Broadcast networks ABC, CBS, and NBC are deliberately omitting news of a suspected arson attack against the Republican Party headquarters in Albuquerque, New Mexico from their flagship morning and evening newscasts.
Early on Sunday morning, Albuquerque Fire Rescue responded to reports of a fire at the New Mexico GOP headquarters. According to reports, there was fire damage to the front entryway and smoke damage “throughout the building.” The words “ICE=KKK” also had been spray painted on the side of the structure.
The Republican Party of New Mexico is calling this a “deliberate act of arson,” and the FBI are now investigating.
As an apparent act of political violence, one would reasonably expect the news media to deem this story worth covering. And in fact, much of the media did. Both CNN and MSNBC covered the alleged attack multiple times on Monday. That same day, NBC and CBS’s live streaming services discussed it, and even ABC’s 4:00 a.m. ET Good Morning America First Look ran a news brief about it:
Clearly, all three broadcast networks are aware of this act of presumably politically-motivated violence. And yet, none of them have deemed it interesting or notable enough to breathe even a word about it on their flagship morning (ABC’s Good Morning America, CBS Mornings, and NBC’s Today) or evening (ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News) newscasts.
They’ve had ample opportunity to do so. Albuquerque Fire Rescue responded just before 6:00 a.m. local time on Sunday, meaning the networks had all day Sunday to fit it into their evening news shows. Not only did that not happen, but they also completely avoided the story for all of Monday, and it was nowhere to be found on Tuesday morning either.
Why was the news brief that aired on ABC’s Good Morning America First Look not good enough for the far more widely-viewed 7 a.m. ET edition of Good Morning America? Why did the reports that CBS and NBC aired on their streaming services yesterday not merit at least a few seconds of attention on network news shows?
One would suspect that a bunch of journalists who spent the last four years hyperventilating about January 6th would care a great deal about this very obvious instance of political violence. Unless, of course, they’re not journalists at all, but rather activists dressed as journalists.
