While Monday’s editions of the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News refused to criticize the Obama administration on ISIS after the fall of Ramadi, the pair did devote time to hyping President Obama’s opening of an official Twitter account (to go along with his campaign account).
In the case of the CBS Evening News, the story received both a tease and fawning news brief as anchor Scott Pelley gushed in the tease that “[n]o sitting president has done what this sitting president did today.”
Pelley led off the 32-second news brief by reporting that the President “test drove his own personal Twitter account today” before reciting to viewers the contents of Obama’s first tweet.
Instead of stopping there, Pelley added that “he already has well over a million followers” with one of them being “former POTUS Bill Clinton, who wondered: ‘Does that username stay with the office #askingforafriend.’”
Over on NBC Nightly News, interim anchor Lester Holt devoted 22 seconds to the following news brief:
On a different note, a few Twitter users got an unusual notification today – you're being followed by the President of the United States. After six years, President Obama has his own personal Twitter handle --@potus, where he is sending his very first tweet, which read: “Hello Twitter! It's Barack. Really! Six years in, they’re finally giving me my own account.”
While CBS and NBC covered Obama’s new social media account, ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir did not cover this story.
As this writer reported earlier on Monday, the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News declined to raise or mention any criticism of the Obama administration’s handling of ISIS following news from over the weekend that the Islamic extremist group had taken control of Anbar Province’s capital city.
The tease and brief from the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley on May 18 are transcribed below.
CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley
May 18, 2015
6:48 p.m. Eastern [TEASE][ON-SCREEN HEADLINE CAPTION: Presidential First]
SCOTT PELLEY: No sitting president has done what this sitting president did today. We'll have the story coming up.
(....)
6:52 p.m. Eastern
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE CAPTION: @POTUS]
PELLEY: President Obama test drove his own personal Twitter account today. In his first tweet, he wrote: “Hello, Twitter. It's Barack. Really! Six years in, they're finally giving me my own account.” It's called POTUS, which is the acronym for President of the United States, and he already has well over a million followers, including former POTUS Bill Clinton, who wondered: “Does that username stay with the office #askingforafriend.”
The transcript of the brief from May 18's NBC Nightly News can be found below.
NBC Nightly News
May 18, 20157:23 p.m. Eastern
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE CAPTION: Now Tweeting]
LESTER HOLT: On a different note, a few Twitter users got an unusual notification today – you're being followed by the President of the United States. After six years, President Obama has his own personal Twitter handle --@potus, where he is sending his very first tweet, which read: “Hello Twitter! It's Barack. Really! Six years in, they’re finally giving me my own account.”
