The Sanchez Report

The Media's Silence In Pittsburgh Is Deafening

From Accuracy In Media:

For months, the liberal media have been warning America that "right-wing extremists" and "tea partiers" are whipping the country into an anti-government frenzy that inevitably will result in violence, but their at best irrational and at worst manufactured fears have not been warranted.

Hundreds of thousands of government critics marched on Washington on Sept. 12 and caused not one bit of trouble. Rest assured that any incidents would have been plastered all over the media if they had occurred.

Contrast that with what happened Thursday at the G20 meeting of economic leaders in Pittsburgh. Police had to fire pepper spray and smoke at left-wing anarchists who haven't a clue how to conduct a peaceful protest, but the trouble has barely made the news. The Huffington Post celebrated the protests with a vote-on-your-favorite photo contest that included shots of the street thugs.

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The Public Continues To Distrust The Media

The public has spoken and it's not looking good for the mainstream media. The public's views of media bias and independence are now at the lowest level in more than twenty years of Pew Research surveys.

From Pew Research:

The public’s assessment of the accuracy of news stories is now at its lowest level in more than two decades of Pew Research surveys, and Americans’ views of media bias and independence now match previous lows.

Just 29% of Americans say that news organizations generally get the facts straight, while 63% say that news stories are often inaccurate. In the initial survey in this series about the news media’s performance in 1985, 55% said news stories were accurate while 34% said they were inaccurate. That percentage had fallen sharply by the late 1990s and has remained low over the last decade.

Newsweek's Evan Thomas: "Obama Is Sort Of GOD"

This is just another piece of evidence that the so-called "mainstream media" is out of control. When is the media going to put aside their love affair with President Obama and start providing some checks in the system? The American people need their leaders to be held accountable by the media and so far we've had nothing but a slobbering love affair reminiscent of childhood crushes. From Big Hollywood:

How Would The Media Cover Obama If He Were A Republican?

This is a must read that will provide great entertainment. The writer, John Simpson, of Breitbart's Big Hollywood, decided to have some fun and report on the coverage by the mainstream media if President Obama had turned out to be a Republican. Enjoy!

How would the Left report the news if Obama were a Republican, i.e. an Uncle Tom, as many on the Left call now-GOP Chairman Michael Steele? Eureka! That’s it! See, it’s one thing for me to point out the obvious, as I did in my media slam yesterday. But what if we walked GOP President Obama’s media coverage through the mirror darkly, as was SOP for President Bush?

NOW we’re gonna have some fun!

Let’s start with MSNBC’s ‘Countdown’ with Keith Olbermann, on Republican President Obama’s electoral landslide victory in November, and his 96% sweeping of the black vote.

KO: “It would seem the sinister and morally bankrupt Republican ploy of taking the White House with a totally inexperienced and faux minority candidate has been the most resounding political success for the GOP since the Reichstag Fire.Could African-Americans not act more self-destructively than in their rush to the polls to elect this Republican wolf in Martin Luther King clothing?

“Do they want to go back to slavery? For this abomination and slap in the face of freedom-loving Americans everywhere, and which has condemned this nation to yet another four endless years of war and jingoistic right wing fascism, I hereby declare every African-American voter who pulled the lever for this Republican Omar Bashir as the Worst Person in the World.”

Next up? Susan Roesgen of CNN, wandering through the crowd at a Democratic Chicago Tea Party.

 

No Surprise... Obama Has Received More Airtime Than Bush And Clinton Combined

Everywhere you look it seems as though President Obama is the topic of conversation. That's because he's received more airtime on the news channels than President Bush and President Clinton combined. The nonpartisan research group The Center for Media and Public Affairs released a study that found the news networks gave President Obama more airtime and more favorable coverage  compared to his predecessors. Over 58% of all new mentions were favorable on the major networks compared to 33% for Bush and 44% for Clinton during the first 50 days of their presidencies.

Not only has Obama gotten more coverage, but that coverage has been more positive than his predecessors.On the ABC, CBS, and NBC evening newscasts, 58% of all evaluations of the president and his policies have been favorable, while 42% were unfavorable. That compares with 33% positive in the comparable period of Bush's tenure and 44% positive for Pres. Clinton.

