What Do You Call Edward Snowden?
CBS’s Scott Pelley suggests that Edward Snowden admitted to being a “spy” for Russia. But he’s not the only one using odd language to describe the NSA whistleblower.
CBS Gives Iran Nuclear Fearmongering a Voice
CBS Face the Nation gave Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu yet another chance to make dubious claims about the threats posed by Iran’s supposed weapons.
Schieffer Hopes the Government Will Explain Its Secret Spying Program to Him
So a serious TV journalist might want to grill Michael Hayden on his role in the warrantless wiretapping scandal. But he was on Face the Nation, and Bob Schieffer wasn’t conducting that kind of interview.
FAIR TV: Obama’s Terror ‘Pivot,’ Monsanto March, Schieffer’s Lament
This week on FAIR TV: Obama’s big speech on U.S. anti-terrorism policies was treated as a big shift, a pivot away from war. Was it? Activists around the world rallied against Monsanto–which wasn’t considered big news here. And Bob Schieffer complains that the White House makes it hard to get good guests for his Sunday […]
Bob Schieffer Is Tired of Booking Bad Guests on His Show
Mainstream reporters are speaking openly about the chilling effect of the Obama White House’s investigations into leaks of classified material. But this willingness to talk about how the White House operates can lead some journalists to make some rather strange arguments.
Schieffer’s Nightmare World Didn’t Look So Bad at the Time
CBS‘s Bob Schieffer revealed his greatest fear on yesterday’s Face the Nation (11/4/12): Let me just say, David Gergen, I think the worst of all worlds would be if one of the candidates won the popular vote and other won the Electoral College. As the two made clear, they were talking about the possibility that […]
Worst Media Moment on Hurricane Sandy?
CNN reporter Erin Burnett‘s comment (10/29/12) that it was “kind of neat” to see New York City break its flooding record as the storm surge from Hurricane Sandy flooded Battery Park was bizarre, to say the very least: I just want to give everyone an update of where we are right now in terms of […]
Harry Reid, the New Joe McCarthy
Senator Harry Reid started a whole lot of trouble on the campaign trail when he told some Huffington Post reporters that he’d heard that Mitt Romney paid no taxes. As in zero. For an entire decade. Now there are reasons to be skeptical of Reid’s account. As Dana Milbank pointed out, Reid’s record does not […]
Our One Percent Media
From Politico (3/20/12): David Gregory, host of NBC‘s Meet the Press, and Bret Baier, host of Fox News‘s Special Report, are among the latest applicants to the Chevy Chase Club, the historic social club that has catered to Washington’s wealthiest for over a century. The Club’s recent “Membership Report” shows that both Gregory and Baier […]
CBS Celebrates 20 Years of Speaking…to Power
There’s a piece at the CBS website (9/21/11) by Robert Hendin marking Bob Schieffer‘s 20 years hosting the network’s Sunday morning show Face the Nation. Hendin, a senior producer for the show, writes: From the get go, Bob made his plans known. “Our aim is to going to be very simple here: to find interesting […]
What Union Voices Mean to the Wisconsin Debate
As we noted here, there weren’t many labor voices booked on the Sunday morning chat shows. One, actually–Richard Trumka from the AFL-CIO. ABC’s This Week featured four governors (two Democrats, two Republicans) talking about their fiscal problems. CBS‘s Face the Nation had a soft interview with New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie. Host Bob Schieffer […]
John McCain: TV Talk’s Indispensable Man
A few laughs on CBS‘s Face the Nation yesterday (1/23/11): BOB SCHIEFFER: And we begin this morning welcoming back to Face the Nation for the first time in exactly one year Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the person who, by the way, has been on this broadcast more than any other politician now in office. […]
Bob Schieffer and the Eloquence of John Boehner
On CBS‘s Face the Nation (1/9/11), host Bob Schieffer declared: Democracy’s arguments have never been pretty, but technology has changed the American dialogue because we can now know of problems instantly. We expect answers immediately and when we don’t get them, we let everyone know in no uncertain terms. We scream and shout, hurl charges […]
Bob Schieffer: Why Can’t Sports Be Like Politics?
CBS Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer (10/31/10) explained on Sunday that he hates the way college football’s Bowl Championship Series works–mostly because the computer model doesn’t give smaller schools a chance to compete for a national championship. Fair enough–criticism of the BCS system is plentiful. But Schieffer bizarrely went on to argue that our […]
Media Still Crushing on Old Flame Colin Powell
Robert Parry (Consortium News, 5/25/09) thinks that “there is no one, it seems, that the U.S. mainstream news media loves more than Colin Powell,” and as proof offers “Powell’s disingenuous response” to Bob Schieffer’s May 24 CBS Face the Nation “question about the ex-secretary of state’s knowledge regarding ‘enhanced interrogation techniques,’ which the International Committee […]
Don’t Even THINK of Lying to Bob Schieffer
CBS anchor Bob Schieffer was profiled byMarketwatch, where we learn: But don’t get the false impression that Schieffer is a pushover for his important guests. When I asked him how he feels when subjects lie to him on the air or try to mislead the audience, he got right to the point. “I want to […]
Does CBS Think the CBS Poll Doesn’t Count?
Discussing the failed auto bailout on CBS Evening News (12/12/08): KATIE COURIC: And it’s almost, meanwhile, turning to Washington, Bob, impossible to figure out just what happened to this auto bailout in the Senate. There’s all this finger pointing going on. What is your take? Can you explain it to us in simple terms? BOB […]
