The big Trump news story on Wednesday night and Thursday morning was the intensely hostile grilling he received at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago. Unsurprisingly, the networks pounced on Trump’s trolling claims that Kamala Harris used to identify by an Indian heritage, and then decided she was black. Norah O'Donnell at CBS led like Dan Rather was scripting it:
CBS opens: "We start tonight with a fact-check. The Vice President's heritage is both Indian and Jamaican. But that didn't stop the Republican presidential nominee from accusing her of downplaying parts of her identity during the combative interview in front of a jeering crowd." pic.twitter.com/HwXs0QgTr8
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) August 1, 2024
But what did they omit?
-- Kamala Harris skipped the black journalist convention, while Trump appeared. All the networks ran lots of commentary from Biden’s press secretary, and Harris, and Harris campaign statements, but mostly skipped the fact that Kamala skipped. On the Big Three, only on the CBS Evening News did reporter Nikole Killian briefly note “The vice president is in talks to address the NABJ in September.”
The PBS News Hour had a sentence from Lisa Desjardins: “ Vice President Harris isn't expected at the journalists' convention, but is in talks to speak to NABJ members in September.” NPR’s All Things Considered and Morning Edition made no mention in their biased takedowns.
The newspapers were also lame on this point. The New York Times noted it in paragraph 24, The Washington Post in paragraph 31, and The Wall Street Journal omitted it.
-- Harris has skipped all interviews and press conferences. The networks eagerly run clips of her Teleprompter speeches and repeat her campaign's press statements, but there's no mention of Harris hiding from the press since she undemocratically emerged as Biden's successor on the "Democrat" side.
-- Most skipped the obnoxious opening question from ABC's Rachel Scott, especially ABC! NBC's Today ran the question in full. In both the evening and the morning, Scott's stories honed in on her pushy questions about Kamala Harris being a "DEI hire" as she refused to answer his question about what "DEI" means.
On CBS Tuesday night, Nikole Killion lamented: “One question in, the former president quickly panned one of the moderators who asked about some of his past comments….denigrating people of color and black journalists.” In between, she ran a clip of Trump asking in 2011 when Obama will release his birth certificate, and a brief snippet of Trump in 2018 accusing reporter Yamiche Alcindor of asking a "racist question." Viewers would have no idea what the question was.
(Alcindor asked: "On the campaign trail, you called yourself a nationalist. Some people saw that as emboldening white nationalists.")
NBC’s Garrett Haake skipped the Scott speech on the Nightly News, but concluded his report with out-of-context spin: “Trump [is] defiant tonight blasting the questions at that event as rude and nasty, while a source close to the Harris campaign describes them as painful and completely unhinged. Lester.”
On PBS, Lisa Desjardins began: "it quickly turned combative with ABC's Rachel Scott," and then only played Trump.
NPR's All Things Considered refused to consider airing Scott's opening assault. Another so-called NABJ "moderator" (inquisitor?), Kadia Goba, complained "I was very surprised at the vitriol at the very beginning. It was very -- it was quite unsettling and kind of set the tone for a very aggressive panel."
Excuse me? Who set the tone at the top? How bizarre. NPR host Ailsa Chang replied "Can I play a tape of that?" And then she played only Trump's response!