Who gave Pres. Obama the most airtime? And where does Fox fit in? CBS led the coverage with 365 stories and 10 hours 46 minutes of airtime, followed by NBC with 327 stories and 9 hours 38 minutes, and ABC with 329 stories and 7 hours 20 minutes.

The first half hour of Fox News' "Special Report with Bret Baier," which the study says most closely resembles the network evening newscasts, devoted 10 hours 24 minutes to the Obama administration, nearly as much airtime as CBS gave him.

But Fox News stands apart from its competitors here - only 13% of comments* were considered favorable. On ABC, 57% of the comments were favorable, compared to 58% for CBS and 61% for NBC.

GE Shareholders Challenge Immelt Over MSNBC Leftward Tilt

I've been following shareholder meetings for many years and I must say this is a first. The annual shareholders meeting at General Electric took place today and CEO Jeff Immelt was grilled over his performance at the helm and his decision to cut the dividend by 67% this year.  This is the first dividend cut since 1938. However, the real drama began when several shareholders complained about MSNBC and the leftward tilt that the network has taken in the past couple of years.  From THR.com:

First up was a woman asking about a reported meeting in which Immelt and NBC Uni CEO Jeff Zucker supposedly told top CNBC executives and talent to be less critical of President Obama and his policies.
Immelt acknowledged a meeting took place but said no one at CNBC was told what to say or not to say about politics.
During the woman's follow-up question, her microphone was apparently cut off. A short time later, Waters asked a question and his mic was cut, too.
"The crowd was very upset with MSNBC because of its leftward tilt," one attendee said. "Some former employees said they were embarrassed by it."
When he got the floor, Waters focused his question about MSNBC on Olbermann's interview of actress Janeane Garofalo, who likened conservatives to racists and spoke of "the limbic brain inside a right-winger."
"He (Waters) was complaining that Olbermann didn't bother to challenge her," another GE shareholder said.
Immelt told the assembled he takes a hands-off approach to what is reported on the company's news networks, which prompted a shareholder to criticize him for not managing NBC Uni more effectively.
"My biggest surprise was the open hostility to MSNBC," said Tom Borelli of the Free Enterprise Action Fund and a four-year critic of Immelt. "It was noticeable and loud. I don't remember any of this going on last year."
"Any time MSNBC was mentioned, there was a rumbling in the crowd of 400 people," he added. Borelli also asked a question pertaining to GE's stock performance since Immelt took the helm.

Strong Defense of Miss California From CNN

It took Roland Martin of CNN to step up and provide the strongest defense of Carrie Prejean, Miss California. I must say that I'm surprised given Roland's left leaning viewpoints. He wrote an impressive commentary on CNNPolitics.com in defense of Miss California for expressing her personal view of gay marriage. For those of you who have been hiding under a rock for the last several days, the Miss USA beauty pageant took place recently and Miss California was one of two finalists. One of the judges, Perez Hilton, asked her a question about her view on gay marriage. She could have easily given a politically correct answer and probably would have won the competition, but instead she gave an honest answer that happens to represent the majority of Californians and the positions of Obama, Biden and the Clintons. For this she has been castigated by Hollywood and members of the mainstream media. Kudos to Roland Martin for stepping up and speaking the truth!

Frankly, this whole story is pretty stupid. Isn't the whole point of asking a question to get someone's true feelings, rather than the plastic and superficial answers we are all used to receiving?

Sure, Prejean could have gone the safe route and given one of those answers that reveal nothing and is hard to decipher -- you know, the ones politicians give all the time -- but no! She actually gave her real opinion, and is now being torn to shreds for it.

She opposes same-sex marriage. OK, fine. So what if she had said, "Hey, I'm in full support of same-sex marriage." Would she now be celebrated on gay-focused blogs, magazines and Web sites? Would her detractors actually be saying how open she is and that she's a great person?

Same-sex marriage is undoubtedly a hot button issue. And being from California, the site of Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that voters approved outlawing same-sex marriage, Prejean has surely had to hear the debate go back and forth. But her remark isn't outside the mainstream. A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll shows that 55 percent of Americans are against same-sex marriage, and Proposition 8 did pass in her state 52-48 percent.

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