ABC’s Good Morning America followed suit Thursday from their evening counterpart World News Tonight in keeping ABC viewers in the dark about Wednesday’s bombshell House Oversight Committee hearing featuring two IRS whistleblowers revealing the depths to which they were stonewalled from superiors in bringing more serious charges against Hunter Biden.
Instead, Good Morning America had other priorities, such as a one-minute-and-18-second segment on a Florida family being awarded $800,000 in damages after they say a McNugget from McDonald’s burned their daughter.
CBS Mornings and NBC’s Today also went the way of their sister newscasts from the evening with full stories on the hearing. Combining for six minutes and 31 seconds, CBS gave the whistleblowers the seriousness they deserved. On the other hand, NBC repeatedly sought to undercut the claims as partisan.
Capitol Hill correspondent Ryan Nobles began by pointing out both are career civil servants and one is “a lifelong Democrat,” but those in Congress from his party “argue that’s not their assessment to make.”
With a tinge of skepticism, Nobles huffed the “investigators” alleging preferential treatment for Hunter Biden “say they have no political motivations.”
He then trotted out the trademark liberal lament and conservative drinking game word in “seizing”:
NOBLES: With Republicans seizing on the allegations —
CONGRESSMAN JIM JORDAN (R-OH): You know whose story hasn't changed? These two guys.
NOBLES: — Democrats on the panel did not question the credibility of the witnesses claims —
CONGRESSMAN RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI (D-IL): I think that they're honest witnesses. They’re public servants. I don't question their integrity.
NOBLES: — but argued they are investigators and prosecutors are the ones who get to make the call on indictments.
After a soundbite from a second House Democrat, Nobles insisted the claims from IRS officials Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler were “rejected” by both U.S. Attorney David Weiss and Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Nobles continued to frame the allegations as lacking any weight given stringent denials from the accused, including President Biden seeing as how he’s “repeatedly denied any connection to his son’s business dealings and specifically has rejected he was with his son when Hunter sent a WhatsApp message to a business associate.”
“Hunter Biden's lawyer has called the WhatsApp message cited by the whistleblowers ‘fake’ and says that the agents are engaged in an orchestrated political attack on the Bidens,” he concluded.
As for the adults at CBS, co-host Tony Dokoupil led into the story from senior investigative correspondent Catherine Herridge by noting the “IRS agents testified on Capitol Hill yesterday about their role in the federal investigation of Hunter Biden” and one having spoken exclusively to CBS beforehand that “ the evidence supported more serious charges.
Here was part of that sit-down (click “expand”):
HERRIDGE: In an exclusive interview with CBS News, Ziegler told us he believed the evidence he gathered during the five-year probe supported multiple felony and misdemeanor counts, including allegations Hunter Biden wrote off personal expenses as business payments.
ZIEGLER: Hotels he was blacklisted from, payments that were made to escorts, payments that are made to no-show employees.
HERRIDGE: Ziegler said he drafted this memo recommending Justice Department prosecutors charge Hunter Biden accordingly. He said the Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney David Weiss agreed, but warned other factors could sway a jury.
ZIEGLER: And David said to us that, “I’m getting some concern from Department of Justice tax division. The evidence that might come in related to a substance abuse and the death of his brother, Beau Biden, those might affect the jury’s opinion.”
(....)
ZIEGLER: It’s a matter of, are we treating all taxpayers the same?
HERRIDGE: And in this case?
ZIEGLER: And in this case, no, I don't think so.
(....)
HERRIDGE: But Ziegler described to CBS News a series of roadblocks that included his efforts to interview Hunter Biden's adult children about the legitimacy of his tax deductions. [TO ZIEGLER] What did the assistant U.S. attorney tell you?
ZIEGLER: That that’s going to get us into hot water.
HERRIDGE [TO ZIEGLER]: Is that in the IRS handbook, avoiding hot water?
ZIEGLER: No. I was asking to do these certain things, and roadblock after roadblock was put up in front of me.
Along with the 78 seconds on the hot McNugget, Good Morning America did find time to keep up the Trump media firestorm with two minutes and 23 seconds about a possible third indictment.
The bias by omission from ABC and NBC’s spinning on behalf of Hunter Biden was made possible thanks to advertisers such as Google (on ABC) and Kohl’s (on NBC). Follow the links to see their contact information at the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
To see the relevant transcripts from July 20, click here (for CBS) and here (for NBC).
