Special Report

Networks Ignore Government Report That ObamaCare Plans Cover Abortions
By Curtis Houck | September 16, 2014 | 10:46 PM EDT

On Tuesday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a new report documenting how abortions are being funded by taxpayers under ObamaCare despite a provision in the law stating that abortions will not be covered under ObamaCare insurance plans. When the Tuesday evening newscasts for the major broadcast networks had passed, however, none of them devoted even a second to the story.

According to the report, 28 states (plus D.C.) did not restrict ObamaCare insurance plans that included abortions as a benefit while 23 states did have that restriction in place. In addition, the GAO found that 17 out of 18 insurers sampled did not bill individuals separately for abortion coverage within their plans.

Saturday Night Funny Video: Anti-Obama Ads from ‘Republican’ Senate Candidates
By Brent Baker | September 14, 2014 | 12:50 AM EDT

Senate candidates of a certain party are out with anti-Obama attack ads and a late night comedy show played clips of a few from “Republican” candidates.

Saturday Night Funny Video: Just for Men...Who Are President and VP
By Brent Baker | September 7, 2014 | 1:07 AM EDT

“President Obama has undoubtedly gotten a little more gray since the start of his presidency...so now, one late night show tracked down a company looking to cash in,” FNC’s Bret Baier noted on August 27 in setting up a comedy clip from CBS’s Late Show with David Letterman.

Networks Skip Bombshell Benghazi Claim: Rescue Was Delayed By CIA Official
By Scott Whitlock | September 5, 2014 | 1:07 PM EDT

Despite a combined eight hours of available time, NBC's Today, ABC's Good Morning America and CBS This Morning on Friday ignored a bombshell new book claiming that a CIA official delayed a rescue attempt for the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi. Instead, the networks devoted 66 minutes to the death of Joan Rivers. Two of the co-authors of 13 Hours, men who were on the ground in Benghazi, appeared on Fox News, Thursday and insisted that the delay was deadly. 

Bret Baier talked to Kris Paronto and John Tiegen, CIA security operators who told him that a CIA station chief told them to stand down from a rescue attempt for at least 30 minutes. Baier asked point blank: "If I gave you that 30 minutes back, would Ambassador Stevens and Sean Smith be alive today?" Paronto responded, "Yes, they would still be alive."

Networks Ignore Report That Obama Was Briefed on ISIS Going Back ‘at Least a Year’
By Curtis Houck | September 3, 2014 | 12:05 AM EDT

On Tuesday night, the three major broadcast networks omitted from their coverage on the Islamic group ISIS a report that President Barack Obama has received briefings on the terrorist organization “for at least a year before the group seized large swaths of territory over the summer.”

ABC, CBS, and NBC all led their evening newscasts with multiple segments on the gruesome murder of American journalist Stephen Sotloff at the hands of ISIS in a propaganda video released on Tuesday afternoon. Over on the Fox News Channel (FNC), Special Report with Bret Baier aired three segments on the story, including a report from chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge. [MP3 audio here; Video below]

Networks Dodge Huge IRS Scandal News as DOJ Attorney Says Lost Lerner E-Mails Do Exist
By Curtis Houck | August 25, 2014 | 9:15 PM EDT

Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton appeared on the Fox News Channel (FNC) Monday afternoon and informed viewers that a Department of Justice (DOJ) attorney admitted to his organization on Friday that the e-mails belonging to former IRS official Lois Lerner that were thought to be lost likely still exist. He declared to FNC’s Shannon Bream that the story of Lerner’s hard drive being damaged and destroyed and thus her e-mails were permanently lost has “all been a pack of malarkey” and “a big lie.”

When it came to the major broadcast networks covering this huge story on their Monday evening newscasts, there was no coverage to be found as ABC, CBS, and NBC all carried out the latest censoring of news surrounding the IRS. [MP3 audio here; Video below]

Saturday Night Funny Video: The ‘Apparently’ Kid Who’s Forced to Watch the Powerball
By Brent Baker | August 10, 2014 | 12:48 AM EDT

He’s made it this past week onto a couple of late night shows as well as ABC’s World News and Good Morning America, but if you haven’t seen the video of five-year-old Noah Ritter, here’s the version shown Tuesday night by Bret Baier at the end of his FNC show.

