CBS's Early Show and NBC's Today on Tuesday ignored the arrest of a man who
was plotting to kill Republican Congressman Eric Cantor. ABC's Good Morning
America mentioned the story only in a news brief in the 8am hour. Last week,
however, GMA highlighted [1] threats against Democrats and worried about "angry talk" from Sarah Palin.
The Early Show may have ignored the story of Norman Leboon and the violent,
profanity-laced rants he posted online about the "evil" Cantor, but the same
show on Tuesday did note the guilty plea of a man who threatened Barack
Obama.
Substitute news anchor Betty Nguyen explained, "In Tennessee, a white
supremacist has pleaded guilty to plotting a 2008 ki [1]lling spree against blacks,
including then presidential candidate Barack Obama."
GMA, the only morning program to cover the Leboon story, didn't mention that
the Philadelphia man also donated [2]
to Barack Obama in 2008.
In comparison, last Thursday, the Early
Show [3] fretted that the GOP was using "violent rhetoric and imagery."
According to the MRC's Brent
Baker [4], it was ABC and CBS who skipped the arrest of Leboon on Monday night's
news programs. NBC's Nightly News only noted the story in an anchor brief.
A transcript of the March 30 news brief on GMA, which aired at 8:02am EDT,
follows:
BIANNA GOLODRYGA: Meantime, a Philadelphia man is in custody for threatening to kill Congressman Eric Cantor, the House Minority Whip. In a profanity-laced video rant, Norman Leboon called Cantor pure evil. And said that he would, quote, "receive my bullets in your office." A bullet was fired at Cantor's campaign office last week but police do not believe it's linked to Leboon.
- Scott Whitlock is a news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here [5] to follow him on Twitter.