The network evening newscasts all led their programs on Tuesday night with the House testimony of special counsel Robert Hur, presenting it as a bipartisan grilling over his report declining to prosecute President Biden for his willful retention of classified documents for decades. All three surely upset Democrats by putting Hur’s words on screen that Biden would present to a jury was a well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.
But that’s why Hur declined to prosecute: that Biden did willfully retain classified documents, but that a jury would find reasonable doubt in Biden’s intentions.
If your standard was letting both parties and the special counsel have their say, the networks all satisfied that standard. NBC and White House reporter Gabe Gutierrez was the sharpest and most substantive, while ABC and their White House repeater Mary Bruce concluded with spin that Biden’s…
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