The Wednesday editions of ABC’s World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News each provided their own wrap-ups of the Fox Business Network Republican presidential debate from the night before, but the theme was predictably similar as both networks spun the event as illustrating “fierce opposition” and “dramatic divisions” within the GOP on apparently every issue.
World News
By Jeffrey Meyer | November 11, 2015 | 9:44 AM EST
During a town hall meeting in New Hampshire on Tuesday, Hillary Clinton refused to condemn a supporter of hers who said they wanted to “strangle” Carly Fiorina and instead laughed at his violent proclamation. ABC and NBC have so far ignored the story altogether.
By Rich Noyes | November 9, 2015 | 9:16 AM EST
During the past three months, the big broadcast networks have essentially stopped covering most of the GOP presidential candidates, a lack of national news attention that presumably affects the national poll ratings used to determine which candidates are included in televised debates. Instead of covering the top 10 Republican candidates, or the entire current field of 15 candidates, the networks have now essentially pared down the field to five candidates: Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Marco Rubio and Carly Fiorina.
By Matthew Balan | November 6, 2015 | 9:50 PM EST
On Friday's NBC Nightly News, Chris Jansing touted Politico's scoop about Dr. Ben Carson's "scholarship" claim about West Point, underlining how the liberal outlet "call[ed] Carson's story a 'fabrication.'" However, Jansing's report aired more than two hours after Politico removed the "fabrication" term" from their headline." The journalist later hyped that it's "hard to overstate how much Carson uses his personal story to connect with voters — so this heightened scrutiny...may be a very big threat to his campaign."
By Curtis Houck | November 6, 2015 | 8:40 PM EST
On Friday night, two of the three major broadcast networks saw no interest in telling their viewers that the Supreme Court of the United States had decided to accept another major case on the future of ObamaCare as the high court will hear arguments pertaining to the law’s contraception mandate. Surprisingly, NBC Nightly News not only covered it, but offered a full, one-minute-and-21-second report from Justice correspondent Pete Williams.
By Curtis Houck | November 4, 2015 | 8:55 PM EST
On Wednesday afternoon, the Clinton Foundation group Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) admitted that it had made “minor errors” in its tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in both 2012 and 2013 and thus added another layer to the Clinton Foundation scandal. When it came to major broadcast networks covering this on Wednesday night, however, ABC’s World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News both ignored the new revelation.
By Curtis Houck | November 4, 2015 | 12:26 AM EST
As part of their 2016 coverage on Tuesday night, both ABC’s World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News took shots at Dr. Ben Carson for his “hardline conservative” stances on issues like abortion when other “issues” like “political experience” will be one that “he will have to address” as the campaign moves along.
By Jeffrey Meyer | November 2, 2015 | 11:42 AM EST
On Sunday, veteran investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson’s new show Full Measure examined the growing number of ObamaCare co-ops that are “falling like dominoes” despite substantial financial support from the federal government. Reporter Scott Thuman traveled to Nevada which “is now one of 23 co-ops created by the Affordable Care Act known to most as ObamaCare. It is also one that is failing and will shut down at the end of the year. It’s a number that is growing.”
By Matthew Balan | October 30, 2015 | 10:13 PM EDT
Friday's NBC Nightly News set aside just 34 seconds of air time to the Republican National Committee suspending its planned February 2016 debate with NBC. The evening newscast surrounded this coverage with over two minutes of reporting on other 2016 presidential campaign developments, focusing on the spat between Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush. By contrast, ABC's World News Tonight and CBS Evening News devoted full reports to the RNC's suspension of the NBC debate, which was going to be co-hosted by Telemundo.
By Curtis Houck | October 30, 2015 | 8:17 PM EDT
On Friday evening, the “big three” networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC all ignored the latest dump of Hillary Clinton’s e-mails from the State Department that included the retroactive classification of 268 e-mails that now makes for one out of every 16 e-mails that have been “released” to the public since her private e-mail server scandal was unearthed in March.
By Curtis Houck | October 29, 2015 | 9:09 PM EDT
In the second of three segments on Thursday reporting on the fallout from Wednesday’s CNBC Republican presidential debate, NBC Nightly News touted an editorial by The New York Times calling on Governor Chris Christie (N.J.) to drop out of the 2016 field.
By Curtis Houck | October 27, 2015 | 9:07 PM EDT
On Tuesday, the “big three” networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC censored from their evening newscasts any mention of the House of Representative beginning the procedures to impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen on the heels of Republican Congressman and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s expected ascension to Speaker of the House.