Category: NBC

NBC Questions Voters but Tells Us Nothing

On February 17, NBC Nightly News was back in Kenosha, Wisconsin—for the second time since the inauguration—to find out what voters are thinking about President Trump’s first 30 days in office. Kenosha County was evenly split in the 2016 presidential election, with less than 300 votes...

ABC Compares Trump Deportations to Obama’s

ABC and CBS covered the deportations around the country after President Trump took office. They each focused on the same woman, but the stories they told were very different. In its Feb. 9 broadcast, CBS featured Guadalupe García de Rayos, a Mexican immigrant living in Phoenix before...

Only NBC, ABC include Democrats’ Response

On Feb. 13, NBC opened with two stories involving national security.  The first questioned whether then-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn broke federal law in late December by discussing possible sanctions against Russia from the Obama administration with a Russian ambassador. The second showed Donald Trump and...

Anatomy of a Failure

Bottom line in the 2016 election: journalists missed the story. From start to finish serious journalists failed to grasp and report Donald Trump’s pull. CNN’s Christiane Amanpour put it this way: We have to accept that we’ve had our lunch handed to us… … The winning...

The Road to the Senate

With less than a week to Election Day, only NBC looked at the Senate power struggle and its effects on the new president’s ability to govern — or not. The network covered the races that could determine which party would control the Senate. The report noted...

Can Networks Cover WikiLeaks but Not Russian Hacking?

CBS has covered Russian hacking more than once following the Oct. 19 presidential debate, when Donald Trump said Hillary Clinton had no idea who was behind cyber attacks against the United States. On Oct. 20, CBS reported that the same Russian-linked hackers who had targeted other...

Is ABC Ignoring the Big Picture?

The final stretch of a presidential race can be chaotic, as last-minute polls can change how people view the election. ABC, NBC and CBS have to cover those polls carefully to avoid the false impression that the race has shifted dramatically just days before Election Day....

Saturday Night Live: Fair Game for Network News

NBC’s Saturday Night Live (SNL) writers are having a field day with the 2016 presidential election. Now the show’s satire is creeping into network news coverage. ABC’s Oct. 24 evening news led with Trump’s declaration he’s winning despite the polls. ABC first highlighted Trump’s difficulties staying...