http://www.mrc.org/biasalerts/networks-tough-obama-wasted-no-time-issuing-fighting-words-against-isisNetworks: 'Tough' Obama 'Wasted No Time' Issuing 'Fighting Words' Against ISIS
Published: 9/3/2014 12:08 PM ET
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By Kyle Drennen
After President Obama admitted on Thursday that he had "no strategy" for dealing with the ISIS terrorist network, on Wednesday, the network morning shows rushed to portray the aimless commander-in-chief as a tough-talking leader ready to "destroy" the radical killers.
At the top of ABC's Good Morning America, co-host George Stephanopoulos hyped: "President Obama's tough words to the ISIS terrorists who executed American journalist Steven Sotloff." In the report that followed, correspondent Brian Ross proclaimed: "President Obama vowed that ISIS will pay the price for the murder of a second American journalist. The President delivered fighting words this morning..."
Talking to White House correspondent Jonathan Karl moments later, Stephanopoulos declared: "In those remarks, the President laid also out a bold goal. He said the bottom line is the U.S. goal is to degrade and destroy ISIS as a threat." Karl quickly shattered the image of a tough and decisive Obama:
Very definitively this is beyond where he's gone but there seemed to be a mixed message there because when he was asked to clarify if he was now saying the U.S. wants to destroy ISIS, he backtracked significantly saying we can continue to shrink ISIS's sphere of influence to the point where it is a manageable problem. So in the course of one set of remarks, he went from talking about destroying this terrorist group to making it into a manageable problem.
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