ABC claims Michelle Obama's remarks about 'automatic weapons' cut for time

Editor's note: the following commentary originally appeared on the NewsBusters blog.

Tuesday ABC's "Good Morning America" edited out an inaccurate assertion by First Lady Michelle Obama that the gunman in a Chicago killing used an "automatic weapon."

Regarding the death of teenager Hadiya Pendelton, Mrs. Obama asserted, "And she was caught in the line of fire because some kids had some automatic weapons they didn't need." This quote appeared online, but not in the February 26 interview with Robin Roberts that aired on the network.

The Chicago Tribune explained, "...a day after her homicide on Jan. 29, Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said the gunman possibly used a revolver because no bullet casings were found at the shooting scene — as there would be if a semi-automatic or automatic weapon had been used."

No ABC show on Tuesday or Wednesday offered an explanation as to why the network helpfully covered up for the first lady's error.

On "World News," a snippet of the interview was played, but only Mrs. Obama talking about when her teenage daughters might start dating.

"Nightline" skipped the interview completely.

On Wednesday, GMA made no mention of the controversy.

ABC did offer a statement to the website Mediaite: "The full story was posted to our website in advance of the interview being broadcast. The edits made to Robin’s interview with the First Lady were made 'solely for time.'"

Such a statement laughably ignores the fact that GMA featured the first lady for two segments totaling eight and a half minutes. The second segment featured Mrs. Obama cooking. Yet, it was the seven (or so) seconds in which the first lady made a newsworthy gaffe that had to go?

The Washington Times's Emily Miller explained how ABC deceptively edited the segment:

The transcript of the interview, which was taped on Friday, February 22, shows that Mrs. Obama said this of Miss Pendleton (italics mine):

"She was standing out in a park with her friends in a neighborhood blocks away from where my kids grew up, where our house is. She had just taken a chemistry test. And she was caught in the line of fire because some kids had some automatic weapons they didn’t need," she said. "I just don’t want to keep disappointing our kids in this country. I want them to know that we put them first."

However, when the interview aired on "Good Morning America" on Tuesday, viewers heard the first lady said this:

"She was absolutely right. She did everything she was supposed to do. She was standing in a park, with her friends, in a neighborhood blocks away from where my kids grew up, where our house is. And she was caught in the line of fire. I just don’t want to keep disappointing our kids in this country. I want them to know that we put them first."

ABC edited the response visually by using a cutaway in the middle of the answer of Ms. Roberts listening.

Instead of at least allowing viewers to see Obama's remarks, the GMA segment that aired focused on hyping her secret appearance at the Oscars as something "straight out of 'Argo.'" The eight and a half minute segment featured no tough questions.

It's not as though Roberts is incapable of asking tough questions when interviewing a first lady. On October 22, 2007, the journalist wondered in an interview with First Lady Laura Bush if the United States should be exporting generosity and not "our bombs."

Scott Whitlock is the senior news analyst for the Media Research Center. You can find him on Twitter @ScottJW.

View the original article here

Microsoft poised to send out Internet Explorer 10 in automatic updates to Windows 7 machines

REDMOND, Wash. –  Microsoft is escalating its efforts to bring the latest version of Internet Explorer to more than 700 million personal computers in an attempt to re-establish the software maker's browser as the best way to surf the Web.

Tuesday's release of Internet Explorer 10 is aimed at PCs running on Windows 7, the most used version of Microsoft Corp.'s flagship operating system for PCs. A preview version of Internet Explorer 10 has been available for Windows 7 machines since mid-November. The final version of Internet Explorer 10 will be automatically sent to all Windows 7 computers set up to get updates.

Internet Explorer 10 is primarily designed for tablet computers and other devices responsive to touch, including a new breed of PCs. Even though relatively few Windows 7 PCs can be controlled with fingers on a display screen, Microsoft is confident Internet Explorer 10 will still have widespread appeal because it loads websites 20 percent faster than its predecessor, said Ryan Gavin, Microsoft's general manager for the browser.

"Tens of millions" of people downloaded the preview mode on Windows 7, Gavin said.

About 90 percent of Windows PCs have been programmed to get the automatic updates, Gavin said. It could take several weeks before the Internet Explorer 10 updates are sent to all those computers. Internet 10 doesn't work on XP, Vista or other older versions of Windows. Internet Explorer 10 already comes with machines running Windows 8, a dramatic makeover of the operating system that came out four months ago.

