Posted on 04/15/2016 12:37:56 PM PDT by Kaslin
Here’s what is most unusual about this week in news coverage of the GOP nomination drama: what’s not the top story of the week. On April 13, ABC’s World News Tonight correspondent Tom Llamas devoted most of that night’s report to chilling death threats against the Colorado state Republican party chairman, angered at how Donald Trump failed to win any delegates at the weekend party convention.
Besides that one report, and two minor mentions (one on ABC’s Good Morning America and on Thursday’s CBS Evening News, that’s all the broadcast news attention given to reports of actual death threats in this increasingly nasty presidential race: 110 seconds in total, not a moment of which was on NBC.
But since the Colorado convention through Thursday night (April 10 through April 14), the broadcast networks have aired a collective 45 minutes, 30 seconds of coverage of Trump’s complaints that the GOP nominating system is “crooked” and “rigged.” That’s 24 TIMES more airtime spent on Trump’s grievance about the process, vs. death threats against anti-Trump Republicans.
For this report, MRC analysts looked at all of the network morning and evening news programs from April 10 through April 14, plus the three Sunday politically-themed talk shows from April 10 (ABC’s This Week, CBS’s Face the Nation, and NBC’s Meet the Press).
While the networks devoted only minor coverage to the absolutely awful death threats against anti-Trump Republicans (Colorado GOP chairman Steve House told ABC he received an anonymous phone call telling him: “I need you to do me a favor. Get your gun, put it in your mouth, pull the trigger....If you can’t do that, I’m going to send someone over to the house and help you.”), they gave virtually the same amount of coverage to Trump’s convention chairman, Paul Manafort, accusing the Cruz campaign of being Nazis, saying on NBC’s Meet the Press: “You go to these county conventions, and you see the tactics, Gestapo tactics.”
While NBC’s Chuck Todd immediately challenged Manafort in a 32-second exchange, nothing further was said on NBC about Manafort’s inflammatory rhetoric. ABC included the quote in their reporting on Sunday’s World News Tonight and Monday’s Good Morning America, but included no criticism; CBS did the same in two segments on Monday’s CBS This Morning.
Total coverage of the Trump campaign’s charge of “Gestapo tactics” against Team Cruz: a mere 100 seconds.
Last week, a video surfaced of longtime Trump advisor Roger Stone, who continues to promote the GOP frontrunner, seeming to threaten anti-Trump delegates to the GOP national convention in July. “We’re going to have protests, demonstrations. We will disclose the hotels and the room numbers of those delegates who are directly involved in the steal,” Stone told a radio show. “We’ll tell you who the culprits are. We urge you to visit their hotel and find them.”
One might think such a barely-concealed threat would generate major media coverage, but Stone’s remark drew just 50 seconds of coverage, all of it on ABC, last week (25 seconds on the April 5 World News Tonight, plus another 25 seconds on the April 6 Good Morning America.)
This week, NBC’s Chuck Todd raised it with Manafort in his Meet the Press interview; later in the same show, the issue was raised again by Cruz supporter Glenn Beck in a later segment. And ABC’s Llamas played the Stone clip again in his Wednesday night story about the threats being made against Trump’s opponents.
Clearly, Trump’s complaints about the delegate selection process require coverage, and in many cases network reporters are suggesting the outcome in Colorado is the consequence of the billionaire’s political incompetence, not a “rigged system.”
“Privately, Trump advisors concede delegate rules have been known for months, and complaining about it now could hurt Trump’s image,” correspondent Major Garrett noted on Monday night’s CBS Evening News.
Despite the coverage’s anti-Trump tone, the networks’ heavy focus on his claims of a “crooked” nominating system, compared to their near-censorship the much more serious threats being made in Colorado and Indiana, and the implied threats being made by a powerful longtime aide, shows once again how the GOP frontrunner continues to set the TV news agenda.
NewsBusters = MRC = Brent Bozell = Mark Levin Bunk Mate. That is all that need to be said.
“the networks’ heavy focus on his claims of a “crooked” nominating system,”
That’s because the same scenario is playing out in the Democratic primary. It’s news because it’s true.
How many death threats do Trump and his advisors get a day?
We’re supposed to be more concerned about a few cranks than the entire crooked political system and the ignorant passivity of the dumbed-down state delegates for the most important election in half a century. Right.
“We’re supposed to be more concerned about a few cranks than the entire crooked political system.....”
Of course. The media thought police are hard at work, as usual. We have TOTAL corruption from the WH on down in Washington....and it is IGNORED.
You find any post them with the links
Isn't politics rough and tumble? Hasn't Cruz gone out and targeted delegates to get them to see things his way? Just how do Cruz operatives get those delegates to see things the Cruz way? Gifts and neck rubs or might they make veiled comments about the delegates' future in politics......hmmmmmmm.
Cruz supporters gleefully comment how aggressive Teddy is, but feign shock and horror at the opposition being aggressive and fighting back.
If Cruz and his minions are appalled, let them be honest with themselves. For once.
I just think that it is terrible, terrible, really, really terrible, that people who are simply against Donald Trump are being threatened! The threat is very terrible, too! People who are going to the Republican Convention are going to be visited in their hotels, and maybe even hotel rooms by other people who have an interest in the convention! The horror of it! How are these Republican Conventioneers going to survive until July?
The Future Crime Unit (FCU) in Cleveland should swing into high gear and stop this, right now!
Yep...
Ah, hurt your feelings much?
Cruz Spam: "It's Got What Plants Crave"
How many candidates besides Trump are wearing bulletproof vests to their rallies?
How many “trump supporters” have the Secret Service and the FBI actually tracked down as issuing “threats” to the rest of the boys? I fully support any “trump supporter” who threatens someone being put in Jail.
I just want to know who they are and who bails them out.
You guys are pathetic.
Your phony threats can’t dominate the news?
Boo hoo, maybe you should file police reports if you are serious.
Meanwhile, your credibility is gone forever and you will no longer be part of the remains of the conservative establishment you ruined.
Crawl back to The Blaze.
what threat? stone isn’t affiliated with the Trump campaign in any official capacity.
If threats were in fact made via email, they can be tracked down rather quickly. If there are arrests made, then it should be paid attention to at that time. Until then, it is much like the so-called “hate crimes” that turn out to be hoaxes.
All the talk about death threat is just talk. Unless someone is arrestd for the death threat, I don’t think there is any real death threat.
Right, and Stone is also banned from a couple news networks for his “nasty comments”. But as Diana West points out, Brent Bozell says NOTHING about the “nasty comments” said about Trump and his supporters! Read below:
This reminds me of the time former Ohio senator George “boo hoo” Voinovich was on Sean Hannity’s radio show years ago. Everyone in the GOPe gets plied with dinners and dollars for re-election. Influence peddling is everywhere. Yet, as bad as that is, Voinovich started ranting that he would never allow the will of his constituents to intimidate him on votes. Adamantly saying he would not be swayed no matter how many times people called his office and registered their dismay over legislation. He would not be moved.
The GOPe has no idea how bad that makes them look. All those “nice” cronies lining their pockets for votes, so they’ll not be swayed by those “evil,” voting constituent, US citizens. Crony money talks and US citizen voters walk.
We the people are evil, so long live the donor class./s
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