After nearly a month-long blackout, NBC finally acknowledged on Tuesday night the sex parties scandal that’s enveloped the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) following the announcement that DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart will retire next month.
While NBC Nightly News ended the network’s 26-day-long silence, it only devoted 18 seconds to Leonhart’s decision to step aside and only glossed over mentioned the reasoning for her departure.
Interim anchor Lester Holt read the following brief:
The chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration is retiring amid scandal. Michele Leonhart has led the DEA since 2007. She has faced mounting criticism especially since an inspector general report last month found that agents had sex parties in Colombia with prostitutes paid for by cartels.
In another first, ABC’s World News Tonight also ended its omission of the scandal with a news brief on its Tuesday newscast. Anchor David Muir barely did any better than NBC’s Holt with a 23-second spot on “a major development” concerning the DEA:
The head of the DEA, the Drug Enforcement Association will now be stepping down in the wake of an agency sex scandal. Michele Leonhart retiring under fire from Congress. Agents, under her watch, accused of taking part in sex parties involving prostitutes, paid for by drug cartels in Colombia, housing paid for my American taxpayers. Most of those agents, by the way, still on the job.
Meanwhile, the CBS Evening News offered a full report on the scandal’s latest chapter that alleges DEA agents attended sex parties in Colombia paid for by the very drug cartels that they were sent to stop.
Anchor Scott Pelley began the network’s coverage by informing viewers “that the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration is out after a damning investigation of misconduct in her agency” with Leonhart set to leave “next month.”
Chief White House correspondent Major Garrett started his report with the frank observation that “[r]etirement spares Michele Leonhart from being fired” in the wake of “an inspector general’s report” that “revealed DEA agents in Colombia participated in ‘sex parties’ financed partly by drug lords.”
Garrett added how “[a]nother report found taxpayer money was also used” with the parties believed to have taken place between 2001 and 2008. After a soundbite from Leonhart and reading part of a statement from Attorney General Eric Holder, Garrett’s observed that the White House’s refusal to express support for her was “a signal her tenure was coming to an end.”
Concluding his report, Garrett brought up the fact that House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) released a statement shortly after the announcement in which they characterized her decision as “appropriate.”
When it came to the major Spanish-language networks covering this development, only MundoFox devoted time to it while Telemundo and Univision ignored it (after having previously spent multiple segments on the scandal).
Tuesday’s report on the CBS Evening News comes after it ran full segments on the initial Department of Justice (DOJ) report that first revealed the scandal on March 26 and when the House Oversight Committee held a hearing about the subject on April 14.
Aside from a segment on March 27's CBS This Morning, ABC’s Good Morning America mentioned it only once (in a brief on March 27) while NBC’s Today has yet to cover it.
The transcript of the segment that aired on the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley on April 21 is transcribed below.
CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley
April 21, 2015
6:33 p.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE CAPTION: Retiring]
SCOTT PELLEY: Late today, we learned that the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration is out after a damning investigation of misconduct in her agency. Michele Leonhart’s retirement will be effective next month and chief White House correspondent Major Garrett is following this.
MAJOR GARRETT: Retirement spares Michele Leonhart from being fired. Her departure comes after an inspector general’s report revealed DEA agents in Colombia participated in “sex parties” financed partly by drug lords. Another report found taxpayer money was also used. The parties are believed to have gone on from 2001 until 2008. At a hearing before Congress last week, Leonhart, who has held her position since 2007, defended the DEA.
DEA ADMINISTRATOR MICHELLE LEONHART [on 04/14/15]: Unfortunately, poor choices made by a few individuals can tarnish the reputation and overshadow the outstanding work being done at the DEA.
GARRETT: In a statement, Attorney General Eric Holder credited Leonhart with “innumerable instances of the DEA dismantling the most violent and most significant drug trafficking organizations.” The White House twice refused to say whether President Obama had confidence in Leonhart, a signal her tenure was coming to an end. Scott, the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House Oversight Committee called Leonhart's retirement “appropriate.”
PELLEY: Major Garrett reporting tonight. Major, thanks very much.
