The networks Monday night skipped lightly over the late Senator Robert Byrd's segregationist and racist record, devoting as much time to the Democrat's fiddle-playing prowess as his years in the Ku Klux Klan, which CBS's Chip Reid excused as “an effort to help his political career.”
Leading into file video of Byrd playing his fiddle, ABC anchor Diane Sawyer declared “Byrd was a powerhouse and old-fashioned crowd-pleaser on the stump, whipping out his fiddle.” Though Byrd is the only Senator to have voted against both Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas, Cokie Roberts asserted that “as the country changed, Robert Byrd changed with it. He readily endorsed Barack Obama for President.”
After touting how by “writing several volumes of Senate history” Byrd had followed in Caesar's “footsteps,” she concluded: “Like the Constitution and the bible, Robert Byrd will be a permanent fixture of the Senate.”
On CBS, Reid also stressed the fiddle-playing: “Byrd grew up in poverty in the coal fields of West Virginia where he learned to play the fiddle. For decades, he used it to entertain audiences on the campaign trail.” Reid later recalled:
His life was not without mistakes. He joined the Ku Klux Klan as a young man, an effort to help his political career -- a decision that haunted him all his life. He also participated in the historic filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He later apologized for both actions and became a strong advocate of civil rights.
Since he's a Democrat, all is forgiven.
The full coverage on the Monday, June 28 World News on ABC:
DIANE SAWYER: An historic passing to note. On the same day Alaska became a state, Robert Byrd of West Virginia was sworn in as a U.S. Senator. Byrd died early today at the age of 92, the longest-serving member of Congress in history. His Senate desk draped in black bunting. Byrd was a powerhouse and old-fashioned crowd pleaser on the stump, whipping out his fiddle. [video of Byrd playing fiddle] Our Cokie Roberts remembers an icon now.COKIE ROBERTS: Though most politicians tout their humble beginnings, Robert Byrd was the real deal. An orphan raised dirt poor who never went to college, but went to Congress. In early days, he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan and filibustered against civil rights. He later apologized for his Klan membership.
ROBERT BYRD: It was a mistake and one that I have greatly regretted over the years.
ROBERTS: And as the country changed, Robert Byrd changed with it. He readily endorsed Barack Obama for President. And though he had supported the Vietnam war he became a forceful voice against the Iraq war.
BYRD: Why is war being dealt with not as a last resort but as a first resort?
ROBERTS: He never forgot the voters of West Virginia who saw more than $3 billion in federal funds come their way. It was, however, the United States Senate that mattered most to Byrd. He lauded the institution and often lectured it.
BYRD: Caesar showed himself at this time to be also a historian.
ROBERTS: Byrd followed in the Roman's footsteps, writing several volumes of Senate history, reminding his colleagues and the country that the institution is more important than politics or Presidents. That's why he always carried the Constitution, which names Byrd's beloved Congress as the first branch of government.
BYRD: I say we ought to read the Constitution more.
ROBERTS: And, like the Constitution and the bible, Robert Byrd will be a permanent fixture of the Senate.
ABC, CBS and NBC all led Tuesday night with multiple stories on the “firestorm” over disrespectful coments by General Stanley McChrystal and his aides about President Obama and other administration officials, but ABC's Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos particularly despaired over the position in which McChrystal has put Obama. 
Good evening. There was a giant explosion heard around the world today, and it had nothing to do with weapons. Everything to do with words. General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, gave an interview to a magazine. And in it, he and his aides took aim at everyone from the President to the Vice President to Senators and diplomats. 
Network anchors can’t resist misconstruing Arizona’s upcoming immigration enforcement law. The latest instances came Friday night when ABC and NBC caught up with news that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told an interviewer in Ecuador that the Obama administration will sue to block the law. 
President Barack Obama's Oval Office address about the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico certainly impressed George Stephanopoulos, though that's not a difficult achievement for the favorably pre-disposed Democratic operative turned network political expert. ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC were all back to regular programming two minutes or less after Obama finished, but that was enough time for Stephanopoulos to display his delight. “What struck me tonight,” he informed ABC anchor Diane Sawyer, is:
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: What struck me tonight, Diane, is you know those Oval Office addresses are often used when the nation is at war and tonight the President used martial language. He talked about a “siege,” the “assault on our shores” and his “battle plan” to fix it. And he said we have to “rally together.”
ABC anchor Diane Sawyer greeted Meg Whitman’s victory in California’s Republican gubernatorial primary by putting forward Democrat Jerry Brown as the savior protecting the nation against Whitman becoming Governor. “Jerry Brown told us today, he wants the country to know that he sees this as an epic duel in California between the politics of ideas and the power of money,” Sawyer warned from Los Angeles in setting up an interview with Brown aired on Wednesday’s World News. Sawyer later relayed how Brown “believes the soul of California is at stake.”
