***To read the full blog, please check out the complete post on NewsBusters***
For two evenings now, all three of the broadcast networks have peddled unsubstantiated claims from anonymous sources claiming President Trump talking about issuing pardons to himself and his adult children. Both ABC and CBS made sure to make comparisons to President Richard Nixon, with the former straight-up lying about the source of the speculation and claiming it came from the President himself.
Meanwhile, none of these networks cared when President Obama commuted the sentence of unrepentant, Puerto Rican terrorist Oscar Lopez-Rivera. They also praised the commutation of Chelsea Manning, who leaked sensitive U.S. intelligence that ended up in the hands of Osama bin Laden.
Suggestions that the President was looking to pardon his adult children and himself stemmed from a Tuesday New York Times report. In the first paragraph, the paper admits the claims came from “two people briefed on the matter,” which was code for ‘anonymous sources.’
But on ABC’s World News Tonight Wednesday, chief White House correspondent Jon Karl lied to viewers and claimed Trump was the source of the reporting.
(...)