Following Hillary Clinton’s decision to take questions from the press for the first time in over three weeks, ABC, CBS and NBC all covered the story on their Tuesday evening newscasts and, once again, were all too happy to spin for her. They all mentioned a federal judge’s ruling that her e-mails should be released more quickly, but they ignored news that she had a second private e-mail address and that Clinton ally Sidney Blumenthal advised her on Libya despite the fact that he was banned from working at the State Department. ABC's David Muir hailed how Clinton faced “tough new questions.”
David Muir
By Curtis Houck | May 19, 2015 | 12:25 AM EDT
While Monday’s editions of the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News refused to criticize the Obama administration on ISIS after the fall of Ramadi, the pair did devote time to hyping President Obama’s opening of an official Twitter account (to go along with his campaign account). In the case of the CBS Evening News, the story received both a tease and fawning news brief as anchor Scott Pelley gushed in the tease that “[n]o sitting president has done what this sitting president did today.”
By Curtis Houck | May 18, 2015 | 8:54 PM EDT
CBS and NBC continued their refusal on Monday evening to criticize the Obama administration’s handing of Iraq and so-called policy on ISIS as the Islamic terror group seized control of Ramadi over the weekend. While those two networks continued to spin for the White House, ABC bucked the trend from the network morning newscasts by providing a blunt critique of the Obama administration for “painting far too rosy a picture of how this war is going for far too long.”
By Curtis Houck | May 14, 2015 | 9:17 PM EDT
On Thursday night, the major English-language broadcast networks again covered possible 2016 Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush’s comments about the Iraq War and featured ABC and NBC omitting the fact that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton voted to authorize the Iraq War when she was a U.S. Senator. Additionally, all three network evening newscasts continued to ignore how Hillary Clinton has yet to answer a question from the press in over three weeks and only 13 questions total since she launched her campaign on April 12.
By Curtis Houck | May 13, 2015 | 11:51 PM EDT
The Wednesday editions of the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News failed to cover the latest attack on law enforcement as a man charged at a female New York City police officer with a hammer before being shot by a fellow officer. While CBS and NBC ignored this story, ABC’s World News Tonight did cover it and did so with a full report from correspondent Linsey Davis. Anchor David Muir set the scene by describing it as “a moment of horror on the streets of New York City” at “a street corner full of tourists.”
By Curtis Houck | May 13, 2015 | 9:50 PM EDT
Despite now knowing that the Amtrak train that derailed outside of Philadelphia on Tuesday night was going more than double the speed limit, the “big three” networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC continued pushing the need for more infrastructure funding and an increase in Amtrak’s budget on their Wednesday evening newscasts. In addition, CBS and NBC failed to mention the fact that train engine in question was only a year old.
By Curtis Houck | May 6, 2015 | 9:26 PM EDT
After having not covered the Clinton Foundation scandal since April 23, ABC’s World News Tonight finally returned to the story with a full report on its Wednesday broadcast about the Clinton Foundation’s lavish summit in Morocco and how the host owns a mining company that’s been accused of committing human rights violations
By Curtis Houck | May 5, 2015 | 9:36 PM EDT
When it came time to cover the news from Tuesday that Mike Huckabee had announced his entry into the 2016 Republican presidential field, ABC and NBC largely yawned at this story by devoting a combined 48 seconds of airtime to Huckabee on their Tuesday evening newscasts.
By Curtis Houck | May 5, 2015 | 1:20 AM EDT
In covering the failed terrorist attack at a Prophet Mohammad cartoon event in Texas, NBC neglected to describe the two gunmen on Monday evening as “Islamic extremists” or “terrorists,” while ABC, CBS, and NBC prominently touted the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) description of AFDI as an “anti-Muslim” or “anti-Islamic” “hate group.”
By Curtis Houck | May 4, 2015 | 9:56 PM EDT
Following the announcements from Republicans Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina that they will each be running for president, the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC showed no interest in giving extensive time to either candidate during their Monday evening newscasts with a combined one minute and 10 seconds of news briefs devoted to the new 2016 candidates. Clocking in with the least amount of time was the CBS Evening News with a scant 20 seconds.
By Matthew Balan | May 1, 2015 | 11:16 PM EDT
ABC and NBC's evening newscasts on Friday both spotlighted how a former New Jersey government official pled guilty as a result of Bridgegate. On World News Tonight, ABC's Ron Claiborne touted how "this scandal has taken a tremendous toll on Governor [Chris] Christie's presidential prospects," even after pointing out how "nowhere in today's indictments is Governor Christie said to have known about the alleged plot." By contrast, both programs continued their week-long blackout on the Clinton Foundation scandal.
By Curtis Houck | May 1, 2015 | 12:14 AM EDT
English-language networks ABC, CBS, and NBC and Spanish networks MundoFox, Telemundo, and Univision covered the news on Thursday night that independent Senator Bernie Sanders (Vt.) will seek the Democratic nomination for president in 2016, but only NBC Nightly News chose to label him a “socialist” after ABC and CBS had previously done so on Thursday morning. While correspondent and MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell characterized Sanders as a “socialist,” Mitchell offered some fawning words for him when she declared that he was “not your typical blow-dried politician.”