The “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC all mentioned on Tuesday evening Hillary Clinton’s decision to take questions from the press in Nevada concerning her e-mail server scandal and, as usual, they parroted Clinton campaign talking points in touting how Clinton “vigorously defended herself” in the press conference concerning what’s become a “stubborn political issue.”
In Monday evening’s edition of network bias by omission, CBS and NBC neglected to stories concerning a data breach of American taxpayers at the scandal-ridden IRS and the Obama administration finally giving approval for a major oil company to begin oil drilling in the Arctic off Alaska’s coast. Surprisingly, ABC’s World News Tonight picked up the pieces and provided their viewers with coverage of a full segment on the IRS breach and a brief on the future of drilling in the Arctic.
After having ignored Hillary Clinton’s e-mail scandal since Saturday night, ABC emerged out of the wilderness during Monday’s World News Tonight to again cover the latest development while CBS and NBC went in the opposite direction Monday evening and ignored the story following three minutes of airtime on their Monday morning newscasts. On NBC, Katy Tur made sure to mention to viewers that Republican Governor Scott Walker (Wisc.) was heckled by “union protesters at the Iowa State Fair today.”
While all three broadcast networks on Friday morning celebrated the American flag being raised at the newly-reopened U.S. embassy in Havana, CBS ignored Cuban dissidents not being invited to the ceremony, while NBC and ABC gave mere seconds to the controversy.
On Thursday night, the CBS Evening News omitted reports that the Islamic terrorist group ISIS used chemical weapons in multiple attacks in Iraq over the past week against Kurdish forces the group claimed responsibility for a bombing in Iraq earlier in the day. In contrast, ABC’s World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News offered news briefs on the development with the latter program also providing a full report from chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel on the brutality of female members of ISIS in enforcing Islamic laws on women living under the terrorist group’s control.
The “big three” networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC continued to cover on Wednesday night news that scandal-ridden Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton turned over her private e-mail server and numerous thumb drives to the FBI but largely brushed it off as “a headache” and “distraction” for Clinton in what has “been a tough summer.”
While all three broadcast evening newscasts tonight noted Hillary Clinton's reaction to Donald Trump's offensive comments regarding Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly and her menstrual cycle, NBC gave considerable attention to Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton's attempt to exploit the Trump kerfuffle in order to attack all Republican presidential candidates as anti-woman.
ABC's World News Tonight was the sole broadcast network evening newscast on Friday to cover the U.S. Navy's announcement that it would soon position armed guards outside its off-base reserve centers. CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News, along with Univision and Telemundo's evening news programs, ignored this change in policy. ABC's David Muir noted that "the decision follows the deadly shooting of five people at two facilities in Chattanooga where no guards were present," but failed to mention the possible Islamist motivation for the perpetrator.
On Wednesday night, the major broadcast networks came out in full force to praise a “defiant” President Barack Obama for having made a “sweeping speech with fiery words” on the Iran nuclear deal that included the President following some in the media by comparing Iranian hardliners to Republicans against the deal (even though some Democrats are opposed to it as well). Hanging on to Obama’s every word, NBC's Chris Jansing hailed him for being “on the attack” and “answering critics of the Iran nuclear deal with an impassioned, nearly hour-long defense.”
On Monday, all three network evening newscasts touted President Obama signing an executive order ordering power plants to reduce carbon emissions. On NBC Nightly News, anchor Lester Holt proclaimed: “...a rare moment at the White House. President Obama got unexpectedly emotional as he unveiled a sweeping controversial plan to deal with climate change, which he called ‘one of the key challenges of our lifetime.’”
ABC's Good Morning America on Tuesday completely ignored the Senate's vote on Planned Parenthood, yet devoted 18 minutes of air time to boy band One Direction. Only CBS This Morning bothered with the Republican effort to defund the abortion group, allowing a meager 25 seconds. Even in that scant amount of time, co-host Norah O'Donnell managed to spin the undercover footage of the organization in a friendly way: "The health provider is under fire for the way it gives fetal tissue to medical researchers."
The “big three” networks of ABC, CBS and NBC gleefully promoted on Monday evening President Obama’s “scolding” of 2016 Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee over his criticism of the Iran deal and his “scathing words” for the GOP field as candidates “are trying to out-trump [Donald] Trump.” Not surprisingly, the networks also sided with then-candidate Obama on May 15, 2008 when the same three networks chided then-President George W. Bush and fellow Republicans for a “two-pronged Republican attack” on Obama.