CBS Spotlights Video Footage of Attempted Terror Attack on Conservative Group; ABC, NBC Ignore
CBS This Morning stood out on Friday for devoting a 18-second
news brief to the newly-released security camera footage of Floyd
Corkins II's attempted mass shooting at the Family Research Council in
August 2012. Charlie Rose identified Corkins as a "domestic terrorist" who targeted the social conservative organization for "being anti-gay" [audio available here; video below].
The morning newscast actually played a clip from the video, which shows the admitted felon pulling a handgun on security guard Leo Johnson and the subsequent physical altercation between the two. By contrast, ABC's Good Morning America and NBC's Today both ignored the footage, which FRC uploaded onto YouTube on Thursday.
During the brief, Rose cited a short item
from the Washington Examiner's Joel Gehrke on Wednesday, who reported
on a separate video clip that the conservative group released. Gehrke
outlined that the second clip shows Corkins' admission to a FBI
interrogator – that he consulted an online list of "hate groups"
compiled by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The FRC included the
interrogation clip at the end of their YouTube upload of surveillance
camera footage of the attack.
The CBS anchor didn't explicitly mention the Southern Poverty Law Center component to the story, but their video capture of the first two paragraphs of Gehrke's item did get the left-wing organization's name on the screen:
Family
Research Council (FRC) officials released video of federal
investigators questioning convicted domestic terrorist Floyd Lee Corkins
II, who explained that he attacked the group's headquarters because the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) identified them as a "hate group" due to their traditional marriage views.
"Southern Poverty Law lists anti-gay groups," Corkins
tells interrogators in the video, which FRC obtained from the FBI. "I
found them online, did a little research, went to the website, stuff
like that."
The full transcript of Charlie Rose's news brief from Friday's CBS This Morning:
CHARLIE ROSE: The Washington Examiner says a domestic terrorist claims he targeted a conservative group for being anti-gay. Newly-released surveillance video shows Floyd Corkins II entering the Washington headquarters of the Family Research Council. He pulls a gun on the security guard, shooting and wounding him. Corkins will be sentenced next week.