DIANE SAWYER: And, as you know, we are here in California, a state reeling from debt, with no easy solution in sight. And come November, former Democratic Governor Jerry Brown has decided to ride into the race for governor again. For the Republicans, as we said, the head of eBay, the former head of eBay, Meg Whitman, who spent $80 million of her own money and has plenty more to spend. She won a decisive primary victory last night. Well, Jerry Brown told us today, he wants the country to know that he sees this as an epic duel in California between the politics of ideas and the power of money.
SAWYER: Do you really feel that this is changing us fundamentally in some big brother way?
The three evening news shows on Monday treated the announcement of Helen Thomas' retirement as an occasion to gush over the "bona fide icon" and "trailblazer." At the same time, CBS's Evening News, NBC's Nightly News and ABC's World News didn't find much time for outrage over Thomas' attacks on Jews and Israel. 
Evening News anchor Katie Couric hyped that Thomas had "blazed the trail for women in journalism." 
DIANE SAWYER: And today, the long career of White House reporter Helen Thomas, a familiar face, came to an abrupt end amid criticism and controversy. What happened to the 89-year-old fixture in the front row of the briefings? Here’s Dan Harris.
The American lawyers who flock to Guantanamo Bay to represent captured terrorists are simply fulfilling their duty to provide representation, it is often argued by those who seem to enjoy mucking up efforts to curtail future terrorism. But once representing the American beverage giant Coca Cola makes Attorney General Eric Holder a “corporatist” who’s going to “do the Devil’s work” and only “pretend” to go tough on BP after the oil spill, lefty talk radio host Mike Malloy (a onetime CNN news writer) argued Wednesday night. (Audio 
With “Sharp Words” forming the on-screen graphic, ABC anchor Diane Sawyer on Thursday night championed the domestic gun control argument espoused by a foreign leader trying to shift the blame for his nation's criminal activity, a remark neither CBS nor NBC found newsworthy:
After ABC's Jonathan Karl painted Senator Arlen Specter's (D-R-D-PA) troubles as emblematic of how “the national anti-incumbent wave has hit Pennsylvania” (complete with a matching full screen graphic), George Stephanopoulos fretted on World News about how voters say “they want the parties to work together, yet they seem to be most against now the Senators, the incumbents, who did work across party lines.”
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: They want the parties to work together, yet they seem to be most against now the Senators, the incumbents, who did work across party lines. Bob Bennett in Utah worked with a Democrat on health care, loses the primary in the Republican Party. Arlen Specter, the ultimate ID, he's been on both, he's been in both parties. He's worked. He's been an independent. Blanche Lincoln, down in Arkansas, a centrist Democrat. She's in a lot of trouble tonight.
Five weeks ago (covered at 
In quite a contrast to the immediate tagging of the Bush and Obama Supreme Court nominees as “conservative” (and 
As FNC's Shannon Bream pointed out on Special Report, in The Daily Princetonian, Kagan lamented “the success of those she called, quote, 'anonymous but Moral Majority-backed avengers of innocent life.' Kagan also said she looked forward to a time when a, quote, 'more leftist left will once again come to the fore.'”
....She was a gifted student at public schools in New York, then Princeton undergrad, Oxford post-grad and Harvard law. Even in high school, check out her yearbook photo here, she had her sights set on the high court....
....In high school, Kagan was a leader, serving as student council president. She left no doubt about her wishes to become a judge....
Her career has put her solidly on the left. She worked as a lawyer in the Clinton White House, but she will have significant conservative support among academics and lawyers. Michael McConnell was a leading conservative judge.
BREAM: Indeed the professor who oversaw Kagan's research for that thesis calls her, quote, “the furthest thing from a socialist.” Also while at Princeton, Kagan wrote an opinion piece for the student newspaper saying she, quote, “absorbed liberal principles early,” and went on to lament the success of those she called, quote, “anonymous but moral majority-backed avengers of innocent life.” Kagan also said she looked forward to a time when a, quote, “more leftist left will once again come to the fore.”...
During ABC’s live coverage of President Obama’s nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, Diane Sawyer and a quartet of correspondents failed to find a single thing to criticize about the new nominee. Instead, Sawyer touted it as a “history making day” (although why is unclear, since she's the fifth woman to be nominated), and touted Kagan as a feminist “trailblazer” and a “conciliator” between “the conservative and liberal wings of the Court.”
After the President and Kagan spoke, Capitol Hill correspondent Jonathan Karl noted how Republican Senators Orrin Hatch and Jon Kyl, who had supported Kagan for her current post as Solicitor General, were not going to automatically support her for the Supreme Court. But Nightline co-anchor Terry Moran disputed the notion that Kagan would have a difficult fight, citing the White House as evidence that conservatives were rallying to Kagan: “The White House does think that, despite what Jon is saying, she is strong, she’s got support of conservatives in and out of Washington, and she’ll make it.”
