You can expect that the network newscasts will accord significant time to covering Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report on the January 6th prosecution of then-Former President Donald Trump. But that simply wasn’t the case when it came to covering the Special Counsel report on Hunter Biden.
The lone network newscast to cover Special Counsel David Weiss’s report was ABC World News Tonight. Here is that report in its entirety:
ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT
1/13/25
6:44 PM
DAVID MUIR: Moments ago, Special Counsel David Weiss releasing his final report on his investigation on Hunter Biden, with harsh words for the president. Here's Pierre Thomas.
PIERRE THOMAS: Tonight, the special counsel who led the investigation into Hunter Biden with sharp words for the president's decision to pardon his son. In his final report, Special Counsel David Weiss saying, “other presidents have pardoned family members, but in doing so none have taken the occasion as an opportunity to malign the public servants at the Department of Justice based solely on false accusations.” Hunter Biden was convicted on federal charges for lying on a gun form. During the trial, the president telling David he would not pardon his son.
DAVID MUIR: Have you ruled out a pardon for your son?
JOE BIDEN: Yes.
THOMAS: But days before Hunter Biden was set to be sentenced for that crime, and for 9 tax-related charges to which he had pleaded guilty, the president reversed himself, granting his son a full and unconditional pardon. The president saying Hunter Biden was “treated differently”, and “singled out only because he is my son”, that he was selectively and unfairly prosecuted. Tonight in his report, Weiss firing back, saying “these baseless accusations have no merit and repeating them threatens the integrity of the justice system as a whole.” And while the president called the prosecutions of his son a miscarriage of justice, tonight the special counsel defending them as “the culmination of thorough, impartial investigations, not partisan politics.” And David, we could be hearing from another special counsel soon. A federal judge is lifting her injunction blocking the release on the part of Jack Smith's final report dealing with Donald Trump’s role on January 6th, and efforts to overturn the 2020 election. We could hear about that report as early as tomorrow, David.
MUIR: Pierre Thomas live with us from Washington. Pierre, thanks.
Do you think the Jack Smith report is coming in at under two minutes and at the end of the A-block? Me, either.
Part of what is different is that ABC delivered an almost clinical report on the Special Counsel’s report, and chronicled the exchanges between Weiss and President Joe Biden. What you don’t hear, however, is caterwauling about how Joe Biden’s attacks on the Department of Justice represent an attack against our democratic institutions. A father’s love can’t be anti-democratic, can it?
Such as it is, this ABC report was the lone entry on l’affaire Hunter Biden. CBS and NBC could not be bothered to muster a report. Again, one can reasonably expect that the Smith report will garner significant airtime, and closer to the top of the A-block. As they say: that’s (D)ifferent.
