All Three Morning Shows Skip Any Reference to Radical Obama Czar and 9/11 Truthers

All three morning shows on Friday skipped any reference to the developing controversy over Obama administration Green Jobs Czar Van Jones and his connection to the 9/11 Truther movement. CBS’s Early Show, NBC’s Today and ABC’s Good Morning America totally ignored the story, although ABC’s Jake Tapper did file an online report over the subject.

And although Fox News on Thursday covered the revelation that Jones signed a 911truth.org statement in 2004 urging an investigation into whether or not George W. Bush had prior knowledge about 9/11 ("people within the current administration may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war"), none of nightly news programs highlighted this potential problem for the Obama administration.

So, while Good Morning America found no time for this incendiary topic, co-anchor Robin Roberts did host a segment on testing name brand versus store brand pizza. Early Show’s Harry Smith explained to viewers how to keep your lawn in top condition this autumn. And Today’s co-hosts thrilled over the must-have fashions for the fall season.

ABC’s Tapper, in an online post for the Political Punch blog, wrote, "This is becoming problematic for the Obama administration, which spent much time and energy belittling the fringe ‘Birther’ movement of those alleging, despite myriad evidence, that President Obama was not born in the U.S." (Tapper did file a report for Friday’s GMA, but on another topic and made no mention of Jones.) In the White House correspondent’s blog post, he reported this new development: "But in March 2002, a march in San Francisco was called to demand a congressional inquiry into 9/11. Jones was on the ‘organizing committee.’"

See a blog posting by the MRC’s Seton Motley for more on Van Jones and his inflammatory rhetoric.