Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Fast AndFurious Watch: No Coverage From NBC Nightly News In All of 2011


It’s been a very busy week for Operation Fast and Furious. Last Friday, the Department of Justice dumped 1400 pages of documents on Congress. On Saturday we learned US undercover drug agents laundered money for Mexican drug cartels. Wednesday we learned they were using Fast and Furious to make a case for gun regulations. Thursday was a big day because Attorney General Eric Holder testified in front of the House Judiciary Committee.

Sharyl Attkisson, Matthew Boyle, Katie Pavlich, and Cam Edwards did a great job covering all of these stories. Other Old Media outlets covered them but buried them deep in their websites and newspapers. Two news organizations didn’t report on any of these. One of them is NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams.

Cam Edwards appears to be right. NBC will do anything to avoid mentioning Operation Fast and Furious. Then again, they haven’t mentioned Fast and Furious ONCE all year, but this past week would have been the best time.


This is no surprise, though. I’ve already wrote about Mr. Williams completely ignoring Operation Fast and Furious. I thought maybe, just maybe, the program would finally mention it. All the calls for resignation didn’t do it, so maybe this testimony would, especially due to the heated exchanges between Mr. Holder and Mr. Issa. But just because it isn’t a surprise doesn’t mean we shouldn’t call them out. Too many people have died, including Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, because of this operation.


Don’t forget Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

Let’s again examine what was more important to NBC than Operation Fast and Furious developments. These stories were more important than the document dump, US undercover agents laundering money, and documents showing their intent to push more gun regulations:
  • A dog shooting its owner in the buttocks
  • Santa’s mailroom helpers!
  • Stanford hopes to reduce concussions
  • Mali kids dig for gold
  • Presidents may outlive their peers
  • Green Bay Packers being for sale
  • Kids cereals pack more sugar than dessert (NO WAY! That is a COMPLETE shocker!)
  • Kids doing yoga instead of taking a nap
On Saturday, December 3, they did talk about secret drug tunnels used by cartels along the border, but they never mentioned Fast & Furious.

I will ask you again, Mr. Williams, why are those stories more important than these developments in Operation Fast and Furious? Not to mention those last two were talked about the day before Mr. Holder’s testimony. Remember in my previous article about him ignoring Fast & Furious he talked about the EAS test alert the day before it happened. Somehow the EAS test alert was so important and such a big deal they had to have a segment on it the day before. But the attorney general’s testimony somehow didn’t deserve a mention the day before it happened.



Mr. Holder testified on Thursday, December eighth. The hearing was action packed and Congressman Darrell Issa was NOT messing around. Even though Fast and Furious was not the only subject during his testimony, still NBC failed to report on the testimony on Thursday. These stories were more important:
  • Jon Corzine’s testimony
  • Yawning more contagious among friends
  • Squirrel pulls a fire alarm in an elementary school

This is the DAY of Mr. Holder’s testimony. NBC will talk about Mr. Corzine testifying about his investment firm, but not a peep about Mr. Holder’s testimony? What? Then they talk about yawns being more contagious among friends. So what? And look Cam! Your prediction of them covering Mr. Williams with puppies is so close to becoming true. A squirrel pulled a fire alarm. Wow. Big freaking deal. THAT is more important and more newsworthy than Mr. Holder testifying. Not surprisingly, there was no mention of it tonight. Instead, there were segments about tomorrow’s eclipse and moon rock samples that are missing.

Operation Fast and Furious will be NBC Nightly News’ undoing. They’ve dug themselves too deep to start talking about it. They’d have to do a whole show on Fast and Furious to catch up their viewers. Something tells me they’d skip that and do a show on Mr. Williams and puppies.


Big Journalism