Both CBS and ABC evening news have resorted to distortion in their coverage of the first debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. I am referring to CBS Evening News on Tuesday, September 27th. and ABC World News on the evening of Wednesday, September 28th.
I. CBS Evening News
Scott Pelley opened the newscast by referring to the race as a dead heat. This was a rather curious opening because most of the pre-debate media coverage had described the first debate as likely to be a decisive event in the presidential campaign, and all of the post-debate published polls had found Hillary Clinton to be the clear winner. The CBS coverage made no mention of the polls, the disparaging remarks Trump had made about women, his constant interruptions of Clinton, his talking over the moderator, his insistence that he was against the invasion of Iraq from the beginning, and his general demeanor during the debate.
Scott Pelley made no mention that Trump initially lavished praise on the moderator and then blamed him for being biased in favor of Clinton; also, Pelley had no criticism of Trump contending that he was given a defective mike -- Trump even suggested that the defective mike was a deliberate act to make him look bad. After first going to a Trump rally clip, Pelley went to a Clinton rally, but that was introduced by a reference to Clinton's high unfavorable rating. Aha! but Michelle Obama had ridden to the rescue, because she had a high standing among millennials. Then, to sink the point home, if it had not already been done, a reporter had gathered three or four young men together, who were wearing Clinton buttons, and recorded one of them telling how unenthusiastic he was about supporting Clinton.
The CBS coverage concluded with interviews with a few people, whose views did not in any way reflect the overwhelming conclusion of all of the focus groups that Clinton was the clear winner in the debate. One of these forums was conducted by the GOP forum guru, Frank Luntz. The final image was of an unidentified man, with no known expert credentials on debate outcomes, declaring that the debate to have changed no minds.
These are the focus group results: Pennsylvania - 16 Clinton; 5 Trump; Florida - 18 Clinton; 2 Trump; Ohio - 11 Clinton; Trump 0; and 18 neither. A CNN/ORC flash pool found that 61% declared Clinton the winner, versus 27% for Trump.
CBS frequently mentions the unfavorable ratings of Hillary Clinton but I have yet to hear any reference to her favorable ratings. With the notable exceptions of President Obama and Bernie Sanders, Clinton has the highest favorable ratings, based on aggregate polling, when compared to several other major politicians: Clinton - 42%; Trump - 34%; Paul Ryan - 33%; Nancy Polisi 24%; Harry Reid - 22%; and Mitch McConnell - 16%. For the record: the latest poll gives the media a 32% favorable rating.
Finally, Scott Pelley and team made no mention of what may have been the most reprehensible action of Donald Trump: he said he could have told a very damaging story about Bill and Hillary Clinton but he was not going to tell it , because Chelsea was in the audience. Trump surrogate, Rudy Guliani, even had the gall to contend that Trump was being magnanimous.
II. ABC World News
Some of what has been said about Scott Pelley and team above can also be said about the David Muir and team evening broadcast of Wednesday, September 28th: the reference to Clinton's unfavorable ratings on trust and honesty; the depiction of Michelle Obama coming to counteract Clinton's low standing among young people; his reference to a damaging story he could tell and then allowing his surrogates to describe that action as praiseworthy, because he was protecting the sensibilities of a young woman; his many interruptions of Clinton and his talking over the moderator. The Muir team made no reference to the ludicrous urging by Trump to make calls to Shawn Hannity to verify that Trump privately opposed the invasion of Iraq. When Trump said that he was "smart" to not pay income taxes, couldn't David Muir have observed that this supposed savior of the working class was implicitly saying that working people who pay taxes are ignorant suckers?
But the most serious failing of Muir and team, with the possible exception of the damaging story not told, is that one would not have known that there was flaming rage in the country about Donald Trump's denigration of the former Miss Universe, coupled with the resurrection of many other derogatory remarks Trump has made about women.
Harvard's Shorenstein Center on Medias, Politics and Public Policy found that in 2015, Hillary Clinton received a far higher proportion of negative coverage than any other candidate. Do the managements of both CBS and ABC believe that they are exempt from that finding of biased coverage?
A news gathering thought: in the wake of the first debate, a poll has found that Hillary Clinton's favorable ratings are now nearly on a par with her unfavorable ratings. Will you verify that and if found to be the case, will you publish the result?
This blog is being treated as an open letter to the managements of both CBS and ABC.
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