Networks Allow a Scant Four Minutes For Rangel Conviction, Devote 120 Minutes to Royal Wedding
Tuesday's evening news broadcasts and Wednesday's morning shows allowed a scant four and a half minutes of coverage to the conviction of powerful Democrat Charlie Rangel over ethics charges. In comparison, these same programs devoted 121 minutes to exhaustively examining every aspect of the announcement that Prince William is getting married, a disparity of 30 to one.
NBC's Today featured the most reporting on the British engagement, 41 minutes of coverage on Wednesday. Yet, the morning show discussed Rangel's misdeeds for only one minute and 45 seconds. Good Morning America was even worse. Just 12 seconds on the New York politician's failure to pay taxes and report income, but 31 minutes for the fashion, style and location of a wedding that won't take place until 2011.
The Early Show did slightly better on the Congressman: 38 seconds for Rangel, but 35 minutes for Prince William. The breakdown of just the morning shows is 42 to 1. (108 minutes for the wedding and two and a half for Rangel.)
On Tuesday, NBC's Nightly News was the worst offender. Seven minutes of a 30 minute show highlighted the engagement and a mere 34 seconds for the House Democrat, convicted on 11 counts.
(Evening News: Three minutes and 15 seconds for the wedding, one minute and seven seconds for Rangel. World News, just 23 seconds for the Representative and three minutes on the royals.) In total, the evening shows featured 13 and a half minutes for the upcoming wedding and two for Rangel (a disparity of six to one).
Typical of the reports was this brief description by Juju Chang on Wednesday's GMA: "Another formerly powerful Democrat, Congressman Charlie Rangel, is facing a formal reprimand or censure after he was convicted, Tuesday, on 11 ethics charges. Expulsion from the House is considered highly unlikely."
None of the morning or evening news pointed out that Rangel's trial had been delayed until after the election in order to avoid embarrassment for the Democrats.
Thanks to MRC analyst Kyle Drennen for assistance with compiling the data on the time disparity.
— Scott Whitlock is a news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
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Comments
Royal Pains
Submitted by CobraMan on Wed, 11/17/2010 - 2:04pm.
One again, the networks show their obsession over all things Royal. It's as if the producers think they're still living in The British Colonies.
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
If it had been a conservative
Submitted by Model850 on Wed, 11/17/2010 - 2:13pm.
convicted of these charges the time differentials would be reversed.
Oops. Did I just state the way too obvious?
You are right, just to pluck
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Wed, 11/17/2010 - 3:06pm.
You are right, just to pluck a name out of the air Tom Delay.
Remember the time for Mark Foley
Submitted by Quasi-socialist on Wed, 11/17/2010 - 2:14pm.
texting a former page, who in the cloud of "discussion" no one in the hype-machine media ever cleared up wether he was above the age of majority when he received the text. The media delved into the rumored reputation that he had been known to be "pervy", yet has never said boo about Frank setting up pages in his house or rumors about him.
Real corruption (Rangel not Frank), not so interesting. There's nothing to beat the pubs with.
Lather, incense, repeat
What do We the real American
Submitted by Barack_must_go..... on Wed, 11/17/2010 - 2:18pm.
What do We the real American people expect. A degenerate lame street media reporter/commentator/companies got to do...what they've got to do to perpetuate the propaganda and lies.
Too bad nobody watches or listens to them all that much anyway.
Now when MSNBC goes from leaning forward to actually bending over and holding their ankles, the position they really belong. I might Tivo a few nights worth in case I can't sleep in the middle of the night and want to watch some real life political satire.
Barack_Must_Go.....
Sometimes I Wonder....
Submitted by kraythe on Wed, 11/17/2010 - 2:18pm.
Sometimes I wonder if I am the only person in America that just doesn't give a damn one way or anotehr about a royal wedding. America was never meant to have royalty. We dont have any royalty here (though Pelosi, Obama and other people in the governemnt THINK they are royalty). I dont like even the concept of royalty, that someone is inherently better because of their birth? No interest at all in who these two people are gettign married.
you're not alone, kraythe
Submitted by sometimesright on Wed, 11/17/2010 - 3:05pm.
i care nothing for royalty. all these people have done is simply be born to a certain family, given a title because of who his/her parents are and then live off the taxpayer for the rest of their natural born lives. thank God for America. if you demand bowing from Americans all you're going to get is an @$$ whooping from your "subjects".
