Day 3: Watchdogging the Corrupt Media's Convention Coverage

Below is the Breibart News live-blog of tonight’s media coverage across all the networks and some notable print and online media.

Newer updates are on top and as you’ll read, Obama’s wan, unsinspiring, more-of-the-same address tonight disappointed even his most fervent cheerleaders — the mainstream media.

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Anderson Cooper: It certainly wasn’t a speech full of soaring rhetoric like some of his speeches four years ago,” said CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “Some have been comparing it to a State of the Union almost in terms of going down the check list.”

Rachel Maddow: MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow called it a “big, big speech,” but added, “From this president, something we are not used to hearing: an overt request for a vote.”

James Carville: This was probably not the best speech of the convention,” he said on CNN. “But what I’m struck by is the muscular tone and attitude in both the vice president and president tonight. This is not the mommy party on show here. This is the daddy party.”

12:02 — Krauthammer: ‘One Of The Emptiest Speeches I Have Ever Heard’

Brutal:

I was stunned. This is a man who gave one of the great speeches of our time in 2004, and he gave one of the emptiest speeches I have ever heard on a national stage. Yes, it had cadence, and yes, there were deceptions in it, but that is not what is so striking about it. There was nothing in it. This is a man who believes that government can and should do a lot. There is nothing in here that tells us how he’s going to go from today to tomorrow. For any of the so called goals and what government is going to do, what is he going to enact?

11:52 — National Journal: ‘Why Obama’s Great Speech Fell Short’

Ouch:

With a poet’s pacing, President Obama assured anxious Americans that “our problems can be solved” with his gauzy agenda for more jobs, lower deficits, and leadership they can trust. It was a great speech – and yet, it fell short.

Obama still has work to do with the vision thing. Convincing voters that he has a credible, practical plan to turn the nation around is a process, not a speech.

11:35 — NBC’s Brian Williams Puts Best Speech He Can On Weak, Hollow Obama Speech – Warner Todd Huston

Brian Williams says Democrats on the floor are threatening to make this an open air arena, meaning they are gonna blow the roof off the building with excitement. This is also a reference to the Bank of America Stadium, where the speech was supposed to be held. Williams, though, actually conceded there was no rain tonight but then said it was still prudent for the Obama administration to have called the audible and made no mention of the fact that the Obama campaign may not have filled the stadium.

Savannah Guthrie gushes, “We heard the 2012 version of Hope and Change,” and says the Obama campaign promised a lot of substance and does not call out Obama for the lack of substance in the speech. She seems to know there was a lack of substance by the hesitant way she delivered the lines but does not want to call Obama out on national television because they are on the same team.

Later, Andrea Mitchell hilariously conceded there were no new policies except a few things on education.

They do not call out Obama for false promises, like promising lower the unemployment rate below 8%. They do not mention this is the one-year anniversary of Solyndra’s bankruptcy and how that’s a symbol of the crony capitalism that has plagued the Hope and Change president. The mainstream media, which goes to great lengths to work in every jab they can come up with against Republicans, builds up Obama and protects him through blatant omissions.

11:25 — MSNBC Panel Tries To Cover Their Disappointment

After Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton spoke the other nights, the folks at MSNBC were exuberant. Tonight they are doing the best they can to put a brave face on their disappointment over Obama’s wan speech but you can see the heartache in their eyes.

11:17 — CBS News Is Feeling The Heartache of Disappointment Over Obama’s Speech – Warner Todd Huston

After Obama’s speech that seemed more like a common stump speech than a sparking acceptance speech, Scott Pelley favorably noted the line where Obama seemed to accept that he’s made mistakes. But Bob Schieffer was disappointed tonight. “That was an effort to say to people who say he called for hope and change and built up people’s expectations on what the could actually deliver upon,” he said of that short apology line. But he went on glumly, “But this as not the kind of speech that Bill Clinton made last night. I just didn’t have that spark.”

