ABCCCP Not Interested in Whether Enhanced Interrogation Helped Kill bin Laden

Tracking Liberal Media Bias Since 1996
Wednesday May 04, 2011 @ 09:24 AM EDT

1. ABCCCP Not Interested in Whether Enhanced Interrogation Helped Kill bin Laden

In the wake of the killing of Osama bin Laden, ABC has shown very little interest in whether enhanced interrogation, such as waterboarding, led to the terrorist's ultimate demise. NBC, however, dealt with the subject in an in-depth manner and CBS at least mentioned it. While interviewing former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Good Morning America's George Stephanopoulos on Tuesday never broached waterboarding. In contrast, Matt Lauer on NBC's Today talked to Rice and wondered, "These enhanced interrogation techniques. Some former administration officials are now connecting the dots between those techniques and the information that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden. Do you feel the dots can be connected?"

2. While Hyping Barack Obama's Killing of bin Laden, Chris Matthews Lashes Out at 'Sadist' Dick Cheney

On Tuesday's Hardball, while praising President Obama's handling of the killing of Osama bin Laden, MSNBCCCP's Chris Matthews excoriated Dick Cheney as a "sadist." Former Newsweek editor Howard Fineman contrasted the Bush/Cheney Administration's dropping of bombs in Iraq with Obama's actions. Matthews responded by mocking, "There's a difference between being cold blooded - I think presidents have to be cold blooded - and being a sadist."

3. Far Left Not Cheering Death of bin Laden: 'This Was One Killer Killing Another'

The death of arch-villain Osama bin Laden was not celebrated as good news everywhere. On the far-left Pacifica Radio (which takes in about $1.5 million per year in federal tax money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting), one so-called journalist appearing on the Democracy Now program fretted over how celebrations of bin Laden’s demise were "disgusting" and "idiotic," while a second guest sneered that this was "not justice" but a case of "one killer [the United States] killing another."

4. NPR Boosts Obama: Bin Laden Death Political 'Game Changer'

On Monday and Tuesday, NPR played up how Osama Bin Laden's death might translate into a political win for President Obama. Mara Liasson trumpeted the "huge victory" for the President and spotlighted a scholar who gushed how Obama now looked "strong and competent and decisive." Cokie Roberts boasted how the military operation was a "score" for the Democrat and that it was a "game changer politically." At the beginning of her report which lead Tuesday's Morning Edition, Liasson gushed that "every president benefits from moments of national unity, but none so much as Barack Obama, who ran for office promising to bridge partisan divides." Later, the journalist noted that, with the raid against Bin Laden, "he [Obama] made good on his repeated promise to act unilaterally if he had actionable intelligence."

5. NBCCCP's Richard Engel Rants: Iraq War a 'Distraction' from Getting Bin Laden

On NBCCCP's Nightly News on Monday, chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel used a report on the history of the war on terror to attack the Bush administration for going to war in Iraq: "...when civil war in Iraq broke out, American troops were stuck....it was a distraction from the United States' original mission to find Bin Laden, stop Al Qaeda, and prevent another 9/11." Engel further asserted: "Deployment after deployment, trying to stop the daily carnage. The cost was enormous. More than 4,400 American troops dead. Along with 150,000 Iraqis....With American troops tied down in Baghdad, Al Qaeda and the Taliban slipped back into Afghanistan..."

6. MSNBCCCP: Indiana Cutting Planned Parenthood Funding = 'Politics' Interfering in 'Women's Health'

During the 11AM ET hour on MSNBC on Tuesday, anchor Thomas Roberts decried Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels voicing support for legislation to de-fund the state chapter of Planned Parenthood as "a move that has many questioning if politics is playing too much of a role in women's health." Turning to Planned Parenthood of Indiana President Betty Cockrum, Roberts declared: "...here's the national reality for everyone out there that may not understand what it is that Planned Parenthood does, and this was checked by Politifact, only 3% of services at national clinics are abortion-related."