CBS EVENING NEWS IGNORES FBI DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

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     If you're familiar with me personally...then you know it.  Others may be aware by reading some of my past columns.  And now...any of you learning for the first time... will also know...of my lifelong devotion to CBS News. 

     My idol was Walter Cronkite (anchor, 1962 to 1981).  As someone growing up in the 1960s and 1970s...with an aim at pursuing a career in broadcast journalism...I - and others like me - (not to mention most everyone in the United States)... worshiped and revered "The Most Trusted Man In America."  Later on...I also looked up to...admired and respected...Dan Rather (anchor, 1981 to 2005) and I still do.  Furthermore - throughout my career - I have praised and applauded many other CBS News correspondents from the Cronkite and Rather eras. 
  

     When Bob Schieffer became the interim anchor (2005 to 2006) and when Katie Couric was anchor (2006 to 2011)...CBS News remained my chief source for news.  Oh I would watch other networks - and cable news channels - every now and again, just to see what they were doing...but CBS was MY network.  When Scott Pelley came to the anchor desk in 2011...I still felt that CBS News followed in the longstanding tradition of Cronkite and Rather.  But, something changed at CBS News over the last two years.  Something very noticeable...and troubling...had been altered when Democrat Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy for President...and since Donald Trump came forward with his declaration that he was running for President on the Republican ticket.  More and more, I observed that CBS News was - for the lack of a better word..."trashing" former Secretary of State Clinton...but not being as tough on Trump.  CBS News Congressional Correspondent Nancy Cordes - who was assigned to cover Mrs. Clinton throughout Campaign 2016 - always had one or more "zingers" during her reports...that to me seemed to be...attacks on Secretary Clinton.  

     Prior to last year...there had never been a political campaign, primary season, debate or Presidential election when I was not glued to CBS News.  But not Campaign 2016.  My allegiance switched to Brian Williams and MSNBC's coverage as "the place for politics."  The MSNBC correspondents - along with NBC News correspondents, who frequently appeared on their sister network - were far and away better than CBS News or any other networks with their coverage.  I do watch CNN too, but only certain programs with Anderson Cooper.  However, I continued - these last couple of years - to be somewhat loyal to CBS by watching the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley.  I would occasionally turn to both NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt and to ABC World News Tonight with David Muir...but being a dedicated CBS News fan since the early 1960s - including Walter Cronkite's momentous coverage of the first NASA space flights...his memorable, yet sad, coverage of President John F. Kennedy's assassination and funeral...his monumental reporting of Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong's "one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind"...and his celebration of our nation's bicentennial - among hundreds of other meaningful and impressive journalistic reports...plus nearly a quarter of a century of distinguished and impressive broadcasts by Dan Rather...I continued to feel...almost obligated...to give my attention to CBS News, at least for the CBS Evening News.  But on Tuesday, January 10th, 2017...my ardent affection and firm faithfulness for CBS News disappointingly evaporated. 

     Other broadcast and cable news network - on January 10th - reported on FBI Director James Comey's refusal to admit if there is any official probe by his Bureau in to the possible ties between Donald Trump's campaign for President and Russia.  Comey cited policy - as he testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee - by saying..."I would never comment on investigations...whether we have one or not...in an open forum like this...so I can't answer one way or another."  This is huge news.  And CBS did not include it in their evening news broadcast.

     I contacted CBS News for a statement - prior to writing this column - and someone on the "national desk"...who would not identify herself...would only say that CBS's "live streaming network" - CBSN - had covered the Senate hearing.

     What CBS News did is inexcusable.  For the network of Cronkite, Rather, and so many other first-rate journalists to not include Comey's remarks - and the allegations that are being questioned - is not what I would expect from CBS News.  America needs to know before January 20th - before Inauguration Day - if Donald Trump was in collusion with Russian President Vladimir Putin...or if anybody in the Trump Campaign was in cahoots with any others in Russia...in an effort to influence and affect the outcome of the election between Hillary Clinton and Trump.  As Democratic Party Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon told Comey..."The American people have the right to know this."

     I - and other Democrats - were extremely angry with Director Comey last October when...11 days before the election...he wrote a letter to Congress... announcing that the FBI was reviewing more e-mails as part of its investigation of Hillary Clinton.  It was a pointless review that turned up nothing.  And all it did was hurt Mrs. Clinton.  It was that letter...and the Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee's computers - information that was presumably handed to WikiLeaks and released by them - that were, in large part, the reasons why Secretary Clinton was not victorious in an Electoral College win on November 8th, 2016...and why she will not be the 45th President of the United States.

     What this comes down to...is this.  A man who is going to be sitting behind The Oval Office desk...may be under investigation by his own FBI...for allegedly meddling in to the Presidential election that will result in him being handed the keys to The White House in less than 10 days.  And we're supposed to trust Donald Trump as our Commander-In-Chief?  Really? 

     Is America embroiled in another cover-up?  And, if so...then such a Constitutional crisis would need to be resolved before January 20th.
 

     So why did CBS News not report all of this on their evening news broadcast?  "The Tiffany Network" is tarnished...and Walter Cronkite is rolling in his grave with disgust.

     And that's The Controversy for today.

     I'm Gary B. Duglin.

     "We'll talk again."

The Controversy is a publication of GBD Productions.  Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Controversy is Gary B. Duglin.

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