More than 670 million PCs rely on Windows 7. In addition, more than 60 million PCs and other devices have licensed Windows 8.

Microsoft, which is based in Redmond, Washington, is counting on Internet Explorer 10 to reverse recent trends in the Web browser market. By some estimates, Google Inc.'s Chrome browser has supplanted Internet Explorer as the world's most popular browser. Other research firms still assert that Internet Explorer remains the most widely used, although all measures show it has been losing market share to Chrome, Mozilla's Firefox and Apple Inc.'s Safari.

The new Web browser is the latest in a procession of products that Microsoft has unveiled in the past four months. Besides Windows 8, Microsoft has released a tablet computer called Surface, an update to its Office suite of programs and an overhaul of its Web mail service, which is now called Outlook.com.

Microsoft believes the barrage of new products will prove it remains on the cutting edge of the latest technology trends, 38 years after the company's founding. The push hasn't swayed Microsoft's stock, which is hovering around the same price as when Windows 8 came out in late October.

Microsoft's stock gained 18 cents to $27.55 in morning trading Tuesday.

View the original article here

Republicans urge Obama to end 'road show,' work with Senate to avert automatic cuts

House Republican leaders on Monday urged President Obama to "stop campaigning" and hunker down with Congress to find an alternative to the bludgeon of spending cuts set to hit Friday, saying now is not the time "for a road-show president." 

The plea came as the president prepared to head Tuesday to Newport News, Va., a major military community, to highlight the impact of Pentagon cuts on a shipbuilding facility. Obama's Cabinet secretaries also continued to issue dire warnings about the impact of so-called sequestration if the $85 billion in cuts begin to take effect March 1. 

House Speaker John Boehner and his deputies, emerging late Monday to field a few questions from the press, said the Virginia stop shows Obama is more interested in scoring political points than making a deal. 

"This is not time for a road-show president," House Republican Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said. 

House Republican Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., whose state Obama is visiting, repeatedly accused the president of offering a "false choice" -- between passing tax increases and allowing steep cuts to take effect. The president has blamed Republicans for holding up a deal, which under Obama's terms would include a mix of cuts and revenue increases through closing tax loopholes. 

Republicans suggest there's still time to replace the sequester with cuts -- not tax hikes -- that makes sense. 

"If the president was serious, he'd sit down with (Senate Democratic Leader) Harry Reid and begin to address our problems," Boehner said. 

Boehner was not backing off his insistence that it's the Senate's turn to act. 

While Obama is taking heat for once again hitting the road, Reid earlier in the day affirmed that the Senate will consider two plans to avoid the sequester later in the week. 

Democrats have a bill of their own that would blend tax hikes and spending cuts, along the lines of what Obama has recommended. 

Republicans, meanwhile, reportedly are looking at trying to give the Obama administration more flexibility to spread the cuts around so they don't impact high-priority areas -- like border officials, food inspectors and air traffic controllers -- quite as much. 

Some Republicans argue that the administration already has more flexibility than it admits, and is making the problem sound worse than it really is. 

But White House Press Secretary Jay Carney on Monday dismissed the idea that offering the administration more flexibility would spare a lot of the budget pain. 

"There's no way around it," Carney said. "(That kind of bill) can't be written, not with the size of these cuts, and the fact that they needed to be implemented in such a short period of time in this fiscal year." 

The White House continued laying out in stark terms what the cuts would mean for government services, dispatching Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to warn of the implications for critical security functions. 

"I don't think we can maintain the same level of security at all places around the country with sequester as without sequester," said Napolitano, adding that the impact would be "like a rolling ball. It will keep growing." 

Napolitano focused in particular on the impact to the border, saying her agency would be forced to furlough 5,000 patrol agents. She tamped down the notion that budget cuts would make the nation more vulnerable to terrorism, but said the sequester would make it "awfully, awfully tough" to minimize that risk. 

Also Monday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said visiting hours would be cut at all 398 national parks, just as they prepare for an influx of spring and summer visitors. 

Elsewhere in the government, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said the cuts would harm the readiness of U.S. fighting forces. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said travelers could see delayed flights. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said 70,000 fewer children from low-income families would have access to Head Start programs. And furloughed meat inspectors could leave plants idled. 

Obama, speaking Monday to a gathering of the nation's governors at the White House, again urged Congress to pass an alternative package. 

"The longer these cuts are in place, the bigger the impact will become," Obama said, adding that the cuts could be turned off "with just a little bit of compromise." 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

View the original article here