On Thursday, both CBS This Morning and NBC’s Today rushed to play up how Senator Ted Cruz apologized for a joke he made about Vice President Joe Biden just days after his son died but both ignored that the video of the comment was provided by the far left Super PAC American Bridge. ABC's Good Morning America did not cover Ted Cruz' comments during its Thursday morning broadcast.
NBC’s Natalie Morales highlighted how “GOP presidential hopeful Ted Cruz is apologizing for a joke he made about Vice President Joe Biden Wednesday night during a speech if Michigan." The NBC anchor then played a clip of his joke, which included the American Bridge logo in the video, but never bothered to mention the identity or agenda of the liberal.
According to its website, American Bridge is a “progressive research and communications organization committed to holding Republicans accountable for their words and actions and helping you ascertain when Republican candidates are pretending to be something they’re not.”
After playing the video, Morales explained that the “old time joke came just four days after the vice president's son Beau Biden died from brain cancer. Cruz used Facebook and Twitter to issue an apology saying, in part, ‘it was a mistake to use an old joke about Vice President Biden during his time of grief and I sincerely apologize.’”
Over on CBS, co-host Charlie Rose never played the video produced by the far-left group, but did note that the Detroit News covered the story, which featured the American Bridge video prominently in its story:
The Detroit News says presidential candidate Ted Cruz apologized for making a joke about the vice president last night at a Republican event. Cruz said the nice thing about Joe Biden is, “you don't need a punch line.” Cruz walked away when a reporter from The Detroit News asked him why he told the joke just days after Biden's son died of brain cancer. Cruz later went on social media to say it was a mistake to use an old joke about Joe Biden during his time of grief.
After Rose recounted Cruz’s apology, Gayle King chimed in to insist that “[a] lot of people feel that was not nice.”
This was not the first time that the networks have failed to identify when a liberal has gone after a prominent Republican politician. In October of 2014, Chris Christie was confronted by a heckler, and Democratic politician, at a campaign event, and instead of identifying his political ideology, the Big Three all scolded the New Jersey Governor for fighting back.
Furthermore, while CBS and NBC were quick to promote Ted Cruz’s unfortunate gaffe directed at Vice President Biden, in the past the “Big Three” (ABC, CBS, and NBC) networks have repeatedly buried Biden’s numerous embarrassing moments over the years.
As NewsBusters’ Geoffrey Dickens has documented, the Big Three have gone out of their way to not cover Biden’s history of gaffes, including telling a disabled man to “Stand Up!” as well has his infamous 7-11 slur in which he said “You cannot go into a 7-11 or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent...I’m not joking.”
See relevant transcripts below.
NBC’s Today
June 4, 2015
NATALIE MORALES: Meantime, GOP presidential hopeful Ted Cruz is apologizing for a joke he made about Vice President Joe Biden Wednesday night during a speech if Michigan.
TED CRUZ: You know, Vice President Joe Biden, you know the nice thing, you don't need a punch line.
MORALES: Well, the old time joke came just four days after the vice president's son Beau Biden died from brain cancer. Cruz used Facebook and Twitter to issue an apology saying, in part, “it was a mistake to use an
old joke about Vice President Biden during his time of grief and I sincerely apologize.”
CBS This MorningJune 4, 2015
CHARLIE ROSE: The Detroit News says presidential candidate Ted Cruz apologized for making a joke about the vice president last night at a Republican event. Cruz said the nice thing about Joe Biden is, “you don't need a punch line.” Cruz walked away when a reporter from The Detroit News asked him why he told the joke just days after Biden's son died of brain cancer. Cruz later went on social media to say it was a mistake to use an old joke about Joe Biden during his time of grief.
GAYLE KING: A lot of people feel that was not nice.
