Network Coverage of ‘Scathing’ Benghazi Report Doesn’t Mention Obama’s Name Once While NBC, ABC, and CBS all covered the new Senate Intelligence Committee report blaming the Obama administration for security failures leading up to the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack, none of the coverage on Wednesday’s evening newscasts or Thursday’s morning shows mentioned President Obama by name. At the top of Wednesday’s NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams announced: “…a scathing report just issued by the Senate Intelligence Committee. It says the deaths could have been prevented by better security, better communication….And the State Department, they say, gets most of the blame.” CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley declared: “A critical report tonight blames American diplomats and intelligence officers for failing to prevent the attack on the U.S. Mission in Benghazi, Libya.”

Big Three Censor Obama’s Plea to Congress to Reject New Iran Sanctions; CNN Notices
ABC, CBS, and NBC’s Thursday morning newscasts all punted on covering President Obama’s Wednesday night meeting with Senate Democrats, where he called on them to reject new sanctions on Iran. These same programs, along with the networks’ evening newscasts, also failed to mention the President by name in their reporting on the Senate Intelligence Committee’s “scathing” new report on the 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya. By contrast, Thursday’s New Day on CNN devoted 40 seconds of air time to the chief executive’s plea to his former colleagues in the Senate.

It’s the End of the World as ABC Knows It, Spinning Another Story as ‘Armageddon’

Spinning liberal-friendly stories as the end of the world is a popular thing at ABC. Good Morning America‘s Jim Avila on Wednesday hyped the scandal involving Chris Christie as “traffic armageddon,” a hyperbolic term the network loves. On Saturday, Avila mentioned the “four-day traffic armageddon.” [MP3 audio here.]
As the sequester set in on April 22, 2013, co-anchor George Stephanopoulos freaked out: “Breaking this morning: Airport armageddon. Almost seven thousand flights could be delayed.” On March 1, 2013, a GMA graphic warned of “budget armageddon.” On April 23 reporter Matt Gutman predicted an “airline apocalypse.”

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Eager Chris Matthews Connects TrafficGate: Christie ‘Looks Like’ Richard NixonChris Matthews, always eager for hyperbolic predictions of Republican doom, on Wednesday insisted that Chris Christie’s bridge scandal in New Jersey is pretty much like Richard Nixon’s Watergate. Comparing a severe traffic jam to a scandal that paralyzed the United States government and brought down a President, Matthews suggested, “Well, this is not yet a Watergate, but the more we learn about Chris Christie, the more he does look like Richard Nixon.” [MP3 audio here.]
To make the comparison simple, Matthews played a clip of the New Jersey Republican claiming he wasn’t “a bully” and then showed a clip of Nixon famously defending, “I am not a crook.” Matthews offered, “Not a crook, not a bully.” The host allowed that there is “no direct evidence that ties Christie directly,” but added that “the entire scandal has an eerily familiar ring, doesn’t it?” The graphic for the story wondered, “Tricky Christie?”

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