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.”
Scott Pelley
By Curtis Houck | October 1, 2015 | 8:40 PM EDT
Following President Barack Obama’s angry reaction Thursday night to the deadly community college shooting in Oregon and pleas to “politicize” mass shootings, the CBS Evening News did just that with a full story lamenting the lack of gun control by laying blame at the feet of the GOP-led Senate and the National Rifle Association (NRA) for their support of candidates in favor of gun rights.
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 Michael Greibrok | September 25, 2015 | 3:11 PM EDT
Associated Press (AP), the arbiters of style for journalism, issued new rules related to global warming and climate change coverage, infuriating liberal environmentalists.
Their anger stemmed from AP’s guidance which said to use the label “climate change doubters” or “those who reject mainstream climate science” when discussing those that do not accept man-made climate change, rather than “skeptics” or “deniers.”
By Curtis Houck | September 24, 2015 | 10:39 PM EDT
In the litany of network news coverage Thursday night on Pope Francis’s address to Congress, ABC’s World News Tonight largely stayed away from the Pope’s comments about abortion and traditional marriage by relegating them to vague references while CBS and NBC did their due diligence and mentioned them amidst their continued obsession over the Pope’s liberal positions.
By Curtis Houck | September 22, 2015 | 9:07 PM EDT
In a CBS Evening News preview clip of an interview set to air on Sunday’s 60 Minutes, anchor Scott Pelley spared with 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump over his failure to correct a man who attended a Trump rally and accused the President of being Muslim. Pelley lectured Trump that “[i]t was a testing moment” for him which he failed: “You let that pass, and I wonder what that tells us about you.”
By Curtis Houck | September 22, 2015 | 1:40 AM EDT
On Monday, ABC’s World News Tonight and the CBS Evening News failed to devote a full story to Republican Governor Scott Walker (Wisc.) dropping out of the 2016 presidential campaign with the latter only giving Walker a combined 57 seconds at the beginning and end of a report on Ben Carson’s comments about a hypothetical president who was Muslim.
By Curtis Houck | September 19, 2015 | 2:01 AM EDT
While the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC all miraculously acknowledged on Friday evening the House’s passage of a bill defunding Planned Parenthood, ABC and NBC provided no context in mentioning the horrifying videos released by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) that exposed gruesome practices by the abortion provider.
By Curtis Houck | September 14, 2015 | 9:38 PM EDT
Returning to the issue of Ferguson, Missouri on Monday, ABC’s World News Tonight and the CBS Evening News touted the findings and recommendations of a commission set up by Missouri Governor Jay Nixon as both newscasts promoted the commission’s calls to increase the minimum wage and CBS neglected to label Nixon a Democrat.
By Matthew Balan | September 4, 2015 | 11:56 PM EDT
Friday's CBS Evening News stood out for not covering Hillary Clinton's interview with NBC's Andrew Mitchell. The newscast didn't even mention the former first lady during their 2016 election coverage. Instead, Scott Pelley played up how Donald Trump "seems to stumble a lot, but never seems to fall" – specifically, his confused answers on foreign policy during an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. Pelley also covered Vice President Joe Biden "agonizing publicly about whether he would run" for president.
CBS’s Pelley: Clerk Going to Jail Possibly ‘the Last Front in a Losing Battle Against Same-Sex Marriage’
By Curtis Houck | September 4, 2015 | 12:16 AM EDT At the top of Thursday’s CBS Evening News, anchor Scott Pelley proclaimed that the jailing of Rowan County, Kentucky Democratic Clerk Kim Davis “could be the last front in a losing battle against same-sex marriage” as she had been refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples since the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling legalizing gay marriage on June 26.