Though the journalists at the network morning shows often follow the lead of big newspapers such as the Washington Post and New York Times when they highlight a controversy involving a Republican, ABC on Tuesday totally skipped a front-page report in the Post on a an $18 million “honorary” payment to Bill Clinton.
CBS This Morning’s Charlie Rose allowed just 27 seconds to the news that the former President was well paid after then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “invited a representative from Laureate International Universities to a State Department function in 2009.” Rose added, “Nine months later, the company signed Bill Clinton to a five-year consulting deal worth nearly $18 million.”
Rose reassured, “There is no evidence that the State Department favored the school for hiring him.”
ABC’s Good Morning America avoided the story, despite two hours of air-time. NBC’s Today, a four hour program, also skipped the Post’s front page expose. However, to NBC’s credit, Nightly News covered the payment in August.
Despite Rose’s quick dismissal of the story’s import, the Washington Post’s Rosalind S. Helderman and Michelle Ye Hee Lee explained why the story matters:
There is no evidence that Laureate received special favors from the State Department in direct exchange for hiring Bill Clinton, but the Baltimore-based company had much to gain from an association with a globally connected ex-president and, indirectly, the United States’ chief diplomat. Being included at the 2009 dinner, shoulder to shoulder with leaders from internationally renowned universities for a discussion about the role of higher education in global diplomacy, provided an added level of credibility for the business as it pursued an aggressive expansion strategy overseas, occasionally tangling with foreign regulators.
“A lot of these private-education guys, they’re looking to get into events like this one,” said Sam Pitroda, a higher-education expert who was representing a policy commission from India at the State Department dinner. “The discussion itself is irrelevant.... It gets you very high-level contacts, and it gets you to the right people.”
NBC covered the controversy back on August 23. Cynthia McFadden looked into the more questionable side of Laureate International Universities:
MCFADDEN: Over the last three months, NBC News has taken a closer look at Laureate's U.S. flagship, Walden University. More than two dozen students tell us the school misled them, trapping them in a staggering amounts of student loan debt.
<<< Please consider helping NewsBusters financially with your tax-deductible contribution today >>>
Bill Clinton was given $17.6 million for being an honorary chancellor. Shouldn’t supposedly skeptical journalists investigate this large payment? On August 24, all three networks promoted the Clinton campaign’s efforts to discredit an Associated Press report on the fact that over half of Hillary Clinton’s non-governmental meetings at the State Department were with Clinton Foundation donors.
A transcript of Monday’s CBS This Morning brief is below:
CBS TM
9/6/16
7:31:59 to 7:32:26
27 secondsCHARLIE ROSE: The Washington Post reports on a connection between Hillary Clinton and a for-profit college that later hired her husband. Mrs. Clinton invited a representative from Laureate International Universities to a State Department function in 2009. Nine months later, the company signed Bill Clinton to a five-year consulting deal worth nearly $18 million. There is no evidence that the State Department favored the school for hiring him.
