On Wednesday night, NBC Nightly News neglected to inform its viewers of a new report concerning the scandal-ridden Department of Veterans Affairs and the $142 million it paid out in bonuses to employees (including some who were facing discipline and/or recently fired). Compiled by the House Veterans Affairs Committee, the report stated that some of those who received bonuses still got them despite the fact that “several of them were under investigation or accused of mismanagement.”
Veterans
By Curtis Houck | July 9, 2015 | 9:35 PM EDT
The latest media double-standard was on display Wednesday night as ABC’s World News Tonight ran a full report dubbed “an ABC News investigation” into news that former President George W. Bush charged a speaking fee to appear before a veterans charity while having neglecting to have done a similar report digging into the millions made in speaking fees by Bill and Hillary Clinton.
By Curtis Houck | April 28, 2015 | 5:46 PM EDT
CNN’s Brooke Baldwin suggested during the Tuesday afternoon edition of CNN Newsroom that U.S. military veterans who become police officers were to blame for the recent string of violence involving police officers in that they return home “from war” and are “ready to do battle.” Baldwin recalled a conversation with a Baltimore City councilman about police officers not living “in the communities” they represent when she remarked that: “I love our nation's veterans, but some of them are coming back from war, they don't know the communities, and they're ready to do battle.”
By Curtis Houck | April 9, 2015 | 11:09 PM EDT
On Thursday night, the top English and Spanish broadcast networks made no mention of the latest surrounding the Department of Veterans Affairs scandal as an Associated Press (AP) investigation found that the number of delays for veterans seeking care has not improved as the scandal approaches its first anniversary.
By Curtis Houck | March 9, 2015 | 11:14 PM EDT
The Indianapolis Star reported on Monday that it had obtained emails from an employee at the Indianapolis VA hospital who mocked returning combat veterans who were facing mental health issues and committed suicide. On Monday night, both the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley and NBC Nightly News failed to cover this story.
By Curtis Houck | February 24, 2015 | 1:06 AM EST
In an interview with The Huffington Post published on Monday night, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert McDonald admitted to falsely claiming in a segment on January 30's CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley on January 30 that he had served in U.S. Army Special Forces during his service from mid-1970s to 1980.
McDonald retracted what he had told a homeless veteran in Los Angeles by saying, in part, that “I have no excuse,” “I was not in special forces,” and had “no intent in any way to describe my record any different than it is.”
MSNBC Panel Uses Bush Bike Ride With Wounded Veterans to Blast Former President, Joke About 'Bush-isms'
By Andrew Lautz | June 1, 2013 | 10:34 AM EDT Former President George W. Bush has kept a low profile in his years after office, preferring to focus on personal reflection and veterans' causes since leaving the presidency in 2009. But that didn't keep a left-wing panel on MSNBC from using Bush's recent bike ride with wounded veterans to blast his presidency, though.
Alex Wagner, who anchors the noontime Now program on the Lean Forward network, introduced a segment on Friday's program about Bush's annual mountain bike ride with wounded veterans around his ranch in Texas. But she quickly turned the nonpartisan cause into a sneering criticism of the former president's intelligence and decision-making, with nary a word of praise for the charity work: