NBC Nightly News was the sole Big Three network evening newscast on Friday to cover the controversy surrounding Justice Antonin Scalia's comments during oral arguments in an affirmative action case. Both Lester Holt and Pete Williams spotlighted how "gasps were heard inside the Supreme Court this week over something said by Justice Antonin Scalia." Williams zeroed in how "some called the comments racist. Others said, he was just plain wrong."
NBC
By Kyle Drennen | December 11, 2015 | 1:04 PM EST
While interviewing Hillary Clinton on Thursday’s NBC Late Night, aired early Friday morning, host Seth Meyers lobbed softballs to the Democratic frontrunner on gun control: “...we have lived through so many tragic shootings...in recent months. You know, obviously, gun control is a big part of your campaign. But how can you convince people now that gun control – considering how many times it’s tried and failed – that it is anything more than a fantasy?”
By Curtis Houck | December 11, 2015 | 8:02 AM EST
Moments before bringing on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for two casual segments of softball questions, Late Night host Seth Meyers took a shot at Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in his monologue by comparing him to members of the KKK following Scalia’s comments on Wednesday about affirmative action.
By Curtis Houck | December 10, 2015 | 9:38 PM EST
On Thursday night, the major broadcast networks saw no point in informing their viewers of Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy’s party affiliation (Democrat) as ABC, CBS, and NBC all reported that Malloy had issued an executive order banning those on government watchlists from possessing guns in his state. Along with being arguably the strictest governor in the country when it comes to gun control, Malloy was also recently selected as the chair of the Democratic Governor’s Association (who’s term will run through the 2016 election).
By Kyle Drennen | December 10, 2015 | 3:19 PM EST
On Thursday, NBC’s Today seized on a cabdriver in Toronto attacking the car of an Uber driver as a chance to attack the entrepreneurial car service, with co-host Savannah Guthrie proclaiming: “A cabbie confronts an Uber driver and gets dragged 60 feet down the street, as the battle between the car service app and traditional taxis gets ugly.”
By Kyle Drennen | December 10, 2015 | 11:55 AM EST
While both NBC’s Today and ABC’s Good Morning America found the time on Thursday to devote minute-long segments to First Lady Michelle Obama rapping about kids going to college, neither morning show bothered to mention President Obama’s strategy or lack thereof to combat radical Islamic terrorism in the wake of the San Bernardino attacks.
By Geoffrey Dickens | December 10, 2015 | 9:30 AM EST
An MRC analysis of interviews from January 1 to December 4 finds the broadcast networks have pounded the candidates with a blizzard of hostile and left-wing questions.
By Kyle Drennen | December 9, 2015 | 11:36 AM EST
On Wednesday, all three network morning shows eagerly seized on the latest Donald Trump controversy to boost Hillary Clinton’s 2016 chances. On NBC’s Today, correspondent Peter Alexander proclaimed: “For the Grand Old Party, an urgent dilemma, fail to stand up to Trump and risk long-term damage to the party or confront Trump and risk his running as an independent....A Trump third-party bid would likely gift wrap the White House for Hillary Clinton.”
By Curtis Houck | December 9, 2015 | 3:14 AM EST
As part of NBC Nightly News’s five segments on Tuesday obsessing over Donald Trump’s proposed ban on all Muslims entering the United States, the program turned to former anchor Tom Brokaw to end the show with a commentary comparing Trump to Nazism, McCarthyism, and opposition to the Civil Rights Movement. In the three teases proceeding Brokaw’s editorial, current anchor Lester Holt promised that Brokaw would discuss “the politics of fear” and the “harsh,” “ugly lessons about fear and marginalizing groups of people.”
By Erik Soderstrom | December 9, 2015 | 12:29 AM EST
Tonight’s episode of Chicago Med was an hour-long attack on the Second Amendment and concealed carry. The episode opens when a hero high school algebra teacher takes down a would-be mass shooter at a local movie theater, a la the Aurora Theater shooting. But before you get too excited, the episode’s title was “Mistaken.”
By Curtis Houck | December 8, 2015 | 10:16 PM EST
Acting as though the latest news the war against ISIS, new developments in the Hillary Clinton scandal or any other story barely existed, the “big three” networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC devoted a whopping 24 minutes and three seconds of their Tuesday evening newscasts to obsessing over Donald Trump’s proposed ban on Muslims entering the United States. Not surprisingly, NBC Nightly News led the way by spending nearly half its newscast on Trump with five segments adding up to 12 minutes and 34 seconds.
By Brad Wilmouth | December 8, 2015 | 8:23 PM EST
Appearing as a guest on MSNBC Live with Kate Snow, NBC Meet the Press host Chuck Todd tried to explain away a poll showing that most Americans have a negative view of Islam by chalking it up largely to a "lack of familiarity" with the religion, and declared that "unfamiliarity breeds the fear."