Not Your Father's Nightline

Past performance is no guarantee of future results:

The Iranian hostage crisis contributed greatly to Jimmy Carter’s loss of the presidency in the 1980 election. Americans had lost confidence in their leader. It wasn’t difficult. Each night television newscasts relayed images of angry anti-American mobs outside the embassy in Tehran, shouting “Death to America,” “Death to Carter.”8 The creation of the television program, Nightline, devoted strictly to discussion of the crisis, was a blatant reminder of Carter’s failure to secure the hostages’ release. Each night TV news commentators posted the number of days the hostages had been held in humiliating, terrifying captivity, their president impotent in finding a way to bring them home. “This is the 325th day of the Iranian hostage crisis,” the journalists would say, and on and on it went. Election day was the anniversary of the seizure, an irony that wasn’t lost on the American people, who voted for Ronald Reagan by large margins.

—Page at The White House Historical Association Website on “Jimmy Carter and the Iranian Hostage Crisis.”

And Nightline, these days a component of the House of Stephanopoulos and other Democrat operatives with bylines at ABC have certainly learned their lesson well:

As of September 10, 2014, it’s been 300 days since ABC’s Nightline covered ObamaCare. In the 43 weeks since November 14, 2013, the show has avoided problems with the health care law and instead focused on extremely superficial topics, such as nude reality shows and the royal baby.

When the Associated Press reported, “More people newly insured by Medicaid under ObamaCare are seeking treatment in hospital emergency rooms,” the hosts of Nightline didn’t notice. Two new reports found that ObamaCare has not cut the rate of uninsured children. Again, Nightline was silent. What were the hosts covering instead? See a video montage below to find out.

—”Blackout: 300 Days Since ABC’s ‘Nightline’ Covered ObamaCare,” Scott Whitlock, NewsBusters, today.

Of course, ABC isn’t the only broadcast network keeping their readers in the leftwing cocoon, but they certainly do build it exceptionally well there — which occasionally, even the newsreaders discover to their chagrin when forced to temporarily vacate that cocoon: