Early Thursday morning news broke that a 13 year girl was brutally murders in Israel, and later that day it was release that she was American and killed by a Palestinian terrorist. As Fox News’ Bret Baier reported on Special Report, “Police say a Palestinian teenager snuck into a Jewish settlement Thursday and stabbed a 13-year-old American girl as she slept in her bed.” But the networks were silent about it that evening, they instead chose to dedicate six minutes and 6 seconds to Defense Secretary Ash Carter allowing transgender people to openly serve in the military.
CBS’ Josh Elliot was joyful, teasing at the top of Evening News, “A barrier falls. The military lifts its ban on transgender service members.” CBS led the night with the story stating that history was made and, “Transgender people will now be allowed to serve openly, and they will be eligible for any medically necessary care, including surgery.”
And CBS reporter David Martin whined that the US didn’t adopt the policy sooner saying, “The US military is not a world leader when it comes to treating transgender service members equally. 18 other countries already allow them to serve openly in uniform.” He also failed to report about the policy’s opposition.
On NBC, anchor Lester Holt at least admitted that the policy was controversial reporting, “The Republican head of the House Armed Services Committee says it's the Obama administration putting, quote, “politics over policy.””
ABC’s World News Tonight had the shortest coverage at 28 Seconds. Reporter Cecilia Vega only stated the Defense Departments decision and that, “One study estimates there are 2,500 transgender people now on active duty.”
In addition, the Spanish-language networks also failed to report about the murder of the young girl and they spent two minutes and 21 seconds covering Carter’s policy. Univision get the issue 15 seconds while Telemundo reported on it for over two minutes. Telemundo did dedicate a section of the report to the concern of soldiers not accepting the policy.