After the story about how the Trump White House phone logs from January 6, 2021, supposedly had a seven-hour missing gap was proven to be just another media hoax, the evening newscasts on Friday evening decided to ignore this inconvenient truth and focus on other topics. This despite all three networks covering the initial allegation on Monday night.
According to CNN.com which was forced to offer a mea culpa of sorts, admitted:
The six pages of White House switchboard logs for January 6, 2021, are complete based on an official review of White House records, according to a source familiar with the matter. There are no missing pages and the seven-hour gap is likely explained by use of White House landlines, White House cell phones and personal cell phones that do not go through the switchboard.
Instead of the three broadcast networks cleaning up their sloppy reporting and admitting they got a story about former President Trump wrong once again, ABC’s World News Tonight, CBS Evening News & NBC Nightly News wasted air time reporting on the oldest park ranger retiring, and a report on the weather. In addition, CBS dedicated an entire segment to gushing over President Joe Biden’s sister Valerie Biden Owens.
Some of the questions asked of Owens were embarrassingly sycophantic. For example, CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell told the sister of the President that she’s “one of the few people that is not afraid to tell your brother when he's made a mistake.” She followed up by asking Owens if she ever “had to tell him anything lately where he's wrong?
Owens gave a sappy answer about how Biden could be long-winded. Of course, O’Donnell completely fell for that line and replied sympathetically “so you tell him to be less loquacious?”
Most laughably, when Owens told O’Donnell after being asked about her brother’s comments supporting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s removal from office, said a Joe Biden “gaffe is when he speaks the truth.”
O’Donnell completely bought that answer as well. The media will do anything not to report on news that makes the Democratic Party uncomfortable.
This latest example of bias by omission from the three networks was made possible by QuickBooks on ABC, Progressive on CBS, and Dell on NBC. Their information is linked.
To read the transcript of the CBS segment click “expand”:
CBS Evening News
4/1/2022
6:43:08 p.m. EasternNORAH O’DONNELL: You're one of the few people that is not afraid tell your brother when he's made a mistake.
VALERIE BIDEN OWENS: Yes ( laughs ).
O’DONNELL: Have you had to tell him anything lately where he's wrong?
OWENS: Uh, no.
O’DONNELL: None of us are perfect. None of us are perfect.
OWENS: Sometimes it's the-- it's the tone or the flipness of a remark. And I say, "That was a little harsh." What happens to Joe-- and Joe goes on for a lengthy explanation, and you can see the other people like I want to kick him, "Joe, stop talking," but he is so focused on answering the question, that he sometimes other people don't get a chance to jump in or to end a speech. Because he's got one more thing to say and he has one more fact. And people are interested, but sometimes it's just time to stop.
O’DONNELL: So you tell him to be less loquacious.
OWENS: On occasion, yes. That has happened on occasion.
O’DONNELL: His off-script remark that Vladimir Putin cannot remain in power. Some called it a gaffe. Some people called it the unvarnished truth. What did you make of when he said it?
OWENS: First of all, when somebody said Joe has a gaffe, a gaffe is when he speaks the truth. Joe had just come from spending the afternoon with moms and their children that have been families destroyed by what's happening in the Ukraine. That's Joe. He knows what grief and that pain is.
O’DONNELL: So when you heard people say, "He's going to walk it back," you thought?
OWENS: No. He spoke as a father. He's real. The private man is the public person. There's no daylight.
