On Wednesday, ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir was the lone network evening newscast to not mention the news that NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams had been suspended indefinitely for six months without pay.
Instead of allotting time to Williams’s suspension, the program devoted just under two minutes to the ongoing liberal media fawning over Jon Stewart and the announcement that he will be stepping down from the anchor desk of The Daily Show sometime this year.
During the segment that closed out the broadcast, anchor David Muir began by gushing that “[i]t’s hard to imagine late night without him” and “[a]lso hard to believe he’s been at it for 17 years.”
After mentioning that he made the announcement on his Tuesday show, Muir proclaimed how Stewart was always “ready to call out the hypocrisy with hilarity” and “[i]t’s hard to remember The Daily Show before him.”
In the one-minute-and-59-second gooey profile, Muir played up Stewart’s bio and some of his guests over the years and how he was “always building up his team” of Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, and John Oliver with his “guests giving a greater voice.”
While ABC failed to cover Williams (but mentioned Stewart), the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley served up its own segment mourning Stewart’s announcement in addition to a story on Williams’s lies and suspension. Overall, the program gave roughly equal time to each with two minutes and 12 seconds being spent on Williams versus 2 minutes and 9 seconds on Stewart.
Concerning Williams, anchor Scott Pelley stated that NBC News had “taken the unprecedented step” of suspending his NBC counterpart “after a storm of controversy” surrounded the various things he’s said.
CBS News national correspondent Jim Axelrod reported that Williams’s “career would never be the same” once he lied on his January 30 program that a helicopter he was traveling in Iraq in March 2003 was hit and forced down by an RPG.
Axelrod’s report touched on his varying accounts of what happened in Iraq as well as questions over his reporting from Hurricane Katrina and that his name had been removed from the broadcast.
On the subject of Stewart, Pelley hailed Stewart has having “changed the way millions of Americans get their news.” Correspondent Anthony Mason pronounced that “[w]ith ferocious satire, the show skewered ineptitude in the media” and “feasted on hypocrisy in Washington.”
The transcript of the segment that aired on ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir on February 11 can be found below.
ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir
February 11, 2015
6:56 p.m. Eastern
MUIR: It's hard to imagine late night without him. Also hard to believe he's been at it for 17 years. Jon Stewart, revealing at least one thing he'll do next.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: ‘Daily’ Departure; Stewart Leaving ‘The Daily Show’ in 2015]
THE DAILY SHOW ANNOUNCER: February 10th, 2015.
MUIR: 17 years after he started, last night, Jon Stewart began like any other night.
JON STEWART: We got us a program tonight.
MUIR: Ready to call out the hypocrisy with hilarity. It's hard to remember The Daily Show before him.
STEWART: Welcome, welcome to The Daily Show.
MUIR: He grew up in New Jersey, Jonathan Stewart Leibowitz, his mother, a teacher. Parents divorcing at 9. Everywhere today, his greatest hits. The presidents.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: They're not real sexy issues. They’re not the kinds of things that you’re going to –
STEWART: You don't know what I find sexy.
OBAMA: Let me put it this way. I saw you flash that –
STEWART: Yes. Yes
OBAMA: I know what you've been reading.
MUIR: He's done far more than make us laugh. There was his return in the weeks after September 11th.
STEWART: A lot of folks have asked me, what are you going to do when you get back? What are you going to say? Geez, what a terrible thing to have to do and I don't see it as a burden at all. I – I see it at a privilege and – I see it as a privilege.
MUIR: From 9/11 to presidential elections.
STEWART: Aptly “Decided Indecision 2000.”
MUIR: Always building his team. Stephen Colbert. Steve Carrell. John Oliver and his guests, giving a greater voice.
STEWART: Thank you for being here.
MALALA YOUSAFZAI: Thank you so much. It's an honor for me.
STEWART: It is an honor for us. I know me.
MUIR: And last night, he waited until the end, saying he has no plans, just some ideas, and for him, a well-earned moment of zen.
STEWART: I'm going to have dinner on a school night with my family, who, I have heard, from multiple sources, are lovely people.
MUIR: We're going to miss him.
