When it comes to circling the wagons, the liberal media did just that for the Trump era, defending colleagues whenever they were called out by President Trump or a White House aide and framed such condemnations as dangerous attacks on our democracy. But when it came to light on Friday that Biden White House Deputy Press Secretary T.J. Ducklo threatened Politico’s Tara Palmeri, the broadcast networks were largely nowhere to be found.
Between late Friday morning and Monday morning, ABC’s flagship morning and evening newscasts ignored Ducklo mocking her love life and threatening to “destroy” one of their former White House correspondents. Over on CBS and NBC, they combined for a paltry one minute and 19 seconds with none since Saturday morning.
Worse yet, not a single network newscast has acknowledged the fact that Ducklo resigned on Saturday night. In a statement, Ducklo said he was “devastated to have embarrassed and disappointed my White House colleagues and President Biden” and promised to “learn from it and do better.”
But seeing as how he was only suspended and then resigned after a Vanity Fair story went public with Ducklo’s threats (which his superiors knew of weeks earlier), the only thing Ducklo and the Biden administration seem to have shown remorse for was the fact that they were caught.
NewsBusters reported on the first citation from Friday’s CBS Evening News as White House correspondent Weijia Jiang tacked 22 seconds onto the end of a segment about the Biden administration’s push to increase vaccine distribution:
Here at the White House, you can see the First Lady has decorated for Valentine's Day. President Biden has said he wanted to restore decency and vowed to fire anyone on the spot who was disrespectful. But tonight, a deputy press secretary has only been suspended for one week after using sexist and threatening language with a female reporter.
NBC provided the remaining 57 seconds on Saturday’s Today at the end of White House correspondent Kelly O’Donnell’s 8:00 a.m. Eastern hour segment on the Senate impeachment trial (click “expand”):
KRISTEN WELKER: And Kelly, there's also news about a White House deputy press secretary being suspended for a week without pay because of comments he apparently made to a reporter. What can you tell us about this?
O’DONNELL: This is a one-week suspension without pay for T.J. Ducklo after news broke that he threatened to “destroy” a reporter who was working on a story about Ducklo's personal life, that he was dating a separate, unrelated reporter who had covered the Biden campaign. On Inauguration Day, President Biden said he would not tolerate disrespectful conduct from his staff.
BIDEN [on 01/20/21] If you ever work with me and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect, talk down to someone, I promise you I will fire you on the spot. On the spot.
O’DONNELL: Ducklo, who previously worked for NBC, has apologized and the White House says it considers this one-week suspension serious, though it does not meet the standard we just heard the President set just last month.
As we wrote on Friday night, there’s zero doubt that, regardless of whatever else was going on in the world, all three networks would have found time to breathlessly cover such a scandal if it had involved a Trump staffer.
The Ducklo cover-up and downplaying was made possible over the past four days by advertisers such as Allegra (on CBS), Progressive (on ABC), and Zales (on NBC). Follow the links to see their contact information at the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
To see the relevant transcripts from February 12 and 13, click “expand.”
CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell
February 12, 2021
6:43 p.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Breaking News; White House Suspends Press Aide Accused of Threatening Reporter]
WEIJIA JIANG: Here at the White House, you can see the First Lady has decorated for Valentine's Day. President Biden has said he wanted to restore decency and vowed to fire anyone on the spot who was disrespectful. But tonight, a deputy press secretary has only been suspended for one week after using sexist and threatening language with a female reporter.
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NBC’s Today
February 13, 2021
8:04 a.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: White House Suspends Deputy Press Secretary; TJ Ducklo Threatened Reporter Investigating Relationship]
KRISTEN WELKER: And Kelly, there's also news about a White House deputy press secretary being suspended for a week without pay because of comments he apparently made to a reporter. What can you tell us about this?
KELLY O’DONNELL: This is a one-week suspension without pay for T.J. Ducklo after news broke that he threatened to “destroy” a reporter who was working on a story about Ducklo's personal life, that he was dating a separate, unrelated reporter who had covered the Biden campaign. On Inauguration Day, President Biden said he would not tolerate disrespectful conduct from his staff.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN [on 01/20/21] If you ever work with me and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect, talk down to someone, I promise you I will fire you on the spot. On the spot.
O’DONNELL: Ducklo, who previously worked for NBC, has apologized and the White House says it considers this one-week suspension serious, though it does not meet the standard we just heard the president set just last month.
