EDITOR’S NOTE, February 16, 2024: On February 15, Justice Department Counsel David Weiss indicted FBI informant Alexander Smirnov on two felony counts of making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record for claims made to the bureau. The charges are in relation to June 2020 FD-1023 form alleging President Joe Biden and son Hunter Biden received a combined $10 million in a bribery scheme involving the Ukrainian energy company, Burisma.
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Through four days and three installments each of the flagship morning and evening news shows on the major broadcast networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC have eagerly doled out astounding 162 minutes and 16 seconds through Friday morning salivating over the third criminal indictment of former President Trump that has the potential to either land him in prison or propel him to the White House in 2024.
These numbers represent a network tally that is 19 times larger than what these same networks gave (eight minutes and 32 seconds) to Monday’s closed-door House Oversight Committee hearing featuring Hunter Biden’s former business partner, Devin Archer.
The indictment of a former President is undoubtedly a huge story, but scant attention for a person heavily involved in Hunter Biden’s life of ruin amid allegations of bribery involving Burisma, where both Archer and Hunter were on the board? Of course, the networks don’t have any time for the bribery claim.
Circling back to the 162 minutes number, it marked massive increase of over 50 minutes (50:19) from Thursday morning ahead of Trump’s arraignment inside a federal courtroom in Washington D.C.
ABC added the most to their total with 19 minutes and 19 seconds to nearly an hour from Tuesday night through Friday morning at 58 minutes and seven seconds.
On Good Morning America, chief Justice correspondent Pierre Thomas led off with a recap of the “surreal day” and the arraignment serving as “a dramatic sign that...the stakes” surrounding Trump’s legal drama are “incredibly high.”
He also reiterated a point he made on Wednesday, which was that the possible trial of Trump for his January 6 conduct is “the most consequential case every brought by the Department of Justice.”
NBC remained in second place with 53 minutes and 37 seconds overall following 16 minutes and 29 seconds between Thursday’s NBC Nightly News and Friday’s Today.
On the latter, future Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker knocked most of Trump’s 2024 GOP rivals for “literally ignoring the elephant in the room” by refusing to go along with Special Counsel Jack Smith’s charges. Welker also eagerly promoted the fact that Trump’s numerous upcoming trials will ensure it’s “much harder for his Republican rivals to break through.”
CBS continued to have substantial coverage of Trump, but nonetheless slipped further behind with 14 minutes and 31 seconds added for a grand total of 49 minutes and 52 seconds.
Longtime CBS News personality John Dickerson was brought in for analysis on both the CBS Evening News and CBS Mornings. On the latter, he questioned whether America’s “legal system” can “handle” the Trump trials since “the political system is very chaotic in America” (with the implicit nod that America’s solely in the dumps because of Republicans, in Dickerson’s mind) and the legal system doesn’t look kindly to “madness” akin to “bringing a horse into the living room.”
Coverage the liberal media have dreamt of was made possible thanks to advertisers such as Allstate (on ABC), Dove (on CBS), and IBM (on NBC). Follow the links to see their contact information at the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
