As our friends at places like the Daily Caller can tell you, bigger news outlets frequently claim scoops the Caller had reported days, weeks, or even months prior. Such was the case with NewsNation when NBC’s Dateline claimed on Friday it had breaking news about the alleged murderer of four University of Idaho students. The only problem was it was aired nearly a month ago on NewsNation by Chris ‘Fredo’ Cuomo.
The New York Daily News touted Dateline’s supposed scoop aired by Keith Davidson and the NBC team in the episode, “The Killings on King Road”:
New evidence shows that Bryan Kohberger may have infiltrated a woman’s home months before he allegedly carried out November’s slayings of four University of Idaho students, a news report says.
Kohberger befriended a woman, snuck into her home and moved items around before convincing her to let him install a video security system, a recent report by NBC’s “Dateline” says.
Kohberger and the woman were both students at Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. when he reportedly moved around items in her home to make her feel uneasy and fearful.
When the woman asked Kohberger — unaware that he may have been the perpetrator — Kohberger convinced her to install the video security system.
Along with NBC affiliates, said scoop was also picked up by the Idaho Statesman, the New York Post, Raleigh’s News & Observer, TMZ, and the U.K’s Independent.
Rewind to April 20 and said bombshell on NewsNation. As the host of the 8:00 p.m. Eastern hour, Cuomo delivered the update on Kohberger as a stalker in one of two scoops:
A female WSU associate of Kohberger’s confided in him that someone had broken into her apartment and asked Kohnberger for advice on installing a home security system. We've learned that law enforcement is suspicious of whether Kohberger was the one who broke into his colleagues home and as to whether he used the surveillance equipment to stalk her.
NewsNation’s other scoop that night outlined how Kohberger was fired from being a teaching assistant for how he graded female students compared to men.
Cuomo explained that Kohnberger also “often made condescending and sexist comments toward women” and, taken together, “several students complained about Kohberger’s rank sexism to the school — caused WSU to conduct a harassment training seminar, according to somebody who had to be part of it.”
So, while Dateline could argue they may have confirmed and fleshed out more details on whether Kohberger was the man who stalked the woman, they should have given NewsNation the credit, no matter their stature.
