ABC, NBC, CBS Nightly Newscasts Ignore Amnesty Rally

On Tuesday, not one word about the immigration rally on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. was mentioned on the nightly newscasts for NBC, CBS, or ABC. Americans watching the nightly newscasts would not have known that such a rally ever happened during the government shutdown. 

As Breitbart News reported, lawmakers in Congress were arrested at the event in acts of civil disobedience, a story line that often makes the mainstream media salivate. The media also often likes to use immigration stories to try to falsely make Republicans seem uncaring and prejudiced. 

But coverage of the event, which had been planned for months and is in support of an immigration agenda the mainstream media is sympathetic to, could have made it difficult for the mainstream media to continue to play up the government shutdown. Additionally, Americans may have wondered why the Obama administration allowed illegal immigrants to demonstrate for amnesty on a National Mall that is supposed to be closed because of the shutdown after the White House barred veterans from visiting the World War II memorial.

NBC’s Nightly News with Brian Williams focused on death benefits that families of military members may not receive because of the government shutdown and accusations that the United Nations peacekeepers brought cholera to Haiti. The program also focused on NBC’s “Education Nation” event.

ABC’s World News with Diane Sawyer focused on a salmonella outbreak linked to Foster Farms chicken, a story the show was using to put pressure on Congress to end the shutdown. The program also had segments about Baywatch actors having had clauses in their contracts that said they could neither gain nor lose five pounds. The newscast also had a profile of “Rent-a-Spouse” programs in which people hire “wives” or “husbands” to organize their closets or paint their homes. 

In a segment about Obamacare, Sawyer focused on how the average wait time on the exchanges has been reduced and indicated that 100,000 new accounts had been created on the websites (without mentioning the comparatively small total number of enrollees) and covered for the Obama administration by saying Americans have not chosen plans because they are still browsing. No mention was made that Americans may have been unable to even browse the plans because of the glitches that have hamstrung Obamacare’s rollout.

CBS’s Evening News with Scott Pelley also mentioned the military death benefits that may not be paid because of the government shutdown. The newscast focused on how stocks have gone down since the shutdown and had a story about how the the country’s economy could tank if the the debt ceiling is not raised. 

The program at least recognized that Americans were having frustrations signing up for Obamacare, unlike ABC’s World News. The segment on Obamacare, though, ended with a positive portrayal of someone signing up for Obamacare and with a mention that the software for Obamacare was designed by private contractors, deflecting blame away from the President Obama’s administration.