Just over two weeks after the major network evening newscasts spent 24 minutes obsessing on December 8 over Donald Trump’s proposed ban on Muslims entering the U.S., the three programs returned on Tuesday night to devote ten and a half minutes to Trump’s declaration that Hillary Clinton was “schlonged” in 2008 by losing to then-Senator Barack Obama.
Lester Holt
By Curtis Houck | December 19, 2015 | 12:38 AM EST
On Friday, the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC covered the new scandal brewing inside the Democratic presidential campaign with the data breach involving the Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton campaigns (plus the Sanders camp suing the Democratic National Committee), but it was the CBS Evening News that sought to downplay the story by not covering the “brewing” “family feud.”
CBS and NBC Use Newtown Anniversary to Lament Lack of Gun Control; Compare It to Car Seats, Driver’s Licenses
By Curtis Houck | December 14, 2015 | 11:53 PM EST With Monday marking the third anniversary of the horrifying murders of 20 children and their teachers in Newtown, Connecticut, the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News used the somber occasion to lament the lack of gun control passed by the GOP Congress and compared the need for gun control to seat belts and passing a driving test to obtain a driver’s license.
By Curtis Houck | December 14, 2015 | 9:20 PM EST
The “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC all prominently touted on Monday night President Barack Obama’s visit to the Pentagon to discuss the fight against ISIS, but skimped on reporting any criticism of the administration’s strategy but instead lamenting that he’s had to try once “again to reassure an anxious nation” despite polls showing Americans are concerned about the growing threat of terrorism.
By Matthew Balan | December 11, 2015 | 11:53 PM EST
NBC Nightly News was the sole Big Three network evening newscast on Friday to cover the controversy surrounding Justice Antonin Scalia's comments during oral arguments in an affirmative action case. Both Lester Holt and Pete Williams spotlighted how "gasps were heard inside the Supreme Court this week over something said by Justice Antonin Scalia." Williams zeroed in how "some called the comments racist. Others said, he was just plain wrong."
By Curtis Houck | December 10, 2015 | 9:38 PM EST
On Thursday night, the major broadcast networks saw no point in informing their viewers of Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy’s party affiliation (Democrat) as ABC, CBS, and NBC all reported that Malloy had issued an executive order banning those on government watchlists from possessing guns in his state. Along with being arguably the strictest governor in the country when it comes to gun control, Malloy was also recently selected as the chair of the Democratic Governor’s Association (who’s term will run through the 2016 election).
By Curtis Houck | December 9, 2015 | 3:14 AM EST
As part of NBC Nightly News’s five segments on Tuesday obsessing over Donald Trump’s proposed ban on all Muslims entering the United States, the program turned to former anchor Tom Brokaw to end the show with a commentary comparing Trump to Nazism, McCarthyism, and opposition to the Civil Rights Movement. In the three teases proceeding Brokaw’s editorial, current anchor Lester Holt promised that Brokaw would discuss “the politics of fear” and the “harsh,” “ugly lessons about fear and marginalizing groups of people.”
By Curtis Houck | December 8, 2015 | 10:16 PM EST
Acting as though the latest news the war against ISIS, new developments in the Hillary Clinton scandal or any other story barely existed, the “big three” networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC devoted a whopping 24 minutes and three seconds of their Tuesday evening newscasts to obsessing over Donald Trump’s proposed ban on Muslims entering the United States. Not surprisingly, NBC Nightly News led the way by spending nearly half its newscast on Trump with five segments adding up to 12 minutes and 34 seconds.
By Curtis Houck | December 6, 2015 | 8:02 PM EST
Seconds before President Obama addressed the nation from the Oval Office on Sunday night, NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt gave viewers a quick preview with Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd and wondered to Todd if the speech will mark “a defining moment for this presidency.”
By Curtis Houck | December 3, 2015 | 9:18 PM EST
Following the liberal media’s strategy of attacking God-fearing people for offering their “thoughts and prayers” concerning the San Bernardino shooting, Thursday’s NBC Nightly News joined that chorus with a unrelenting report from NBC News correspondent and MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell that also lamented the lack of Democratic gun control proposals. She touted: "Liberal blogger Igor Volsky set off a tweet storm, calling out lawmakers who offer prayers but oppose new gun laws, pointing out how much money they received from the NRA."
By Kyle Drennen | December 2, 2015 | 6:09 PM EST
During NBC’s live breaking news coverage of the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California on Wednesday, correspondent Ron Allen reported from the White House on President Obama’s push for gun control: “We well know that the President is very concerned about this issue of gun violence in the United States....And we have heard from him and his staff that they are still trying to find ways that the President can use his executive authority to try and make changes to the gun control legislation in this country.”
By Curtis Houck | December 1, 2015 | 9:45 PM EST
On Tuesday night, ABC and CBS refused to acknowledge a pair of points in its respective stories concerning news that additional U.S. special forces will be stationed inside Iraq to fight ISIS and will engage in combat roles. Along with not mentioning that the move represented the latest example of backpedaling by President Obama on a pledge to not put U.S. troops on the ground, the two networks skipped the admission by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that ISIS is not “contained” in a rebuke to the President’s recent claims.