Royal wedding??
Submitted by rockyracoon on Wed, 11/17/2010 - 4:39pm.
You two can both count me in as someone who couldn't give a rats arse about this wedding. Thank God for both the internet, and the remote control.Facts are like kryptonite to the liberal.
I, for one,....
Submitted by almostacowboy on Wed, 11/17/2010 - 2:36pm.
...would rather look at Kate than a decrepit 70 year-old tax cheat anyday. But, that's just me. (she's hot!)
Besides, it's not like they're really going to punish him or anything. Besides, what do you expect from the broadcast arm of the Progressive-Liberal Party?
He is 80 as of June 2010.
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Wed, 11/17/2010 - 3:08pm.
He is 80 as of June 2010.
Wow, he doesn't look a day
Submitted by Barack_must_go..... on Wed, 11/17/2010 - 6:10pm.
Wow, he doesn't look a day over seventy nine & three quarters to me. I guess crime really does pay or it agrees with good ol Charlie anyway.
Barack_Must_Go.....
Of course, if the tax cheat was a Republican...
Submitted by Mary Louise Turner on Wed, 11/17/2010 - 2:32pm.
We all know the drill by now. If the Congressional tax cheater was a venerable Republican, the make believe media would have a feeding frenzy, automatically declaring him "guilty" even before accusations were even made. Whole news broadcasts would have been devoted to the story, and there would be cries of "Resign!" and "Throw the bum out!" Of course, Mr. Rangel is a Democrat, so the crickets are chirping...
As for the obsession with the royals, it's part of the pathetically shallow celebrity idol worship that the media calls "news".
They mentioned this on the radio this morning
Submitted by GW on Wed, 11/17/2010 - 2:35pm.
And it was a classic case of "Name that Party".
I think it was the Bob & Tom show, but I'm not sure. I change stations a lot in the morning.
If He Were A Republican.....
Submitted by DaMama on Wed, 11/17/2010 - 2:37pm.
....we all know how different the news coverage would be on this subject. A Republican would be raked over the coals, face splattered on every network, screaming for their resignation. But since Rangel is a Democrat, he gets a free pass because everyone and their dog knows that the media is liberally biased.
I say congrats to Will and Kate - I hope they are much better at making their marriage work than Charles and Diana. But to spend so much time on the British Royal Family is really overkill. Just once I'd like to see th networks give a guilty Democrat their due. I won't be holding my breath.
The media doesn't care a whit
Submitted by texasborngranny on Wed, 11/17/2010 - 5:29pm.
The media doesn't care a whit about Will and Kate.... they just wanted something (anything) to distract from the news about Barney.
Consider their audience
Submitted by Galvanic on Wed, 11/17/2010 - 5:08pm.
Who's watching these morning programs? They're not about real news; they're about supermarket tabloid crap.
Expulsion from the House
Submitted by texasborngranny on Wed, 11/17/2010 - 5:25pm.
Expulsion from the House is what should happen to this criminal creep.
But it won't happen . . .
Submitted by Galvanic on Wed, 11/17/2010 - 5:39pm.
Because, like most senior Senators and Representatives, he's bought a lot of loyalty over the years by doling out campaign contributions from his PAC to fellow Congressmen.
The Dems also fear that should they expel him from the House, he's likely to level charges of others' ethics violations against them of which he has personal knowledge.
He might not even get censured, since supporters of both he and Maxine Waters have already been wielding the Race Card.
I'll be surprised if he gets more than a reprimand tied to a formal apology on the floor of the House.
We're already hearing rhetoric about how his 'couple of mistakes' shouldn't taint his decades of public service. They're cushioning the fall.
NO Pensions -- NONE
Submitted by okiehawk44 on Wed, 11/17/2010 - 6:41pm.
Charlie Rangel is a perfect poster child for the call for NO PENSIONS for elected representatives.
Being a politician should never become a career for anyone. Anyone!
MSM priorities*
Submitted by cajun2 on Wed, 11/17/2010 - 8:00pm.
What are the most important issues to Americans today? What are the important issues to the state run media? What issues are so important that the state run media do not want revealed at all?
Read this article carefully folks.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/11/first_healthcare_next_the_food.html