Established TV Networks Portray Clinton Foundation as Victim of 'Unfair Targeting'

Nearly all of the broadcast TV segments on the Clinton Foundation’s many scandals sympathetically portray the foundation as a victim of unfair charges, according to a study by the Media Research Center.

Only a handful of segments by ABC, CBS and NBC among the 62 broadcast stories about Hillary Clinton’s foundation raised serious questions about the Clintons’ conduct, says the study. In contrast, 95 percent of the segments either dismissed concerns outright or merely relayed the Clinton camp’s press releases, without giving the other side of the story.

The 62 stories began in the aftermath of the August 9 release of the results of an investigation into the Clinton Foundation by Washington watchdog group Judicial Watch.

The group’s findings revealed that the Clintons failed to report serious conflicts of interest. The findings, along with other facts revealed in the book “Clinton Cash,” have spurred much skeptical media coverage of the foundation.

But the MRC survey of network coverage revealed only three stories between August 9 and today, in which the established networks included any warnings about the Clintons’ conflict of interest issued by numerous sources, or mention how even many on the left now believe the Clintons should shut down the Clinton Foundation, especially during Hillary’s run for president.

During the same period of time, many other media outlets had been publishing or airing stories highlighting the problematic actions the Clintons took with their purported charity.

A host of media outlets have now called for the Clinton Foundation to be shut down, including the far left Minneapolis Star Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, and The New York Times. Other outlets such as Huffington Post, Slate and the Daily Beast have also made the call for the foundation to be shuttered to avoid further conflict of interest charges.

The worries on the left were so deep that the Democrat National Committee had produced a 42-page memo to guide party members on how to treat Hillary’s “vulnerabilities” over the allegations of her pay-to-play scandals.

Even this week it was found that fully 194 Clinton Foundation donors received appointments to State Department positions while Hillary was Obama’s Secretary of State.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.