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.
Brian Ross
By Kyle Drennen | July 9, 2015 | 12:42 PM EDT
On Thursday’s NBC Today, news anchor Natalie Morales seized on criticism of former President George W. Bush giving a paid speech to a veterans charity: “This morning some veterans are criticizing former President George W. Bush for charging a veteran's charity a six-figure fee to speak at a fundraising dinner....NBC News has confirmed the former president accepted $100,000 from them back in 2012.”
By Kyle Drennen | July 7, 2015 | 12:25 PM EDT
On Monday evening, both NBC Nightly News and ABC’s World News Tonight touted President Obama claiming success in the fight against ISIS while ignoring criticism of his strategy. On Nightly News, anchor Lester Holt proclaimed: “A warning today from President Obama, who emerged from a Pentagon briefing and called the fight against ISIS a quote, ‘generational struggle,’ saying it will take time to defeat this enemy.”
By Jeffrey Meyer | May 7, 2015 | 10:29 AM EDT
On Thursday, NBC’s Today was the only “Big Three” (ABC, CBS, NBC) network morning show to skip the ongoing questions surrounding the Clinton Foundation’s practice of taking money from foreign governments and companies that dates back to Hillary Clinton’s tenure at the State Department.
By Curtis Houck | May 6, 2015 | 9:26 PM EDT
After having not covered the Clinton Foundation scandal since April 23, ABC’s World News Tonight finally returned to the story with a full report on its Wednesday broadcast about the Clinton Foundation’s lavish summit in Morocco and how the host owns a mining company that’s been accused of committing human rights violations
By Matt Philbin | January 6, 2015 | 11:54 AM EST
Nearly two years ago, someone planted and detonated a bomb in the crowd at near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Three people were killed and more than 260 injured. Police killed one of the suspects in a shoot-out and, after more shooting, captured his brother in a boat in someone’s backyard.
Jury selection began yesterday in the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and ABC, CBS and NBC on Monday evening and Tuesday morning were careful to explain that, because Tsarnaev is eligible for the death penalty, selection is likely to be long and painstaking.
By Curtis Houck | September 3, 2014 | 9:49 PM EDT
On Wednesday night’s NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams completely missed the mark on President Obama’s mixed signals regarding how his administration intends to deal with the threat of the Islamic terrorist group ISIS and omitted remarks from Obama that ISIS can be contained to the point of being “a manageable problem.”
At the top of the broadcast, Williams made this blatant falsehood: “[F]or all those who may be wondering if the U.S. is going to rise up, take the bait and get into the fight to root them out, the answer today from both the President and Vice President appeared to be clear and unambiguous.” [MP3 audio here; Video below]
By Scott Whitlock | August 1, 2014 | 11:55 AM EDT
Former Bill Clinton operative turned Good Morning America host George Stephanopoulos on Friday spun for his ex-boss in the wake of newly released audio about Osama bin Laden. In the recording from September 10, 2001, Bill Clinton justified not ordering the killing of the terrorist mastermind: "I could have killed him, but I would have had to destroy a little town called Kandahar in Afghanistan and killed 300 innocent women and children and then I would have been no better than him." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]
Talking to Brian Ross, Stephanopoulos touted that the administration "could never be sure bin Laden was there." He highlighted, "And number two, as President Clinton talked about in that tape, the risk of killing innocent civilians." At no time in the segment did Stephanopoulos or Ross offer any criticism of Clinton's decision or question if the Democrat could have stopped 3000 deaths on September 11, 2001.
By Matt Hadro | April 3, 2014 | 7:59 PM EDT
A day late to the game, ABC joined the outrage on Thursday over Wednesday's Supreme Court decision that struck down the limit on political donations.
Investigative correspondent Brian Ross decried the "fancy dinners and luxury yachts...where the super rich decide which politicians get their money, and therefore who has a chance to be elected." He interviewed Democrat consultant Bill Burton who admitted "It's absolutely about the money."
By Scott Whitlock | April 16, 2013 | 12:01 PM EDT
The journalists of Good Morning America on Tuesday pointed a speculative finger in the wake of the Boston bombing. An ABC graphic wondered, "Could this be homegrown terror?" In a segment full of guesses, reporter Pierre Thomas featured leftist Mark Potok, the man who labeled the Family Research Council (FRC) a "hate group."
Regarding the date that the explosion occurred on, Potok linked, "The real Patriots Day is April 19th. That is the date that counts for people on the extreme right in the United States." [See video below. MP3 audio here.] Other than Potok, no other expert voices were featured in the segment. News anchor Josh Elliott backed up Potok's assertions, theorizing, "One big clue could be Monday's date, April 15th. The anniversaries of some of the most harrowing incidents in domestic terror are coming this week." Thomas then went on to highlight David Koresh and the Oklahoma City bombing. The justification? They also happened in April.
By Scott Whitlock | April 2, 2013 | 4:59 PM EDT
It's not often that media outlets ignore their own scoops, but that's what ABC is doing. The network has (thus far) relegated to its website the latest details on the decision by the Obama Defense Department to deny Purple Hearts to the victims of the Fort Hood massacre. The rest of the networks have also skipped this story. ABC "obtained" a Pentagon position paper on the subject, but still failed to give it network coverage.
It was ABC alone that highlighted the story back in February. On February 12, Brian Ross explained the impact of the decision to deny Purple Hearts: "...Former Staff Sgt. Shawn Manning, who still has bullets lodged in his body, says he has lost almost $70,000 in benefits otherwise available to those with combat-related injuries." So far, World News, Nightline and Good Morning America (as well as NBC and CBS) have failed to cover the newest details of the story. In fact, ABC has done nothing since February.
By Ken Shepherd | March 8, 2013 | 5:05 PM EST
Liberal bias in journalism is not just bad for the profession as an abstract concept, it's bad for the bottom line of media companies and their shareholders. That was the argument of one Justin Danhof of the conservative National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) when he attended a Disney shareholders meeting and confronted the entertainment company's CEO Bob Iger about liberal bias at the news division of ABC. "Liberal bias pervades Disney's media outlets" and "it's time to stop denying this bias and start doing something about it," Danhof argued, having cited former ESPN analyst Rob Parker's "cornball brother" crack about black quarterback and alleged Republican Robert Griffin III and ABC News's Brian Ross's infamous episode in which he hinted that Auroroa, Colorado theater shooter James Holmes might be a Tea Party member.
Danhof argued that Disney executives need to take seriously NCPPR's concerns and the concerns of other conservatives who happen to own Disney stock. Danhof appealed not so much to Iger's sense of journalistic integrity but rather the bottom line: Putting out a fairer, more balanced news product may help ABC attract more conservative viewers, and with them, higher ratings and more customers buying products from ABC News program sponsors, leading of course to higher profit margins for Disney. [h/t Huffington Post; Danhof's statement embedded below the page break]