While all three network morning shows covered the latest development in the Clinton e-mail scandal on Tuesday – that over 300 e-mails are being reviewed for classified material – all three broadcasts also touted the Clinton campaign defense that the former secretary of state “never sent or received any e-mails that were marked classified at the time.”
However, none of the networks bothered to mention that Clinton had changed her story. When she initially addressed the scandal back in March, the Democratic front-runner insisted that her e-mails contained “no classified information,” but as evidence contradicted that claim, Clinton’s language shifted. Her campaign started using the formula that no information was “marked classified at the time.”
Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer recently pointed out the evolution on Fox News’s Special Report.
During a 16-second news brief on ABC’s Good Morning America on Tuesday, anchor Amy Robach reported:
And new revelations about Hillary Clinton e-mails. Officials say so far they have flagged more than 300 of Clinton's messages for further inspection, but they did not say if they were secret in nature. Clinton insists she never used her private server to send or receive e-mails marked classified at the time.
CBS This Morning offered a 33-second news brief on the topic from co-host Charlie Rose:
More than 300 messages from Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail server might contain classified information. That is according to intelligence officials. They are reviewing about 30,000 e-mails Clinton sent and received while Secretary of State. So far, they have examined roughly 6,000 messages or about 20% of those. 305 are flagged for further analysis. The FBI is now holding onto Clinton's server. The Democratic presidential frontrunner says none of her e-mails were marked classified at the time.
NBC’s Today provided the most coverage to Clinton’s e-mails on Tuesday, with a full report followed by two news briefs. In the initial report, correspondent Kristen Welker explained:
As questions mount about Hillary Clinton's e-mails, her campaign is urging its supporters not to panic. At issue today, intelligence community reviewers have expressed concern that more than 300 documents from her e-mails may have contained classified information. In a court filing yesterday, they asked that those e-mails undergo further review before the State Department releases them to the public. It’s a part of the State Department’s ongoing efforts to release all of her e-mails to the public. The Clinton campaign continues to insist that she never sent or received any e-mails that were marked as classified....for Secretary Clinton, the e-mail issue looms large, it continues to dog her campaign.
In the news briefs that followed, both co-host Savannah Guthrie and news anchor Natalie Morales repeated the Clinton talking point: “Her campaign has maintained that she never sent or received any e-mails that were marked classified at the time.”
In addition to the e-mail scandal, Welker’s report touted Clinton “meeting with Black Lives Matter protesters after a campaign event in New Hampshire,” which “got somewhat tense.”
A soundbite ran of Clinton trying to appease the radical left-wing group:
Look, I don't believe you change hearts. I believe you change laws, you change allocation of resources, you change the way systems operate. You're not going to change every heart. You're not. But at the end of the day, we can do a whole lot to change some hearts and change some systems and create more opportunities for people who deserve to have them to live up to their own God-given [potential].
Welker then proclaimed: “Black Lives Matter protesters have been urging candidates on the campaign trail to focus on the mounting tensions between minority communities and police departments. It is an issue that is gaining traction.”
Wrapping up the segment, Welker noted that Clinton was “going to try and turn the page” away from the e-mail scandal with a “focus on college affordability and immigration” at a campaign event in Las Vegas.
