On May 26, Vice President JD Vance announced that the Trump administration’s anti-fraud task force had recovered $160 billion in COVID-19 relief funds, student aid, and small-business loans.
This is taxpayer money that was supposed to go to deserving recipients but instead went to scammers and con artists.
Sadly but not unpredictably, this major announcement was not covered by any of the Big Three networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) on their evening or morning news programs.
Several high-profile cases unfolded during the past month, but also drew very little coverage:
- The sentencing of Aimee Bock — the former leader of the Feeding Our Future nonprofit in Minnesota — to 42 years in prison for “orchestrating a $250 million pandemic relief fraud scheme.”
- The capture of Minnesota fraud suspect Muhammad Omar, who jumped from a building while fleeing arrest.
MRC analysts examined ABC, CBS, and NBC evening and morning news programs from May 1 through June 1 and found that the Big Three networks devoted a scant 7 minutes and 12 seconds of coverage to stories involving arrests and/or sentencing of fraud suspects.
ABC was the worst offender, offering just a 28-second brief on the Bock sentencing that aired on the May 21 edition of World News Tonight. NBC was not much better, airing only one 104-second segment on the Bock sentencing and Omar arrest on the May 21 edition of NBC Nightly News. CBS spent the most time on taxpayer-fraud stories during the month, totaling five minutes.
The May 21 edition of CBS Evening News and the May 22 edition of CBS Mornings covered the Minnesota cases. Additionally, the May 14 edition of CBS Mornings featured a report on Vice President JD Vance and Medicare Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz announcing that they were “deferring $1.3 billion” in Medicaid reimbursements to California because the state had not done enough to crack down on fraud.
While the newly-fired and remaining staff CBS’s ‘60 Minutes’ continue to scream I AM SPARTACUS at editor-in-chief @BariWeiss, @CBSMornings kept up its ongoing commitment to spotlighting entitlement fraud, specifically in Gavin Newsom’s California.
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) June 1, 2026
Correspondent Adam Yamaguchi… pic.twitter.com/O2u7CFKnZa
On June 1, CBS Mornings correspondent Adam Yamaguchi profiled California fraudster Paul Randall, who pleaded guilty this year to submitting more than $270 million in fraudulent Medi-Cal claims. The story noted that Randall had spent taxpayer money on “a dozen Ferraris, Lamborghinis, a Bugatti,” as well as “Kobe Bryant game-worn sneakers and baseball cards of Jackie Robinson and Mickey Mantle.”
For this study, MRC analysts examined the broadcast evening newscasts (ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News) and morning news programs (Good Morning America, CBS Mornings, and Today) from May 1 through June 1.
