New York City’s Democratic primary was an absolute debacle as, yet again, the board of election somehow included over 130,000 “sample test” ballots in their preliminary update. Seemingly because this embarrassment happened in their own backyard and to their party, the Wednesday evening newscasts of ABC, CBS, and NBC really didn’t want anything to do with the story. Instead, they chose to hype the pending indictment of the Trump Organization and its CFO.
The CBS Evening News was the only newscast to give the story any airtime with a whopping 17 seconds. This was a regression from their morning newscasts where ABC was the only outlet to ignore it, and CBS gave it 32 seconds. NBC’s Today gave New York’s botched count 31 seconds.
“Early results in New York City’s Democratic primary for mayor are being questioned tonight after a botched ballot county,” announced CBS anchor Norah O’Donnell during her fleeting news brief. “The city’s board of elections says it accidentally included about 135,000 test results in Tuesday’s vote count. Updated results released tonight now show Eric Adams with a slim lead.”
In stark contrast, the networks gave the pending indictment of the Trump Organization and CFO Allen Weisselberg nearly four minutes of coverage between them (three minutes and 41 seconds). CBS showed their lust for negative Trump news by giving the story one minute and 43 seconds of airtime. ABC’s World News Tonight gave it one minute, 25 seconds. And shockingly, NBC Nightly News gave it just 33 seconds.
And while it didn’t appear as though former President Trump was facing pending charges, they were still holding out hope that one day it would happen. “While Trump himself is not expected to be charged tomorrow, this is likely just the first set of charges in this case,” reported ABC chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl.
NewsBusters also looked at how PBS News Hour covered the New York ballot debacle to see how the public broadcast competitor faired when covering the story. Interestingly, they spent over five minutes (5:06) largely trying to rehabilitate the city’s rank choice voting system.
“The board of elections just released updated tallies, but there is still no call on the Democratic primary results for mayor. One cause for the wait, a new system of voting called rank choice, which lets voters list up to five candidates on their ballot,” announced anchor Judy Woodruff.
Of course, PBS’s radical leftist White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor made it her mission to save New York’s rank choice voting system by interviewing leftist Fordham University Professor Christina Greer (click “expand”):
ALCINDOR: And why did New York City, the largest city in the United States, why did it implement rank choice voting and what are the benefits supposed to be?
GREER: Well, the benefits are supposed to be, when we’ve looked at a place like Minneapolis or San Francisco, to include candidates of color, female candidates of color to give them a better opportunity. Because ostensibly, if you can vote up until five people, you possibly don’t have to think strategically in the way that a lot of people do.
Alcindor also asked Greer to use rank choice voting to beat back “these GOP-backed laws restricting voting.” “I mean, sometimes there’s incompetence and sometimes fraud. Right now we’re looking at incompetence,” Greer said. “Sadly, though, the two have been conflated…”
Alcindor was tickled pick by Greer’s analogy. “Incompetence, not fraud. We’ll keep that going and keep that in mind.”
This reluctance to scrutinize New York City’s botched ballot counting was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Allstate on ABC and Capital One on NBC. Their contact information is linked so you can tell them about the biased news they fund.
The transcripts are below, click “expand” to read:
CBS Evening News
June 30, 2021
6:50:57 p.m. EasternNORAH O’DONNELL: Early results in New York City’s Democratic primary for mayor are being questioned tonight after a botched ballot county. The city’s board of elections says it accidentally included about 135,000 test results in Tuesday’s vote count. Updated results released tonight now show Eric Adams with a slim lead.
PBS News Hour
June 30, 2021
7:19:52 p.m. EasternJUDY WOODRUFF: It has been more than a week since polls closed in New York City. The board of elections just released updated tallies, but there is still no call on the Democratic primary results for mayor. One cause for the wait, a new system of voting called rank choice, which lets voters list up to five candidates on their ballot. But the counting took a confusing turn yesterday. Yamiche Alcindor reports.
[Cuts to video]
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: For the New York City board of elections, it’s been a chaotic 24 hours. Yesterday, on their results webpage, the city posted some unofficial results, including 135,000 new ballots. Those results showed that the lead of the current frontrunner, Eric Adams, had significantly narrowed against his two closest competitors, Maya Wiley and Kathryn Garcia. But hours later, the city removed those additional ballots. Officials said a software error included sample test votes in the official tally.
(…)
7:21:50 p.m. Eastern
ALCINDOR: And why did New York City, the largest city in the United States, why did it implement rank choice voting and what are the benefits supposed to be?
CHRISTINA GREER (Fordham University): Well, the benefits are supposed to be, when we’ve looked at a place like Minneapolis or San Francisco, to include candidates of color, female candidates of color to give them a better opportunity. Because ostensibly, if you can vote up until five people, you possibly don’t have to think strategically in the way that a lot of people do.
(…)
7:24:08 p.m. Eastern
ALCINDOR: How do you see this issue in New York City connecting with the larger conversation we’re having nationally when it comes to false claims of voter fraud, these GOP-backed laws restricting voting.
GREER: I mean, sometimes there’s incompetence and sometimes fraud. Right now we’re looking at incompetence. And a real restructuring of the board of elections in New York City needs to happen and those are conversations that need to extend well I don’t election day.
Sadly, though, the two have been conflated and we’ll have to have some real conversation, especially depending on who’s victorious whenever we get the ballots, it depends on whether or not their opponents actually raised claims of fraud or just inconsistencies.
ALCINDOR: Incompetence, not fraud. We’ll keep that going and keep that in mind. Thank you so much, Christina Greer of Fordham University.