NBC Grants Bill Clinton 63 Seconds to Defend Hillary; ABC Spotlights Mrs. Clinton's Absence

Matthew Balan | May 14, 2014
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[More in the cross-post on the MRC's NewsBusters blog.]

Brian Williams set aside 63 seconds of air time on the 14 May 2014 edition of NBC Nightly News to a soundbite of Bill Clinton "firing back at Karl Rove, after comments Rove made about Hillary Clinton's health." Williams trumpeted how "shades of the old political warrior Bill Clinton were on display today," as he introduced the clip of the former president.

By contrast, on ABC's World News, Jonathan Karl detailed how the former New York senator was "not seen in public for nearly a month as secretary of state" in late 2012, and how State Department officials "downplayed her [Mrs. Clinton's] condition:"

JONATHAN KARL: ...They did not reveal she suffered from a concussion until days after it happened. When she returned to work, she wore special glasses to deal with double vision, and she acknowledged she had not fully recovered yet.

HILLARY CLINTON (from interview on CBS's "60 Minutes"): I still have some lingering effects. But, you know, the doctors tell me that that will all recede.

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