MRC Alert: Networks Fear Immigration Reform ‘Dead’ After Cantor Loss, ABC Urges Obama ‘Act On His Own’

Thursday,June12,2014

Tracking LiberalMedia Bias

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1. Networks Fear Immigration Reform ‘Dead’ After Cantor Loss, ABC Urges Obama ‘Act On His Own’

After Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s stunning primary defeat Tuesday night, the broadcast networks Wednesday morning wrung their hands over the loss and fretted that immigration reform, which Cantor supported, was doomed. On NBC’s Today, political director Chuck Todd declared: “…this, by the way, means immigration reform during the rest of the Obama presidency, the idea that it’s gonna happen, is dead. It is not going to happen in 2016.”Co-host Savannah Guthrie worried: “Is anything going to happen? I mean, I guess the question is whether Republicans will be so spooked by someone in such a strong position of leadership being vulnerable that they won’t want to compromise even one bit.” Todd replied: “They’re going to be afraid to do anything the rest of this legislative cycle…”

More: http://www.mrc.org/biasalerts/networks-fear-immigration-reform-dead-after-cantor-loss-abc-urges-obama-act-his-own

2. MSNBC’s Matthews: ‘Dead Broke’ Was Mere ‘Half Gaffe’ by Hillary

Comparing Hillary Clinton’s Hard Choices book tour to an “out of town play getting ready in New Haven,” MSNBC’s Chris Matthews on Wednesday night dismissed the former Secretary of State’s tone-deaf “dead broke” line from her interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer as a “small kind of gaffe, or even a half gaffe.”

More: http://www.mrc.org/biasalerts/msnbcs-matthews-dead-broke-was-mere-half-gaffe-hillary

3. ABC, NBC Too Busy With O.J. Simpson Police Chase Anniversary To Cover V.A. Scandal

CBS Evening News was the only Big Three evening newscast on Wednesday to report that the FBI has opened a criminal investigation into the V.A. scandal. Neither ABC’s World News nor NBC Nightly News covered this latest development in the ongoing controversy. Instead, both programs devoted air time to the 20th anniversary of O.J. Simpson’s slow-speed run from the police, after the murder of his wife and her friend.

More: http://www.mrc.org/biasalerts/abc-nbc-too-busy-oj-simpson-police-chase-anniversary-cover-va-scandal

4. NBC Boosts Bloomberg Gun Control Group’s Misleading Figure on School Shootings

Miguel Almaguer hyped on Wednesday’s NBC Nightly News that “since the mass shooting in Newtown a year and a half ago, there’s been at least 74 school shootings across the country roughly one every week.” However, the correspondent failed to mention that this figure came from the pro-gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety, which was founded earlier in 2014 by liberal billionaire Michael Bloomberg. On Tuesday, Kyle Becker of the Independent Journal Review spotlighted a series of Twitter posts from author and journalist Charles C. Johnson, which called out Bloomberg’s organization for giving an “exaggerated impression of how many school shootings have taken place.”

More: http://www.mrc.org/biasalerts/nbc-boosts-bloomberg-gun-control-groups-misleading-figure-school-shootings

5. Lois Lerner Sent Confidential Taxpayer Info to FBI Right Before 2010 Midterms, Networks Ignore

On Monday the House Oversight Committee investigating the IRS targeting scandal released new e-mails that showed Lois Lerner sent a database of tax exempt organizations to the FBI, right before the 2010 midterm elections. Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC ) network coverage of this latest disclosure in the targeting scandal? A big fat yawn.

More: http://www.mrc.org/biasalerts/lois-lerner-sent-confidential-taxpayer-info-fbi-right-2010-midterms-networks-ignore

6. Networks Promote President Obama Saying America Should Be Ashamed Following School Shooting

On Tuesday morning a high school student in Oregon open fire in a high school killing another student before taking his own life. Following the tragedy, all three morning network news shows played up President Obamas reaction and promoted his call for action. While ABC, CBS, and NBC all promoted Obamas statement, NBCs Today was the most enthusiastic with Savannah Guthrie noting the president had some pretty strong words and hyping pretty extraordinary moment following the shooting.

More: http://www.mrc.org/biasalerts/networks-promote-president-obama-saying-america-should-be-ashamed-following-school-shooti