The latest NewsBusters study underlined that ABC, CBS, and NBC unloaded more than 27 hours of coverage on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, mostly playing up his association with President Trump (and not Bill Clinton). By contrast, the networks spent months ignoring Graham Platner's Nazi tattoo and other embarrassing scandals.
Managing Editor Curtis Houck joined the show to discuss his study numbers that he's worked on for a year. Associate Editor Nick Fondacaro also joined the show to update us on how Zachary Young's book on his victorious defamation lawsuit against CNN is getting enormous hostility from the CIA. They told him to delete his entire book, which is ridiculous.
If we've learned anything at NewsBusters about the network coverage of Donald Trump, it's that it's reliably about 90 percent negative, no matter what is actually happening. Trump's coverage was highly negative after he was shot in the ear in 2024.
But their aggression on the "Epstein files" and connecting Trump to the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein has been massive in the last year. Curtis found that ABC, CBS, and NBC combined for 1,627 minutes of obsessive coverage (or 27 hours and seven minutes). Curtis then listed what could be done in that long time fame:
- Run six marathons.
- Walk 88 miles.
- Watch over 10 Major League Baseball games.
In February, ABC's George Stephanopoulos proclaimed that the Epstein story “has bedeviled President Trump’s second term,” as if the media hasn’t chosen to “bedevil” Trump constantly with it. Given that Trump broke off his friendship with Epstein before he was revealed as a sex offender, it’s hard to claim they were sex-abuse buddies. Stephanopoulos would never engage in this kind of smear over his old boss Bill Clinton’s friendship with Epstein, which would explain why this never became an issue in the Hillary vs. Trump race in 2016.
The first Trump term was dominated by the Russian collusion hoax. The networks have tried to make the second Trump term about the Epstein collusion hoax. This is why nobody needs them for "news."
Graham Platner reluctantly ended his campaign for the Seante in Maine, and it's obvious that the Democrats and their media allies made all kinds of ridiculous excuses for all of the scandals pouring out of Platner's history, things that he has done and things that he has said. The networks couldn't find the story of the Nazi SS tattoo for months. Platner's wife warning his campaign that he had sent sexual texts to other women was the story that spurred the networks to mention him.
What may look the most ridiculous now is the TIME magazine cover story just seven weeks ago by Julia Terruso: “After decades of nominating buttoned-up technocrats with glittering résumés, many Democrats want candidates with flaws, faded ink, and redemption arcs that resemble their own. Platner’s past, in other words, may actually be his path.” She then quoted an Obama adviser, Jim Margolis, to underline it: “Democrats are willing to bet on someone who may have a few warts but feels fresh, unscripted, and tuned in. His ‘difference’ may well be his secret sauce.”
One of the most bizarre flip-flops came from The View co-host Sunny Hostin, who marched on a hard line advocating for Platner to stay in the race and voting for Platner no matter what came out in the press. Then, on the morning before Platner withdrew, Hostin flipped and said he had to go. Who got to her?
We had to discuss Hostin's bizarre reaction coming out of the July 4 weekend on Monday, being triggered by the American flag: “When I walk into a community and I see American flags all over the community and I suddenly feel unsafe, because there's a section of this country that has co-opted the American flag and they equate being an American or an American flag with white supremacy.”
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