On Broadcast Nets, Only NBC’s Gregory Recalls Biden’s Indian Insult or Plagiarism

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The ABC and CBS evening newscasts on Wednesday night carried full stories on the racially-tinged remarks by Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, but only NBC’s David Gregory reminded viewers of how Biden “has made indelicate remarks before.” In an interview with the New York Observer published Wednesday, Biden said of competing candidate Barack Obama: “You got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”

In his piece, which led the NBC Nightly News, Gregory recalled: “Biden, who admits he has a tendency to bloviate, has made indelicate remarks before. Last year speaking about Indian-Americans:” Viewers saw video from C-SPAN, of Biden in a crowd, dated June 17, 2006: “You cannot go to a 7/11 or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.” Gregory then noted: “Biden's first presidential run twenty years ago was undone after evidence emerged that he plagiarized a speech from a British politician, Neil Kinnock.”

Over on ABC’s World News, Jake Tapper uniquely played a soundbite from the right critical of Biden, an audio clip of Rush Limbaugh from his radio show: “See folks, this is the problem for the libs. Once they get off script they expose their idiocy, they expose their prejudice.”

Gloria Borger handled the CBS Evening News report.