More in the cross-post on the MRC's NewsBusters blog.
On Monday’s NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer and substitute co-host Maria Shriver led a panel discussion reviewing some of Sunday night’s Super Bowl commercials and gushed over the “social awareness” of ads that pushed liberal agenda items like environmental activism, equal pay, and illegal immigration.
Lauer began the segment by proclaiming: “It kind of had everything. It had celebrity. It had humor. It had social awareness.” Marketing executive David Steinberg declared it “the year of the message,” while USA Today business reporter Charisse Jones asserted: “I think that politics...was kind of the third rail this year, but you couldn't avoid it. And I think that the ads that went in that direction really made a significant impact.”