The network morning news shows could not have cared less about the
passing of conservative columnist Robert Novak. While ABC, CBS and NBC
all ran obituaries during their August 18 evening news shows, ABC's
Good Morning America and CBS's The Early Show on Wednesday completely skipped over
Novak, not once mentioning his death.
Over on NBC's Today, fill-in news anchor Hoda Kotb squeezed in a brief item during the 7am update: "Friends
and fellow journalists are remembering famed columnist and TV
commentator Robert Novak. He died Tuesday in Washington after a battle
with brain cancer. Robert Novak was 78 years old."
Novak was hardly a niche conservative or Washington figure, but
someone well known to millions of Americans, with his syndicated column
running in more than 300 newspapers for many decades and co-hosting
three different CNN programs over a 20-year period before eventually
moving to the Fox News Channel in 2005. Nor was he some figure from the
distant past, stepping down from his daily column only after his
illness was diagnosed in mid-2008.
While virtually ignoring Novak on Wednesday, all three morning shows had yet another update on Michael Jackson, 55 days after the pop singer's death.
-Rich Noyes is Research Director at the Media Research Center.