***To read the full blog, please check out the complete post on NewsBusters***
CBS Evening News has had a slightly better-than-normal track record recently of providing relatively balanced coverage when it came to Republicans and Democrats. But during Tuesday’s edition, they had a pretty serious relapse.
Chief Congressional Correspondent Nancy Cordes presented what was pitched as a CBS News investigation into state-level attorneys general who were getting a little too cozy with corporate lobbyists. But in reality, it targeted primarily Republican AGs while giving Democratic ones what amounted to a free pass. A double standard if ever there was one.
“Now our CBS News investigative team, which went undercover to expose the cozy relationship between lobbyists and state attorneys general,” announced anchor Jeff Glor as he led into Cordes’ lopsided report. “Lobbyists are making huge donations to groups that help get officials elected. For their money, they get access to top law enforcement officers, only expanding what some call ‘The Swamp.’”
By “undercover,” Glor might have meant to say ‘observed from afar,’ because the footage captured by CBS of one the events attended by AGs and lobbyists appeared to have been recorded from a long distance away.
Cordes didn’t even pretend to cover the issue through a bipartisan lens. “Holding public office has its perks. On Kiawah Island in South Carolina, we spotted Republican state attorneys general taking the kind of luxury trip most Americans can't afford,” she began.
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