NBC Nightly News

The dramatic collapse of gas prices is one story the news media didn’t see coming. In fact, as recently as June 2014, network news anchors and reporters were still talking about the prospect of $5 gasoline. It turns out the media aren’t very good fortune tellers, and when it comes to gas prices they were wrong this time, just as many new outlets had gotten it wrong years earlier.

None of the Big Three networks' evening newscasts on Friday covered the shooting of an American citizen in eastern Saudi Arabia earlier in the day. A Friday item by Reuters reported that "a vehicle carrying two U.S. citizens came under fire in the Eastern Province district of al-Ahsa, one of the main centers of Saudi Arabia's minority Shi'ites."

On Thursday night, the major broadcast networks declined to cover reports that one of the five Taliban detainees swapped for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in May 2014 has been seeking to rejoin the terrorism ranks by contacting Taliban members back in Afghanistan. The news, which was broken by CNN Thursday afternoon, came following reports on Wednesday from Fox News and NBC News that the Army could be…

The U.S. Senate took the step Thursday of approving the Keystone XL oil pipeline in a bipartisan fashion by a margin of 62-to-36, with nine Democrats joining 53 Republicans to pass it for the first time after failing to do so under the previous Congress.  When the major English and Spanish language networks aired their Thursday evening newscasts, however, the news of the bill’s passage was…

During the daily White House press briefing on Wednesday, Deputy Spokesman Eric Schultz had an exchange with ABC News chief White House correspondent Jonathan Karl where he declined to label the Taliban as a terrorist organization, instead insisting it's “an armed insurgency.” In an admission that surely would be covered if it were uttered by a spokesman for a Republican president, the “big…

Tuesday marked the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and, naturally, the event attracted plenty of media coverage. In addition to each of the three major networks devoting segments to it on their evening newscasts, both The Washington Post and The New York Times published stories on the topic.  Over on cable, CNN covered it multiple times throughout the day for a total of 10…

In a reversal of a key proposal from his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama moved on Tuesday to drop the plan to tax 529 college-savings accounts after outcry from members of both parties and a direct appeal on Air Force One from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). When it came to the networks covering this backtracking by the President on this deeply unpopular idea…

This week, as President Obama gives his State of the Union address, NBC's Brian Williams touts the "generosity" of his plan for "free college for millions," even as NBC morning host Matt Lauer slaps Republicans for their "pettiness" and "disrespect" for applauding Obama's statement that he cannot run for President again. Also, Bryant Gumbel growls about the "pigs" in the National Rifle…

On Thursday night, the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC each covered the news that the United States-backed government in Yemen had fallen after rebels stormed the capital city of Sana’a and surrounded the presidential palace on Tuesday.  While the networks gave this story airtime, they only gave it to the tune of one minute and 59 seconds and avoided any mention of how President Obama had, just…

The three major networks have, so far, devoted a staggering 67 minutes and 49 seconds to obsessing over every aspect of whether the New England Patriots cheated in their AFC championship win on Sunday. Yet, only ABC allowed a scant 34 seconds to the Obama administration's release of five terrorists out of Guantanamo Bay and back to areas connected with extremist violence.

Talking to a Cuban woman in Havana, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams despaired Wednesday night over what an influx of American tourists would mean to the wonders of the communist “revolution” with its 50-plus year-old cars: “When Americans are here and planes and hotels and the cars are 2015 cars and not 1958 cars, what happens to the revolution?”

NBC News senior White House correspondent Chris Jansing did her best to provide some White House spin during Wednesday’s NBC Nightly News, hailing President Obama as “an energized, combative President” whose policies made for a “carefully choreographed, populist message with the details generally panned by Republicans.” Also within her report, Jansing found time to chide House Speaker John…

In conjunction with the U.S. diplomatic delegation arriving in Cuba on Wednesday for talks with the Communist regime, ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir and NBC Nightly News went out of their way to all but again ignore the brutal past of the Castro government  and instead stage unapologetic promotions of the country that lies 93 miles to America’s south. All told, NBC Nightly News spent a…

Debate in the Senate over the Keystone XL Pipeline is expected to heat up this week, but the popular project has yet to pique the interest of the Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) network evening news shows.