Was The (Soon-To-Be Canceled) Ed Show The Only News Show That Gave Significant Coverage Of The TPP Trade Deal?

Recently, Politico, MediaITE, and other sources made it public that MSNBC’s The Ed Show would be canceled and the Ed Schultz time slot would be filled by “moderate” Chuck Todd.

In February, mediamatters.org conducted an interesting study on what news shows cover the TPP trade agreement, and what shows don’t.

Mediamatters.org had done a transcript search of the major news networks (CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC) as well as for the nightly news shows on the three major broadcast networks (CBS Evening News, ABC’s World News Tonight, NBC’s Nightly News) as well as PBS NewsHour.

The search involved shows from August 1, 2013, through January 31, 2015.

Mediamatters.org wrote that of the three news networks, “only The Ed Show Devoted Significant Coverage To The TPP. During the same 18-month period, CNN and Fox News each mentioned the TPP during two broadcasts. MSNBC’s The Ed Show discussed the trade agreement on 71 broadcasts…”

Also, PBS mentioned the TPP eight times, and the three major nightly news shows (on CBS, ABC, and NBC) made no mention of the TPP whatsoever on their nightly news broadcasts during that time period.

(Updated report)

http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2015/07/bernie-sanders-disappointed-in-ed-schultz-cancellation-211128.html

http://www.alternet.org/media/msnbc-cans-only-cable-tv-host-who-extensively-covered-tpp

http://www.ringoffireradio.com/2015/07/comcast-killed-the-ed-show-for-talking-about-tpp/

http://mediamatters.org/research/2015/02/04/study-tv-news-shows-largely-ignore-historic-tra/202403

Fox News’ Brigitte Gabriel Claims Obama Is A Muslim

Fox News’ right-wing guest Brigitte Gabriel pressed the unproven idea that President Obama is a Muslim when she was on The Kelly File. Polls claim that roughly 18% of Americans believe that he is.

Media Matters Minute

More here

Right-Wing Radio Host Mark Levin Rants About Latino Television Host Jorge Ramos

Apparently, Mark Levin gets paid to go on rants about Latinos and television host Jorge Ramos…

Jorge Ramos Ávalos is a Mexican journalist and author based in Miami, Florida. He anchors the Univision news television program Noticiero Univision, Al Punto, and the Fusion TV English-language program America with Jorge Ramos.

Media Matters video.

Bill O’Reilly’s “Mercenary Army” In Syria

Bill O’Reilly came up with a “plan” to defeat ISIS that consisted of creating a “mercenary army” of hired fighters that are “English-speaking.”  Bill conveniently omitted some questions about law, supply, logistics, and intelligence.  O’Reilly has never served in the military.

According to Media Matters, “U.S. military experts and veterans are slamming Bill O’Reilly’s proposal to create an American-backed worldwide mercenary force to battle Islamic State militants and other extremists, calling the idea ‘an outrageous thought’ that is ‘fraught with problems.'”

Dennis Laich, a retired U.S. Army major general who served in Kuwait and Iraq said, “If a mercenary military commits atrocity in the name of the United States, is that a war crime?”

Retired Lt. General Edward Anderson, a West Point graduate with 39 years in the U.S. Army, had a reaction that might be described as “luke warm.”  He said, “My initial reaction is that I am not too enthusiastic about the idea. I can’t think of a time when that has worked in the past, not on a scale you are talking about here.”

Jamie Barnett, a former U.S. Navy rear admiral with more than 30 years of experience, also served as Director of Naval Education and Training at the Pentagon. “This is going to be a long-term fight,” he said.  “That would be expensive enough, but the idea of putting English speakers on the ground just invites problems. We need indigenous fighters who see this as their homeland. We need to concentrate on the approach we have done in the past, which includes training people to fight their own fights.”

Kyle Kulinski of Secular Talk takes a look at it.