A new analysis shows that the mainstream media spent an average of 46 minutes on Donald Trump's January 6 pardon, but only three minutes on Biden's pardon of his own family.
Between January 20 and January 22, ABC, NBC and CBS devoted 15 times as much airtime to Trump's pardons as to Biden's, The Media Research Center's analysis found.
The anchors leading the coverage included George Stephanopoulos of ABC and Norah O'Donnell of CBS.
Biden issued a series of preemptive pardons in the final hours of his administration to family members James B. Biden, Sara Jones Biden, Valerie Biden Owens, John T. Owens and Francis W. Biden.
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 a decade. In December, Biden pardoned son Hunter, despite promising not to do so.
But newsreaders hardly reported it. Instead, they were obsessed with the Trump controversy, the MRC found.
The study There will be days when CNN and NBC recover from major layoffs.
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The statistic, calculated by The Media Research Center (MRC), covers ABC, NBC and CBS broadcasts that aired from Inauguration Day through the morning of January 22. Pictured: a still from ABC World News Tonight with David Muir last Tuesday
“Tonight marks President Donald Trump's first full day in office, and the growing fallout after he pardoned the January 6 rioters,” NBC's Lester Holt told viewers as they tuned into Tuesday's version of Nightly News after watching the had discussed Biden's pardon the day before
On CBS, an outgoing Norah O'Donnell devoted an entire segment to interviewing U.S. Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger
On Tuesday, January 21, Lester Holt kicked off NBC's coverage with the following segment.
“Tonight marks President Donald Trump's first full day in office, and the growing fallout after he pardoned the January 6 rioters.
“The president… is facing backlash for pardoning more than a thousand January 6 defendants, including many found guilty of assaulting police officers,” he continued.
The anchor further highlighted the prospect of leaders of the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers – numbering nearly 200, he said – “walking free” after their crimes.
On ABC, World News Tonight's David Muir said much of the same thing.
“Tonight, President Trump, just now, on why he pardoned more than 1,500 defendants in the January 6 attack on the Capitol, including those who attacked officers.
He then promoted interviews with officers “under attack,” leading to accusations of bias in the trial.
“David Muir mentions Trump's pardons, but there's no mention of Biden's pardons for 30 convicted murderers, plus pardons for Biden and Fauci's family for crimes that haven't even been arrested yet. Hey sponsors, do you like this?' wrote an X user moments later.
“ABC just won't stop bashing President Trump,” another user added. “David Muir is making more of an issue of the J6 pardon than @JoeBiden pardoning his son, family and the entire J6 committee.”
CBS host Gayle King (right) also provided substantial commentary on the January 6 pardon on January 21, as did Good Morning America's George Stephanopoulos.
On CBS, O'Donnell devoted an entire segment to interviewing Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger.
A day later, amid declining ratings that saw her lose ground to both Holt and Muir and reportedly take a pay cut of more than $4 million, she signed off from her Evening News agency for good.
Manger, meanwhile, argued that Trump's sweeping pardons on Jan. 6 had upset many officers and “had an impact on our communities across the country.”
Earlier in the day, O'Donnell's longtime colleague Gayle King also provided substantial commentary on the then-unfolding situation — as did Good Morning America's George Stephanopoulos.
Both clashed with newly appointed Secretary of State Marco Rubio over past comments labeling Jan. 6, 2021, a “national disgrace.”
“I obviously don't expect any of our partners to ask about it,” Rubio said in response, as a video he shared that day circulated on the social platform X.
“My job is to focus on the foreign policy of the United States. I have a different job and a different focus this morning. … I will not express an opinion on domestic matters at this time.”
Stephanopoulos went on to question whether Rubio no longer felt that the events of January 6 were having an impact on the US position in the world – to which he said: “I'm mainly focusing on foreign policy and how I deal with our allies.'
There was also back-and-forth between King and Rubio in a similar interview on CBS, where King pressed the head of state on his previous comments about the insurrection.
“Many people believe – including the American people –[they] were not in favor of this blanket pardon,” King began
“In February 2021, even you issued a statement… you said, the images of the attacks angered you… [that] the nation was embarrassed in the eyes of the world by our own citizens.
“How can you personally reconcile those feelings with the pardon he granted yesterday?”
Once again, Rubio offered a similar response — before being grilled on the exact same topic 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. Among the latter was an officer who died a day after being attacked; his death was considered an unrelated event
Over the course of his presidency, Biden has granted 8,064 pardons while in office, including preemptive pardons for every member of his family except Jill and daughter Ashley.
“I remember shortly after the attack on the Capitol, where you were that day, you said it was one of the saddest days in American history,” Melvin said, after the show touched on Biden's pardon the day before with a single segment.
He then showed Rubio's comments he offered on the January 6, 2021 reports, comparing the US at the time to Putin's Russia.
“What message does this grace, almost all of it, send to the rest of the world?” asked Melvin, a journalist at NBC News for the past fifteen years.
After some hesitation from Rubio, Melvin pushed for more, in keeping with the other channel's particular journalistic style surrounding the Jan. 6 pardon.
The desire to sharpen politicians' positions on the issue caused coverage of Biden the day before to fade, while it continued the next day.
More segments and monologues awaited, as the stories surrounding Biden's executive actions faded into relative obscurity.
Biden also granted preemptive pardons to Gen. Mike Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci, former lawmaker Liz Cheney and other lawmakers investigating the Jan. 6 riot.
Over the course of his presidency, the 82-year-old has issued 8,064 pardons, including pardons for every member of his family – except wife Jill and daughter Ashley.
The statistics surrounding the reporting come as NBC News conducted a round of layoffs Thursday, after CNN laid off 200 employees as part of a long-discussed shift to a more digitally oriented organization.
Oliver Darcy, the long-beaked successor to CNN Media Analyst Brian Stelter but now the founder of Status, reported both rounds of layoffs in his newsletter last week
The Status Report, which was released about eight hours before the CNN layoffs and as networks were dealing with their pardon reporting, stated that “ABC News is also anticipating 'long-rumored layoffs,' even amid fluctuating ratings.”