Everyone knows that the quickest way to become a popular Republican in the media’s eyes is to denounce the Republicans as too extreme and conservative. The latest example is Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who became an instant media sensation when he abandoned his dreadfully losing GOP campaign for the U.S. Senate to run as an independent. Chris Matthews pushed the storyline as a “Stalinesque purge” of moderates. 
Never missing a chance to highlight events that make Team Obama seem to be loveable characters, ABC and NBC on Thursday night showcased endearing and cuddly moments with Joe Biden and First Dog Bo. You can decide which one is endearing and which one is cuddly.
DIANE SAWYER: Remember when Vice President Biden called the health care reform a big you know what deal? Of course he didn't know that his microphone was so sensitive. We heard on The View today that it was the President who told him, we heard it.
Two weeks ago (noted at 
Words, just words. But which ones excite journalists and which ones don't? A test case Wednesday night as ABC and NBC, matching the focus of CNN and MSNBC throughout the day, aired segments on controversy over Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell leaving condemnation of slavery out of a proclamation issued last week calling April “Confederate History Month,” but neither had any time for an 
And now, we return to home, where the Governor of Virginia has created an eruption of a debate. He decided to declare this month Confederate History Month, raising an argument about two questions. Should the Confederacy be honored, and what if the proclamation never mentions one of the central reasons the South went to war? Here's Jon Karl.
This week, the MRC’s regular Notable Quotables newsletter, documenting the latest outrageous quotes from the liberal media from the past two weeks, could not fit in its normal 3-page format, so we created a super-sized special edition, “
“Opponents of the bill have been out today, and some of them pulled out all the stops. Protesters roaming Washington, some of them increasingly emotional, yelling slurs and epithets.” — ABC’s Diane Sawyer on World News, March 21.
“I am surprised that the numbers in the Washington Post poll weren’t better. I mean, since this thing passed last weekend, we’ve been seeing the longest wet kiss in political history given to the Obama administration by the liberal media elite, and every day it goes by, it’s sloppier.” — Governor Haley Barbour (R-MS) commenting on an ABC News/Washington Post poll showing 46% approving of ObamaCare vs. 50% opposed, ABC’s This Week, March 28.
ABC anchor Diane Sawyer, who in February demanded to know who will “keep insurance companies from jacking up premiums while making huge profits?”, on Friday found her champion in the Superintendent of Maine’s Bureau of Insurance, hailing Mila Kofman as a “super-cop” and a “gladiator” for rejecting a rate hike requested by Anthem Blue Cross. 
BILL WEIR: [audio cut out] Maine, one of 29 states with the power to control the price of health insurance. But very few of those state regulators actually use their power.
MILA KOFMAN, SUPERINDENT OF INSURANCE, MAINE: We are the super-cops on the street. I take that responsibility as an insurance regulator very seriously.
WEIR: And she'll keep fighting for that lifeline. She just was sworn in for a new term today. As for Anthem of Maine, they sent us a long statement pointing to the laws in Maine, Diane. Since the mid-90s, they forced insure companies to cover anybody who applies, regardless of their health but they don't have a mandate that everybody buys in. So there's not enough young people to carry the costs of those who need care. But the system is so broken up there, about 40 percent of the families affected by these rate increases have a $30,000 deductible. 
The folks at ABC and CBS News are certainly not humming Helen Reddy's "I Am Woman" this morning given the plummeting ratings of their respective evening anchors Diane Sawyer and Katie Couric.
NBC on Monday night squeezed in a few seconds for the arrest of “a Philadelphia man for threatening the life of the number two Republican in the House of Representatives, Eric Cantor of Virginia.” 
Though Cantor’s district is beyond metro DC, ABC’s Washington, DC affiliate, 
The FBI said today they've arrested a Philadelphia man for threatening the life of the number two Republican in the House of Representatives, Eric Cantor of Virginia. 38-year-old Norman Leboone made a profanity-laced video that called Cantor evil and then some. He's being held without bail pending a psychiatric evaluation. The arrest is not related to a bullet hole found in Cantor's district office which police now say was caused instead by random gun fire.
Getting carried away with her enthusiasm, Diane Sawyer opened ABC's World News on Tuesday night by proclaiming: “As of today, it is the law of the land that every man, woman and child in America will have health care coverage.” CBS's Harry Smith, however, filling in for Katie Couric, led by reporting the bill President Obama signed “will ensure that 94 percent of Americans have health insurance, the closest the nation has ever come to universal coverage.”
Late in the newscast, as noted above, he took a few seconds to show Obama's signature: 
ABC anchor Diane Sawyer shared the glow of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's health policy victory, showing her, in an “ABC News exclusive” interview, a Washington Post with the headline of “Democrats Claim Health Votes” as she wondered: “What do you think your dad and your mom would have said about this moment?” Sawyer followed up: “Did your dad have a phrase, a sentence that meant the most to you when he'd say it to you, or your mom?” Pelosi's answer, “make sure you have the votes,” cracked up Sawyer, who chuckled: “No so sentimental.”
Last year, upon passage of a “stimulus” bill, CBS's Katie Couric giggled along with Pelosi, acting like a teenage girl gossiping about a friend's boyfriend in wondering about President Obama: “Can you tell us anything he said to you, like 'get cracking'?” 
All agree she gets credit for locking up this vote, one of the biggest since Medicare in the 1960s. And she's said to have done it with an epic blend of persuasion, muscle and will even when half the town said it couldn't be done.
- But they didn't think Medicare would balloon out of control and it did.
- Did your dad have a phrase, a sentence that meant the most to you when he'd say it to you, or your mom? [Pelosi: “Well, the only thing that comes to my mind right now is 'make sure you have the votes.'”]
As if anti-ObamaCare protesters are unruly street gangs, ABC’s Diane Sawyer, anchoring Sunday’s World News on what she touted as “a night for the history books” and a “seismic night,” impugned the opponents as a bunch of out of control marauders, citing “protesters roaming Washington, some of them increasingly emotional, yelling slurs and epithets.” 
DAVID KERLEY: A remarkable scene, a remarkable statement. The Speaker and Democratic leader walking hand in hand to go vote today, with Representative John Lewis, who yesterday was reminded of old battles from his civil rights days.
KERLEY: John Lewis was among those in church this morning, with thoughts of 1965, when he was beaten by police as he led protesters across the Selma, Alabama, bridge. And thoughts of yesterday, walking the steps on Capitol Hill.
members debating the health care reform bill, and all those protesters have been moved. They swarmed these steps last night, but they've all been moved south of the House, where the House members may still be able to hear them. Nobody was arrested yesterday with all those incidents, Diane, but today, two of the health care reform protesters were arrested.
TIM JOHNSON: Well, as a physician, it has to be the fact that some 30 million Americans will now get insurance who don't have it. That's a key item medically because people with insurance tend to go in earlier for preventive care, they tend to go in earlier when they have symptoms, when diseases can be treated more cheaply and more effectively. We take care of these people without insurance now, but we do it at a later stage when it tends to cost more. So many experts think that this will also make a big difference financially in helping down the line to control costs. People will go in, have things taken care of in a preventive fashion, or earlier. 
CBS and NBC, which have delivered very friendly interviews with President Barack Obama (link below the jump to examples), on Wednesday night characterized Bret Baier's sit-down with Obama for the Fox News Channel as “contentious,” while ABC decided to devote nearly two minutes of World News (1:50) to Obama's college basketball tournament choices. 
On ABC last Wednesday, both World News and Nightline featured a report filed by correspondent Dan Harris in which he linked the activities of some American evangelical Christian pastors with anti-gay hatred and attempts by Uganda’s parliament at passing death penalty legislation to punish homosexuals in the African nation. Each of the reports focused on the extreme views of American pastor Scott Lively and Ugandan pastor Martin Ssempa, without including the views of more mainstream American evangelical leaders.
MARTIN BASHIR: A group of American evangelicals traveled to a far away land – a place where homosexuality is already a crime – to speak out against it. Since that seminar, anti-gay fervor has continued to ferment. Now, if a controversial bill passes, your homosexuality may cost you your life, as Dan Harris reports for our series "Faith Matters."
HARRIS: This bill says if you get married while gay or lesbian to another gay or lesbian, you're going to prison for the rest of your life. Do you agree with that?
HARRIS: We found one of the bill's main backers, the American-educated Pastor Martin Ssempa, whipping up support by showing gay pornography. Does all this fit in your mind with the spirit of Christianity, which is to help the oppressed?
On the Wednesday, March 3, World News on ABC, inspired by current efforts to adopt orphans in Haiti, correspondent Ron Claiborne filed a report promoting the view that black children may be harmed psychologically from being adopted and raised by white parents. Claiborne focused on the case of black filmmaker Phil Bertelsen who complains that "he and other black adoptees tell a similar tale, of feeling estranged, cut off from their own racial identity and culture."
Walters defended the willingness of couples to reach out to children of different races: "I have to disagree with you. Yes, it is a true story, but I would hope that we would get to the day where the fact that a black family could adopt a white – or that a white family could adopt a homeless black child and it would not be applauded by all the races, I think to say, ‘Oh, it's one more white people helping.’ It was a wonderful story, and it was a story of closeness between two races."
VANESSA WILLIAMS: And I have to be honest, the one thing about it – I’m sure I have a, I know it’s based on a true story, she won an Academy Award, I’m sure she did a brilliant performance – but it brings up a theme for black folks that, okay, here’s another white family that has saved the day in terms of another black story that has to have a white person come in and lift them up.
BEHAR: Lee Daniels, the director, said that it was produced, I believe, in London, with a white cast, so, obviously, but the issue with Blind Sided (The Blind Side) is that it gives the false impression that the problem of poverty and homelessness can be solved by the largesse of some liberal good family which basically does not, does not attack-
ABC and CBS on Tuesday night picked up on the cause of a small anti-health insurance industry protest in DC organized by left-wing labor groups, but instead of denigrating them as the networks with did with much larger Tea Party and anti-ObamaCare rallies, the two newscasts empathized with their cause, each relaying an anecdote about a victim of the current system. Both ABC’s Jonathan Karl and CBS’s Nancy Cordes did, however, proceed to point out the small profit margin for health insurance companies.
JONATHAN KARL: It's now an all out assault on the insurance companies. The first salvo was fired by the President.
KARL: The attacks are pretty harsh. They're accusing the insurance company CEOs of bribery, money laundering and manslaughter. Among the marchers, Leslie Boyd, whose son Michael died of colon cancer after he couldn't get insurance or afford a colonoscopy.
KATIE COURIC: Now to the battle over health care reform and the push for a House vote by the end of next week. Emotions are running high on both sides of the debate, and, in Washington today, angry protesters targeted the insurance industry. Here's Nancy Cordes.
“During the presidential campaign, candidate Barack Obama often used the phrase ‘fired up’ to do just that to the crowd. Democrats have been openly wondering when he was going to bring that campaign energy and fire to an issue like health care reform,” Brian Williams announced at the top of Monday’s NBC Nightly News,” and “today the President chose an event at a quiet Philadelphia suburb to get loud. He made his case and he rallied the troops and now readies to head into battle yet again on this topic.” 
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: Good evening, Brian. As you mentioned, the President has been criticized for not taking enough ownership of this issue, for not finding a sales pitch that really resonates. Well today he made an impassioned plea for health care reform. The question is, is it too late to make a difference.
JON KARL: Absolutely, Diane. This is going to be the central focus of the President's closing arguments on health care. He hopes to tie into some of that Tea Party anger by focusing on a group that the White House believes is even more unpopular than Congress. And you’re going to see a grassroots version of this as well. Look for posters tomorrow at a protest in Washington that will highlight the CEOs of the health care companies making the argument that they are the ones to blame. This will be a coalition of liberal interest groups... 
ABC's World News on Friday night finally caught up with burgeoning Democratic scandals, though hardly showing the same zeal as when the networks incessantly focused on Republican Congressman Mark Foley back in 2006. On Thursday, the MRC's Scott Whitlock 
ABC squeezed in a short item Wednesday night on a House resolution to put Ronald Reagan on the $50 bill, a report most notable for the enticing mock-up ABC’s graphics artists created. Anchor Diane Sawyer announced on the March 3 World News:
The deficit for last year was 1.4 trillion dollars. The deficit rose as a share of the gross domestic product from 3.1 percent in 2008 to 9.9 percent in 2009, the highest deficit as a share of GDP since 1945. The projected deficit for the fiscal year that ends in September is another $1.3 trillion. 
For the second straight night, ABC's World News scolded Senator Jim Bunning for daring to block a $10 billion spending bill until it is offset by cuts elsewhere, parading out victims as Diane Sawyer and Jonathan Karl painted him as a nuisance “even fellow Republicans” – that would be a liberal one – oppose. (After the EST broadcast, news broke that Bunning has agreed to some sort of deal.)
JOUNG MOON: I don't know what the next step is. So-
KARL, CHASING AFTER BUNNING: How long will this last? When will people expect to see their benefits? How long are you willing to keep this going on? 
KARL: And when will those people begin to see help?
A retiring Senator not facing re-election stood up last week for principle, insisting new federal spending be covered by a matching reduction elsewhere, but instead of hailing Senator Jim Bunning as a “maverick” making sure the ruling party adheres to its promise new spending will be “paid for,” television network journalists on Monday night painted him as an ogre, focusing on the presumed victims of delayed spending. 
BRENDA WOOD: I've done a lot without and drained my savings, so pretty much my daughter's been helping out, so -- I don't know what I'll do.
KARL: Are you concerned about those that are going to lose their benefits?
CORDES: Republican Jim Bunning of Kentucky stunned both parties by single-handedly blocking a routine piece of legislation meant to extend certain benefits and subsidies. Because the bill didn't pass by today, 2,000 federal transportation workers had to be furloughed without pay, 400,000 Americans risk losing their unemployment benefits over the next seven to ten days and Medicare fees for doctors were suddenly slashed by 21 percent. Bunning held up the bill because Democrats hadn't come up with a way to pay the $10 billion price tag.
“The President often seemed exasperated with Republican arguments,” CBS's Chip Reid empathetically conveyed in reporting on Thursday's health care policy summit before he declared that President Obama had achieved what he needed to accomplish: 
World News anchor Diane Sawyer touted her objectivity in an interview for the February 28 
A night after ABC anchor Diane Sawyer 
KARL: Actually, the company’s profits were $4.7 billion, in part because it sold a subsidiary. In each of the last five years, WellPoint's profits have exceeded $2 billion. The company says its profit margin, about 5 percent, is reasonable.
SCHAKOWSKY: These retreats hold more sway with your company than the health and wellbeing of your subscribers.
KATIE COURIC: And looking ahead to tomorrow, that much-anticipated summit at the White House. The President is gathering House and Senate leaders -- Democrats and Republicans -- to try to save health care reform. Nancy Cordes is our congressional correspondent and, Nancy, shades of the Paris peace talks that Republicans have been arguing about the shape of the table and the seating arrangement. What's that all about?
COURIC: So now that's settled. What about the really big issues? Does the President have any chance of reaching some kind of compromise with Republicans on health care reform?
Advancing the Obama administration’s efforts to impugn private insurance companies, ABC anchor Diane Sawyer set up a Tuesday night story on who will “keep insurance companies from jacking up premiums while making huge profits?” Reporter Jonathan Karl explained “the idea from the White House is to keep premiums down by simply limiting how much insurance companies can raise them,” before he relayed the White House spin: “The Obama administration is putting the heat on insurance companies, accusing them of placing profits ahead of health care.”
DIANE SAWYER: And from health, we turn to health care reform. That California company that wants to raise premiums 39 percent is the target of a legislative hearing today, as more than 100 protesters demonstrate outside. And since the President's big health care summit is this Thursday, we asked Jon Karl to answer the question: Will Republicans or will Democrats keep insurance companies from jacking up premiums while making huge profits? Jon?
KARL: Under the President's plan, insurance companies would have to justify any future rate increases to a seven-member panel – a panel made up of experts on health care economics, consumer representatives, a doctor and somebody from the insurance industry. If the panel finds a rate hike excessive, the Health and Human Services Secretary would have the power to block it. Will it work? Well, insurance commissioners in 27 states currently have the power to regulate premium hikes, and have shown some success in keeping increases in check. Connecticut, for example, rejected Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield's effort to raise premiums by 24 percent. Instead, they went up 16.5 percent. In Maine, Anthem wanted a hike of 18.5 percent, but had to settle for 11 percent. Lower increases, but still much higher than inflation. And the top five insurance companies took in $12 billion in profit last year. 
On Monday’s World News on ABC, correspondent Steve Osunsami filed a report that gave rare attention to the high abortion rate among the black population, as he focused billboards in Atlanta put up by black members of the pro-life movement as they try to draw attention to the issue, although he began the report on a negative note by referring to the pro-life bill boards as "causing trouble," and called those who created the signs "anti-abortionists,"instead of using the term "pro-life." Osunsami: "In the heart of black neighborhoods across Atlanta, these are the billboards causing the trouble. The message is simple – that black children are an endangered species because of too many abortions in the black community. The anti-abortionists behind the billboards are black themselves."
OSUNSAMI: But the other side worries that abortion is killing the black community.
On the Monday, February 22, World News on ABC, host Diane Sawyer seemed to rejoice in the "bipartisanship" of newly elected Republican Senator Scott Brown’s willingness to vote with Democrats on a "job creation bill," as she passed on the "fresh sign" of bipartisanship, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s expression of hope that it is the "beginning of a new day" in the Senate. After correspondent Jake Tapper concluded a report on the ongoing debate over health care reform by noting the unlikelihood that President Obama and Republicans will reach an agreement, Sawyer read the short item on Senator Brown's vote. Sawyer:
President Obama’s health plan announced Monday is little more than the Senate bill with a new tax and federal price control regime, but ABC’s Diane Sawyer touted how “Obama today officially put forward his plan” and CBS’s Katie Couric hailed “a plan of his own,” though she pointed out “it includes no public option.” (In contrast, NBC’s Savannah Guthrie observed: “This new plan of the President's looks a lot like the old plan, just repackaged.”) 
DIANE SAWYER: Now what could be the showdown in health care reform. The televised meeting of Republicans and Democrats is on Thursday and President Obama today officially put forward his plan. It would give the government new power to control big hikes in insurance premiums, it would give a maximum of nearly $8,500 to a family of four to help them buy insurance and it would prevent insurers from denying coverage to anyone who's already sick or at risk of illness. 
CHIP REID: It will not, Katie. Now, the White House claims they're going to pay for that $200 billion mostly with increases in taxes on the wealthy. But it will be a tough sell, and that's not the only bit hurdle in the President's new plan. He's also proposing a brand new federal board called the Health Insurance Rate Authority, and he wants to give the federal government the power to block insurance companies from unreasonable rate increases. Now, there is some politics afoot here. The President would love to go to that big health care summit on Thursday and say, "Republicans, you object to this new federal board? Well, you're defending the insurance companies, I'm protecting the average American."
ILENE LISAK: You have a right to make money but not at the expense of abusing other people.
TATIANA KOROLSHTEYN, ANTHEM BLUE CROSS CUSTOMER: Do I go without insurance? Does my daughter go without insurance? What are we supposed to do?
Reporting Congressman Patrick Kennedy's decision to not run for re-election this fall for his House seat representing Rhode Island, CBS and ABC on Friday night bemoaned the impending lack of a Kennedy in the House or Senate – presuming no other Kennedy runs and wins this November – as the “end of an era.” CBS even created a chart to display the timeline for Kennedys in office, as fill-in CBS Evening News anchor Maggie Rodriguez announced:
As we said, for the first time in 64 years, it looks as if there will not be a Kennedy serving in the U.S. Congress. Today, Patrick Kennedy announced he will not seek re-election to the U.S. Congress. It was 1946 when his uncle John Fitzgerald Kennedy was elected to the House. Then, his uncle, Senator Robert Kennedy, and then his father, Ted. There has always been a Kennedy in Washington. 
From Monday's broadcast network evening newscasts: CBS and NBC found hypocrisy in Sarah Palin scolding President Obama's incessant use of a Teleprompter while she had “crib notes” written on her hand during her Saturday Tea Party convention appearance, CBS followed by giving Obama two-straight minutes to explain why the public will come around to “connect” with him again and, meanwhile, ABC devoted a full story to “whether Republicans want action or are just the 'Party of No'?” 
Now we turn to politics and President Obama on the offensive. He has challenged Republicans to a kind of political truth or dare, a meeting February 25th broadcast on TV to discuss health care reform so the country can decide whether Republicans want action or are just the “Party of No”?
CORDES: She may have been relying on some crib notes of her own. Cameras captured the words “energy,” “tax cuts” and “lift American spirits” scribbled on her hand, which she appeared to refer to in the q & a directly following her speech.
Los Angeles Times TV critic 
ABC, CBS and NBC all aired full stories Tuesday night on Admiral Mike Mullen’s testimony against “don’t ask/don’t tell” before the Senate Armed Services Committee, but only ABC led with the comments from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) as anchor Diane Sawyer called it “a dramatic day on Capitol Hill” and reporter Martha Raddatz trumpeted: “This will be dramatically-debated for days to come, but what we heard today from the military on Capitol Hill was truly historic.” 
Both ABC’s Diane Sawyer and CBS’s Katie Couric interviewed White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel as part of their networks’ run-up to tonight’s State of the Union address, but the contrast was stark. While Sawyer attempted to feel Emanuel’s pain over the setbacks for health care legislation (“Two times you have rolled the health care rock up the hill....and two times you have seen it crash back down”), a much feistier Couric interrogated Emanuel over the White House’s political failings.
Back on ABC, Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos laughed about how at a lunch with the press today, Obama seemed tickled by a New Yorker cartoon that showed him walking on water, walking on water, walking on water, and then slipping and getting one of his feet wet. “He said he wants to get a giant one of these and put it in his office,” a laughing Sawyer giddily relayed.
# Earlier today at the White House I got a preview of the President's address from his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. I began by asking him what mistakes the President will acknowledge tonight.
Diane Sawyer's interview with President Barack Obama wasn't nearly as sycophantic as the one conducted 
> Republicans are already out today saying what you're talking about so far for Wednesday night is not going to create any new jobs.
> Colts/Saints?
The unencumbered ability to sway voters is great for the news media, but journalists are outraged others could re-acquire the same First Amendment rights. Instead of painting a victory for free speech in the Supreme Court's ruling that corporations, non-profit groups and unions can spend money to influence elections, the Thursday broadcast network evening newscasts feared a ruinous future:
ABC on Monday night again empathized with the Obama White House’s disbelief that they could lose “Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat” -- and thus ObamaCare -- if Republican Scott Brown beats Democrat Martha Coakley in Tuesday’s special election in Massachusetts. George Stephanopoulos saw a “Shakespearean” tragedy just over a week after PBS’s Judy Woodruff, on ABC’s This Week, described such a scenario as “a tragedy of Greek proportions.” 
It goes without saying that what America's struggling banking industry doesn't need is for all of its depositers to withdraw their funds.
On Thursday’s World News, ABC correspondent Kate Snow filed a report that avoided portraying Tea Party activists as extremists, instead conveying the movement’s growing appeal and the fact that even some former Barack Obama supporters have signed on. Snow: "The majority of supporters are long-time Republicans like Danita, but there are growing numbers of independents, and even some former Obama supporters."
DIANE SAWYER: George, I have to say, 'the buck stops here.' It's an echo of another young President in another time.
SAWYER: We've all been unnerved about talk about climate change. Is this one of those strange events that signals to you, even you, this is something brand new?
ABC's George Stephanopoulos may have gotten a warm reception from his new co-hosts on "Good Morning America," but fans of the show appear very displeased.
The official announcement will apparently come tomorrow morning (NewsBusters’ Scott Whitlock reported on the early leaks 
Earlier this year, Stephanopoulos and Sawyer admired a White House-released photograph of President Obama handing out cookies at a Super Bowl party: “These [pictures] are just remarkable, Diane. We’ve never really seen anything like this before in real time,” Stephanopoulos gushed. (ABC’s World News, February 16, 2009.)
DIANE SAWYER: And we wanted you to know that all of us at the desk have a kind of team announcement this morning. Because, we wanted you to know that this is going to be my last week after ten years here at Good Morning America, side by side.
CHRIS CUOMO: [The Beatles "In My Life" is playing in the background. Shots of Sawyer in action can be seen onscreen.] The many faces and hairdos of Diane Sawyer. It is not easy, but it is necessary. This week, around the water cooler, we are starting the march to no more Diane. We heard the news. Now, the moments that each of us remember. I get to go first. An exclusive privilege in and of itself. For me, I want to focus on the real and the journalism. It is amazing, I think, to all of us what we've been able to see you do for people on this show, here at home, but maybe more impressively, abroad. World leaders, Diane Sawyer, getting to sit down and talk to them about very impressive things. This one really knocked my socks off. You're not supposed to go to North Korea. That’s what they tell us. And I think Diane has been there ten times. Who knows how many times the right way? Anyway, let's listen to this. A pivotal time.
On the subject of reducing the number of troops, she wondered, "The President talks about withdrawals, beginning, just beginning, in July 2011. But if the Afghan troops are not ready to take over, will he start withdrawing anyway?" 
Good Morning America on Monday began a week of coverage on Sarah Palin’s new book by repeatedly fact checking claims from the Republican and highlighting a attack by the liberals’ favorite "conservative," New York Times columnist David Brooks. Reporter Kate Snow asserted that "even conservatives are on the attack" against Palin. 
ABC’s Good Morning America finally picked up on the deep bow President Obama performed for the Emperor of Japan over the weekend. Co-host Diane Sawyer ran through how other U.S. Presidents have greeted either Emperor Akhito or his father, the late Emperor Hirohito over the years — some bowing, some not. Sawyer claimed that Americans are “not trained to greet royalty” and “it’s just too confusing.”
DIANE SAWYER: And before we leave the topic of the president's trip overseas I've often thought the hardest subject for every President, what do you do with royalty? We're not trained to greet royalty since 1776. [Onscreen photo of Obama bowing.] The President, as we saw with the emperor, went the full way, lots of comment about that. But we look back over the years and you have, of course, George Bush, former president George Bush Sr. there, head nod. There was Ronald Reagan, hand shake. [Pictures appear onscreen.]
SAWYER: Richard Nixon went from the waist [Nixon appears to be leaning in.] and Bill Clinton, what was that? [Picture of Clinton clasping his hands, could be clapping.] Kind of yoga thing there. Anyway who can blame them for not knowing what to do? Allegedly, Teddy Roosevelt said once “If I see another king I'm going to bite him.” It's just too confusing when you're American.
Horror spread quickly across America as the story unfolded: an Army psychiatrist went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood in Texas, killing 13 and wounding 30. But as more information emerged, clearly pointing to an act of terrorism, many in the "news" media simply chose not to report news.
Maine's successful referendum to repeal a newly-imposed "same-sex marriage" law would have been a huge national story if the gay left had won. But since they narrowly lost, the broadcast network morning shows on Wednesday barely acknowledged it. In fact, NBC avoided the news for its entire four hours of Today. The Early Show on CBS offered 20 words from Jeff Glor early in the show: "In Maine, a loss for supporters of gay marriage yesterday. Voters voted down a law that had legalized same-sex marriage."
SAWYER: [Video of the Obama family playing a game.] Take a look. This is inside the kitchen in the Chicago house of the Obamas. And there, Sasha, Michelle and Malia are there behind the scenes. And- suddenly- playing dominos when, when a phone rings. Who is it? Stay tuned, because it’s a new, unprecedented documentary. Filmmakers behind the scenes. An exclusive first look coming up. 
