Networks Ignore Martin Bashir Resigning After Repulsive Attack on Palin
After Martin Bashir announced his resignation from MSNBC
on Wednesday following his vile attack on Sarah Palin, NBC, ABC, and
CBS refused to make any mention of his disgraceful exit. The networks
had already skipped any mention of his wildy offensive November 15 rant calling for Palin to be urinated and defecated on.
As Media Research Center deputy research director Geoff Dickens reported early Wednesday
– just hours before Bashir's resignation – such a media blackout stood
in stark contrast to the two-week period after Rush Limbaugh called
left-wing activist Sandra Fluke a "slut" in early 2012, prompting 32
network segments lambasting Limbaugh for the comments and even demanding
that advertisers pull their sponsorship of his nationally syndicated
radio show.
On November 25, TVNewser's Gail Shister
singled out NBC News for its "deafening" silence on the Bashir
controversy: "It's no surprise that NBC tries to distance itself
publicly from its corporate sibling. In this case, however, its silence
has been deafening. How low does the bar have to go before Tom Brokaw
speaks up, as he has in the past? More to the point, why haven't any NBC
women taken a stand?"
Those questions are particularly important given that Palin appeared on NBC's Today just days before Bashir's nasty tirade. In fact, Palin canceled an additional interview with co-host Matt Lauer following the vicious remarks.
— Kyle Drennen is Senior News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Kyle Drennen on Twitter.
