The Media Research Center, a conservative watchdog group based in Alexandria, Va., said that Sen. John Edwards “earned glowing assessments from some network reporters” on Jan. 2, the day he announced his candidacy for president.

In its Jan. 3 “CyberAlert,” MRC analyst Brent Baker wrote that while journalists from three major network news organizations questioned Edwards’s experience, most spoke favorably as they introduced him on air as the newest Democratic presidential candidate.

Baker wrote that “Today” anchor Matt Lauer “gushed” about Edwards, saying “He’s young, smart, Southern, a self-made millionaire trial lawyer.” ABC News anchor Elizabeth Vargas, according to Baker, highlighted how Edwards “made his name convincing juries to give enormous awards to people who suffered terrible injuries…Insurance companies were terrified of him. He now says he wants to fight for working people.”

MRC is known for its exhaustive research and thorough review of broadcast television news. Baker observed that of all the networks’ coverage of Edwards’s announcement, only one reporter identified the North Carolina senator as a liberal. NBC Washington Bureau Chief Tim Russert, on the same “Today” show, labeled Edwards a “progressive liberal.”

In 2001, Edwards earned a 95 percent favorable rating from Americans for Democratic Action, which calls itself “the nation’s oldest independent liberal political organization.” ADA determined that Edwards acted against their interests only on the issue of more military base closings, which the organization favored. Supporting such a measure would likely be political suicide in Edwards’s home state.

Seemingly indifferent to Edwards’s voting record, correspondent Andrea Mitchell, hosting CNBC’s “Capital Report” Jan. 2, asked the senator: “What is your view on deficit spending at this time given the softness of the economy? Do you think that some deficit spending is a good idea or do you think we need to return to the fiscal discipline that Bill Clinton espoused?”

Baker said Edwards began by replying, “I strongly believe in fiscal discipline…” However, Baker also pointed out that Edwards was tagged with an “F” rating by the National Taxpayers Union, as a “Big Spender.”

On ABC’s “World News Tonight” the same evening, Baker characterized Vargas’s treatment of Edwards as “uncritical.” He said she turned to political analyst George Stephanopoulos (a former Clinton aide) “for an evaluation of Edwards’s strengths and weaknesses, but couldn’t resist praising him some more.”

“George, Senator Edwards, as we just saw in that piece, is certainly telegenic and well-spoken,” Vargas said.

Stephanopoulos replied that Edwards’s strength is that he’s from the South, home of the last three Democratic presidents. He added that “everybody who works with him says he’s whip smart.” Stephanopoulos said Edwards’s weakness is lack of “seasoning,” because he has no national security experience.

Baker said Edwards was challenged a bit by network news reporters. He said NBC’s Lauer pressed Edwards how more North Carolinians oppose than support his candidacy. Also, on “CBS Evening News,” anchor Scott Pelley asked in an interview, “You’re a millionaire trial lawyer by trade. Do you really relate to the common man?”

Pelley, like Stephanopoulos, questioned Edwards’s brief tenure in the Senate, asking: “What would you say to someone watching this interview who says to themselves, ‘First-term senator from North Carolina. Before that, trial lawyer. Not much in the way of foreign policy experience, and it has become a very dangerous world.’?”

Chesser is associate editor of Carolina Journal.