11:11 — Blitzer Immediately Hammers Romney For Not Mentioning Troops, Said Obama Did ‘Exactly’ What He Needed To Do

The bearded, left-wing talking point maching just never stops. He then said “people all around the country are obviously thriled.”

Blitzer then said something like, “Wasn;t he awesome, Anderson.”

Anderson wasn’t so sure. Nor was James Carville.

10:20 — NBC’s Brian Williams Calls for Constitutional Amendment Restricting Political Speech – Tony Lee

Brian Williams led a discussion about how worrisome all the money in politics on the GOP side is and how it threatens Obama’s (read: their) reelection chances. Lost on them is how huge of an advantage Democrats have because of so-called “neutral” anchors like Williams and networks like NBC blatantly shill for Obama and Democrats through promotion and omission. Mainstream media networks want to restrict others from impacting politics because they will lose their dwindling monopoly — and ability to influence the outcome of elections — the more people that are not in the mainstream media club influence the political process.

10:15 — NBC Gives Obama More Broadcast Coverage Than Romney?

A tipster tells me that NBC began its broadcast coverage at 9:00, which would mean Obama’s enjoying an hour more in prime-time than Romney did.

10:14 — Gergen, Blitzer Loved Biden Speech, Rest of CNN Panel Damn With Faint Praise

After Biden’s lounge act of a speech, the CNN panel wasn’t terribly impressed, except David Gergen who has spent the last 25 years attempting to prove he’s not a “bad” Republican.

Blitzer, of course, loved the speech. He’s too dumb to not like something Obama wants him to like.

9:15 — Politico Gushes Over John Kerry – Unlike Romney Convention, Doesn’t Interrupt Speeches – Tony Lee

Oh, what could have – been for the mainstream media: Jim Vandehei says “if that guy ran for president” he could have won in 2004 against George W. Bush. The panel is gushing over Kerry’s speech, proving these mainstream media people want even the dullest and the most hackish of Democrats to succeed. Mainstream media folks have a very low bar when it comes to politicians with a “D” next to their names.

John Nolte observed CNN is covering most of the speeches in full, unlike what they did at the RNC. Many of the live-streams chatted over Republican speakers as well during the RNC. During the DNC, most of the speeches on the undercard are being streamed in full, which advantages Democrats.

8:52 — Unlike the RNC, CNN Is Simply Letting Obama’s Convention Play

Throughout the RNC convention, CNN’s talking heads constantly interrupted speeches or ignored them altogether to talk, talk, talk. Tonight, they’ve hardly spoke for an hour. There hasn’t even been that many commercials. The speeches are all being broadcast in full, which is a huge advantage CNN is giving Obama they never gave Romney.

8:10 — PBS Doesn’t Challenge Flack Who Says Obama Is a Promise Keeper — Warner Todd Huston

Madeleine Albright noted that Obama has said that he’ll pull the troops from Afghanistan by 2014. “This president keeps his word,” she said without the panel’s objections. This would be news to the left-leaning Politfact that says Obama has broken many of his promises.

7:50 — PBS Talking Head Loves The Class Warfare – Warner Todd Huston

Mark Shields revealed his desire to push class warfare ideas when he advised President Obama on the best way to make voters comfortable that giving him another four years is a good idea. Obama needs, Shields said, to reassure us all by asking, “Are the least of us going to be more secure and are the richest going to be more just?” Shields appears to imagine that all rich people are unjust, naturally.

7:30 — Biographer David Maraniss Laughs Off Clinton’s Plagiarism — Warner Todd Huston

Obama biographer David Maraniss of the Washington Post noted that Bill Clinton stole a line from him. Clinton’s “Obama is cool on the outside and on fire on the inside” line from the Wednesday night speech was his, Maraniss said. “You know where he got that line,” Maraniss said. “From me, it was in one of my columns.”

