MRC Alert: NBC Continues Blackout of Latest VA Hearing, Highlights Giant African Snails Instead

1. NBC Continues Blackout of Latest VA Hearing, Highlights Giant African Snails Instead

On Monday night, the House Veterans Affairs Committee held a highly contentious hearing featuring Allison Hickey, chief of the VA’s benefits division and VA whistleblower Kristen Ruell. Despite the new details in the VA scandal, NBC has yet to acknowledge the hearings’ existence on any of its morning or evening news broadcasts. The evening of Tuesday, July 15 saw only the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley cover the VA scandal, with both ABC’s World News with Diane Sawyer and NBC Nightly News ignoring the congressional hearing. During their Tuesday morning newscasts, ABC’s Good Morning America gave the VA hearing a mere 23 seconds whereas NBC’s Today continued its tradition of ignoring the testimony. More: http://www.mrc.org/biasalerts/nbc-continues-blackout-latest-va-hearing-highlights-giant-african-snails-instead

2. NBC Ignores VA Whistle-Blower Hearing; ABC Gives News Only 23 Seconds

On Tuesday morning, NBC’s Today refused to cover the latest news in the Veterans Affairs scandal as the House Veterans Affairs Committee heard testimony Monday night from additional whistle-blowers who faced punishment from superiors for identifying allegedly manipulated response times for veterans who filed benefit and disability claims. Coverage of the latest news saw only two minutes and 26 seconds of air time total with only 23 seconds of that from ABC’s Good Morning America. Meanwhile, CBS This Morning spent two minutes and three seconds on the story during the 7:00 a.m. hour. More: http://www.mrc.org/biasalerts/nbc-ignores-va-whistle-blower-hearing-abc-gives-news-only-23-seconds

3. NBC Reporter Acts As Hamas Spokesman, Denies Terror Group Uses Civilians As Human Shields

Reporting from the Gaza Strip during MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports on July 14, NBC foreign correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin, formerly of Al Jazerra and CNN, parroted Hamas denials that it deliberately placed missile batteries in civilian buildings in Gaza: “They definitely reject the labeling of using civilians as human shields….Hamas military wing people that we’ve been speaking to and others – not just on these past few days, but in the past several years, because this is an issue that always comes up against Hamas – they will say that this is the nature of the battlefield that they have to fight in. That this is not an issue by design, but as a reality of what Gaza is like because it’s so densely populated.” More: http://www.mrc.org/biasalerts/nbc-reporter-acts-hamas-spokesman-denies-terror-group-uses-civilians-human-shields