Giving viewers a preview of their gushy Saturday coverage for the pro-gun control March for Our Lives, NBC Nightly News willfully played the role of stenographer for the radical students and their incendiary leader David Hogg, touting the “massive,” “powerful,” and “remarkable” event akin to the Vietnam War protests even though it hasn’t even happened yet.
NBC made no attempt to give any voice to opposing voices that support the Second Amendment and, even worse, ignored students like Kyle Kashuv who successfully led passage of the Stop School Violence Act.
“And students from across the country descending on Washington preparing for a massive history-making March....An American generation demanding action,” anchor Lester Holt proclaimed in one of the newscast’s opening teases.
Holt mentioned that the Trump administration has officially proposed banning bump stocks before pivoting to the March:
This comes on the eve of what could be one of the largest protests in U.S. history called the March for Our Lives. Students from Parkland joining millions of other teens in cities from coast to coast to demand gun law reforms. NBC's Kerry Sanders has more from Washington where they're expecting a massive crowd.
Sanders first trumpeted the arrival of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students into Washington because they’re “fed up with school shootings in Parkland, Florida, and across the nation, upwards of 500,000 people here planning a March for Our Lives tomorrow.”
The NBC correspondent served up a textbook softball to Hogg and not confronting him about his vile rhetoric:
SANDERS: Are you touched by the fact that kids are coming from all over the United States for this?
HOGG: I'm absolutely touched by it. I think it shows that there's a massive amount of support for this movement.
Sanders offered zero information about how their event has been aide by leftist celebrities and groups like the Everytown for Gun Safety, MoveOn.org, and Planned Parenthood but swooned that it’s “coalesc[ed] in a remarkable five weeks and three days.”
After friendly soundbites from Democratic Senator Tim Kaine (Va.) and former Vice President Joe Biden, Sanders and Hogg ended the segment by comparing the March for Our Lives to the Vietnam War protests:
SANDERS: With rallies in 800 locations in the nation and around the world, there's a sense what's happening now is not far removed from another powerful movement.
HOGG: I absolutely think this is kind of like the protests of the Vietnam War because we're having a war on our streets. Blood, American, young blood is being spilled every day.
SANDERS: Hoping their message takes root from the streets of Washington all the way back home.
Holt resurfaced to give the liberal students credence by linking their cause to the death of a St. Mary’s County, Maryland student:
In a tragic reminder of why these students are protesting, one of the victims wounded in a shooting at a Maryland high school on Tuesday has died. 16-year-old Jaelynn Willey’s family took her off life support overnight. She was shot by a fellow student. Police say the two had a relationship that recently ended. The shooter died at the scene.
ABC’s World News Tonight offered far less coverage, but it did link Willey’s death to the March in a 21-second news brief. As for the CBS Evening News, the newscast did not air in the Washington D.C. television market due to a pro-gun control town hall on CBS affiliate WUSA-9.
To see the relevant transcript from March 23's NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, click “expand.”
NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt
March 23, 2018
7:01 p.m. Eastern [TEASE]
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: “March for Our Lives”]
LESTER HOLT: And students from across the country descending on Washington preparing for a massive history-making March.
GRACE CHRUPCALA: It's not a red and blue problem. It's a red, white and blue problem. It's an American issue.
HOLT: An American generation demanding action.
(....)
7:07 p.m. Eastern
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Bump Stocks to Be Banned]
HOLT: A late move by the Justice Department tonight issuing a proposed ban on firearm bumpstocks that President Trump promised in the wake of the Parkland high School massacre. Under the proposal, anyone who owns a bumpstock would have to destroy it.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE:
This comes on the eve of what could be one of the largest protests in U.S. history called the March for Our Lives. Students from Parkland joining millions of other teens in cities from coast to coast to demand gun law reforms. NBC's Kerry Sanders has more from Washington where they're expecting a massive crowd.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Millions of Teens Prepare for “March for Our Lives”]
KERRY SANDERS: Today, hundreds of Marjory Stoneman Douglas students arrived in Washington fed up with school shootings in Parkland, Florida, and across the nation, upwards of 500,000 people here planning a March for Our Lives tomorrow. [TO DAVID HOGG] Are you touched by the fact that kids are coming from all over the United States for this?
DAVID HOGG: I'm absolutely touched by it. I think it shows that there's a massive amount of support for this movement.
EMMA GONZALEZ: We call B.S.
SANDERS: They say they're protesting legislative inaction.
CHRUPCALA: It's not a red and blue problem. It's a red, white and blue problem. It's an American issue. It's a public issue that we need to get that through everyone’s, like, mind.
SANDERS: This movement still raw for many of the kids coalescent in a remarkable five weeks and three days. Virginia Senator Tim Kaine telling the teens too young to vote this just doesn't happen in Washington like this.
DEMOCRATIC SENATOR TIM KAINE (Va.): You have started something that is incredibly powerful.
SANDERS: Former Vice President Joe Biden today.
FORMER VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN [TO MARIANA ATENCIO]: They're going to change the gun culture because they have no agenda.
SANDERS: With rallies in 800 locations in the nation and around the world, there's a sense what's happening now is not far removed from another powerful movement.
HOGG: I absolutely think this is kind of like the protests of the Vietnam War because we're having a war on our streets. Blood, American, young blood is being spilled every day.
SANDERS: Hoping their message takes root from the streets of Washington all the way back home. Kerry Sanders, NBC News, Washington.
HOLT: In a tragic reminder of why these students are protesting, one of the victims wounded in a shooting at a Maryland high school on Tuesday has died. 16-year-old Jaelynn Willey’s family took her off life support overnight. She was shot by a fellow student. Police say the two had a relationship that recently ended. The shooter died at the scene.
