The liberal “Big Three” networks seemed to try everything in their power to not mention Hillary Clinton’s latest E-Mail controversy Wednesday. Throughout all of their news programs, both morning and evening, they gave the E-Mails a total of six minutes, 59 seconds. In stark contrast, they dragged out Trump’s “second amendment people” comment with a whopping 25 minutes, 54 seconds of coverage. “One day after Donald Trump used the second amendment to shoot himself in the foot, Hillary Clinton used her first amendment right to speak out against him,” touted anchor Scott Pelley on CBS Evening News.
ABC’s World News Tonight had the largest disparity in coverage of the two stories Wednesday evening. The network dedicated a mere 38 seconds to the E-Mail controversy, as they mixed it in with other coverage of Clinton. “Today, the Clinton campaign saying, "Hillary Clinton never took actions as Secretary of State because of donations to the Clinton Foundation,” reported Cecilia Vega, “But Trump says the E-Mails exposed pay for play connections.” ABC gave Trump’s comment three minutes, 24 seconds that evening.
On a side note, instead of covering Clinton’s E-Mail controversy ABC chose to lead the night by broadcasting the man climbing Trump Tower. They broadcasted live from the tower for three minutes, 47 seconds, which was not included in larger time total.
NBC Nightly News gave the E-Mails a tiny bit more time that ABC Wednesday evening, at 59 seconds. They too mixed it into a larger report about Clinton. Correspondent Kristen Welker played a clip of former President Bill Clinton defending the Clinton Foundation last year, “We have never done anything knowingly inappropriate in terms of taking money to influence any kind of American government policy.” “89 days until the election and Donald Trump isn't making life easy for himself,” remarked reporter Kate Tur talking about Trump’s comment. Also, NBC had finally found out that the father of the Orlando nightclub shooter attended a Clinton rally and gave the story 18 seconds.
CBS had the most balanced coverage for the two topics Wednesday evening, with only eight more seconds dedicated to Trump’s comment. During his report Major Garrett seemed to scold Trump by bringing on Bayor University’s Martin Medhurst, who stated, “For a president it's even more severe, because when a president misspeaks, or is ambiguous in ways that are not intentional, he risks putting the country in great harm.”
Also not included in the total times, but offers an interesting comparison, were the numbers from Spanish-language networks Univision and Telemundo. Telemundo reported on Trump’s comment for two minutes, 42 seconds, while giving no time at all to the E-Mails. In sharp contrast Univision actually gave eight more seconds to the E-Mails than they did Trump’s comment, two minutes, 28 seconds and two minutes, 20 seconds respectively.
In addition, the “Big Three” gave almost the same about of time to the man climbing Trump Tower in their evening broadcasts (six minutes 24 seconds), as they gave to Clinton’s E-Mails in the morning and the evening combined (six minutes 59 seconds).
