On Thursday, the Office of Congressional Ethics found a “substantial reason to believe” that New York Socialist Democrat Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) violated congressional ethics rules by accepting gifts in the form of tickets during her infamous appearance at the Met Gala in 2021. Unsurprisingly, all three evening network newscasts (ABC’s World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News) ignored this report and instead focused on the ongoing ethics complaints against New York Congressman George Santos.
In fact, the networks spent considerable time on the Santos allegations while ignoring AOC’s alleged ethics issues. ABC, CBS & NBC spent 1 minute 42 seconds, 1 minute 52 seconds and 19 seconds respectively on the Santos story.
ABC's World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News ignored the news that @RepAOC potentially violated ethics rules by improperly accepting gifts. All three networks instead continued pounding Rep. George Santos for his ethics violations. pic.twitter.com/LUwe0MChLZ
— Kevin Tober (@KevinTober94) March 3, 2023
Proving again that the network’s straight news side truly is fair and balanced, Fox News Channel’s Special Report, managed to cover the bipartisan ethics complaints back to back. Covering Santos first then AOC.
Special Report anchor Bret Baier gave this news brief on the ethics complaints against AOC, which is all that was required of the three networks to salvage what little credibility they have left:
The Office of Congressional Ethics is also saying it has substantial reason to believe Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez violated certain rules when she attended the Met Gala in 2021. The report says the New York Democratic Congresswoman improperly accepted gifts in the form of tickets. The Office of Congressional Ethics can refer issues to the ethics committee for further review. The formal panel has not launched an inquiry yet into Ocasio-Cortez.
It should be noted that the two scandals shouldn’t be equated and this blog shouldn’t be misconstrued as defending Santos, but to be fair all three networks should cover one party's scandal if they’re covering the other party’s.
This bias by omission from the three networks was made possible by Fisher Investments on ABC, United Healthcare on CBS, and ADT on NBC. Their information is linked.
The transcript is below. Click “expand” to read:
FNC’s Special Report
3/2/2023
6:16:21 p.m. EasternBRET BAIER: The Office of Congressional Ethics is also saying it has substantial reason to believe Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez violated certain rules when she attended the Met Gala in 2021.
The report says the New York Democratic Congresswoman improperly accepted gifts in the form of tickets. The Office of Congressional Ethics can refer issues to the ethics committee for further review. The formal panel has not launched an inquiry yet into Ocasio-Cortez.
