Mixed Results: NBC Covers Biden Tapes, CBS Kicks Fauci Diary to Streaming Channel

It was a split decision on Tuesday morning as NBC ended its blackout on the release of the so-called Biden tapes with a full story on Today, and CBS doubled down on its coverage from Monday night with a longer report for CBS Mornings. However, CBS Mornings neglected to continue the network’s coverage of the bombshell Fauci diary and relegated it to their streaming platform, CBS News 24/7.

On both counts, ABC’s Good Morning America remained in the dark, thus doing nothing to assuage concerns being raised to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Chairman Brendan Carr about their network’s struggles to serve the public interest. GMA had other priorities, including 73 seconds in the first half hour on twin lottery jackpots of over $1 billion.

Thus far, CBS News 24/7 has spent 12 minutes and 29 seconds on Fauci. More than half of that (7:41) came on Monday’s The Takeout with host Major Garrett giving the floor for Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) to preview Wednesday’s Homeland Security Committee hearing with Fauci:

Before bringing in Johnson, Garrett took particular notice of one entry: “In one entry, Dr. Fauci wrote, ‘Apparently, the WH is very upset that I am being profiled, and it looks like I am putting down the POTUS being the president of the United States and becoming a star that outshines him. The press is playing into this as is the tweet storm. Very stressful!!’”

By Tuesday, Garrett’s interview was used as the basis for three extended news briefs, including this one in the 9:00 a.m. Eastern hour from co-host Kelly O’Grady, who also said Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) “released more than a thousand pages of journal entries” and “accus[ed] Fauci of being dishonest with the public about how the pandemic started.”

Pivoting to the Biden tapes, CBS senior White House correspondent Weijia Jiang declared in a two-minute-and-42-second piece on CBS Mornings that “CBS News was first to obtain about two and a half hours of the roughly 70 hours of recording conversations between Biden and his ghostwriter” that “[f]or years, Biden fought to keep them private, but the Justice Department has now released them after a long legal battle.”

Unlike her Monday’s Evening News report, Jiang included a few soundbites (click “expand”): 

BIDEN [on 02/16/17]: Some of this may be classified, so be careful.

JIANG: The newly released audio recordings reveal that, in 2016 and 2017 as then-former Vice President Biden was writing a memoir, he told his ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer on several occasions, he had classified documents in his possession. Biden said this in reference to volumes of notes he kept in his home.

BIDEN [on 02/16/17]: I just found all the classified stuff downstairs.

JIANG: Biden would later publicly criticize President Trump for his handling of classified material after classified documents were discovered at Mar-a-Lago.

BIDEN [from 09/18/22]: How that could possibly happen, how anyone could be that irresponsible?

She noted we arrived at this point because the tapes between Biden and ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer “were first referenced by Special Counsel Robert Hur in a 2024 report that summarized Hur’s investigation of Biden’s handling of classified materials after classified documents were found in Biden’s home and private office” with Hur having “described Biden in these older audio recordings as exhibiting ‘diminished faculties.’” 

Shifting to NBC, fill-in co-host Sheinelle Jones said Biden was “back in the spotlight with recordings that he fought to keep secret now made public.” 

Longtime correspondent Kelly O’Donnell said the disclosures were of “decade-old tapes,” and Biden “expect[ed] them to be private and to remain private,” but were now “exposed” because of “the conservative group — the Heritage Foundation — su[ing]” for their release following the Hur report. 

Laments aside, she aired more clips than CBS, including some showing Biden’s animosity toward former President Obama (click “expand”):

BIDEN [on 02/16/17]: I just found all the classified stuff downstairs.

O’DONNELL: The decade-old tapes capture Mr. Biden’s candid conversations with a ghostwriter for a book. He’s heard warning the author that material from his files might be top secret.

BIDEN [on 04/24/17]: Some of this may be classified, so be careful.

ZWONITZER [on 04/24/17]: Okay.

BIDEN [on 04/24/17]: I’m not sure. It is not marked classified, but —

O’DONNELL: But the recordings were made in 2016 and 2017 after he left office as Vice President —

BIDEN [on 10/20/16]: This is my — they didn’t even know I had this.

O’DONNELL: — and years later became part of a classified documents investigation.

(....)

O’DONNELL: The recordings also shed light on private comments Biden made about his onetime boss, former President Barack Obama, and their occasional tensions. 

BIDEN [on 04/24/17]: I mean, he used to get really pissed at me. And I try — I stopped — 

ZWONIZER [on 04/24/17]: He, Barack used to get pissed at you? 

BIDEN [on 04/24/17]: — oh yeah. Really. 

O’DONNELL: In another clip, Biden criticized Obama’s decision-making process. 

BIDEN [on 04/24/17]: Barack was always got to the right spot. But a day late and a dollar short. 

She offered a lament on the way out: 

Overall, there were about 70 hours of these tapes, just two and a half hours of public. DOJ released just the portion that had been part of that special counsel investigation related to classified documents. Biden’s office said he had provided that audio to the special counsel on the condition they remain private, but the legal challenges resulted in this disclosure 

Instead of also covering the Fauci diary, Today had a news story near the top of the second hour on summer shark sightings.

To see the relevant Biden tapes coverage from July 28, click here (for CBS) and here (for NBC). To see the relevant CBS News 24/7 transcripts from July 27 and 28, click here (for The Takeout), here (for CBS News 24/7 Primetime), and here (for CBS News 24/7 Mornings).