While ABC’s, CBS’s, and NBC’s evening news shows were busy hawking psychologist Mary Trump’s anti-Trump book July 7, they ignored a glaring bias. Mary Trump had been a Democrat donor for years, donating to the party, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
Federal Election Commission Records revealed that to-date Mary Trump had given $302.90 to Clinton’s principal campaign committee Hillary for America. She also gave $2,300 to then-candidate Obama’s principal campaign committee Obama for America in 2008, and $500 to the same committee again in 2012. In 2004, Mary Trump gave $2,000 to the DNC Services Corporation/Democratic National Committee (DNC).
She had also donated a flurry of small-dollar contributions in 2012 to the online Democratic GoFundMe ActBlue. The contributions were earmarked for Democratic candidates like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT).
ABC World News Tonight with David Muir, CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell and NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt all failed to disclose this information when they promoted Mary Trump’s book July 7. In total, all three broadcast networks gave the book 313 seconds of coverage.
Had a responsible unbiased media reported this information, it would have made Mary Trump look as she is — extremely biased concerning her wild claims about her uncle in her book “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.”
Ignoring this information, ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News devoured the attack Trump book like a swarm of malnourished piranhas.
ABC World News Tonight July 7, 2020 broadcast (156 seconds of coverage)
World News Tonight anchor David Muir peddled the book as “explosive,” before handing the reins to ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl. Karl touted how “Mary Trump describes the president’s father — Fred Trump — as a high-functioning sociopath, who short-circuited Donald’s ability to develop and experience the entire spectrum of human emotion.” There was no disclosure of Mary Trump’s past campaign donations to Democrats.
CBS Evening News July 7, 2020 broadcast (36 seconds of coverage).
CBS News White House Correspondent Ben Tracy peddled the book as “scathing,” and proceeded to bleat how Mary Trump “describes a man with sociopathic tendencies.” Again, Mary Trump’s political donations to Democrats were not disclosed.
NBC Nightly News July 7, 2020 broadcast (121 seconds of coverage).
Nightly News anchor Lester Holt began the network’s segment on Mary Trump’s book by saying it was filled with “shocking claims.” He then turned to NBC News National Correspondent Peter Alexander, who pushed how Mary Trump “had to take Donald down.” Alexander pushed a propagandized quote from Mary Trump’s book: “If he is afforded a second term, it would be the end of American Democracy.” Also, Alexander said Mary Trump insisted “her uncle meets all the criteria of a narcissist.”
Alexander did not disclose Mary Trump’s past support for Democrats.
Mary Trump’s publisher Simon & Schuster was reached for comment with a close of business deadline July 16, 2020. The organization provided no response as of the publication of this article.
Contact ABC News (818-460-7477), CBS News (212-975-3247) and NBC News (212- 664-6192) and tell them to disclose Mary Trump’s connection to the Democratic Party.
