A day after leaked notes from an August 14 meeting in the White House Situation Room (the day before Kabul fell) were published in full by Axios, the evening news broadcasts of ABC, CBS, and NBC were radio silent on the topic. Perhaps the reason is that the documents only further prove how incompetent the Biden administration was in its handling of the pull-out from Afghanistan.
Instead of covering this revelation, the three networks spent a combined ten minutes and forty-six seconds on the weather forecast despite the fact that viewers can get the weather report for their area immediately after the national broadcasts on their local affiliates.
Fox News' Special Report, which was the only evening newscast to report on the documents, led off their coverage with the following intro from fill-in host John Roberts: "Newly leaked documents show the chaos within the Biden administration during the final hours before the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan's Capitol. The President’s Defense Chief and top diplomat were questioned about the U.S. exit by two Senate committees today."
Roberts then turned to Fox's national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin for more details on the Biden administration's disastrous Afghanistan blunder, as well as the closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill by Biden Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken:
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken were grilled during closed-door Capitol Hill briefings on the Afghanistan withdrawal. The humanitarian disaster that’s followed, and a resurgent ISIS and Al-Qaeda. Leaked notes from a national security deputy's meeting on August 14th one day before Kabul fell, indicate the Biden administration had not yet finalized where to evacuate thousands of Americans and allied Afghans, something the Pentagon had complained privately for months was held up by State Department bureaucracy.
In addition to harming America's national security, the manner in which the Biden administration handled the withdrawal from Afghanistan has also led to the starvation of countless Afghans who are trapped in the war-torn and impoverished country by Taliban rule.
Griffin was quick to report on the dire conditions in that country in the aftermath of the United States' withdrawal "in Afghanistan in the past week, scenes of near-famine and a collapsed economy following the U.S. Withdrawal have led to the following warning from aid groups."
Shelley Thakral of the World Food Program told Griffin that "23 million people don't know where their next meal is coming from. We’re calling this a race against time."
Griffin also let viewers know that "the World Food Program says aid can be channeled through humanitarian organizations to bypass the Taliban. A moral imperative right now it says that's needed to stop this mass starvation."
We shouldn't be surprised the networks ignored these documents since their existence makes their friends in the Biden administration look bad.
This latest example of the liberal network's bias by omission was made possible by the endorsements from Ensure on ABC, Liberty Mutual on CBS, and Allstate on NBC. Their information is linked so you can let them know about the biased news they fund.
To read the relevant transcript from the Fox News Special Report segment click "expand":
FNC’s Special Report
2/2/2022
6:18:59 PMJOHN ROBERTS: Newly leaked documents show the chaos within the Biden administration during the final hours before the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan's Capitol. The President’s Defense Chief and top diplomat were questioned about the U.S. exit by two Senate committees today. National security correspondent Jennifer Griffin reports tonight from the Pentagon.
JENNIFER GRIFFIN: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken were grilled during closed-door Capitol Hill briefings on the Afghanistan withdrawal. The humanitarian disaster that’s followed, and a resurgent ISIS and Al-Qaeda. Leaked notes from a national security deputy's meeting on August 14th one day before Kabul fell, indicate the Biden administration had not yet finalized where to evacuate thousands of Americans and allied Afghans, something the Pentagon had complained privately for months was held up by State Department bureaucracy. The notes obtained by Axios read “State will to identify as many countries as possible to serve as transit points. Transit points need to be able to accommodate U.S. Citizens, Afghan nationals, third-country nationals, and other evacuees.
Is that true that at that late stage preparations had not been made as to where -- where to evacuate Americans and others?
JOHN KIRBY (PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY): In the spring, the Defense Department was already trying to, you know, gaming out what a noncombatant evacuation would look like. And the secretary prepositioned forces well before August. Within 48 hours we were able to get some 3,000 troops on the ground at the Kabul airport.
GRIFFIN: In Afghanistan in the past week, scenes of near-famine and a collapsed economy following the U.S. Withdrawal have led to the following warning from aid groups.
SHELLEY THAKRAL (WORLD FOOD PROGRAM): 23 million people don't know where their next meal is coming from. We’re calling this a race against time.
GRIFFIN: A message amplified in a recent Fox interview with the world food program’s director in Kabul.
MARY-ELLEN MCGROARTY (WORLD FOOD PROGRAM DIRECTOR): It’s at the peak of torment of hunger that they were living through today is worse than any of the war that they have lived through. The humanitarian imperative needs to be separated from the political discussions.
GRIFFIN: The World Food Program says aid can be channeled through humanitarian organizations to bypass the Taliban. A moral imperative right now it says that's needed to stop this mass starvation. John?
ROBERTS: Makes you wonder why if there was so much planning it ended up being such a mess. Jen Griffin at the Pentagon. Jennifer, thank you.
