ABC's Sawyer Makes Time To Tout: 'You Heard It Here First, The President Is Going With Kansas!'

Tracking Liberal Media Bias Since 1996
Thursday March 17, 2011 @ 09:17 AM EDT

1. ABC's Sawyer Makes Time to Tout: 'You Heard It Here First, the President Is Going with Kansas!'

Diane Sawyer allocated all but 1:37 of World News to Japan on Wednesday night, committing 33 seconds of that limited time to touting President Obama’s NCAA basketball picks provided to ABC corporate cousin ESPN. “Despite all the troubles around the world” Sawyer rationalized – as if there’s much evidence Obama, who’s hardly been engaged in the Libyan or Japanese situations and who went golfing last weekend, is devoting much time to any of it – “the President kept his annual appointment to fill out his bracket for college basketball's March Madness. The basketball Fan-in-Chief got together with our sister network ESPN's Andy Katz.” Following a clip of Obama revealing a couple of his selections, Sawyer trumpeted: “You heard it here first. The President is going with Kansas!”

2. Nothing to See Here: Chuck Todd Skips Controversy in Obama Making NCAA Picks During Crises

MSNBC's Chuck Todd on Wednesday hyped the fact that Barack Obama will be making his NCAA tournament picks on ESPN. The Daily Rundown anchor enthused, "You got about 27 hours to get your brackets in. The President has already done his." Perhaps referencing the devastating earthquake in Japan or the ongoing crisis in Libya, Todd vaguely allowed, "He's a bit distracted, of course. Maybe he just doesn't just have time to do the research [for college basketball]." But, the MSNBC anchor didn't question the appropriateness of making televised basketball while Japan's nuclear reactors are still a major threat.

3. Chris Matthews Rips GOP 2012 Candidates on Leno, Then Claims: 'I Want to Be Somewhat Nonpartisan'

On Monday's Tonight Show with Jay Leno on NBC, MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews slammed the potential crop of 2012 Republican presidential contenders as "the weakest list of candidates I have ever seen." Attacking Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, Matthews declared: "Wouldn't you like your plumber to know what a pipe was?" He then admitted: "That's too mean." And announced: "I want to be somewhat nonpartisan."

4. Fighting Spending Cuts in Ohio, NYT Focuses on Union Jobs, Not $8B Deficit

Liberal sob stories and left-wing income statistics from New York Times reporter Sabrina Tavernise in defense of unionized public-sector workers in Ohio: "Now, as Ohio's legislature moves toward final approval of a bill that would chip away at public-sector unions, those workers say they see it as the opening bell in a race to the bottom. At stake, they say, is what little they have that makes them middle class....Wages at the bottom of the labor market have stagnated since 1970, with inflation gobbling up gains made over the years."

5. U.S. News: Political Donations of NPR Board, NPR Foundation Officers Dramatically Lean Left to Democrats

Danielle Kurtzleben at U.S. News & World Report crunched some numbers of federal campaign contributions and discovered that the NPR Board and the board of the NPR Foundation are -- surprise, surprise -- much more likely to donate to Democrats: "A review of campaign finance data found that NPR board members' campaign contributions have sharply favored Democrats. Since 2004, members of the boards of NPR and the NPR Foundation, the public broadcaster's fundraising arm, have contributed nearly $2.2 million to federal candidates, parties, and PACs, of which $1.95 million, or 89%, has gone to Democratic candidates and liberal-leaning political action committees."

6. NPR's Norris Wonders if U.S. Can 'Afford' a Job-Creating Tax Holiday

NPR's Michele Norris expressed the liberal skepticism of any tax incentive to spur job growth on Tuesday's All Things Considered during an interview of Intel CEO Paul Otellini. Otellini proposed a tax holiday for any company that built a new factory in the U.S. Norris replied, "Can this country afford that right now?" The host asked the CEO about job creation near the end of her interview. She began with a left-of-center premise: "What can the government do to create jobs or can the government create jobs?"

7. NPR Brushes Aside Transparency Concerns at DOJ Civil Rights Unit

On Tuesday's Morning Edition, NPR's Carrie Johnson highlighted critiques of the Obama White House from the left on their promise to be "the most transparent administration in history," but downplayed questions over the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Unit's use of non-disclosure agreements with companies under investigation. Host Renee Montagne introduced Johnson's report, noting that "in Washington, D.C., some people are calling this 'Sunshine Week.' It's a time of year when government watchdog groups evaluate the administration's commitment to openness. Two years ago, President Obama promised to run the most transparent administration in history."