In a breaking story posted late Tuesday afternoon by our friends at the Washington Free Beacon, staff writer and former CNS News staff writer Elizabeth Harrington revealed that NBC News has stealth edited a May 19 video of Clinton campaign correspondent Andrea Mitchell on Today denouncing Juanita Broaddrick’s sexual allegations against Bill Clinton as “a discredited and long-denied accusation” to merely being a “long-denied accusation.”
Mitchell’s original phrasing was flagged the day that it aired live on NBC by the MRC’s Kyle Drennen and he chronicled the network’s history concerning Broaddrick and Clinton. [Video with the original wording can be found below]
Here’s what the Today report originally had been broadcast:
SEAN HANNITY [FOX NEWS]: In one case it's about exposure, in another case it's about groping and fondling and touching against a woman's will.
DONALD TRUMP: And rape.
HANNITY: And rape.
MITCHELL: Donald Trump, using that word unprompted during an interview last night with Fox News's Sean Hannity, bringing up a discredited and long-denied accusation against former President Bill Clinton, dating back to 1978 when he was Arkansas attorney general.
Since Harrington published her story at 4:48 p.m. Eastern, NBC News added the following caption to the video on it’s website: “Editor's Note: In the original version of this report, we referred to Ms. Broaddrick's allegations as "discredited." While questions have been raised about her account, upon review, on May 19, we removed that word.”
In the NBC News video embedded below, here’s what the longtime liberal journalist’s report was altered to say: “Donald Trump using that word unprompted during an interview last night with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, bringing up long-denied accusation against former President Bill Clinton dating back to 1978 when he was Arkansas Attorney General.”
“It is unclear when NBC News deleted the line. The network did not provide an update to the story or acknowledge that the segment was edited since its original release. A request for comment from NBC News was not immediately returned,” Harrington added.
Further, Harrington detailed previous instances of stealth editing involving Mitchell and how on neither occasion did she apologize but did acknowledge one instance in 2012 when her MSNBC edited Mitt Romney discussing at a rally how people order off touch screens at Wawa’s to make him seem out of touch with average Americans.
