But when the senator in question is a Dem? Two of the three broadcast net morning news shows never even mentioned his name. The third did, but it would have taken a forensic wordsmith to figure our he had changed his story. Chris Dodd (D-CT) is of course the Dem senator in question. For the full story of what he did and how he lied about it, I commend this Hot Air item to you. Note that, as Hot Air reports, with video, CNN actually used the L-word in describing Dodd’s dissembling.
And so it was that I eagerly tuned in Good Morning America, the Early Show and Today this morning to see what treatement they’d give the story. At least during the crucial first half-hour, the name “Dodd” never darkened either GMA’s or the Early Show’s door. Chris Dodd? Never hoid of the guy. On Today, Savannah Guthrie did narrate a segment on the subject. It began with the president at a so-called town hall in California yesterday claiming to take responsibility for the AIG bonus mess. Wild cheering from the supposedly unscreened crowd. Guthrie later added:
“Meanwhile, the Washington blame game kicked into high gear. Democratic Senator Chris Dodd, on MSNBC’s Hardball, now says Treasury officials asked him in February to abandon a proposal that would have banned bailed-out companies like AIG from paying bonuses.”
Cut to clip of Dodd: “They expressed their concerns about it. They weren’t the only ones, but certainly expressing their concerns about lawsuits and other things that might happen.”
Add Guthrie a bit later: “And as for Senator Dodd’s claims, Treasury officials say they did express concern about that provision that it would open the floodgate to lawsuits but didn’t ask him to change anything.”
Grading on a curve, Today and Guthrie get an ‘A,’ since they at least informed viewers that Dodd was responsible for the provision, and did identify him as a Dem. But the NBC show didn’t let viewers know about Dodd’s earlier denial of having inserted the loophole. The closest Today came was Guthrie’s mention that Dodd “now says.” Only listeners with the aural acuity of a bat would have understood that to mean Dodd had earlier said something different. And in any case, Today never told us what that something was.
So let’s give Today an un-curved ‘C.’ As for GMA and Early Show: FAIL.
