ABC's World News Tonight was the sole broadcast network evening newscast on Friday to cover the U.S. Navy's announcement that it would soon position armed guards outside its off-base reserve centers. CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News, along with Univision and Telemundo's evening news programs, ignored this change in policy. ABC's David Muir noted that "the decision follows the deadly shooting of five people at two facilities in Chattanooga where no guards were present," but failed to mention the possible Islamist motivation for the perpetrator. [video below]
Muir gave a 21-second news brief on the Navy's "major policy change." By contrast, NBC Nightly News spent the same amount of air time on a 10-year-old girl from Bahrain "becoming the youngest competitor ever at the world swimming championships." CBS's Scott Pelley gave a 16-second news brief on the 60th anniversary of Bill Haley and His Comets' first TV appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.
On Friday afternoon, NBC correspondents Jim Miklaszewski, Courtney Kube, and Andrew Blankstein posted an online article on the Navy's "Navy plans to station armed guards at all of its reserve centers across the country." The military branch sent an e-mail to its reservists nine days after the mass shooting asking for volunteers to "provide 45 days of 'armed sentry watchstander duty' at 53 'NOSCs,' or Navy Reserve Centers, beginning Aug. 17, and...for volunteers to provide a full year of armed sentry duty at 70 reserve centers starting Oct. 17. "
The journalists continued that "the Navy confirmed to NBC News that it plans to station armed personnel at all 70 reserve centers that are not located on military bases. The guards would be reservists called to active duty on an all-volunteer basis. The Navy is also weighing providing armed protection at its recruiting centers, but has not yet authorized armed guards."
Later in their article, the correspondents also mentioned that since perpetrator Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez's attack, "armed civilians have stationed themselves outside some of the nation's more than 1,000 off-base military recruiting centers to offer protection." However, they didn't include a detail from their network's earlier reporting – that "Abdulazeez...had downloaded audio recordings of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-Yemeni cleric who was a recruiter for al Qaeda" – pointing to a possible radical Islamic motivation for the mass shooting. Their reporting also did not make it onto Friday's NBC Nightly News.
The transcript of David Muir's news brief from Friday's World News Tonight on ABC:
DAVID MUIR: The U.S. Navy making a major policy change tonight – navy officials will now position armed personnel at 70 of its reserve centers across the country. The decision follows the deadly shooting of five people at two facilities in Chattanooga where no guards were present. The Navy is the only military service that, for now, is planning to place its own armed personnel at these off-base facilities.
