After Democratic Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland became just the 34th supporter in the Senate of the Iran deal, the “Big Three” networks all cheered the impeding vote as a major “victory” for the president while offering up zero soundbites from the majority of Congress and public who oppose the deal.
ABC, CBS, and NBC all praised the “unstoppable” Iran deal during their Wednesday night broadcasts, each network’s respective morning show provided minimal coverage on Thursday and continued to downplay the large opposition to the deal and offered up no soundbites or quotes from members of Congress who will vote no.
On CBS This Morning, fill-in host Anthony Mason cheered President Obama after he barely secured the necessary 34 votes to sustain the deal from being blocked in the Senate:
President Obama this morning can celebrate a major foreign policy victory on the Iran nuclear deal. He has secured enough votes in the senate to protect the agreement from Republican efforts to kill it. Democratic Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland provides the winning vote. All 34 supporters in the Senate are Democrats.
While Mason mentioned that Republicans sought to “kill” the Iran deal, the CBS anchor never bothered to include a single quote or soundbite from the majority of the Senators who oppose the deal.
On ABC’s Good Morning America, news reader Amy Robach devoted a scant 7 seconds to the Iran deal when she noted “President Obama's nuclear deal with Iran is on track to get through Congress. Enough senators now say they will support that agreement to block any challenge.”
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NBC’s Today included its coverage of the Iran deal in a story about Vice President Joe Biden’s potential 2016 White House bid and reporter Peter Alexander continued the networks’ refusal to actually include specific opposition to the deal itself:
And today Joe Biden wraps up a two-day road trip. He's here in Florida before heading to Georgia to meet with Jewish leaders where he's going to promote the president's Iran nuclear deal. He won't be surrounded entirely by supporters. Willie and Savannah, they’re expecting hundreds of opponents of the Iran deal here today.
Despite the Big Three’s efforts to downplay opposition to the Iran deal and instead promote the White House taking a “victory lap” after getting a merely 34 out of 100 senators to support it, there have been numerous vocal critics of the deal, including liberal Democrat Alan Dershowitz, who appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box Thursday to condemn the deal:
We don't know exactly what the deal says that's our problem. We are buying a pig in a poke. Is it a ten-year deal? The president when we first announced it said if we can stop them from getting nuclear weapons in ten years, we have succeeded, then he stayed is a forever deal, maybe a 15-year deal. We have to know what it is that is in the deal. We also have to know why the president gave up 24/7 inspection and allowed 24-day inspection. What are they hiding? Are they intending to cheat? I think this deal makes it more likely that Iran will develop nuclear weapons.
