NBC Nightly News was the sole Big Three network evening newscast on Friday to cover the controversy surrounding Justice Antonin Scalia's comments during oral arguments in an affirmative action case. Both Lester Holt and Pete Williams spotlighted how "gasps were heard inside the Supreme Court this week over something said by Justice Antonin Scalia." Williams zeroed in how "some called the comments racist. Others said, he was just plain wrong."
Pete Williams
By Kyle Drennen | November 10, 2015 | 12:23 PM EST
On Tuesday, all three network morning shows recited identical liberal talking points on President Obama’s unconstitutional executive order granting amnesty to illegal immigrants being overturned by a federal appeals court. On Monday’s Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie fretted: “A federal appeals court has dealt a major new blow to President Obama’s plan to protect millions of people from being deported.”
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.
ABC Ignores Hillary’s E-Mail Server Scandal; Hypes Trump on Illegals, Rubio Hitting Boy with Football
By Curtis Houck | August 19, 2015 | 11:10 PM EDT ABC’s World News Tonight chose to ignore on Wednesday the latest on the Hillary Clinton e-mail server scandal to instead continue obsessing over video of a little boy being hit in the head with a football after missing a pass from Republican Senator and presidential candidate Marco Rubio (Fl.) in Iowa. After the networks spent 18 seconds on Tuesday night and two minutes and 43 seconds Wednesday morning on the video, anchor David Muir spent another 18 seconds promoting “one unscripted moment from the campaign trail” with the football from Rubio.
By Curtis Houck | August 18, 2015 | 9:45 PM EDT
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.”
By Matthew Balan | June 27, 2015 | 1:07 AM EDT
On Friday, ABC's World News Tonight aired a completely one-sided report on the Supreme Court's ruling that legalized same-sex "marriage" in all 50 states. Terry Moran hyped how Justice Anthony Kennedy "wrote today's landmark opinion describing the stakes in this case in the loftiest terms." Moran failed to include any soundbites from social conservative opponents of the decision, and hyped how "Justice Scalia, in a rage, scorning Kennedy's poetic opinion as little more than a 'fortune cookie.'"
By Connor Williams | June 26, 2015 | 11:28 AM EDT
On June 26, following the Supreme Court’s decision to grant a constitutional right to marry for gay couples, NBC News broke in to cheer on the ruling. Pete Williams labeled it a historic ruling and fought back tears while reporting the 5-4 decision to Savannah Guthrie.
By Curtis Houck | June 25, 2015 | 11:23 PM EDT
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.”
ABC Touts ‘Sea Change’ in Support for Gay Marriage; NBC Profiles Gay Marriage Supreme Court Plaintiffs
By Curtis Houck | April 28, 2015 | 9:42 PM EDT All three of the network evening newscasts offered coverage on Tuesday of the Supreme Court’s oral arguments regarding the gay marriage that was proclaimed to be a “landmark case” that was certain to produce “a watershed ruling” on “marriage equality.” On ABC’s World News Tonight, anchor David Muir began the show’s coverage by declaring the “landmark case” will answer whether or not “gay couples have the constitutional right to marry in all 50 states” while using ABC News polling data to tout “a sea change” from a decade ago.
By Kyle Drennen | April 28, 2015 | 11:25 AM EDT
Ahead of Tuesday's Supreme Court hearing on gay marriage, all three network morning shows hailed the "landmark cases" involved in the "historic arguments." On CBS This Morning, correspondent Jan Crawford proclaimed: "You know, for many people this is the civil rights issue of our time, whether or not gays and lesbians are going to be treated equally and allowed to marry just like heterosexual in every state in the nation."
By Curtis Houck | April 1, 2015 | 9:51 PM EDT
While all three of the major broadcast networks covered the indictment of Democratic Senator Robert Menendez (N.J.) on Wednesday night, the CBS Evening News chose to largely downplay the news by spending just 22 seconds on the story and hailed Menendez as someone “who often seems to relish a fight.” Additionally, the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC all made sure to mention that Menendez is a Democrat, but stopped there and declined to label him a liberal or progressive.
By Curtis Houck | March 4, 2015 | 10:30 PM EST
Continuing the standard set by NBC’s Today, on Wednesday night the major broadcast networks played up the fears that “health care coverage for millions” might be lost and “could doom ObamaCare” if the U.S. Supreme Court, in a case heard on Wednesday, rules against the federal government and its federal subsidies. ABC and NBC used covert liberal activists, with ABC turning to an ABC News contributor who served as an Assistant Counsel to President Obama and NBC interviewing a man who had joined an amicus curaie brief in support of ObamaCare at the appellate level.