NewsBusters Podcast: Downplaying the Cocaine Keystone Kops

July 14th, 2023 10:06 PM

The Secret Service concluded on Thursday that they couldn’t locate a suspect for this baggy of illegal white powder -- it was cocaine, an illegal drug. MSNBC pundit Andrew Weissman colorfully remarked, the Secret Service looks like it "can't find a dead cow in a closet' – yes, that’s it! This doesn't have to be a Biden scandal story. It's a story of Secret Service incompetence.

ABC and NPR couldn't bother to care about the Secret Service when they could devote time to flooding in Vermont or an actors' strike in Hollywood. PBS did a bland 20 seconds....and then devoted 10 minutes and 43 seconds to  The networks just can't find any energy on stories that could go south for Team Biden.

Then there was the hot House hearing on Wednesday, the first time the GOP majority brought in FBI director Christopher Wray. CBS and NBC couldn't bother to cover that event on their evening newscasts. ABC offered a story slamming the Republicans. These are the same networks that covered every January 6 Committee hearing live and for hours on end. 

A similar pattern happened in the newspapers, where none of the top liberal papers could put the Wray hearing on Page 1. USA Today didn't have it at all on Thursday (they put it inside the paper on Friday). The New York Times put it on A-15, four pages after their lead National section story -- an otter in California who surfs. The Times did have a Congress story on Thursday's front page, with the headline "Far Right Republicans Seek to Defund Ukraine." 

Enjoy the podcast below, or wherever you listen to podcasts.