The justice system worked on Thursday as “creepy porn lawyer” Michael Avenatti was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for trying to extort over $20 million from Nike. And reports from the courtroom say he cried like a little baby. He’s the man the liberal media built to be their sleazy fighter against then-President Trump, but the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News wanted nothing to do with this latest chapter for their chosen champion.
Of the broadcast networks, only ABC’s World News Tonight gave the story any airtime at all, though it was fleeting.
In his rushed news brief, ABC anchor David Muir gave Avenatti’s sentencing only 17 seconds between two commercial breaks. “Tonight, news about disgraced attorney Michael Avenatti. A federal judge in Manhattan today sentencing him to two and a half years in prison for trying to extort more than $20 million from Nike,” he reported.
Muir even invoked a dramatic and somber voice when reading a quote from the sentencing. “Avenatti in tears, telling the court, quote, ‘I and I alone have destroyed my career, my relationships, my life,’” he emoted.
As a NewsBusters study found in 2019, the liberal media hoisted up Avenatti with 254 combined TV appearances over the course of their efforts to make him a household name. CNN host Brian Stelter even floated the idea that he was a “serious” 2020 contender (in 2018).
Over that same period, ABC gifted him 12 of those appearances, CBS had 7, and NBC gave him 5.
Instead of reporting on Avenatti’s sentencing, CBS gushed about an art exhibit they claimed was “helping heal racial divisions” but really just bashed white people. And over on NBC, they spent two segments whining about the U.S. withdrawing from Afghanistan.
But it’s understandable why NBC wouldn’t want to cover Avenatti’s extortion sentencing, they were pushing his hoax claims against Nike. At the time, chief environmental affairs correspondent Anne Thompson boasted that Avenatti was “playing his brand of hardball with Nike,” as she proceeded to go over the details of his claims.
Anchor Lester Holt also suggested, at the time, “the war of words between Michael Avenatti and Nike is heating up on the sidelines,” as the on-screen headline read: “Nike under fire.” All of this was while the creepy porn lawyer was facing the extortion charges that would ultimately send him away.
NBC had also fallen for Avenatti’s lies about representing a supposed victim of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who lied about him leading a gang rape ring while in high school.
While ABC rushed through their report, Special Report fill-in anchor Shannon Bream was on the Fox News Channel noting that Avenatti was in other serious legal trouble: “Avenatti will also face unrelated fraud trial in Los Angeles as well as a separate trial next year in Manhattan, where he is charged with cheating his former client, adult film actress Stormy Daniels out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
CBS and NBC refusal to witness the fall of the monster they helped to build was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Ford Motor Company on the former, and Mr. Clean on the latter. Their contact information is linked so you can tell them about the biased news they fund.
The transcripts are below:
ABC’s World News Tonight
July 8, 2021
6:50:13 p.m. EasternDAVID MUIR: Tonight, news about disgraced attorney Michael Avenatti. A federal judge in Manhattan today sentencing him to two and a half years in prison for trying to extort more than $20 million from Nike. Avenatti in tears, telling the court, quote, “I and I alone have destroyed my career, my relationships, my life.”
Fox News Channel’s Special Report
July 8, 2021
6:09:30 p.m. EasternSHANNON BREAM: Fox 5 in New York, where Michael Avenatti has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison. The controversial lawyer was found guilty last year on charges he tried to extort up to $25 million from Nike.
Avenatti will also face unrelated fraud trial in Los Angeles as well as a separate trial next year in Manhattan where he is charged with cheating his former client, adult film actress Stormy Daniels out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
