***To read the full blog, please check out the complete post on NewsBusters***
Monday was day two for President Trump’s defense in the Senate impeachment trial and it was the first full day for his legal team to layout their fact-based arguments for acquittal. Yet, the evening newscasts of ABC, CBS, and NBC chose not to air their arguments, as they did with House Democrats. Instead, they chose to disregard the defense in favor of pouncing on reported allegations made in the conveniently timed leak of former national security advisor, John Bolton’s yet to be released book.
Out of their almost 12 minutes of combined time dedicated to all things related to impeachment (11:51), only two minutes and 37 seconds (22%) were allocated to the arguments Trump’s legal team made on the floor of the Senate. The rest was allocated to gushing about Bolton’s book and how it had “upended” the trial and things related to it.
ABC’s World News Tonight slotted two minutes, 33 seconds for impeachment with only 44 seconds of that (28%) allowed for the legal team’s hours-long defense, which still had hours to go. With anchor David Muir touting the book as a “bombshell,” senior congressional correspondent Mary Bruce began her report by showing off a video of “John Bolton, smiling and waving to cameras this morning after upending the impeachment proceedings.”
According to her, “[The book] directly contradicts what the President's defense team has been arguing.”
(...)