In Friday night’s installment of bias by omission, NBC Nightly News chose not to cover a deadly suicide bombing in Pakistan at a political rally that left over 120 people dead while this same newscast and the CBS Evening News didn’t fit into their newscasts time for a news brief to pay homage to the now-identified U.S. soldier who died a day earlier in Afghanistan.
ABC’s World News Tonight and anchor David Muir spent 19 seconds near the end of the newscast’s A-Block on the latest identified U.S. soldier to die in combat.
Here’s the news brief Muir read:
And the Pentagon has now identified the fallen soldier we reported on last night here. Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Celiz died from wounds sustained during a combat operation in Afghanistan. Celiz, who was 32 years old, hailed from Summerville, South Carolina, was assigned to the 75th ranger regimen out of Hunter Army Air Field in Georgia.
A Reuters piece explained that he was “[t]he second U.S. soldier killed in Afghanistan over the past week” and “was on his seventh deployment when he died in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday after being wounded by enemy small arms fire.”
It added that “[t]he incident is under investigation” and Celiz “was posthumously awarded the Meritorious Service Medal, Bronze Star Medal and the Purple Heart.”
As for Pakistan, ABC’s 18-second news brief preceded Celiz with Muir again reporting:
Overseas from Pakistan now, ISIS is now claiming responsibility for a devastating suicide bombing that targeted a political rally in the southwest province of Pakistan. Officials there say a candidate for the state legislature was killed along with at least 128 other people. Tonight, ISIS has given no other reason for the attack.
Over on the CBS Evening News, fill-in anchor Bianna Goldogrya offered a 17-second brief in which she told viewers that “[i]n Pakistan today, politics turned deadly” with the attack “near the Afghan border” and “have been increasing in the run-up to the July 25th election.”
ABC had time for both stories despite dedicating 10 minutes and 34 seconds to the latest Mueller indictments, President Trump in the U.K., previewing Trump’s upcoming meeting with Vladimir Putin, and massive anti-Trump, far-left protests in London. CBS’s spent the most time at 10 minutes and 43 seconds and they found time for Pakistan but not for Sgt. 1st Class Celiz.
NBC spent the same amount of time on those Trump-related topics as ABC, but it didn’t have time for news about an electoral system suffering a bloody, deadly attack. Same was the case for taking note of a U.S. soldier’s passing.
For those curious, NBC’s other news topics were: A Georgia police officer flipping a coin to decide whether to arrest a woman, recalls for a Kellogg’s cereal and McDonald’s salads, the spread of Lyme disease, South Africa’s Kevin Anderson advancing to the Wimbledon final, Serena Williams returning to action after giving birth last year, and the viral trend of police department’s making karaoke videos.
As my colleague Rich Noyes reported on June 26, the major broadcast networks have shown scant interest in Afghanistan despite there still being over 10,000 U.S. servicemen and women deployed there.
To see the relevant transcript from the July 13 editions of ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir and the CBS Evening News, click “expand.”
CBS Evening News
July 13, 2018
6:42 p.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Suicide Attack]
BIANNA GOLODRYGA: In Pakistan today, politics turned deadly. A suicide bomber killed more than 120 people at a campaign rally near the Afghan border.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Election Attack; Bomb Blast Kills 120+ at Rally in Pakistan]
A candidate for the regional parliament is among the dead. ISIS claimed responsibility. Attacks have been increasing in the run-up to the July 25th election.
ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir
July 13, 2018
6:45 p.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: 128 Killed; Suicide Bombing Massacre]
DAVID MUIR: Overseas from Pakistan now, ISIS is now claiming responsibility for a devastating suicide bombing that targeted a political rally in the southwest province of Pakistan. Officials there say a candidate for the state legislature was killed along with at least 128 other people. Tonight, ISIS has given no other reason for the attack.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Celiz; U.S. Soldier Killed]
And the Pentagon has now identified the fallen soldier we reported on last night here. Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Celiz died from wounds sustained during a combat operation in Afghanistan. Celiz, who was 32 years old, hailed from Summerville, South Carolina, was assigned to the 75th ranger regimen out of Hunter Army Air Field in Georgia.
