Their Politico colleague Mike Allen has barely mentioned the scandal in his popular morning “Playbook” email. When Holder testified before various congressional committees in recent months, Allen has ignored and omitted those events from the email.
MSNBC’s Chuck Todd flubbed his facts during one broadcast of his “Daily Rundown,” while NBC News’ Brian Williams didn’t mention the scandal at all until June 2012 — a year and a half after Fast and Furious first became a news story.
In May, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos — a former Democratic Party operative — promoted an interview with House Speaker John Boehner about Fast and Furious, only to cut the segment about the scandal from the broadcast of “This Week.” That segment was only available online.
The Daily Beast’s Howard Kurtz canceled at the last minute a segment he had planned on Fast and Furious media coverage for his CNN program “Reliable Sources” on June 17. It’s unclear if that segment will ever air.
And when White House press secretary Jay Carney fielded a question about the scandal in early June from Fox News Channel’s Ed Henry, he read his talking points directly from a prepared binder. The White House press corps laughed out loud.
While many media outlets aren’t asking questions about Fast and Furious accountability, the American people are. According to a new CNN/ORC International survey, 53 percent of all American adults support the House’s votes to hold Holder in contempt on June 28, and 69 percent of Americans want Obama to “drop the claim of executive privilege and answer all questions” related to the intensifying scandal.
