ABC, CBS, and NBC have shown a disturbing aversion to covering the murder trial of Georgia student Laken Riley by an illegal immigrant. In five days, they spent nearly four times less coverage on the flagship newscasts about Riley versus the manufactured and partisan obsession over the October 27 remark by a pro-Trump comedian that Puerto Rico was a “floating island of garbage.”
From Friday, November 15 through Tuesday, November 19, the networks dedicated 20 minutes and 33 seconds to the Riley trial across their top morning and evening newscasts and Sunday morning talk shows.
That paled in comparison to the nearly 78 minutes (77:42) whining about the so-called joke from Tony Hinchcliffe during President Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally. To capture an equal number of newscasts, NewsBusters included coverage from October 27 to November 1.
CBS led the way with 31 minutes and 25 seconds on what one could be refer to as garbage-gate, thanks in part to a lengthy segment by correspondent Lilia Luciano (which aired on both CBS Mornings and the CBS Evening News) hoping Hinchcliffe’s remark would cause fellow Puerto Ricans and Hispanics writ large to abandon Trump.
ABC came in second with nearly 24 minutes (23:42) and NBC only a minute behind (22:35).
As we wrote at the time, the networks were apoplectic about the Trump rally and Hinchcliffe’s quip, which ABC’s Good Morning America deemed “dark,” “filled with grievances,” “incendiary,” “outright racist,” “profane,” and “vulgar.”
When President Biden referred to Trump supporters on October 29 as the real “garbage,” the networks were trapped in conceding Biden committed a gaffe but blamed Hinchcliffe for having started this hullabaloo.
As for Riley’s murder at the hands of a reported Tren de Aragua member, ABC’s newscasts — Good Morning America and World News Tonight — fetched nearly half the total at eight minutes and 19 seconds.
Between CBS’s newscasts CBS Mornings and the CBS Evening News, Riley’s trial drew only six minutes and 34 seconds.
NBC fell even further back with a measly five minutes and 40 seconds over five days on Today and NBC Nightly News.
Worse yet, only three of the five days received coverage. Nothing from the Sunday morning talk shows (ABC’s This Week, CBS’s Face the Nation, and NBC’s Meet the Press).
The November 15 NBC Nightly News clutched its pearls when covering the trial, boasting that the illegal immigrant’s defense attorney whined “people have used this case for their own personal gave gain, financial gain, political gain.”
The show also pointed to a March interview Riley’s father did with NBC in which he said he’s “angry” his “daughter’s name” has been brought up in our political sphere. Correspondent Priya Sridhar conveniently left out that Riley’s mother and stepfather attended a Trump rally and blamed the country’s open southern border for Laken’s death.
Thanks to The Atlantic and The New York Times, the coverage on ABC, CBS, and NBC of John Kelly’s anti-Trump media crusade also towered over Riley’s trial with over three times more coverage.
Kelly’s declaration of Trump being a fascist and Hitler enthusiast drew nearly 65 minutes (64:39) on the morning, evening, and Sunday morning news programs with a remarkable 60 percent of that tally (39:05) coming courtesy of the assiduous Trump haters at ABC.
At least Riley’s name was mentioned by ABC, CBS, and NBC. Searches on Nexis and Snapstream revealed two other young women allegedly murdered by illegal immigrants — Rachel Morin and Jocelyn Nungaray — yielded few results on the flagship morning, evening, and Sunday political talk shows.
Along with both women having been mentioned on the June 21 and October 16 NBC Nightly News, Morin came up June 16 on CBS’s Face the Nation. At the Republican National Convention, all three carried President Trump’s acceptance speech, which had a passage memoralizing them as victims of the border crisis.
Two days earlier, family members spoke of their memories, which ABC and CBS had the decency to air.
One could argue history had repeated itself. 11 years ago, the murder trial of Phildelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell received scant attention on these same networks and the liberal media writ large. Then-Washington Post Sarah Kliff said it all, deeming it merely a “local crime” story.
