David Muir
Following Israel’s counterstrike against Iranian military forces in Syria in response to 20 missiles being launched int the Golan Heights late Wednesday into Thursday, ABC’s World News Tonight took to the airwaves Thursday to paint the United States and Israel as the cause of the confrontation. And meanwhile, on NBC Nightly News, chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel warned that the U.S.’s Israel embassy relocation to Jerusalem could push the Middle East “over the edge.”
There was great news out of the Korean Peninsula Wednesday as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo retrieved the three Americans the North Korea arrested on trumped up charges going as far back as 2015. The North Korean regime released the hostages from their labor camps as a good faith measure ahead of the historic summit with the United States. Despite the wonderful news, ABC felt the need to rain on everyone’s parade and bring up the anti-American backlash from Iran over the Iran deal.
Late last week, ABC, CBS and CNN gave attention to cell phone video in Miami which seemed to show a police officer kicking a car theft suspect in the head after he had surrendered. Now that more video has been released which reveals that the incident was not nearly as bad as it appeared because the officer was just pretending to kick him, only the CBS Evening News has taken the time to update viewers on this important twist in the story.
It took former Democratic New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman three hours to resign Monday night after accusations arose alleging he would violently strike his girlfriends without their consent. But throughout ABC World News Tonight’s two minutes and 21 seconds report on the situation, there was not a single mention of the fact that he was an elected Democrat. In contrast, both CBS and NBC noted that important detail.
President Trump fulfilled his campaign promise to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal Tuesday, much to the screeching of the liberal media and world leaders. All three of the major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) began their evening news broadcasts in a tailspin, appalled by the President defying our allies, shattering our credibility as a country, and possibly leading us into a war. They each ran not one but two segments hyperventilating about the pull out. And a common theme was how it was damaging Obama’s legacy.
First Lady Melania Trump held a White House gathering in the Rose Garden on Monday to launch her new ‘Be Best’ campaign focused on the well-being of children, the opioid crisis, and the positive usage of social media. Of course, the liberal media can’t let a good opportunity to bash the President go to waste. Instead of focusing on the First Lady’s initiative, ABC spent twice the time in their report questioning her marriage amid the Stormy Daniels saga. And on NBC, they spent more time talking about how hypocritical it was for her to care about cyberbullying considering who her husband was.
CNBC’s on-air editor Rick Santelli reacted to the April consumer confidence numbers positively, but the same night ABC, CBS and NBC evening news programs all ignored the latest update of consumer attitudes toward the economy, as did their Spanish-language counterparts, Univision and Telemundo. “Some breaking news: Consumer confidence, we are looking for a read on April and the number is 128.7, sequentially following 127 [in March]. This is a really good number. 128 and change is the best level since February's 130. 130 was best level going back to the year 2000. Very lofty levels indeed,” Santelli said during Squawk on the Street on April 24.
On the Friday broadcast network evening newscasts, ABC’s World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News played the role of faithful PR representatives for the Democratic National Committee (DNC), giving legitimacy and life to a DNC lawsuit seeking to somehow avenge their 2016 election losses and lay blame on, among others, the Russian government.
Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s retirement went from bad to worse on Thursday as the Bureau’s Inspector General brought his case to federal prosecutors with a criminal referral. McCabe was fired in March after an IG investigation found he had lied to investigators about leaks to the press during the Clinton e-mail investigation. When it came to reporting the damning news that evening, NBC Nightly News ignored revelation all together while ABC and CBS gave it less time than his firing.
It was a tale of two protests. After a school walkout against gun violence in March, students across the country organized a pro-life walkout in support of the unborn and pregnant and parenting students. But the networks only covered one of them.
On Tuesday, the Trump administration announced that it would be reapplying a question about citizenship to the 2020 census form, a question that was removed by the Obama administration for 2010’s. While the CBS Evening News didn’t find it newsworthy, both ABC’s World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News dedicated time to stoking fear about the question being asked. They worried it could drive illegal immigrant communities into the shadows and cost Democrats valuable seats in the House.
Giving viewers a preview of their gushy Saturday coverage for the pro-gun control March for Our Lives, NBC Nightly News willfully played the role of stenographer for the radical students and their incendiary leader David Hogg, touting the “massive,” “powerful,” and “remarkable” event akin to the Vietnam War protests even though it hasn’t even happened yet.