The “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC all mentioned on Tuesday evening Hillary Clinton’s decision to take questions from the press in Nevada concerning her e-mail server scandal and, as usual, they parroted Clinton campaign talking points in touting how Clinton “vigorously defended herself” in the press conference concerning what’s become a “stubborn political issue.”
Appearing on MSNBC’s Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell on Monday, the New York Times’ Josh Barro dismissed controversy surrounding Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail server as “all just background noise.” He contended: "The Clintons have been embroiled in scandal longer than I have been alive. And at this point it's all just background noise. Everybody’s formulated an opinion about whether they think the Clintons are above board or whether they care about whether the Clintons are above board or not. And I can't imagine this breaking through..."
After having ignored Hillary Clinton’s e-mail scandal since Saturday night, ABC emerged out of the wilderness during Monday’s World News Tonight to again cover the latest development while CBS and NBC went in the opposite direction Monday evening and ignored the story following three minutes of airtime on their Monday morning newscasts. On NBC, Katy Tur made sure to mention to viewers that Republican Governor Scott Walker (Wisc.) was heckled by “union protesters at the Iowa State Fair today.”
In the midst of the covering the U.S. Embassy’s reopening in Havana, Cuba on Friday morning, MSNBC’s The Rundown couldn’t help but repeatedly ooze over the fact that Secretary of State John Kerry attended the ceremony using a walking cane that belonged to former President John F. Kennedy’s brother and former fellow Massachusetts Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy. Gushing that it’s “a fascinating backstory,” NBC's Andrea Mitchell made the first mention just after 9:00 a.m. Eastern about Kerry using “Teddy Kennedy’s cane.”
After ABC, CBS, and NBC devoted portions of their Thursday morning newscasts to the FBI taking control of Hillary Clinton’s e-mail server, the picture was far different on Thursday night as ABC, NBC, Telemundo, and Univision moved on from this scandal and neglected to mention it. The CBS Evening News, however, found it pertinent to continue keeping their viewers abreast of Clinton’s e-mail scandal in the form of a two-minute segment from congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes.
The “big three” networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC continued to cover on Wednesday night news that scandal-ridden Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton turned over her private e-mail server and numerous thumb drives to the FBI but largely brushed it off as “a headache” and “distraction” for Clinton in what has “been a tough summer.”
While English-networks ABC and NBC combined with Spanish-language networks MundoFox, Telemundo, and Univision on Thursday night to skip testimony from Secretary of State John Kerry in a Senate hearing on the Iran deal, CBS covered it in a news brief, but only summarized it and ignored false statements by Kerry as he faced criticism from both sides of the aisle. In contrast, the FNC's Special Report not only had a full segment on the hearing, but a takedown of three claims by Kerry.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s first national TV interview aired during Tuesday’s edition of The Situation Room on CNN, and while Brianna Keilar pressed Clinton on her e-mail scandal and tumbling poll numbers, the interview measured up to little more than a stroll in the park. Along with gooey questions about which woman she thinks should go on the $10 bill and who plays a better Hillary Clinton on Saturday Night Live, Keilar came at Clinton from the left on the candidacy of socialist Bernie Sanders and allowed her to pontificate without interruption for over a minute and a half on the work of the scandal-ridden Clinton Foundation.
After all three network morning newscasts dedicated time on Wednesday to the release of the latest batch of Hillary Clinton e-mails, their evening news counterparts saw things differently by choosing to ignore the story altogether. With ABC, CBS, and NBC missing in action on this Clinton scandal, the Fox News Channel (FNC) program Special Report led off its Wednesday show with a thorough, four-minute-and-two-second segment on the e-mails from chief White House correspondent Ed Henry from the State Department.
On Friday morning, all three of the major broadcast networks surprisingly covered the latest in the Hillary Clinton e-mail scandal as 15 e-mails between Clinton and former confidante Sidney Blumenthal were discovered missing from her time at the State Department. Despite the over five and half minutes of coverage, CBS and NBC expressed concern that “the revelation” could create “a new distraction” for Clinton’s presidential campaign.
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.
On Wednesday evening, the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC marked five days since any of networks last covered a Clinton scandal while they combined to ignore news that a Democratic member of Congress has called for an independent review of Clinton’s e-mails, a House committee hearing covered her e-mail scandal, and a report that Bill Clinton took in $26 million from a Swedish group that was lobbying the State Department on Iran sanctions.