All last night, and today, "Factor" analysts have been looking at the media and here's what we found out. The print press was largely unfair to President Bush. The New York Times kicked it off saying, "There is nothing ahead but even greater disaster in Iraq." Doesn't leave the Times much wiggle room, does it? That paper continues to have a vested interest in the failure of the Iraq conflict.
The usual left-wing suspects were negative, hostile to the president's speech. The St. Petersburg Times, the Oregonian, Newsday, Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Boston Globe, the Baltimore Sun and the L.A. Times.
Papers that did give the president a fair shake: the Indianapolis Star, the Chicago Trib, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Wall Street Journal.
On the radio the CBS World News Round Up this morning was fair, as was the ABC News Radio broadcast at 10:00 a.m. E.T.
Good Morning America was basically fair. The Today Show, negative. The Early Show on CBS News, negative. On cable, CNN was basically fair, MSNBC incredibly negative.
CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC ANCHOR, HARDBALL: They're working through Cheney, of course, who always wants to kill. And they drag us back into that same mentality of we're looking for any reason to strike. I think that is the way he is toward Iran right now.
O'REILLY: Cheney, of course, who always wants to kill. Unbelievable, NBC News.
On the whole the coverage of the president's speech wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The Dallas Morning News even said this: "No patriot can hope for the president to fail." That's true. The Dallas Morning News nailed it.
You can dissent from the Iraq war and still be a patriot, but if you root against your country, you are disloyal. And unfortunately "Talking Points" believes some media are doing just that. As always we could be wrong. We'll have more on this with Bernie Goldberg and Jane Hall later on. And that's "The Memo."
Most Ridiculous Item
Good ratings news on both TV and radio. "The Radio Factor" is now the highest-rated program on our powerhouse affiliate in Los Angeles, California, KABC, and in key demographics we're just about tied with Rush Limbaugh on L.A.
On TV, FOX News Channel continues to dominate. On Tuesday evening, for example, FNC in primetime averaged more than 1.6 million households. CNN averaged 500,000 and MSNBC a dismal 340,000.
By the way, "The Factor's" audience on Tuesday at 8 Eastern, 2.5 million viewers, another million at 11, and we thank each and every one of you.
The reason I have to tell you these things is that you'll never read them in the nation's newspapers. Generally, they hate us. And that is indeed ridiculous. But we hold them accountable. That's why they hate us.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox