MoveOn Calls Out Tom Brokaw For His False Fact Campaigning For McCain

[kpete]

September 30th, 2008
MoveOn Calls Out Tom Brokaw For His False Fact Campaigning For McCain
By: Nicole Belle @ 12:30 PM - PDT


It feels good sometimes to be a muckraker against the corporate media. The good people at MoveOn saw my post on Sunday on Tom Brokaw citing non-existent poll numbers as proof “in the interest of fairness” that more Americans thought McCain would be a better Commander in Chief and decided to ask their members to call out Brokaw for his de facto campaigning for McCain:

Sunday on Meet The Press, Tom Brokaw moderated a debate between McCain strategist Steve Schmidt and Obama strategist David Axelrod on topics ranging from Iraq to the Wall Street bailout. At the end, Tom Brokaw did something strange. He opted to give himself the last word and told the audience:

In fairness to everybody here, I’m just going to end on one note. And that is that we continue to poll on who’s best equipped to be Commander in Chief, and John McCain continues to lead in that category despite the criticism from Barack Obama by a factor of 53 to 42 percent in our latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. Gentlemen, thank you very much.

We checked, and the latest NBC poll actually has no question about Commander in Chief. We contacted NBC about this, and it turns out Brokaw was referring to a poll taken weeks ago–right after the Republican convention and well before Friday’s big national security debate. And in each of NBC’s last two polls, Americans chose Obama over McCain.
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/080924_NBC-WSJ_Released.pdf

....................

Can you email Tom Brokaw today? Let him know that this election is very close, and we need journalists to be responsible. Giving himself the last word in the debate, and citing an outdated poll number as if it was current, was a mistake. As a responsible journalist, he should apologize for both.

Here’s where to contact him:
Tom Brokaw, Meet The Press feedback form: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6872152/

Then, help us track our progress by reporting your comment here:
http://pol.moveon.org/call/?cp_id=821&tg=558
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/30/moveon-calls-out-tom-brokaw-for-his-false-fact-campaigning-for-mccain/

[rucky]

1. Any sentence that starts with "In fairness..."

will probably turn out to be unfair.

[Cha]

2. Thank you, Moveon! We all need to call

tom brokaw on his lies.

FrenchieCat (1000+ posts) Tue Sep-30-08 03:07 PM
Original message
*ACTION NEEDED! Contact NBC and Request that Tom Brokejaw Recuse himself from Next Prez Debate!
MoveOn calls for apology from Brokaw
http://pol.moveon.org/emails/brokaw_poll.html
On Sunday's Meet the Press, NBC's Tom Brokaw allowed McCain strategist Steve Schmidt to falsely claim that John McCain had called for Don Rumsfeld to be fired. That's an old lie that the McCain campaign had abandoned long ago -- but Brokaw let Schmidt get away with bringing it back.

Even worse, Brokaw ended the segment by announcing -- "in fairness to everybody here" -- that the "latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll" found that John McCain "continues" to lead Barack Obama on the question of who is "best-equipped to be commander in chief."

Yesterday, Nicole Belle at Crooks and Liars pointed out that the numbers Brokaw read did not, in fact, appear in the "latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll."

Now MoveOn says they contacted NBC -- and "it turns out Brokaw was referring to a poll taken weeks ago--right after the Republican convention and well before Friday's big national security debate. And in each of NBC's last two polls, Americans chose Obama over McCain."

MoveOn thinks Brokaw should apologize.

That's a good first step. He might also want to figure out a way to reassure the public that he'll do a better -- and more fair -- job when he moderates the October 7 presidential debate.

He probably won't spend much time doing that, though -- his days are apparently pretty full acting as NBC's liaison to the McCain campaign. In that role, Brokaw works to assure the McCain camp that "Mr. McCain could still get a fair shake from NBC News."

After Brokaw's performance on Sunday, NBC should be scrambling to assure the Obama campaign of the same thing.
http://mediamatters.org/countyfair/200809300005



Contact Tom BrokeJaw http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6872152

Call Meet the Press and leave a message! Tel [phone]

Call NBC/MSNBC Phone: [phone]
Fax Your letter!: [phone]


Write to MSNBC/NBC news programs and tell them to pass on the message to Mr. Tom!
NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams: [e-mail]
NBC News Today: [e-mail]


IT MAY NOT WORK, BUT IT WILL PUT HIM ON NOTICE.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x7257419

[redqueen]

Wow... shamelss.

Think it was Brokaw's idea or the producers'?

[redqueen]

3. dupe

oops

[Medusa]

4. Read the NYTimes today.

Big article in there about how Brokaw was behind getting Olbermann and Matthews banned from anchoring campaign coverage. Also it mentions how he's been trying to fence build with the McCain camp.

[faithfulcitizen]

5. Didn't he also lecture Letterman about McCan't no-show show?

Seems to be trying awfully hard to get one of his "greatest generations" in office. I thought he retired anyway. :shrug:

[Left Is Write]

7. He apparently can't get enough.

He timed his "retirement" in 2004 for December - after the election. After that, he was allegedly going to spend his days fishing and relaxing. Or something.

[redqueen]

9. If that's true... there's no way this guy should be allowed to moderate a debate!

:grr:

[tosh]

6. And Brokaw is moderating the 2nd debate? Hmmm.

[Arugula Latte]

8. I responded to MTP.

I'm furious with Brokaw. I used to like the guy, years ago, and I have this feeling of personal betrayal I don't have with other flacking pundits. (That was not the response I sent, BTW.)

[TxBlue]

10. Why'd they shake him out of the Mothballs?

He's out of touch, bitter and needs to be put back out to pasture.

Bring us people we like to watch.... not dead wood.