Following the media frenzy in July over the death of Zimbabwe’s Cecil the Lion, the coverage was decidedly different on Monday evening when ABC’s World News Tonight and the CBS Evening News failed to inform their viewers of the fact that officials in the authoritarian country would not be pressing charges against American dentist Dr. Walter Palmer for shooting Cecil.
Meanwhile, NBC Nightly News did the bare minimum in acknowledging the decision by the authorities in Zimbabwe with a 21-second news brief about Palmer “appear[ing] to be off the hook” after creating “the firestorm over the killing of Cecil the Lion.”
Anchor Lester Holt further explained in the remainder of the brief that:
A Zimbabwe cabinet member said today that country is no longer pressing for the Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer to be extradited there to face poaching charges. Zimbabwe now says all of Dr. Palmer’s papers were in order. He will not be charged with any crime.
Back in July when the networks were obsessed with Cecil the Lion, they were also censoring the horrifying videos by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) exposing the aborted baby parts scandal at Planned Parenthood.
As the Media Research Center’s Katie Yoder reported on July 29, the networks spent more time on the lion in one day then they did on the Planned Parenthood scandal in a span of two weeks:
The three broadcast networks, ABC, NBC and CBS censored the third video released Tuesday by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) exposing Planned Parenthood’s practice of harvesting aborted baby parts -- censored it at Planned Parenthood’s urging. But the news shows did find more than 14 minutes for a more important story: the “outrage” over the shooting of Cecil, a famed African lion, by an American dentist.
Tuesday, the networks spent 5 minutes, 44 seconds during their evening news shows on Cecil – and that’s not even counting the teasers. Wednesday morning, ABC, NBC and CBS lamented over the lion for 8 minutes, 17 seconds.
But they couldn’t do the same for a story of babies “picked” apart by tweezers.
The transcript of the brief from October 12's NBC Nightly News can be found below.
NBC Nightly News
October 12, 2015
7:12 p.m. EasternLESTER HOLT: The American hunter at the center of the firestorm over the killing of Cecil the Lion appears to be off the hook. A Zimbabwe cabinet member said today that country is no longer pressing for the Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer to be extradited there to face poaching charges. Zimbabwe now says all of Dr. Palmer’s papers were in order. He will not be charged with any crime.
