A night after the CBS Evening News ignored CIA Director Leon Panetta's rebuke of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Saturday's newscast continued the blackout as anchor Jeff Glor only mentioned Pelosi in setting up a question by explaining she "put herself in a very awkward position" when "she said the CIA lied to her or misled her about water-boarding," before he asked Time magazine veteran John Dickerson: "Is this something that's over for the Speaker now or does this continue?" Though the whole topic is apparently already over for CBS News, Dickerson maintained "it's not over for the Speaker" as he proceeded to empathize with her plight by suggesting she's "got to hope another issue...blows her off the front pages" and that "when Congress goes home for their recesses that somehow she gets out of the news cycle because she's still in a fix." But not one that interests CBS News.
Nor NBC, which like ABC on Saturday night, didn't utter Pelosi's name - possibly because all three evening newscasts were so exited about what they made their lead stories: President Obama naming Utah's Republican Governor, Jon Huntsman, ambassador to China. "A political masterstroke" declared ABC's George Stephanopoulos on World News in repeating the same phrase applied moments earlier by reporter Jonathan Karl. Stephanopoulos even managed to get in a dig at conservatives as he hailed the pick as "one more sign that this is a party [Republican] where the reformers - the moderates - are looking for an exit."
Back to CBS, Kimberly Dozier touted Obama's wisdom, "Pundits on the left and the right are calling it a savvy move: the White House gets the right man for job while politically neutralizing a potential rival."
[This item, by the MRC's Brent Baker, was posted Saturday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org [1] ]
For details on the disinterest in Pelosi shown by the broadcast network newscasts, check items # 3 and 4 below: "CBS and NBC Spike Panetta's Rejection of Pelosi's Smear of the CIA" and "After Three Weeks, Pelosi's Anti-CIA Rant Pushes Nets to Action."
From the Saturday, May 16 CBS Evening News:
JEFF GLOR: Next to Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, who put herself in a very awkward position this week, as you know, when she said the CIA lied to her or misled her about water-boarding. Is this something that's over for the Speaker now or does this continue?
JOHN DICKERSON, CBS NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST: It's not over for the Speaker. It continues. And she's really the only one who can get herself out of it. As one administration official put it, she's trying to untie a knot by pulling both ends of the rope. And she's got to back away from this big fight she took on with the CIA. She's started to do that a little bit already, but she's also got to hope another issue, maybe even the Huntsman nomination, blows her off the front pages and maybe hopes also that in the summer, when Congress goes home for their recesses, that somehow she gets out of the news cycle because she's still in a fix.
GLOR:: And the White House wants nothing to do with the issue.
DICKERSON: The White House wants nothing to do with it. They basically say, for the moment, she's got to rescue herself. They do need her some day, though, because there is an agenda the President's trying to put forward and she's a very powerful inside player, but they can't get in the middle of this fight and she's going to have to do it herself.
GLOR: Alright, John Dickerson joining us from Washington. John, as always, thank you.