Trump’s J6 pardons get 46 mins of airtime on ABC, CBS, NBC—only 3 mins for Biden family pardons

An analysis from the Media Research Center showed that morning and evening broadcasts from ABC News, CBS, and NBC from Inauguration Day on Jan. 20 to the morning of Jan. 22 focused heavily on Trump. Despite both sets of pardons being issued on the same day, the coverage was far from equal. The analysis found that ABC News, CBS, and NBC spent 46 minutes and 32 seconds on Trump’s pardons, compared to just 3 minutes and 32 seconds on Biden’s preemptive pardons.

ABC’s "Good Morning America" and "World News Tonight" dedicated 15 minutes and 30 seconds to Trump’s pardons, while spending only 34 seconds on Biden’s actions. "CBS Mornings" and "CBS Evening News" covered Trump’s pardons for 16 minutes and 32 seconds compared to just 64 seconds on Biden’s. NBC’s "Today" and "Nightly News" spent 14 minutes and 30 seconds covering Trump, with less than two minutes on Biden.

In the final hours of his presidency, Biden granted pre-emptive, blanket pardons to several relatives, including his sister Valerie Biden Owen and her husband John T. Owens, his brother James Biden and his wife Sara Jones Biden, and his brother Francis W. Biden. This came after a blanket pardon for his son Hunter Biden, which stretched back to 2014. The crimes for which Biden was convicted were recent tax anc gun charges. On Inauguration Day, Trump signed pardons and commutations for over 1,500 individuals charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol.

Trump had promised to act quickly on his first day in office to pardon those involved in the Capitol riot, a move that angered critics and sparked accusations of excusing violence against law enforcement. Similarly, Biden’s preemptive pardons for his family faced criticism from political opponents, but mainstream media outlets dedicated only a fraction of their attention to Biden while attending to Trump’s pardons much more.

In 2020, Biden was asked about reports suggesting that then-President Trump was considering preemptive pardons for his family members, as well as for himself. At the time, Biden told CNN’s Jake Tapper, "Well, it concerns me in terms of what kind of precedent it sets and how the rest of the world looks at us as a nation of laws and justice," according to FoxNews. He had also promised not to pardon his son Hunter.