Priorities: ABC, CBS Hype 'Royal Mic Drop;' Ignore Russian Aggression

Matthew Balan | April 29, 2016
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[More in the cross-post on the MRC's NewsBusters blog.]

ABC and CBS's evening newscasts on 29 April 2016 spotlighted the friendly transatlantic trash-talking between the British and American heads of state. However, the programs failed to cover the latest too-close intercept of American military assets by Russian aircraft. On World News Tonight, ABC's David Muir touted "the royal mic drop — the Queen and Prince Harry responding to the First Family's challenge" over the upcoming Invictus Games for wounded veterans. On CBS Evening News, Scott Pelley trumpeted that "it's not often that the Queen gets involved in a Twitter war. She and Prince Harry traded barbs with President and Mrs. Obama."

NBC Nightly News, to their credit, covered the "dangerously-close encounter between U.S. and Russian forces over the Baltic Sea." However, the program gave just a 19-second news brief to the story. By contrast, the newscast set aside twice that amount of time to the British royals versus the Obamas. Altogether, the Big Three evening newscasts devoted 117 seconds — nearly two minutes — to the dueling" mic drops."

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