ABC, NBC Continue to Omit Coverage of Report Alleging WH Role in Prostitution Scandal
According to a report in The Washington Post, senior White House officials knew that an individual with the White House advance team had a prostitute spend the night with him as part of the 2012 Colombian prostitution scandal despite the White House previously denying any involvement during the official investigation.
After failing to cover the story on their morning newscasts, ABC and NBC continued that blackout into their Thursday evening newscasts as well. The CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley ignored the story as well, despite the network having aired a full report on Thursday’s CBS This Morning. [MP3 audio here; Video below]
When it came to the cable news networks covering the story, CNN, Fox News Channel (FNC), and MSNBC all mentioned it in the early evening hours. Each of the three outlets produced at least two and a half minutes in coverage, with MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews surprisingly leading the way with an 11-minute-and-27-seconds segment plus a three-minute-and-32-second panel discussion later in the show for a total of 14 minutes and 59 seconds of coverage.
Following that, FNC’s Special Report with Bret Baier had a report from Fox News chief White House correspondent Ed Henry and a discussion with the show’s “All-Star Panel” that totaled 10 minutes and 3 seconds.
Coming in third was CNN’s The Situation Room, which offered a two-minute-and-34-second report from CNN White House correspondent Michele Kosinski near the end of the two-hour-long program.
FNC’s Henry stated during his report on the allegations that:
White House officials deny a cover-up, noting the allegation of a White House connection was reviewed by a bipartisan Senate panel and ruled inconclusive, but what's new is The Washington Post reports White House officials were given hotel records suggesting a member of the White House advance team, Jonathan Dach, had a prostitute as an overnight guest in his room, even though the spokesman at the time, Jay Carney repeatedly denied a White House tie to the scandal.
Offering some rare criticism of the Obama administration, Chris Matthews opined during the segment on his show that: “It’s seems to me its problematic here cause it makes the White House look like it didn’t have its own hands clean here and yet it was putting all the heat on the Secret Service agents.”
The Washington Post article noted that Dach’s father, was “a prominent Democratic donor who gave $23,900 to the party in 2008 to help elect Obama” and partnered with First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” initiative while a top lobbyist for Wal-Mart. Today, Dach’s father serves as “a senior counselor with the Department of Health and Human Services, where part of his responsibilities include handling the next phase of the Affordable Care Act.”
As for Jonathan Dach, he no longer works as an intern on the White House advance team, but now as a paid adviser in the State Department’s Office of Women’s Issues.
With allegations of a cover-up and another possible Obama administration scandal up on us, one will have to hope ABC’s Good Morning America, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir, NBC’s Today, and NBC Nightly News will inform their viewers of this story instead of continuing to keep them in the dark.
The full transcript from the report by FNC’s Ed Henry that aired on FNC’s Special Report with Bret Baier on October 9 is transcribed below.
Special Report with Bret Baier
October 9, 2014
6:08 p.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE CAPTION: A Cover Up?]
BRET BAIER: Very few things get the collective journalistic juices flowing here in Washington more than allegations of a cover-up and we appear to have another one tonight. It involves a White House advance man who may have had a prostitute in his hotel room ahead of the President's trip to Colombia. Why is that important now? Chief White House correspondent Ed Henry has details.
ED HENRY: Explosive new allegations that aides to President Obama slow-walked an investigation into whether a White House volunteer was also involved in the prostitution scandal that rocked the Secret Service two years ago on the eve of a summit in Colombia.
CONGRESSMAN JASON CHAFFETZ (R-UTAH): A totally different standard and perhaps a misdirection in some cover-up to make sure that story never saw the light of day before the 2012 election.
HENRY: White House officials deny a cover-up, noting the allegation of a White House connection was reviewed by a bipartisan Senate panel and ruled inconclusive, but what's new is The Washington Post reports White House officials were given hotel records suggesting a member of the White House advance team, Jonathan Dach, had a prostitute as an overnight guest in his room, even though the spokesman at the time, Jay Carney repeatedly denied a White House tie to the scandal.
JAY CARNEY [ON APRIL 23, 2012]: There have been no specific, credible allegations of misconduct by anyone on the White House advance team or the White House staff.
HENRY: An attorney for Dock told Fox the allegations are completely false, adding, “The Post bases its allegations almost exclusively on a hotel log with the name of a prostitute and a room number. Yet neither Jonathan Dach's name nor his signature appears on the hotel log. And as the Post reported, another instance of a mistaken hotel log wrongly implicated a Secret Service agent as well.” Except some were used to damage the careers of ten Secret Service agents who lost their jobs.
JON ADLER, FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS ASSOCIATION: All of the exposure landed on the laps of those who put their lives at risk, while others, whose parents may have some sort of connection to the White House, were somehow spared from both the public humiliation as well as the investigation.
HENRY: Dach's father Leslie is a Democratic campaign donor and a former lobbyist for Wal-Mart, who partnered with First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move campaign and now works at the Department of Health and Human Services, while Jonathan Dach is now at the State Department, working on global women's issues. Meanwhile, then-White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, seen here on the right, who is now on the short list to replace Eric Holder, conducted her own probe two years ago and concluded there was no wrong doing.
ED HENRY [TO CARNEY ON APRIL 23, 2012]: Did the White House Counsel check the hotel records in Colombia to see if any White House advance or White House staff –
CARNEY: I'm not going to get into the specifics.
HENRY: That's why republican Jason Chaffetz has now written a letter to the White House Chief of Staff Dennis McDonough, demanding that all the documents be turned over, which could be a big issue if there’s confirmation hearings for Ruemmler after being nominated Attorney General. Bret?
BAIER: Ed Henry, live on the North Lawn. Ed, thank you.
— Curtis Houck is News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Curtis Houck on Twitter.
