Over the weekend, several police officers were shot and injured in Pennsylvania in an apparent terrorist attack by a man from Egypt named Ahmed Aminamin El-Mofty. CBS has so far managed to stand out by completely ignoring the story as ABC, NBC, CNN, FNC and MSNBC have all to some extent given attention to the subject.
Morning and evening newscasts on ABC, NBC, and FNC all mentioned the anti-police attacks on both Saturday and Sunday. CNN also ran two news briefs on its New Day Sunday morning show. But the CBS morning and evening newscasts have somehow managed to avoid mentioning the Pennsylvania attacks although, on the bright side, they did run reports on the thwarted terrorist plot that was planned to target San Francisco.
As most news shows presented the story to viewers in briefs of around a half minute each, Saturday's NBC Nightly News spent almost a minute and a half on the story, and FNC's Fox Report on Saturday gave it almost three minutes. ABC's World News Tonight included it in a two-minute report that was mostly about the San Francisco terror plot.
On the bright side, after initially ignoring Guatemala's announcement that it will follow the U.S. lead and recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, CBS finally began catching up on Tuesday as CBS This Morning recalled the decision. And FNC's Fox and Friends stood out as informing viewers that about 10 other countries are similarly considering recognizing Jerusalem.
On Tuesday at 7:06 a.m. ET on CBS This Morning, Chip Reid mentioned Guatemala's decision to support the U.S. and Israel as the CBS correspondent included it In a larger report about President Donald Trump. Reid:
That includes confronting the international backlash that followed the President's controversial decision to move the U.S embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. ... That decision brought condemnation at the United Nations last week.
On Sunday, Guatemala announced their embassy would also move to Jerusalem over the objections of Palestinian leaders. On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu predicted that many other nations will do the same.
A similar report ran an hour later.
Below is a transcript of the report on the Pennsylvania attack on police officers from the Saturday, December 23, NBC Nightly News:
JOSE DIAZ-BALART: Now to a motive mystery after a shooting spree in Pennsylvania's capital city. A gunman taking aim at police officers before police took him down. Now, investigators are trying to figure out what set him off. NBC's Ron Mott has our report.
RON MOTT: Officials say 51-year-old Ahmed Aminamin El-Mofty took on state, local and capital officers moving through Harrisburg yesterday on a shooting spree.
ED MARSICO, DAUPHIN COUNTRY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: It certainly appears that there's no doubt that he was directly firing at police officers.
MOTT: Shortly after 4 p.m., investigators say El-Mofty began his string of shootings, first firing on a capital police officer, hitting his vehicle. Thirty minutes later, the suspect opened fire again on a Pennsylvania state trooper, slightly wounding her. Later at a third location, the gunman engaged in a shootout with Harrisburg police, using two nine millimeter handguns. And officers returned fire, striking and killing the shooter. Afterward, the bomb squad was called in after a device was found near El-Mofty's body.MARISCO: This individual showed he was not afraid to fire at different law enforcement officers. We have no idea what the motivation was at this point. You know, the fortunate thing is, no one was seriously injured.
MOTT: Authorities say El-Mofty recently traveled to the Middle East, and are investigating if he has ties to terrorism. Tonight, FBI and local law enforcement are looking for clues as the what could have fueled the shooter's dangerous attack, Ron Mott, NBC News.
