Speaking to former Florida Governor Jeb Bush on Thursday’s Today, NBC’s Matt Lauer did his best to play up Donald Trump’s repeated attacks on his fellow Republican throughout the Republican presidential primary. During the one-on-one interview, Lauer told Bush “your resume and your pedigree are perfect for the job of president” but wondered “after several months in the race, you're losing in the polls to the host of Celebrity Apprentice. How do you get your arms around that?”
Matt Lauer
By Scott Whitlock | September 18, 2015 | 12:24 PM EDT
All three networks on Friday slammed Donald Trump for not denouncing a campaign supporter's “hateful rhetoric.” ABC, NBC and CBS also promoted Hillary Clinton “pouncing” and “hammering” Trump. Yet, on August 28, when Clinton blasted GOP candidates for wanting to put illegal immigrants in “boxcars,” a reference many thought to the Holocaust, the same networks did not attack the Democrat as hateful or call for condemnation.
By Kyle Drennen | September 18, 2015 | 10:48 AM EDT
In an interview with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on Friday’s NBC Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie pressed the Republican presidential candidate on whether Donald Trump was hurting the GOP: “Is Trump doing long-term damage to the Republican brand if he's insulting Muslims, Latinos, women, veterans, prisoners of war? I mean, do you worry about the effect this is having for the long-term prospects of the Republican Party?”
By Kyle Drennen | August 28, 2015 | 11:54 AM EDT
After Thursday’s network morning shows chose to ignore a finding in the latest Quinnipiac poll that voters most associate the word “liar” with Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, ABC’s World News Tonight that evening and Friday’s NBC Today finally mentioned the survey. CBS continued to avoid the topic.
By Kyle Drennen | August 27, 2015 | 12:15 PM EDT
Introducing a segment on Wednesday’s NBC Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie announced: “We’re back now at 7:43 with the controversial tweet that has led to a headline-making suspension at ESPN.” Fellow co-host Willie Geist declared: “Former big league ace pitcher and current baseball analyst Curt Schilling has a history of pushing boundaries on social media. But his bosses say this time Schilling went too far.”
By Kyle Drennen | August 21, 2015 | 12:44 PM EDT
Just two weeks after the broadcast networks mourned “cultural icon” Jon Stewart leaving The Daily Show, Friday’s NBC Today and CBS This Morning touted an online petition on the liberal Change.org website urging the Commission on Presidential Debates to select the left-wing comedian as a 2016 debate moderator.
By Jeffrey Meyer | August 19, 2015 | 10:20 AM EDT
On Wednesday morning, the “Big Three” (ABC, CBS, and NBC) networks eagerly pounced on video of Florida Senator Marco Rubio mistakenly hitting a boy with a football while throwing him a pass, giving the video a combined 2 minutes 43 seconds of coverage from 7-9:00 a.m. NBC’s Today introduced its broadcast with Matt Lauer declaring “Rubi-ow. A pass from Senator Marco Rubio to a young fan doesn't quite go quite as planned...Why the presidential hopeful says the quarterback always gets the blame.”
By Kyle Drennen | August 17, 2015 | 11:58 AM EDT
Out of the nearly 15 minutes of coverage the network morning shows devoted to the 2016 presidential race on Monday, only three minutes of that air time focused on the e-mail scandal continuing to plague Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
By Kyle Drennen | August 14, 2015 | 4:38 PM EDT
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.
By Kyle Drennen | August 13, 2015 | 10:59 AM EDT
Interviewing former Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean on Thursday’s NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer wondered if Hillary Clinton’s e-mail scandal would have a lasting impact on the 2016 campaign: “You don't have to be a Republican operative to find trouble in the headlines surrounding Hillary Clinton. Any time you put the words ‘Hillary Clinton, e-mail, top secret, and FBI’ in the same sentence, you’ve got a problem. Do you see any sign that this is gonna go away soon?”
By Kyle Drennen | August 7, 2015 | 9:02 AM EDT
On Friday’s NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer spent a three-minute interview with Florida Senator Marco Rubio grilling the Republican presidential candidate on an opponent’s debate performance: “Donald Trump refused to rule out a third-party run. He says he's using it as leverage to make sure the party treats him well. Sounds like a bit of a threat to me. How does that impact the way you and other candidates take him on directly?”
By Kyle Drennen | August 6, 2015 | 10:39 AM EDT
In a rare acknowledgment of media responsibility, on Thursday’s NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer declared that it was up to the press to properly cover the first Republican presidential debate: “...that idea of substance versus sizzle, one-liners versus issues. That's on us tomorrow as well. We’ve got to make sure that we cover what they talk about, the issues as opposed to those one-liners.”