During ABC’s Special Report on the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize gay marriage, correspondent Terry Moran gushed that the reaction to the ruling by the crowd gathered outside the Court was akin to “a spark of fire as we understood what was actually done here” as “those interns ran across the plaza.”
President Obama
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.”
Touting how “over ten million people have now signed up for health insurance under the ObamaCare law,” NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt on Thursday night trumpeted “the ObamaCare law now directly effecting so many families who say it’s been quite literally a lifesaver.” Chris Jansing delivered heartwarming anecdotes about people who have benefitted and only, at the very end of her report, did she squeeze in a brief mention of how some have been hurt.
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.”
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.
Fox News’s Megyn Kelly began Thursday’s edition of The Kelly File by ripping into President Barack Obama and plans for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to regulate and enforce the diversity of neighborhoods. Kelly blasted the President for being “[t]he man who changed your health care system forever” who’s “now pushing to change your neighborhood” and especially “if Uncle Sam feels it is not inclusive enough.”
The major broadcast networks refused to take notice on Thursday night of plans by President Obama and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to force the diversification of American neighborhoods and particularly those mainly consisting of wealthy Americans. With the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC on the sidelines, the FNC's pecial Report offered a full segment on the regulations that host Bret Baier noted has Republicans “charging that President Obama wants control over who lives in your neighborhood and [that] he’s using the power of the purse strings to pursue it.”
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.”
On Tuesday night, the news that the ISIS had seized the Libyan city of Sirte received zero coverage on the evening newscasts of ABC and NBC while CBS devoted an entire segment to ISIS’s new gains, but neglected to mention or lay blame for the instability at the feet of Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration. While NBC offered no coverage on ISIS all together, ABC had a full report about the ongoing war, but only to highlight the troves of military equipment, weapons, and vehicles that was given to the Iraqi army by the U.S. that have fallen into the hands of ISIS.
Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly took aim at President Obama during his “Talking Points Memo” on Monday’s O’Reilly Factor and ruled that the United States has “a leader who doesn’t want to lead” in addition to “lack[ing] the will to defeat” ISIS. The Fox News Channel host first set the scene by playing a clip of Obama telling reporters on Monday at the G-7 Summit that the U.S. still does not “have a complete strategy” for defeating ISIS and how that was strikingly similar to his assessment of the U.S. fight against ISIS in August 2014.
The “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC all refused to mention on Monday night comments made by President Barack Obama earlier in the day in which he attacked the Supreme Court for taking a case regarding ObamaCare subsidies and warned them not to rule that they’re unconstitutional. They remained on the sidelines as FNC's Special Report with Bret Baier worked to once again fill the void with not only a full segment, but also a discussion of it with the show’s “All-Star Panel.”
Following President Obama’s comments at the G-7 summit on Monday about the United States still having “no complete strategy” for fighting ISIS, NBC Nightly News went to work in spinning for the President by touting his reasoning and neglecting to mention that he uttered similar remarks back on August 28, 2014. In contrast, ABC's World News Tonight and the CBS Evening News noted the similarity in Obama’s remarks on Monday and in August with multiple doses of criticism for the commander-in-chief.