7:44 — AP Headline: Obama speech: Hope has become ‘hang in there’

Ouch:

Obama’s speech will be about promise — the kind he’ll say he has kept, and the kind of feeling he wants to stir once more. He will take people back to the start of his presidency to make a case why their lives are better, but his bigger imperative is to sell himself as better for middle-class America than Republican Mitt Romney.

Gone is the newness of the last time he stood up to accept the nomination of his party. Obama, the graying incumbent, will not try to recreate it.

Instead, he will whittle the election down to a choice, spelling out his vision of how to create economic opportunity for all, and warning that Romney would restore trickle-down ideas that Obama says were quietly gutting the economy for years before crashing it completely.

7:21 — ABC and NBC News Give False Impression It’s Raining In Charlotte – Tony Lee

ABC and NBC News mention tonight’s venue change from Bank of America Stadium to a much smaller stadium. They say it was justified due to torrential rain, so the viewer thinks it is pouring rain in Charlotte. No mention of how sunny it is in Charlotte right now. And no mention whatsoever about whether the Obama campaign was eager to move the stadium to a smaller venue because they could not fill the stadium due to a lack of enthusiasm for his reelection.

7:14 — Chuck Todd Like Kid at Christmas Anticipating Tomorrow’s Jobs Numbers

NBC’s Chief White House Correspondent, Chuck Todd — who will probably win the award this year for most credibility sold to drag President FailureTeleprompter over the finish line — has to be a lousy poker player. He’s so excited that the tea leaves indicate a lousy jobs report the media can spin into gold tomorrow that he was practically jumping out of his skin.

Todd’s goatee seemed even more excited, if that’s possible.

7:00 — CBS Builds Up Obama Speech as ‘Home Run’ — Tony Lee

CBS’s Nancy Cordes quotes James Clyburn who said he has seen “back to back home runs before” in response to the question about whether Obama could match Clinton’s speech last night. CBS essentially builds up Obama’s speech as a “home run.”

6:55 — CBS News Launches Softballs at Michelle Obama – Tony Lee

Scott Pelley asks Michelle Obama if she thinks there is a reasonable chance Obama could lose.

Michelle answers “absolutely not.” Michelle says the country is in “much better shape” than it was four years ago.

No Follow-up question. No raised eyebrows.

For a mainstream reporter to not be startled, or not ask a follow-up question after such a confident response is mind boggling in the midst of a tanking economy and four years of partisanship, crony capitalism, and false promises that has put Obama on the ropes. It is equally starling to see a mainstream media anchor to not ask the first lady how she could think the country is in “much better shape” than it was four years ago when partisanship has gotten worse and the unemployment rate and the debt have skyrocketed.

Is this because Pelley thinks the country is better off than it was four years ago and he, too, believes Obama has absolutely no chance of losing?

6:34 — I Had Forgotten Just How Stupid and Biased Wolf Blitzer Is

Let’s get things started tonight with an observation…

My normal, everyday shift is usually winding down by the time Wolf Blitzer’s stupid show airs on stupid CNN every stupid evening. So it’s been a long time since I’ve been exposed to this dullard of a left-wing talking point machine for long stretches at a time. But after six long nights of convention coverage, it’s all coming back to me.

Just the sound of Blitzer’s relentless voice grates; he’s so shameless in his pounding of our side with repetitive, non-stop, pre-determined talking points, but just as shameless in his equally relentless boosting of Obama and Democrats.

All during the Republican convention, Blitzer refuted and downplayed every single criticism of Obama. And if he couldn’t do that, he would scramble instead to find something negative to say about Romney, Ryan or whomever dared to ding his Precious.

And yet, during this Obama convention, like an old uncle without a family of his own and desperate to be loved, he’s been lavishing praise on each and every speaker with superlatives like “great” and “the best ever!”

And this is why CNN is dying; their on-air personalities are almost uniformly biased, smug, unlikable, and not very bright.

This live blog has been fun, but escaping the sound of Wolf Blitzer’s toneless let-wing litany will be sweet, sweet relief.

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