Barack Obama a needed boost after his bad
defeat yesterday in West Virginia —George Stephanopoulos, this [endorsement
from John Edwards] is the kind of publicity that you can’t buy.”
— Anchor Charles Gibson wrapping up ABC’s live coverage of the
Obama-Edwards rally on World News, May 14.
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“Shut the Hell Up!” |
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 “As a final crash of self-indulgent nonsense, when the
incontrovertible truth of your panoramic and murderous deceit has even begun
to cost your political party seemingly perpetual congressional seats....When
somebody asks you, sir, about the cooked books and faked threats you foisted
on a sincere and frightened nation; when somebody asks you, sir, about your
gallant, noble, self-abdicating sacrifice of your golf game so as to soothe
the families of the war dead; this advice, Mr. Bush: Shut the hell up! Good
night and good luck.”
— MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann in a “Special Comment” on Countdown, May
14. |
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No More Food & Medicine |
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 Anchor Charles Gibson: Tonight, gas and diesel hit
another record. People tell us they’re sacrificing food, health, and their
lifestyle just to fill the tank.”...
Reporter Dan Harris: “The pain is being felt all over the country. We
here at ABC News are getting flooded with messages from people like Rosaria
Giamei, who says, ‘I even stopped filling a much-needed monthly prescription
that costs $45 so I will have more money for gas.’”
— ABC’s World News, May 19. |
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Jeremiah Wright, Media Victim |
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“He was assassinated by soundbites....His whole career
was being summed up in soundbites that added up to no more than 20 seconds,
endlessly played through the media grinder of our national press. He was
angry about that.... He was like a man who goes out and picks up the morning
newspaper and gets hit by a cyclone!”
— PBS’s Bill Moyers talking about Reverend Jeremiah Wright on Comedy
Central’s The Daily Show on May 13. |
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Do As I Say, Not As I Do |
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“Now to the most absurd analogy of the day. In praising
John McCain for his stoicism while he was tortured in Vietnam, Georgia
Republican Party Chair Sue Everhart had this to say about her candidate,
quote, ‘John McCain is kind of like Jesus Christ on the cross.’ Well, I
think John Lennon made that mistake when he said the Beatles were more
popular than Jesus. Let’s cool it with those comparisons.”
— MSNBC’s Chris Matthews on Hardball, May 19.
vs.
“When I watched him [former President Bill Clinton] at
Mrs. King’s funeral, I just have never seen anything like it.... There are
times when he sounds like Jesus in the temple.”
— Matthews on Hardball, February 28, 2007. |
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Quick, Get Them an Atlas |
Co-host Harry Smith: “In which ocean are the
South Sandwich Islands located? A sixth grader from Nebraska answered that
question. It’s in the — is it in the Atlantic? I thought the Sandwich
Islands were actually named after the Earl of — it’s Hawaii. That’s not
right. I’m so sorry. Other — you know what, let’s-”
Co-host Julie Chen: “No, it’s in which ocean, so that is right. So
it’s the Atlantic Ocean.”
Smith: “Hawaii is not in the Atlantic Ocean.”
Chen: “Oh, it’s in the Pacific.”— Discussing the winners of
National Geographic’s geography bee on CBS’s The Early Show, May 22.
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PUBLISHER: L. Brent Bozell III
EDITORS: Brent H. Baker, Rich Noyes, Tim Graham
MEDIA ANALYSTS: Geoffrey Dickens, Brad Wilmouth, Scott Whitlock, Matthew Balan and Kyle Drennen
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE: Michelle Humphrey
INTERN: Lyndsi Thomas
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