Thursday, March 14, 2019

NBC Nightly News Abets Lie About "No Collusion" (UPDATED)


On last night's NBC Nightly News, news of the sentencing of convicted felon Paul Manafort managed to get buried nearly half- way through the broadcast.  When it did appear, former Justice Department spokesman under George "Dumbya" Bush, Pete Williams allowed a bold Trump camp lie to stand, i.e., that Judge Amy Berman Jackson had said the case showed "no collusion" with the Russians. The lawyer liar mouthing this falsity, Kevin Downing, had just left court with Judge Berman Jackson's words ringing in his ears:
“The ‘no collusion’ refrain that runs through the entire defense memorandum is unrelated to matters at hand,” she said. “The ‘no collusion’ mantra is simply a non sequitur.”
Then she added: “The ‘no collusion’ mantra is also not accurate, because the investigation is still ongoing.”
Downing is working hard here to signal Trump that Manafort remains a loyal stooge and should be granted a pardon.

You'll note, if you saw other footage of Downing, that NBC cut the video before crowd chants of "Liar!" and "That's not what she said!" could be heard.  Here's the footage from NBC Nightly News, with the salient part starting at 13:19:



For reference, here's a clip with the crowd reaction that NBC News cut out:

Judge Berman Jackson also said,
“Court is one of those places where facts still matter,” Jackson said, adding at another point: “If the people don’t have the facts, democracy can’t work.”
It appears the facts don't matter to NBC Nightly News or to Pete Williams, and that's why we can't expect corporate media to save us.

BONUS:  Williams also makes a point to tell us Manafort is "seated in a wheelchair," although Judge Berman Jackson made a point of questioning why he was, and that she hadn't received a letter from any doctor explaining that.  Cue the tiny violins.

UPDATEMore mischief, this time from other NBC- affiliated cogs.

2 comments:

donnah said...

I watch MSNBC regularly and I'm surprised that NBC news did that. MSNBC was all over that, repeatedly, showing the judge's statements and the Manafort lawyer being heckled outside during his baldfaced lie. Several of the shows in the MSNBC daily lineup showed it, so I wonder why their affiliate on the regular news did not.

Manafort's lying lawyer always reminds me of Baby Huey. Remember that cartoon character? (yes, I'm old, shuddup) He sort of lumbers around with a dopey look on his big dumb face.

W. Hackwhacker said...

donnah -- perhaps they're getting signals from Comcast not to enrage Dear Leader... perhaps they have a merger coming up that they don't want DL to try to foul up? Regardless, it was a cowardly thing to do. (Baby Huey -- yes!)