On Monday night, the networks showed scant interest in covering the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling against the Obama administration and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the regulation of power plant emissions as NBC ignored the story completely with ABC and CBS combining to spend only 29 seconds on the decision. While ABC and CBS came together to spend just under 30 seconds on this story, the Fox News Channel’s Special Report led off its Monday night broadcast with a segment by correspondent Shannon Bream on the final rulings of the Court’s term.
Scott Pelley
By Matthew Balan | June 27, 2015 | 1:07 AM EDT
On Friday, ABC's World News Tonight aired a completely one-sided report on the Supreme Court's ruling that legalized same-sex "marriage" in all 50 states. Terry Moran hyped how Justice Anthony Kennedy "wrote today's landmark opinion describing the stakes in this case in the loftiest terms." Moran failed to include any soundbites from social conservative opponents of the decision, and hyped how "Justice Scalia, in a rage, scorning Kennedy's poetic opinion as little more than a 'fortune cookie.'"
By Curtis Houck | June 25, 2015 | 11:23 PM EDT
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling in favor of President Obama in the ObamaCare subsidy case, the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC were out in full force during their Thursday evening newscasts to cheer the “historic ruling” and labeled Chief Justice John Roberts as a “conservative” after having “saved” ObamaCare “from a devastating blow.” CBS anchor Scott Pelley assured viewers in an opening tease that “[m]illions of Americans will keep their health insurance as the Supreme Court today saves the President's signature law.”
By Curtis Houck | June 25, 2015 | 1:05 AM EDT
Wednesday’s CBS Evening News gave President Barack Obama a boost during one of its second-half news briefs by touting his handling of a transgender, illegal immigrant heckler who complained about deportations during a White House event promoting LGBT Pride Month. In a tease to the brief, anchor Scott Pelley gushed: “President Obama smacks down an unruly guest at the White House. That's next.” On the other side of the commercial break, Pelley explained that the President “hosted a reception to observe LGBT Pride Month, but he was interrupted by a heckler demanding an end to deportations.”
By Curtis Houck | June 24, 2015 | 8:58 PM EDT
While Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal became the 13th Republican on Wednesday to join the 2016 Republican presidential field, the top English and Spanish-language network evening newscasts all but dodged Jindal’s decision by providing a total of 54 seconds across English networks ABC, CBS, and NBC. As for the Spanish-language networks, MundoFox and Telemundo ignored Jindal’s announcement completely while Univision aired an 18-second news brief.
CBS, NBC Hype ‘Increasing Mistrust Between Blacks and Whites; ‘Virus’ of Racism from ‘60s ‘Never Died’
By Curtis Houck | June 19, 2015 | 10:37 AM EDT On Thursday’s network evening newscasts, the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News did their parts in touting the supposed state of race relations in America with CBS’s Scott Pelley holding up the deadly shooting in Charleston as “com[ing] at a time of increasing mistrust between blacks and whites” while NBC’s Harry Smith proclaimed that the “virus” of racism from the 1960s “never died.”
By Curtis Houck | June 18, 2015 | 10:39 PM EDT
As part of their coverage on the deadly shooting at the Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, Thursday’s CBS Evening News dedicated a segment to President Obama’s attempts to push through gun control measures after national tragedies. With no victories thus far, chief White House correspondent Major Garrett lamented that Obama “appears exhausted by gun violence and the political stalemate” with those prospects after Charleston.
By Matthew Balan | June 17, 2015 | 8:50 PM EDT
On Wednesday's CBS Evening News, Jan Crawford hyped the latest "dust-up between the musician and the politician," and underlined that "rare is the Republican candidate who isn't told to stop the music – even if...they paid licensing fees." She asked a GOP strategist, "Why is it it's always Republicans who are getting slammed by the musicians for using their songs?"
By Curtis Houck | June 16, 2015 | 10:25 PM EDT
ABC’s World News Tonight aired a preview clip on Tuesday of Good Morning America co-host George Stephanopoulos’s interview with 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in which Trump battled the former Clinton official over remarks he made during his announcement speech about illegal immigration and his plans to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico.
By Curtis Houck | June 10, 2015 | 9:14 PM EDT
Following news on Wednesday that the Obama administration will send 450 additional U.S. troops back to Iraq to help train the Iraqi military against ISIS, ABC’s World News Tonight and the CBS Evening News chose to exclude any criticism of the Obama administration’s ISIS policy while NBC Nightly News made multiple critical points about the administration as Richard Engel declared: “It’s hard to see how a few hundred non-combat troops are going to make much of a difference.”
By Rich Noyes | June 2, 2015 | 8:57 AM EDT
This week, with George Stephanopoulos under fire for his donations to the Clinton Foundation, the BBC's Katty Kay declares it impossible to find "a partisan bent" in any of his work at ABC News. And, USA Today's Susan Page cannot fathom why the scandal-plagued Hillary Clinton would duck questions, because "she can handle any question you throw at her....She does it very well."
By Curtis Houck | May 21, 2015 | 11:28 PM EDT
As the Islamic terrorist group ISIS seized Ramadi earlier this week and now the ancient Syrian town of Palmyra, the major broadcast networks have largely declined to even mention any criticism of President Obama and his so-called policy in dealing with ISIS and Thursday night was no exception as ABC and CBS declined to raise that point of view. While it was brief, NBC Nightly News did make time for criticism of the administration in a segment by chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel: "Military officials say the current U.S. strategy just isn't working."