National Networks ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX Should Be Under FCC Review After Impeachment Bias

Thanks to physics and my choice of living way out in the sticks, I gratefully cannot get cable TV and my antenna doesn't pick up the local ABC affiliate. Sure, I miss a college football game here or there, but I can live with that.

Since I don't know what ABC did on Saturday in their coverage of President Trump's defense team's arguments before the Senate, I can’t comment on it, but here's how NBC, FOX, and CBS handled it. NBC's local affiliate (Knoxville, TN) had NO COVERAGE at all. It was supposedly delegated over to their secondary network, but, despite looking for it, I never saw it. FOX's local affiliate offered NO COVERAGE AT ALL.

CBS covered the trial for the first hour on their primary broadcast channel, but then apparently had given their affiliate (again, Knoxville, TN) the choice to switch to local programming, which they did. I managed to only miss a minute of Jay Sekulow's arguments when they switched the impeachment coverage over to their secondary channel, frantically flipping through channels to find the proceedings.

Those unfamiliar with over-the-air digital broadcasting will note that the major networks offer a number of channels of over-the-air broadcasts. They are designated by numbers, as in 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, where 12.1 would be the primary channel, with the network's complete national lineup plus local affiliate time slots. The other channels are usually delegated to secondary or tertiary offerings, employing programming from programmers such as CW, MeTV, Grit, Bounce, Start, Ion, Court TV, etc.

Some of these programmers, such as CW, offer a variety of in-house productions, but the bulk of them are reruns of time-worn sit-coms, dramas, Westerns, or variety shows. MeTV, for instance, offers up a steady diet of everything from The Beverly Hillbillies to The Flintstones.

The national networks likely have authority to cut into the programming of their secondary offerings whenever they feel it's necessary, during emergencies or when there's a programming conflict. Saturday's airing of the Senate impeachment trial apparently was deemed to be one of those times.

Now, mind you, when the Democrats were presenting the PROSECUTION, they had hours of wall-to-wall coverage on their primary network channels. There was no switching over and cutting into the programming of the secondary channels. But, apparently, in the executive offices of NBC and the other national networks, decisions were made that the defense arguments by the president's legal team were of little to no importance. Thus they were brushed aside in favor of facial cream advertisements, local sports shows, cartoons, or other innocuous programming.

I don't know if anybody else noticed the obvious bias of the networks, but if there was ever an argument to be made for pulling their FCC licenses, this would be it. Along with the obvious bias of CNN and MSNBC, which are cable-only "news" outlets, ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX are over-the-air networks which serve a large proportion of poor, middle-class, and especially, rural America. These networks are mis-serving the public and should have their licenses pulled, or, at least, reviewed.

The propaganda - including some smarmy legal analyst on CBS lying, after the proceedings, that Obstruction of Congress is a CRIME (it is not), and Major Garrett, prior to the hearing, promoting the notorious "heads on a pike" statement, saying it was his reporting and that he stands by it - is universally leftist, to a degree that broadcasters from the former Soviet Union are no doubt jealous.

-- Fearless Rick