Critics accuse Barr of politicizing DOJ after dropping Flynn case
Reaction and analysis from former National Security Council spokesperson Michael Anton.
A new study shows that the three broadcast networks dedicated far less coverage to the Justice Department's push to dismiss the case against former National Security Advisor Gen. Michael Flynn than the coverage he received for his 2017 guilty plea.
The media watchdog group NewsBusters determined on Thursday that the guilty plea from the former Trump official received nearly four times the coverage than the latest developments that virtually reverse the legal drama that took place prior.
According to the study, "NBC Nightly News" dedicated eight minutes and 24 seconds of coverage on December 1, 2017, the day Flynn officially plead guilty for lying to the FBI. ABC’s "World News Tonight" came close behind at eight minutes and 12 seconds while "CBS Evening News" clocked in at seven minutes and 32 seconds. In other words, roughly 24 minutes of coverage across the three networks.
However, the breaking news from Thursday received less than seven minutes of total coverage.
CBS clocked in with the most airtime for Flynn on Thursday evening with two minutes and 58 seconds, NBC fell even shorter with two minutes and four seconds, while ABC just had one minute and 33 seconds of airtime.
"This likely won’t be the last time the liberal media will get bad news in regards to their Russian collusion narrative falling apart," NewsBusters news analyst Nicholas Fondacaro warned.
The Justice Department on Thursday moved to drop its case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn, in a stunning development that comes after internal memos were released raising serious questions about the nature of the investigation that led to Flynn’s late 2017 guilty plea of lying to the FBI.
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The announcement came in a court filing "after a considered review of all the facts and circumstances of this case, including newly discovered and disclosed information," as the department put it. DOJ officials said they concluded that Flynn's interview by the FBI was "untethered to, and unjustified by, the FBI's counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Flynn" and that the interview was "conducted without any legitimate investigative basis."
Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
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