ABC, NBC Glorify Michelle Obama While Downplaying ‘Bill Clinton Inc.’

Nicholas Fondacaro | October 27, 2016
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WikiLeaks unveiled yet another highly damaging e-mail for the Clinton campaign, this one drawing big bold lines between former President Bill Clinton and the companies that help make him rich. “It reveals a tangled web of charity and personal financial enrichment in what the aide calls ‘Bill Clinton Incorporated,’” announced Anchor Scott Pelley at the top of CBS Evening News. CBS was the only network in the “Big Three” to treat the issue with any form of seriousness, while ABC and NBC chose to glorify First Lady Michelle Obama instead.

The e-mail in question detailed how a longtime aide to Bill Clinton, Doug Band, used his partnership at Teneo Consulting to be the gate keeper to the former president. Teneo represents some of the largest companies in the world, such as Barclays and Dow. And according to CBS’s Nancy Cordes, Band pressured Clinton Foundation donors to shell out huge money for Bill Clinton engagements, “Band argued he was not only the foundation's chief fund-raiser, but had arranged more than $50 million in for-profit activity for President Clinton.”

But viewers of ABC and NBC wouldn’t know the seriousness of the Clinton access scheme because they hid it deep puff reported touting Michelle Obama campaign stop with Hillary Clinton. “And today, for the first time, first lady Michelle Obama walking out onto that campaign stage, right there with Hillary Clinton, with her own message about Clinton, saying this is not over,” hyped ABC Anchor David Muir on World News Tonight.

ABC’s Cecilia Vega seemed to pull out all the stops as she gushed about the two of them on stage together. “They walked out together to cheers and a hug… Former rivals with a shared bond… Their friendship on full display… And of course, that famous line,” the ABC reporter said as she fawned over the event for three minutes, 11 seconds. NBC’s resident Clinton fangirl Andrea Mitchell echoed Vega’s sentiment for the occasion, “An unprecedented moment, two first ladies, current and former campaigning together for the first time.

Both also did their best to downplay the latest WikiLeaks controversy as best they could. “But outside tonight, a shadow over the campaign,” whined Vega to begin her 43 seconds long segment on the e-mail. Vega imparted almost none of the controversial parts of the story. There was no mention at all of Teneo, Band’s role as gate keeper, nor the sheer amount of money passing through him.

Mitchell simply described Band’s e-mail as just a story “competing for headlines” against Michelle and Hillary. And she seemed to try and insulate Hillary from the controversy by noting, “But no indication Hillary Clinton ever did anything for those donors when she was secretary of state.

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