On the December 6 CBS Early Show, White House correspondent Bill Plante hyped an upcoming speech by President Obama: "The President is going to Osawatomie, Kansas....where former President Teddy Roosevelt made a famous speech more than a century ago...it was a call for economic fairness, not unlike the President's own argument for taxing millionaires to extend the payroll tax cuts."
In an interview with Vice President Joe Biden in Iraq aired on the December 1 NBC Today, co-host Ann Curry depicted the war effort there as a failure: "In a war that was started to protect the world from weapons of mass destruction that were never found, can the United States claim victory?"
Introducing an interview with CEO Richard Branson about his new book, "Screw Business As Usual," on the December 1 NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer proclaimed: "...Sir Richard Branson argues the driving force behind capitalism shouldn't be making a profit but caring about people, communities, and the planet."
In an interview with President Obama's outgoing assistant Reggie Love on NBC's Rock Center on November 28, host Brian Williams fawned over the First Family: "...like a retro almost 1950s American family, that there's a – kind of a wholesomeness about them. They play board games, they play on the floor of the living room with the dog, they're not – the girls aren't allowed a lot of TV and social…
In an interview with Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist on NBC's Meet the Press on November 27, host David Gregory dismissed concerns that raising taxes could harm the economy: "But the notion that tax cuts or tax increases somehow impact economic growth, we know historically that's simply not the case....Isn't that one of the falsehoods that's pedaled in Washington?"
On the November 17 episode of The Office on NBC, character Oscar Martinez, played by actor Oscar Nunez, apologizes to a park ranger at the Gettysburg battlefield for both the ranting of character Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) and for "the Republicans who are cutting your funding."
In a portion of a softball interview with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton aired on the November 18 NBC Today, chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd invited her to bash the Republican field of 2012 candidates as he skeptically wondered: "Any of these Republican presidential candidates ready to answer the 3:00 a.m. phone call?"
In an interview with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel set to air on the November 21 Rock Center on NBC, correspondent Harry Smith wonders if President Obama's former chief of staff will one day sit in the Oval Office: "They think that you're using this – Rahm Emanuel, first Jewish president."
During a panel discussion on the November 16 NBC Today, all of the pundits agreed that it was perfectly acceptable for a school in California to let former porn star Sasha Grey read to a classroom of first graders. Advertising executive Donny Deutsch went so far as to admonish critics: "Shame on people, she's volunteering for underprivileged kids."
On the November 14 Rock Center on NBC, correspondent Kate Snow savaged Alabama's new immigration law, touting left-wing historian Wayne Flynt comparing it to the racism of the 1960s: "This is just mean-spirited. This is – this is finding the most vulnerable people within a society....it's like the blacks in 1963 who could not vote in Alabama."
