On Good Morning America Tuesday morning, ABC characterized the Clinton camp’s repeated attacks against the presumptive Republican nominee as simply a “bold move.” Anchor Robin Roberts noted, “Hillary Clinton’s bold move addressing the NAACP” as Republicans “hold their convention right down the road” was typically “a time when opposing candidates usually tone their attacks.” Instead of spinning this in a negative way like they would with a Republican candidate, ABC portrayed Clinton as a trailblazer instead.
On Good Morning America Tuesday morning, ABC characterized the Clinton camp’s repeated attacks against the presumptive Republican nominee as simply a “bold move.” Anchor Robin Roberts noted, “Hillary Clinton’s bold move addressing the NAACP” as Republicans “hold their convention right down the road” was typically “a time when opposing candidates usually tone their attacks.” Instead of spinning this in a negative way like they would with a Republican candidate, ABC portrayed Clinton as a trailblazer instead.
The chyron read, “Hillary Clinton’s unprecedented attacks” as Roberts opened the segment touting Clinton’s “bold move” to campaign negatively while the Republican National Convention was underway. Reporter Cecilia Vega also noted that “Hillary Clinton isn’t giving up the spotlight” to Republicans, and “her army of supporters” were behind her “launching rapid-fire responses to Republican attacks.” Vega added, there were more than two dozen more than Clinton staffers “right there on the ground in Cleveland” for “this counter convention of their own” “that they'll be launching every single day of this convention.”
The ABC report also gave Clinton airtime by playing several clips of her bashing Trump during her speech.
George Stephanopoulos ended the segment by claiming that the Republicans will would do the same thing in Philadelphia during the DNC. Which is probably true, but will ABC portray the Trump camp as “bold” and unrelenting like they did for Clinton?
NBC’s Today show took a similar approach, with Savannah Guthrie reporting that Clinton was “breaking with tradition” before also reciting Clinton’s attacks made against Trump during her speech to the NAACP.
It will be interesting to see if any of the Trump camp’s attacks against Hillary Clinton during the DNC next week get equal play and are portrayed in the same way.