The video of the future newscaster came from a report last weekend, by Sofia Ojeda of WNEP-TV’s “Newswatch 16” in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton market, who was covering the Wayne County Fair in Honesdale, Pennsylvania.

Krauthammer Takes On Obama's 'Extraordinary Lethargy, Distance, Disinterest'
By Laura Flint | August 7, 2014 | 12:05 PM EDT

Don't mess with Charles Krauthammer. After President Obama’s lackluster speech on August 6 from the U.S. Africa Leaders Summit in which Obama did not address any pressing foreign policy issues such as the building tensions in Ukraine or the multitude of conflicts in the Middle East unless specifically asked by reporters, Bret Baier of Fox News’ Special Report asked panelist Krauthammer to comment on the President’s apparent disengagement with foreign affairs. 

Baier remarked that Obama’s “Defense Secretary, Chuck Hagel came out and said we could be looking at war between Russia and Ukraine as these troops or amassed along the boarder and yet in the opening statement, there was no statement.” Krauthammer responded by blasting the President for his “lethargy, distance, disinterest, uninterest, where he said you know, 'well if Russia invades we will look at the policy again.'" [See video below. Click here for MP3 audio]

ABC, NBC Join CNN in Ignoring Scandal Involving NY Governor Andrew Cuomo
By Curtis Houck | August 4, 2014 | 12:20 PM EDT

On Monday morning, broadcast networks ABC and NBC and cable news outlet CNN continued their blackout of the investigation into New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) and his shuttering of his own anti-corruption commission. Since the story broke on July 23 in The New York Times, neither one of these three news operations have covered the story.

CBS This Morning, which previously reported on the story on both July 31 and August 1, provided an update on the scandal Monday morning in the form of a 23-second news brief regarding Cuomo’s top aide agreeing to speak with federal prosecutors who are looking into allegations the commission was steered away from anyone with ties to the governor. [MP3 audio here; Video below]

Saturday Night Funny Video: Feckless United Nations
By Brent Baker | August 3, 2014 | 12:43 AM EDT

The United Nations took “action” on the Israel versus Hamas conflict, but it was so feckless that even the Daily Show with Jon Stewart ridiculed the international body.

On Tuesday’s Special Report, FNC’s Bret Baier played a clip from Stewart’s Monday night program.

Saturday Night Funny Video: Repetitive Orange Is the New Black
By Brent Baker | July 27, 2014 | 1:01 AM EDT

The sheriff of Saginaw County, Michigan decided to change jail jumpsuits to black and white stripes after the Netflix series, Orange Is the New Black, made the orange ones too “cool.”
 
There are “a bunch of ways to play with that headline, or not, in local news,” FNC’s Bret Baier noted Thursday night in excerpting a collection of very similar TV news reports put together by ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Networks Condemn Attack on U.N. School in Gaza, Ignore Hamas Hiding Rockets in Schools
By Kyle Drennen | July 25, 2014 | 3:44 PM EDT

While all three networks denounced the shelling of a U.N. school in Gaza on Thursday, NBC, ABC and CBS all failed to report on similar U.N. schools in the war-torn territory being used to hide Hamas rockets. As Fox News reported on Tuesday, "The U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said the rockets were found in between two other UNRWA schools that are being used to host 1,500 displaced people."

On Wednesday's Special Report, anchor Bret Baier read a statement from the office of the U.N. Secretary General condemning Hamas for the action. Panelist Charles Krauthammer blasted the international organization: "The U.N. workers, UNRWA, have collaborated with Hamas for years and years. They know that there are missiles in the schools, in the hospitals, in the mosques, and they know what's going to happen. Kids will be killed and that's going to be on television." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]