The mainstream media spent an average of 46 minutes covering Donald Trump’s January 6 pardons but just three minutes covering Biden’s pardoning of his own family, new analysis has found.
Between January 20 and January 22, ABC, NBC, and CBS devoted 15 times as much airtime to Trump’s pardons than they did Biden’s, the analysis by The Media Research Center found.
The anchors who led the coverage included ABC’s George Stephanopoulos and CBS’s Norah O’Donnell.
Biden issued a series of preemptive pardons for family members James B. Biden, Sara Jones Biden, Valerie Biden Owens, John T. Owens, and Francis W. Biden in the final hours of his administration.
He also pardoned younger brother James’ wife, Sara; his sister, Valerie; her husband, John; and his younger brother, Francis Biden, for ‘nonviolent’ actions dating back 10 years. In December, Biden pardoned son Hunter, despite vowing not to.
But newscasters barely covered it. Instead, they obsessed over the controversy surrounding Trump, the MRC found.
The study comes days as CNN and NBC recover from sweeping layoffs.
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The statistic, calculated by The Media Research Center (MRC), pertains to broadcasts from ABC, NBC, and CBS that aired beginning on Inauguration Day through the morning of January 22. Pictured, a still from ABC World News Tonight with David Muir this past Tuesday
‘Tonight, President Donald Trump’s first full day in office, and the growing fallout after he pardoned the January 6th rioters,’ NBC’s Lester Holt told viewers as they tuned into Tuesday’s version of the Nightly News, after touching on Biden’s pardons the day before
Over on CBS, an outgoing Norah O’Donnell devoted an entire segment to interview U.S. Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger
On Tuesday January 21st, Lester Holt kicked off NBC’s coverage with the following segment.
‘Tonight, President Donald Trump’s first full day in office, and the growing fallout after he pardoned the January 6th rioters.
‘The president… faces backlash for pardoning more than a thousand January 6 defendants, including many found guilty of assaulting police officers,’ he continued.
The anchor went on to highlight the prospect of leaders of the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers – among nearly 200, he said – ‘walking free’ after their crimes.
Over on ABC, World News Tonight’s David Muir said much of the same.
‘Tonight, President Trump, just moments ago, on why he pardoned more than 1,500 defendants in the January 6 attack on the Capitol, including those who assaulted officers.
He went on to advertise awaiting interviews with officers ‘who came under attack,’ sparking accusations of bias in the process.
‘David Muir mentions Trump’s pardons but there is no mention of Biden’s pardons of 30 convicted killers plus pardons for Biden’s family and Fauci for crimes not even arrested for yet. Hey sponsors – you like this?’ one X user wrote moments later.
‘ABC just won’t quit with bashing President Trump,’ another user added. ‘David Muir is making more of an issue of the J6 pardons than @JoeBiden pardoning his son, family, and the entire J6 committee.’
CBS anchor Gayle King (right) also offered substantial commentary on the Jan 6 pardons on January 21st – as did Good Morning America’s George Stephanopoulos
Over on CBS, O’Donnell devoted an entire segment to interview U.S. Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger.
A day later, amid waning ratings that’s seen her lose ground to both Holt and Muir and reportedly subject to a more than $4million pay curt, she signed off her Evening News desk for good.
Manger, meanwhile, argued that Trump’s sweeping pardons on January 6 defendants had upset a lot of officers, and ‘had an impact on our communities nationwide.’
Earlier in the day, O’Donnell’s longtime colleague Gayle King also offered substantial commentary on the then-unfolding situation – as did Good Morning America’s George Stephanopoulos.
Both clashed with newly named Secretary of State Marco Rubio, over past comments that saw him brand January 6, 2021, as a ‘national embarrassment’.
‘I don’t anticipate a single one of our partners will ask about it, obviously,” Rubio said in response, as a video he shared on the social platform X that day circulated.
‘My job is to focus on the foreign policy of the United States. I have a different job this morning and a different focus. … I won’t be opining on domestic matters at this point.’
Stephanopoulos went on to ask whether Rubio no longer felt the events of January 6 impacted the US’ standing in the world – to which he said, ‘I’m focused singularly on foreign policy and how I interact with our allies.’
A back-and-forth was also seen between King and Rubio in a similar interview the same on CBS, where King pressed the head of state for his former comments about the insurrection.
‘Many people believe – including the American people -[they] were not in favor of these blanket pardons,’ King began
‘In February, 2021, even you issued a statement… you said, the images of the attacks stirred up anger of you… [that] the nation was embarrassed in the eyes of the world by our own citizens.
‘How do you personally reconcile those feelings with the pardons that he did yesterday?’
Again, Rubio offered a similar response – before being grilled on the very same subject by NBC’s new co-host, Craig Melvin, on the set of Today.
Meanwhile, on January 6, 2021, a total of five people died – one from an overdose, one shot by Capitol police, and three from natural causes. The latter included a cop who died a day after being assaulted – his death deemed an unrelated occurrence
Over the course of his presidency, Biden issued 8,064 pardons during his tenure, including preemptive ones for every member of his family except Jill and daughter Ashley
‘I recall that you said, shortly after the attack on the Capitol, where you were that day, that it was one of the saddest days in American history,’ Melvin said, after the show touched on Biden’s pardons the day before with one single segment.
He went on to show Rubio’s comments offered to reports on January 6, 2021, where he likened the US, at the time, to Putin’s Russia.
‘What message does this pardoning, nearly all of them, send to the rest of the world?’ Melvin, a journalist with NBC News for the past decade-and-a-half, asked.
After some hesitance from Rubio, Melvin pressed more – consistent with the other station’s particular style of journalism surrounding the January 6 pardons.
The desire to pick and prod at politicians’ stance at the subject saw the reporting involving Biden emerging the day before pale in comparison, as it continued into the subsequent day.
More segments and monologues awaited, as the stories surrounding Biden’s executive actions faded into relative obscurity.
Biden also issued pre-emptive pardons for General Mike Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci, former Rep. Liz Cheney, and other lawmakers who investigated the January 6 riot.
Over the course of his presidency, the 82-year-old issued 8,064 pardons during his tenure, including ones for every member of his family – except wife Jill and daughter Ashley.
The statistics surrounding the coverage comes as NBC News conducted a round of layoffs on Thursday, after CNN laid off 200 it staffer as part of a long-talked shift toward a more digital-centered outfit.
Oliver Darcy, CNN Media Analyst Brian Stelter’s long-billed successor but now the founder of Status, reported both rounds of firings last week in his newsletter
The Status report, published about eight hours before the CNN layoffs an as networks engaged in their pardon reporting, stated that ‘ABC News is anticipating “long-rumored layoffs” too,’ also amid flailing ratings.
