Political Scandals

After softening her coverage of the Hillary Clinton email scandal on Monday's NBC Nightly News, on Tuesday's Today, correspondent Andrea Mitchell tried to excuse Clinton's initial unwillingness to address the controversy: "She may be reluctant because of what happened in April 1994. Under pressure, she held a White House news conference about an Arkansas land deal, it led to more investigations."

During Monday’s NBC Nightly News, Andrea Mitchell hit Hillary Clinton hard over her email scandal and the millions the Clinton Foundation had received from foreign governments, but still found time to fawn over “a path-breaking speech” Clinton gave “in Beijing 20 years ago” on women’s rights and her “extraordinary” levels of support among Democratic voters.

The Indianapolis Star reported on Monday that it had obtained emails from an employee at the Indianapolis VA hospital who mocked returning combat veterans who were facing mental health issues and committed suicide. On Monday night, both the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley and NBC Nightly News failed to cover this story.

Appearing on MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports on Monday, longtime Democratic operative and Clinton adviser James Carville bizarrely claimed press coverage of the Hillary Clinton email scandal was just part of some right-wing plot: "All of this is just the same cockamamie stuff that we go through. The [New York] Times gets something from some right-wing talking points, they print the story....It's…

David Corn of mucho-left Mother Jones was the object of considerable ire for going after Bill O'Reilly in what Rush and others saw as attempted tit-for-tat over Brian Williams' inventions.  But credit Corn when it's due: he is now speaking out about how Hillary's camp is in a "defensive crouch" over her email in which Hillary's people have told him and other members of the press things that "are…

NBC and ABC barely covered the possible corruption case against Democratic Senator Robert Menendez on their Friday evening newscasts. Together, the two networks set aside 49 seconds of air time to news briefs on Senator Menendez being "the subject of a corruption investigation over jet trips he took on the private plane of a Florida eye doctor," as Lester Holt put it on NBC Nightly News.

Who said the Hillary email story is "a lot ado about nothing": a. Mika Brzezinski; b. Lawrence O'Donnell; or c. Michael Steele? You'd be forgiven for choosing a. or b., but it turns out that Mika said that the way Hillary handled the matter "wasn't honest" and O'Donnell said that Hillary's email system was set up "to defy" the Freedom of Information Act.  The correct answer is indeed c., Michael…

On Friday, MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell observed that the Republican-led Benghazi investigation gained credibility in the wake of the Hillary Clinton email scandal that it uncovered: "Well, the Benghazi investigation by the Select Committee was viewed by many as overkill. That it had all been cleared up back two years ago. And the fact is that some people, certainly the partisans for Hillary…

CBS News contributor and Republican pollster Frank Luntz convened a focus group on Hillary Clinton that aired on Friday’s CBS This Morning and while many expressed their frustration with the possible 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, Luntz failed to mention both Clinton’s email scandal and questions surrounding the Clinton Foundation. As opposed to asking about these important stories,…

"This wasn't honest." That's how Mika Brzezinski described Hillary's handling of her email on today's Morning Joe. Mika also admitted that if it were Dick Cheney instead of Hillary, "I'd go crazy." Mika's surprising admission came after Lawrence O'Donnell also made a candid comment, saying "this e-mail system was set up obviously to defy the Freedom of Information Act."

On Thursday night, the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News neglected to mention video that had surfaced earlier in the day of Hillary Clinton attacking the Bush administration in 2007 over their supposed email practices. Instead of mentioning this latest example of hypocrisy by a Clinton, CBS touted a Democratic Congressman who lamented that this story is merely “in the realm of presidential…

Discussing the growing email controversy swirling around Hillary Clinton with Bloomberg Politics managing editor Mark Halperin on Thursday’s NBC Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie suggested it could resurrect another scandal for the would-be 2016 contender: “What about Republicans? This certainly hands them a lot of ammunition and breathes new life, perhaps, into the whole investigation into…

What's wrong with this picture: Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist being tougher on Hillary than ostensible Republican Nicolle Wallace? On today's Morning Joe, former W aide Wallace said that Hillary would wind up releasing all her emails and they would just turn out to be "wedding stuff."  Mika had blasted Hillary for setting up her own servers, and Geist politely pointed out that since Hillary…

NBC Nightly News covered the Hillary Clinton email scandal for a second straight evening with another segment on Wednesday, but it took the position of downplaying the situation by portraying it as political and invoking Republican Jeb Bush’s email usage in comparison. Interim anchor Lester Holt updated “the firestorm over Hillary Clinton’s private emails” by describing those desiring to see them…