The House Intelligence Committee closed its inquiry into
Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election on Monday, March 12th.
While the committee did confirm the Russkies were attempting to sow chaos
surrounding the election, it found that they weren’t specifically trying to
help Trump, and that there was no
collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Oddly
enough, the three major television network news outlets, who seemingly have
spent three to six minutes every night on the “Trump-Russian Collusion Scandal”
since before the election itself, were loathe to report on this significant
finding. Yes, the same networks that jointly spent hundreds of hours in animated indignation, speculation, excitement,
mockery and virtue-signaling while reporting on the much-cherished “scandal”
managed to carve out a total of 58 seconds of airtime to devote to the
committee’s “not guilty” verdict.
The CBS
Evening News gave 31 seconds to the findings, carefully noting that it was
Republicans who issued the report and that Democrats on the House panel are
expected to put out their own report...with different findings. And that the
Senate Intelligence Committee is also investigating Russian meddling. Oh, and that
the special counsel, Robert Mueller is, too.
ABC’s World News Tonight gave the development
27 seconds of precious airtime.
NBC
didn’t mention it at all. This is understandable, however, given the other
pressing news items they had to squeeze into the broadcast. For example, they
berated Trump’s school safety plan and solemnly noted the continuing turnover
in the White House, high-lighted a Powerball lottery winner and the story
surrounding her, and appeared utterly gob-smacked by billionaire Warren
Buffet’s $1 million employee March Madness NCAA basketball bracket challenge.
Had the
findings been reversed, the three networks would’ve cancelled all other
programming for the remainder of the month, and launched a revised schedule of
24-hour-a-day “Trump Did It” programming replete with expanded newscasts,
“special reports,” documentaries, call-in shows, and probably a musical or two.
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