Following the media frenzy in July over the death of Zimbabwe’s Cecil the Lion, the coverage was decidedly different on Monday evening when ABC’s World News Tonight and the CBS Evening News failed to inform their viewers of the fact that officials in the authoritarian country would not be pressing charges against American dentist Dr. Walter Palmer for shooting Cecil.
Lester Holt
By Curtis Houck | October 12, 2015 | 9:09 PM EDT
On Monday, the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News prominently touted the claims by a fired staffer on the House Select Committee on Benghazi that the panel’s sole aim is to takedown former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in a move that gives her “a potential lifeline” in “another blow” to the committee.
By Matthew Balan | October 9, 2015 | 10:31 PM EDT
ABC, CBS, and NBC's Friday evening newscasts all spotlighted how "gun rights supporters, many of them openly armed" protested President Obama as he visited Roseburg, Oregon to comfort family members of the victims of the recent mass shooting there. CBS's John Blackstone played up how "the protesters gathered at the Roseburg airport carried both signs and guns – a potential nightmare for the Secret Service." NBC Nightly News featured footage of a Confederate flag flying from pickup truck of one of the protesters – something ABC and CBS didn't do.
By Curtis Houck | October 7, 2015 | 9:00 PM EDT
Following Hillary Clinton’s latest flip-flop and move to the left in opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the CBS Evening News saw no interest in informing their viewers of this announcement after she strongly backed it while secretary of state in President Barack Obama’s first term. In contrast, both ABC’s World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News surprisingly stepped up to the plate to cover this story with full stories along with the fact that both correspondents labeled Clinton’s decision a “flip-flop” from her time in the Obama administration.
By Curtis Houck | October 6, 2015 | 10:00 PM EDT
Following the lead of Tuesday’s Today show, NBC Nightly News continued its offensive against 2016 Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio for his attendance record in the U.S. Senate (despite previous precedent) and warned that his rise in the polls could result in Rubio suffering the same fate as failed candidate Scott Walker.
By Curtis Houck | October 5, 2015 | 10:39 PM EDT
After filing a gooey piece on Hillary Clinton, Monday’s NBC Nightly News also gave airtime to the Republican field, but only in the context of attacking 2016 candidate Carly Fiorina over campaign debt she recently finished paying off from her failed 2010 Senate campaign (despite the fact that she’s far from the first to have debt).
By Curtis Houck | October 5, 2015 | 8:58 PM EDT
The “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC pulled out all the stops on Monday night to carry water for 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, proclaiming that she’s “on fire” with “new wind in her sails” as she “unveil[ed] a tough new stance on gun control” and came “out swinging today at the Benghazi Committee.”
By Curtis Houck | September 30, 2015 | 9:49 PM EDT
On Wednesday night, the CBS Evening News punted on the latest batch of Hillary Clinton’s State Department e-mails released hours earlier while their competitors at ABC and NBC did cover them, but only through the veil of defending Clinton against Speaker of the House candidate Kevin McCarthy’s comments on the Benghazi Committee that NBC’s Andrea Mitchell touted as “an unlikely political lifeline.”
Networks Hype ‘Spirited,’ ‘Unfazed’ Planned Parenthood President in Coverage of ‘Five-Hour Interrogation’
By Curtis Houck | September 29, 2015 | 9:58 PM EDT Hours after Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards testified Tuesday before the House Oversight Committee concerning the videos that have embroiled the abortion provider in scandal over the selling of aborted baby parts, the “big three” networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC rushed to the defense of the “unfazed” and “spirited” Richards as she “endured a five-hour interrogation” by the GOP.
By Curtis Houck | September 28, 2015 | 10:52 PM EDT
While the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC all covered on Monday night the developments at the United Nations (U.N.) and the meeting between President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin, ABC’s World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News failed to go the distance and report that Obama’s disastrous rebel training initiative in Syria had been suspended. In contrast, the CBS Evening News not only covered the announcement from the Pentagon but led the newscast with the story.
By Curtis Houck | September 27, 2015 | 10:49 PM EDT
Hours after 2016 Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina sparred with NBC’s Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd over the Planned Parenthood videos, Sunday’s NBC Nightly News similarly went to bat for the abortion provider against Fiorina as White House correspondent Kristen Welker scolded Fiorina for promoting videos with “doctored and unrelated footage.”
By Matthew Balan | September 25, 2015 | 11:26 PM EDT
Two journalists on Friday's NBC Nightly News played up how the supposed "far right" of the Republican Party pushed out Rep. John Boehner, who announced earlier in the day that he would be stepping down as Speaker of the House. Lester Holt underlined that Boehner is "resigning from Congress at the end of next month in the face of a challenge from members of the far right of his party, who believe he's gone soft on Democrats."