On Monday night, the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News omitted from their coverage out of Chicago the arrest of an African-American teen for allegedly making threats on social media against white male students at the University of Chicago in retaliation for the shooting death of Laquan McDonald. Somewhat miraculously, ABC’s World News Tonight and correspondent Alex Perez did find time to allude to this arrest in its report.
Alex Perez
By Matthew Balan | November 10, 2015 | 1:46 PM EST
CBS This Morning stood out as the sole Big Three network morning newscast on Tuesday to cover a University of Missouri academic shouting down a reporter, briefly physically attacking him, and then calling people over to "get this reporter out of here...I need some muscle over here." Norah O'Donnell spotlighted Melissa Click, "an assistant professor of mass media," who along with "students, were telling the media...to back off." ABC's Good Morning America and NBC's Today didn't mention Click.
CBS’s Pelley: Clerk Going to Jail Possibly ‘the Last Front in a Losing Battle Against Same-Sex Marriage’
By Curtis Houck | September 4, 2015 | 12:16 AM EDT At the top of Thursday’s CBS Evening News, anchor Scott Pelley proclaimed that the jailing of Rowan County, Kentucky Democratic Clerk Kim Davis “could be the last front in a losing battle against same-sex marriage” as she had been refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples since the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling legalizing gay marriage on June 26.
ABC, CBS, NBC Skip Conservative Victories in Australia and Norway -- But Find Time for Junk News Mentions
By Tim Graham | September 13, 2013 | 1:57 PM EDT John Fund at National Review has written about three recent elections that show “Liberals In Retreat,” but only one is domestic: the Colorado gun-rights recall. The other two liberal defeats were in Norway and Australia.
A quick Nexis search demonstrated that ABC, CBS, and NBC all skipped the conservative victories in Norway and Australia -- but all three found time for news briefs in 2007 when Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd was elected in Australia on an anti-Iraq war platform. Meanwhile, lighter-than-air "Good Morning America" on ABC did find "news" Down Under when it came to trickle-down celebrity updates on Michael Jackson's daughter:
By Scott Whitlock | August 5, 2013 | 4:59 PM EDT
Imagine if controversial, conservative radio host Michael Savage also ran a charity supporting poor, urban youths. Would ABC ignore the inflammatory things he has said and only focus on the positive? Not likely. Yet, World News guest anchor Byron Pitts on Sunday lauded hard-left Catholic Priest Father Pfleger as a "Chicago hope" who is in a "league of his own."
This is the same Father Pfleger who, during the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries, defended Barack Obama by excoriating, "America has been raping people of color and America has to pay the price for the rape!" This is the same Pfleger who threatened to "snuff" out a Chicago gun owner. World News journalists mentioned none of this. Instead, Pitts introduced, "Finally tonight, a story that reminds us all about the power of hope."
By Matt Hadro | December 20, 2012 | 12:36 PM EST
For ABC's Good Morning America, favoring more guns on the streets is "controversial" but President Obama's plea for gun control is simply news.
"Those who argue that the best way to stop mass killings is to have more guns in the right hands at the right time, even in the classroom. It's a controversial debate," reported co-host George Stephanopoulos on Thursday. In contrast, ABC's Jake Tapper framed the Newtown shooting as a "tipping point" amidst Obama's push for more gun control.
By Scott Whitlock | December 12, 2012 | 12:21 PM EST
All three networks on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning ignored the violent assaults by union protesters in Michigan, instead vaguely insisting that activists were simply "voicing their anger" at the "showdown raging in the heartland." The morning shows on Wednesday allowed little coverage of Michigan at all, a mere 72 seconds out of eight hours of programming. (On Tuesday, the nightly newscasts offered eight minutes out of a possible 90 total.)
On Tuesday, World News reporter Alex Perez put the focus not on out of control violence, but on the fact that Michigan's right-to-work bill actually passed. He began, "The anger boiling over. Officers turning to pepper spray to control the crowd at least 10,000 deep. But it wasn't enough." One might think the journalist was speaking of the attack on Fox News contributor Steven Crowder. No. Perez kept the attention on the new law: "Michigan Republican lawmakers approving landmark legislation, lifting the requirement that workers in unionized workplaces pay union dues." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]
By Scott Whitlock | September 10, 2012 | 12:18 PM EDT
All three morning shows on Monday covered the massive teachers strike in Rahm Emanuel's Chicago that left 350,000 students in the lurch. However, only CBS This Morning explained that the teachers, through their public sector unions, are already well compensated, making an average salary of $71,000 a year (plus benefits).
Reporter Dean Reynolds informed viewers, "That a dispute involving public sector employees would erupt in Chicago was somewhat surprising, given the generous packages unions here have won in the past." He noted that "Chicago's public school teachers make an average of $71,000 a year." Good Morning America and the Today show ignored these facts.
By Scott Whitlock | May 21, 2012 | 3:24 PM EDT
Violent anti-war protesters clashed with Chicago police this weekend, but the network morning shows on Monday avoided attempts at pinning an ideology on them, simply referring to "anti-war" "protesters."
On CBS This Morning, Charlie Rose blandly explained, "Protests turned violent in Chicago...Police battle protesters in Chicago." Reporter Bill Plante added, "And a small group of them clashed with police and 45 were arrested." ABC at least provided mores specifics, including a stabbing and foiled attempts to use Molotov cocktails at the NATO summit.
By Mark Finkelstein | March 31, 2012 | 10:01 AM EDT
Is it right to make death threats against George Zimmerman and his family? ABC News isn't sure. In a Good Morning America segment today on the Trayvon Martin case, as an ABC reporter spoke from Sanford, Florida, this graphic was displayed across the bottom of the screen:
"ARE DEATH THREATS GOING TOO FAR?" Video and screencap after the jump.