All three network evening newscasts launched attacks Friday night on President Trump’s hot talk of a disastrous election with widespread mail-in voting…and too typically, all three newscasts didn’t report anything about that other guy running for president. It was just another night of hiding Biden. CBS and NBC each ran nasty comments from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
CBS Evening News ran the longest report, and had the hottest talk at the show's beginning. Anchor Norah O'Donnell warned "Unfounded attacks on mail-in voting. The president continues to undermine the long-standing practice of voting by mail, growing concerns that the U.S. Postal Service, led by one of President Trump's biggest donors, is slowing mail service....Democrats tonight accuse President Trump of undermining democracy." They do that pretty much every day.
O'Donnell introduced Ben Tracy's story by repeating: "Tonight, a backlog of undelivered mail is piling up in post offices around the country. Now with widespread use of mail-in ballots expected in November because of the coronavirus, workers are blaming the new Postmaster General, a top Republican campaign donor who has given more than $1.1 million to the Trump Victory Fund."
BEN TRACY: Today, President Trump continued his unsubstantiated attacks on voting by mail.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: This is going to be the greatest election disaster in history.
TRACY: And now there are concerns that cost cutting at the Postal Service, overseen by a key Trump ally, could undermine postal workers' ability to deliver ballots in time to be counted, allowing President Trump to question the election.
It's more than a little strange to call criticism of mail-in voting "unsubstantiated" just days after CBS conducted its own mail-in voting experiment, and found it lacking!
Tracy also strangely couldn't recall the obvious vote-counting problems New York City is having with its June primary.
Tracy then highlighted internal memos about Trump ally Louis DeJoy's demands. For a guess as where this information came from, look who came next. Tracy turned to Marc Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union. "We're being demanded, in one way or another with these new policies, to delay mail, and that's against everything we stand for."
Well, that's not everything they stand for. Despite hyping the Trump ally here, CBS didn't mention the postal workers union endorsed Biden for president, and like most unions, strongly favors Democrats with contributions.
Then Tracy noted Pelosi accused Trump of trying to delegitimize the election: "He wants to cancel the election, postpone the election. Really? Did he learn that from Putin or something?"
ABC's World News Tonight fill-in anchor Tom Llamas announced: "President Trump tonight attempting to sow seeds of doubt over election day. Now a little more than three months away, faced with plunging poll numbers and one day after suggesting possibly delaying the election, the president without evidence now suggesting the results could be, quote, rigged."
Reporter Terry Moran also highlighted the postal workers against Trump: "Postal worker leaders say if they have sufficient resources, Americans can trust them to do the job." But ABC also omitted that union endorsed Biden.
Their star Democrat was Barack Obama, yelling at the John Lewis funeral: "There are those in power who are doing their darndest to discourage people from voting. Even undermining the Postal Service in the run-up to an election that's going to be dependent on mail-in ballots so people don't get sick."
ABC's Terry Moran rips Trump's "apocalyptic" prediction of an election disaster with mail-in voting. Supportively quotes Obama ranting at the John Lewis funeral about election conspiracy theories; touts trusty postal-workers union boss, doesn't note the union endorsed Biden. pic.twitter.com/ki2ttJp9gb
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) August 1, 2020
The NBC Nightly News report starred White House reporter Peter Alexander badgering both President Trump and press secretary Kayleigh McEnany about how they could send more millions to the states to administer elections. But no one questioned Nancy Pelosi as she spat poison about a coronavirus relief package: "Let's say that the path that they have taken us down with their delaying, their denial, and their distortions have caused death."
NBC story on Trump vs. Mail-In Voting: Peter Alexander displays himself fighting with Trump, fighting with Kayleigh McEnany, and a soundbite of Pelosi saying GOP leads a path to DEATH. Nobody yells at her. pic.twitter.com/kNEzVvo6VX
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) August 1, 2020
