Amidst the coverage, Tuesday, of the 2016 campaign and charges in possible coordination with Russia, CBS finally noticed the implication of a powerful Democrat, who just happened to be the brother of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign chairman. This Morning managed a scant 39 seconds to this news: “A leading Democratic Party lobbyist is under scrutiny today after his firm was linked to Paul Manafort's indictment. Tony Podesta resigned from the Podesta Group yesterday.”
Co-host Gayle King added, “He is the brother of John Podesta, the chairman of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. The Podesta Group lobbied for the pro-Russian Ukrainian group with ties to Paul Manafort.”
She noted, “The indictment says that Manafort asked two unnamed companies to lobby on behalf of Russian interests in Ukraine.”
On Monday night, the CBS Evening News ignored this part of the story, despite the fact that the network devoted 18 minutes and 45 seconds to the overall Russia investigation.
Only ABC covered Podesta on Monday. On Tuesday, only CBS did, but for less than a minute. Keep in mind, the network morning shows have a combined eight hours of air time.
A transcript is below:
CBS This Morning
10/31/17
7:11:42 to 7:12:21
39 secondsGAYLE KING: A leading Democratic Party lobbyist is under scrutiny today after his firm was linked to Paul Manafort's indictment. Tony Podesta resigned from the Podesta Group yesterday. He is the brother of John Podesta, the chairman of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. The Podesta Group lobbied for the pro-Russian Ukrainian group with ties to Paul Manafort. The indictment says that Manafort asked two unnamed companies to lobby on behalf of Russian interests in Ukraine. The Podesta Group did not confirm it was one of those companies. The firm says this: “It has fully cooperated with the special counsel's office and taken every possible step to provide documentation that confirms compliance with the law.”
