The three evening newscasts on Monday and the morning shows on Tuesday
mostly ignored Barack Obama's abandonment of a campaign pledge to close
Guantanamo Bay and end trials of detainees there. NBC's Today, CBS's
Early Show and ABC's Good Morning America all covered the story only in
news briefs. Yet, when President Bush was in the White House, the
networks obsessed over the issue.

Today's Ann Curry called the move to resume military trials there a "stunning reversal,"
but the network allowed just two brief anchor reads during the four
hour program. ABC almost completely ignored the development. Monday's World News skipped the topic entirely.

On Tuesday's Good Morning America, Juju Chang offered a single mention,
explaining, "And an about-face from President Obama on Guantanamo Bay.
He is resuming military trials for terrorism suspects held in Cuba, two
years after he pledged to close the prison."

Chuck
Todd on Monday's Nightly News managed to shove the news into the end of
a story on another topic. He added, "Now, Brian, I've got one other
important note here from the White House. No issue's bedeviled this
President more than trying to keep his promise of shutting down the
prison at Guantanamo Bay." Yet, for a problem "bedeviling" the
President, NBC didn't seem terribly interested.

CBS's Katie Couric blandly related the development in a news brief.

Yet, when George W. Bush was President, the coverage was far different. According to a 2006 study[1]
by the Media Research Center's Rich Noyes, between September 11, 2001 and August 31,
2006, the nightly newscasts on the three networks devoted 277 stories to
Guantanamo Bay. Noyes explained:

Most of the network coverage of Guantanamo Bay focused on charges that
the captured al-Qaeda terrorists were due additional rights or
privileges (100 stories) or allegations that detainees were being
mistreated or abused (105 stories). Only 39 stories described the
inmates as dangerous, and just six stories revealed that ex-detainees
had committed new acts of terror after being released.

Network reporters largely portrayed the Guantanamo inmates as victims,
with about one in seven stories including the word "torture." The
networks aired a total of 46 soundbites from Guantanamo prisoners, their
families or lawyers, most professing innocence or complaining about
mistreatment. Not one report about the Guantanamo prisoners included a
comment from 9/11 victims, their families or lawyers speaking on their
behalf.

On the May 19, 2006[2] CBS
Evening News, guest anchor Bob Schieffer complained, "Has the U.S.
prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo become more trouble than it's
worth? Even those who created it have to be asking that question
tonight. It has generated reams of bad publicity for the United States,
today a UN committee said it ought to be shut down because it violates
the Geneva Convention..."

Additionally, Politifact, which is keeping track of Barack Obama's broken promises, has yet to update its Guantanamo section[3].

This is how the Barack Obama campaign described the then-candidate's promise[4]:

Close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center. Guantanamo has become a
recruiting tool for our enemies. The legal framework behind Guantanamo
has failed completely, resulting in only one conviction. President
Bush's own Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, wants to close it. Former
Secretary of State Colin Powell, wants to close it.

The first step to reclaiming America's standing in the world has to be
closing this facility. As president, Barack Obama will close the
detention facility at Guantanamo. He will reject the Military
Commissions Act, which allowed the U.S. to circumvent Geneva Conventions
in the handling of detainees. He will develop a fair and thorough
process based on the Uniform Code of Military Justice to distinguish
between those prisoners who should be prosecuted for their crimes, those
who can't be prosecuted but who can be held in a manner consistent with
the laws.

Transcripts of the scant coverage can be found below:

GMA

03/08/11

7:34

JUJU CHANG: And an about-face from President Obama on Guantanamo Bay.
He is resuming military trials for terrorism suspects held in Cuba, two
years after he pledged to close the prison. His plan to try terror
suspects here in the U.S. has run into strong opposition in Congress.

Today

03/08/11

7:15

ANN CURRY: In a stunning reversal President Obama signed an executive
order to resume military trials in Guantanamo, just two years after
vowing to close the controversial facility. The order also creates a
formal system to keep detainees in prison there indefinitely.

9:01

CURRY: In a stunning reversal, President Obama signed an executive
order to resume military trials at Guantanamo just two years after
vowing to close the controversial facility. The order creates a formal
system to keep detainees in prison there indefinitely.

Early Show

03/08/11

JEFF GLOR: President Obama has reversed his decision on military trials
at Guantanamo Bay. Two years ago, Mr. Obama stopped the trials of
suspected terrorists and promised to close Gitmo in a year. The
President wanted to try suspects like alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid
Sheikh Mohammed in civilian court, but those plans were opposed by many
in Congress. For the prisoners not being tried, their status will be
revealed in a year and then every three years after that.

Nightly News

03/07/11

CHUCK TODD: Now, Brian, I've got one other important note here from the
White House. No issue's bedeviled this President more than trying to
keep his promise of shutting down the prison at Guantanamo Bay. So today
the President ordered the Pentagon to reinstitute the military
tribunals in order to deal with detainees still in Guantanamo, including
the 9/11 conspirators like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The White House said
today that they were forced to do this because it was clear Congress
would not fund any program that was going to bring those detainees onto
American soil to be tried in federal courts, Brian.

Evening News

03/07/11

KATIE COURIC: In other news, military trials will resume for terror
suspects held at Guantanamo. President Obama today lifted the ban he
imposed two years ago. And 172 detainees are still being held at
Guantanamo, and the president has promised to close the prison. But
Congress has blocked his efforts to have them tried in civilian courts
here in the U.S.

- Scott Whitlock is a news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here[5] to follow him on Twitter.

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