Following a censorship on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning of video showing Planned Parenthood senior director of medical services Dr. Deborah Nucatola discussing the selling of body parts from aborted babies, ABC and CBS ended their blackouts on Wednesday night with coverage on their evening newscasts, but made sure to hype the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) as “anti-abortion activists.” On the Spanish-language networks, however, MundoFox, Telemundo, and Univision all continued their refusal to even acknowledge the video.
Nancy Cordes
By Kyle Drennen | July 2, 2015 | 10:12 AM EDT
On Thursday, both NBC’s Today and CBS This Morning saw Donald Trump’s presidential bid spelling disaster for the Republican Party in 2016. On Today, correspondent Peter Alexander touted how the “controversy” surrounding Trump’s anti-illegal immigration comments had “proven to be some pretty good politics among some Republicans,” with Trump having “jumped to second place among Republicans in a recent national poll.”
By Curtis Houck | June 30, 2015 | 9:45 PM EDT
The “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC were out in full force on Tuesday night following New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie’s 2016 presidential announcement to attack Christie over his temper and use the Bridgegate scandal to argue that it’s “fed his image as bully” leading to “a long road ahead” for the nomination. CBS and NBC also earned the distinction of featuring a clip of Christie from October when he engaged a heckler to further the illustrate his temper without providing any context whatsoever.
By Curtis Houck | June 30, 2015 | 2:22 AM EDT
While all three networks covered the decision by NBC Universal on Monday to cut ties with 2016 Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump, it was the CBS Evening News that chose to veer off and portray the ongoing battle as “a problem” for the GOP as its “trying to develop Hispanic support.” In addition, the network touted Democrats as “determined to keep Hispanics in their camp” and declined to provide a party label when airing a soundbite from a Democratic state legislator from Arizona.
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 Kyle Drennen | June 15, 2015 | 2:46 PM EDT
Ahead of Jeb Bush announcing his 2016 presidential run on Monday, NBC’s Today and CBS This Morning hyped his effort to “regain some lost momentum” and overcome the “baggage” of his last name. In contrast, the two morning shows barely touched the problems facing Hillary Clinton’s campaign in the wake of her formal announcement on Saturday.
By Curtis Houck | May 19, 2015 | 9:47 PM EDT
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.”
By Kyle Drennen | May 19, 2015 | 12:31 PM EDT
As news broke Tuesday that the State Department would not release Hillary Clinton's e-mails as secretary of state until January of 2016, all three network morning shows finally noticed the Democratic presidential candidate has refused to take questions from the press.
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 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 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.”
By Curtis Houck | April 30, 2015 | 9:23 PM EDT
On Thursday, the Clinton Foundation scandal blackout stretched into a full week since it was last covered on ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir and NBC Nightly News while the CBS Evening News covered twice in the same time span. Following a 20-second news brief on Monday, Thursday's CBS newscast devoted a full segment to some of the latest developments, including the fact that a Clinton charity never informed the State Department of its foreign donations for any of Clinton’s four years as Secretary of State.