On Friday, ABC's World News Tonight aired a completely one-sided report on the Supreme Court's ruling that legalized same-sex "marriage" in all 50 states. Terry Moran hyped how Justice Anthony Kennedy "wrote today's landmark opinion describing the stakes in this case in the loftiest terms." Moran failed to include any soundbites from social conservative opponents of the decision, and hyped how "Justice Scalia, in a rage, scorning Kennedy's poetic opinion as little more than a 'fortune cookie.'"
David Muir
By Curtis Houck | June 26, 2015 | 11:31 AM EDT
During ABC’s Special Report on the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize gay marriage, correspondent Terry Moran gushed that the reaction to the ruling by the crowd gathered outside the Court was akin to “a spark of fire as we understood what was actually done here” as “those interns ran across the plaza.”
By Curtis Houck | June 25, 2015 | 11:23 PM EDT
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling in favor of President Obama in the ObamaCare subsidy case, the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC were out in full force during their Thursday evening newscasts to cheer the “historic ruling” and labeled Chief Justice John Roberts as a “conservative” after having “saved” ObamaCare “from a devastating blow.” CBS anchor Scott Pelley assured viewers in an opening tease that “[m]illions of Americans will keep their health insurance as the Supreme Court today saves the President's signature law.”
By Jeffrey Meyer | June 25, 2015 | 11:58 AM EDT
Following the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in favor of ObamaCare on Thursday, ABC News quickly touted the victory for the Obama administration with correspondent Terry Moran declaring “ObamaCare 2, conservatives 0 is the score right now.” The ABC reporter went on, in the 10 AM EDT hour special, to hype how "once again its Chief Justice John Roberts crushing the hopes of conservatives, upholding a key section of the ObamaCare, the Affordable Care Act.”
By Curtis Houck | June 24, 2015 | 8:58 PM EDT
While Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal became the 13th Republican on Wednesday to join the 2016 Republican presidential field, the top English and Spanish-language network evening newscasts all but dodged Jindal’s decision by providing a total of 54 seconds across English networks ABC, CBS, and NBC. As for the Spanish-language networks, MundoFox and Telemundo ignored Jindal’s announcement completely while Univision aired an 18-second news brief.
By Curtis Houck | June 18, 2015 | 9:15 PM EDT
Hours after NBC News officially announced that Brian Williams will not return to anchoring NBC Nightly News following his six-month suspension, Thursday’s editions of NBC Nightly News and ABC’s World News Tonight gave news briefs to this decision as well as the move by the network to promote weekend anchor Lester Holt to the permanent weekday spot. It should be noted that while the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley did not cover this story on Thursday, CBS This Morning devoted a 23-second brief to the story by fill-in co-host Anthony Mason.
By Curtis Houck | June 17, 2015 | 11:47 PM EDT
ABC’s World News Tonight aired on Wednesday night anchor David Muir’s interview with 2016 Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush and, while the aired portions touched on issues such as Iraq and political dynasties, other topics were passed over included the economy, distrust in government, and ObamaCare. Instead, Muir attempted to drag Bush to the left on immigration when asking about a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants and gay rights when Muir asked the former Florida governor if he would attend a gay wedding.
By Curtis Houck | June 16, 2015 | 10:25 PM EDT
ABC’s World News Tonight aired a preview clip on Tuesday of Good Morning America co-host George Stephanopoulos’s interview with 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in which Trump battled the former Clinton official over remarks he made during his announcement speech about illegal immigration and his plans to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico.
By Curtis Houck | June 15, 2015 | 11:45 PM EDT
The “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC largely greeted Jeb Bush’s entry into the 2016 Republican presidential field on Monday night with full reports that highlighted his announcement speech and jabs he leveled at Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and his fellow GOP candidates. Across the three network evening newscasts, Bush was described as “fiery,” “a doer” who wants “19 million new jobs” and “[came] out swinging against” his 2016 opponents.
By Curtis Houck | June 15, 2015 | 9:27 PM EDT
Following its Jeb Bush coverage on Monday, ABC’s World News Tonight took a few moments to not highlight any of the scandals surrounding Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton but instead gush over how she “address[ed] age and breaking a barrier” on Saturday in that, if elected, she would be both the first woman and grandmother president of the United States.
By Curtis Houck | June 10, 2015 | 9:14 PM EDT
Following news on Wednesday that the Obama administration will send 450 additional U.S. troops back to Iraq to help train the Iraqi military against ISIS, ABC’s World News Tonight and the CBS Evening News chose to exclude any criticism of the Obama administration’s ISIS policy while NBC Nightly News made multiple critical points about the administration as Richard Engel declared: “It’s hard to see how a few hundred non-combat troops are going to make much of a difference.”
By Curtis Houck | June 9, 2015 | 8:51 PM EDT
On Tuesday night, the news that the ISIS had seized the Libyan city of Sirte received zero coverage on the evening newscasts of ABC and NBC while CBS devoted an entire segment to ISIS’s new gains, but neglected to mention or lay blame for the instability at the feet of Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration. While NBC offered no coverage on ISIS all together, ABC had a full report about the ongoing war, but only to highlight the troves of military equipment, weapons, and vehicles that was given to the Iraqi army by the U.S. that have fallen into the hands of ISIS.