With less than a week until Election Day, the liberal media are trying to milk the heinous attack on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) husband, Paul Pelosi, for all it’s worth. Despite the fact that political violence has hit both parties, the liberal media show far less concern when conservatives are involved. NewsBusters examined the first five days of the Pelosi attack and found that it was 11 times larger than the amount of coverage on the major broadcast network (ABC, CBS, and NBC morning, evening, and Sunday morning shows had given over the same period to the attempted assassination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
MRC analysts found the Kavanaugh story fetched a total of 15 minutes and 1 second of airtime in the first five days since the story broke, which was June 8. The story completely fell out of the news cycle in less than 24 hours with all three evening newscasts (ABC’s World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News) dropping the story on June 9, after covering it that morning (as reported by NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck).
The Kavanaugh attack garnered 5 minutes and 44 seconds on the first evening. ABC gave it 2 minutes 30 seconds, CBS had 2 minutes 8 seconds, and NBC came in last with 1 minute 6 seconds.
The story popped back up thanks to authorities releasing the 911 call on Saturday, June 11 with NBC’s Today giving it a 23-second recap and ABC’s World News Tonight giving it 41 seconds. And as NewsBusters weekend analyst Kevin Tober reported at the time, there was no mention of the attack against Kavanaugh and his family on the Sunday morning roundtable programs.
In stunning contrast, analysts found that the broadcast networks gave a whopping 166 minutes and 16 seconds to the Pelosi attack in the first five days. That’s almost three hours of coverage (2:46:16).
On the first evening, ABC alone eclipsed the total first-night Kavanaugh coverage with 6 minutes and 40 seconds. NBC gave it 6 minutes and 9 seconds, while CBS gave it 5 minutes and 22 seconds. This brought their first night total to 18 minutes and 11 seconds. The first night of Pelosi coverage surpasses the five-day total for Kavanaugh.
The only time a broadcast network didn’t bring up the attack in those five days was when the Saturday evening newscasts for ABC and CBS were preempted for college football.
While ABC’s This Week, CBS’s Face the Nation, and NBC’s Meet the Press ignored the Kavanaugh attack on Sunday, June 12, the attack on Pelosi was their number one story NBC devoted almost 31 minutes (30:54). CBS gave it 12 minutes 32 seconds, and ABC came in last with 7 minutes 2 seconds.
The liberal media have spent so much time on the Pelosi attack to stoke fear of Republicans ahead of the midterm elections, with the Pelosi attack weaved into segments warning of intimidation and possible attacks at the polls.
Methodology: Both attacks occurred this year (a midterm election year), they occurred at or in the vicinity of the target’s home, and both were politically motivated according to the alleged perpetrator. Analysts looked at the ABC, CBS, and NBC evening and morning shows and their Sunday roundtable programs from June 8 to June 12, 2022, for the Kavanaugh attack and October 28 to November 1, 2022, for the Pelosi attack. For both stories, the evening newscasts were the first time each could be reported on-air.
