After reports surfaced Monday morning delineating former National Security Adviser Susan Rice’s actions in asking for surveillance of Donald Trump’s aides, Newsbusters reports that on Monday night, two of the three major television networks, NBC and ABC, made studied efforts to eschew reporting the issue; CBS defended Rice.
CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley commented, “We learned more today about the President’s allegation that he and his aides were caught up in Obama-era surveillance,” simply referring to the surveillance as “Obama-era surveillance.” Reporter Margaret Brennan responded, “Well, Scott, as national security adviser to the president, Susan Rice could and did request the names of individuals who were picked up during legal surveillance of foreign nationals,” adding that unnamed sources informed her Rice had not acted illegally.
Meanwhile, on Monday NBC’s Katy Tur was retweeting a defense of Rice offered by David Frum:
And ABC News, on Twitter, never mentioned Rice at all, but had time for these tweets:
Nothing to see here, folks. Just keep walking.