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IT’S (D)IFFERENT: Nets Rediscover Interest in Presidential Fact-Checks
After effectively serving as both Praetorian Guard and stenographers for the Biden White House, the network news appear to have rediscovered their interest in fact-checking presidential addresses. President Trump’s address on the economy drew a reaction from the network news more befitting of a partisan rapid response operation.
ABC were their usual ABC selves, with David Muir under the effects of the sound of his voice who compulsively bracketed Mary Bruce, who was at her absolute Mary Bruciest:
IT'S (D)IFFERENT: ABC's former Chief Biden apple polisher Mary Bruce develops a sudden interest in presidential fact-checking, while redundantly bracketed by a David Muir under the effects of the sound of his own voice. pic.twitter.com/qTjxfzNH1M
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) December 18, 2025
ABC NEWS SPECIAL COVERAGE
12/17/25
9:20 PM
DAVID MUIR: President Trump from the Diplomatic Room at The White House there, marking 11 months into his administration, talking about what he believes in these first 11 months are successes: securing the border, talking about the ongoing ICE operations, the deportations in this country, talking about the affordability issue in this country, laying the blame on the previous administration now a year into his administration, talked about tariffs.
He said, “tariffs, my favorite word.” He announced tonight that more than a million- 1.4 million military service members will be given, uh, dividends from the tariffs. A check for $1,776 for each one of these military service members, he said. Those checks are on the way. When he talked about health care insurance premiums- a lot of attention on this right now because of the Affordable Care Act. Congress ready to go home for the holidays, it appears, without doing anything to extend subsidies, which means for at least 20 million Americans, their health insurance premiums are set to skyrocket after the first of the year. He said this is the Democrats’ fault.
These premiums are going up, despite the fact that a lot of this rests on Congress's shoulders, and certainly questions for the president going into the election, saying he had the contours of a plan, in essence, a health insurance plan. He did talk tonight about returning the money to the people when it comes to health insurance. But I'll get to Mary Bruce, our Chief White House Correspondent, for more on this. If there's any kind of proposal that's been issued by The White House to explain what this means, because in the meantime, for millions, premiums are going up. He also talked about prices in this country.
You know, any president and presidents before him have dealt with affordability. President Biden did. Prices were high under the Biden administration, and some of the previous administrations as well. And you can make the case that prices are going down when people look at the prices at the grocery store on certain items, and they know what they’re paying for them. So it becomes a bit of a challenge, really, for any administration when it comes to affordability.
MARY BRUCE: It certainly does, David. And the president just there said that prices are coming down, and fast, but the latest government data actually shows that consumer prices are up 3% compared to a year ago. And that trend isn’t going in the right direction. That same data showing that prices have been ticking up for the past five months. Now, the president is right. Gas prices are down. But Americans are paying more for groceries. They are feeling that when they go to the grocery store.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the prices of groceries is up from a year ago, including on products impacted by Trump's tariffs. Coffee up 41%. Sirloin steak up 20%. Frozen Orange juice up 12%.
Utilities also up. The cost of housing. The typical household, David, is now spending $208 extra per month compared to the same time last year because of inflation. That's according to Moody's analytics. And look, the president is trying to paint a rosy picture here. He is pitching the fact that his policies are working, but he also knows that Americans simply are not feeling that. And that is the huge challenge for this administration and Republicans heading into the midterms. David.
MUIR: Making the case, of course, stay the course. He believes his policies are working. And you heard him talk about the year ahead, talking about what's coming to America when it comes to the Olympics and other events that he says he helped bring to America and said an economic boom is on the way. Part of his message heading into the holiday here and the New Year. Our Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce on the president tonight. Mary, thanks so much.
This was, by far, the absolute worst. No network news division is as reflexively anti-Trump as is ABC, and this report is consistent with that trend. I don’t recall Mary Bruce ever whipping out a stat sheet during any of President Joe Biden’s addresses. Bruce’s coverage back then was usually focused on preserving a veneer of presidential fitness. You would often hear such effusive descriptors as “feisty”, or “fiery”.
And, of course, Bruce has to ply her wares while bracketed by David Muir, not unlike the manner in which he delivers long, talking point-laden introductions to political stories (usually by Bruce or Rachel Scott) that could effectively serve as brief reports and render everything else redundant. With these kinds of stories, Muir usually makes sure to get in the first AND the last word.
CBS’s reporting was tame by comparison:
With both anchors heading out the door, CBS recalled Norah O'Donnell to duty the for the presidential address. Nancy Cordes was horrified that "the president essentially argued ne rescued this nation from evil." pic.twitter.com/1qV5M1Ts2y
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) December 18, 2025
CBS SPECIAL COVERAGE
11/17/25
9:20 PM
NORAH O’DONNELL: Tonight the President of the United States in that prime time address making this year-end pitch to voters, noting that economic worries are on the rise. Let's turn to Chief White House Correspondent Nancy Cordes. Nancy, what did you make of his message and his tone?
NANCY CORDES: Norah, the president essentially argued that he had rescued this nation from evil. He claimed that his predecessors had, quote: “fought for criminals, indoctrinated children with hate for America, and caused war and mayhem all over the globe.” Stark terms, even for him. He also said he's solving the country's economic woes.
He argued that his plans are already bringing prices down even though inflation stands at 3%, the same rate that was the month that he took office. There was a surprise when he announced $1,776 checks are going out to about one and a half million service members in honor of the nation's 250th birthday. He said the checks are going out already and he called them “warrior dividends.”
O’DONNELL: All right. Nancy Cordes at The White House, thank you.
With anchors John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois packing up and on the way out, anchoring the special coverage fell to still-under-contract Norah O’Donnell, at least until Tony Dokoupil takes over. Thus was the nation spared from a lengthy Dickersonian sermon that masquerades as a history lesson but preens with liberal sanctimony.
Nancy Cordes seems horrified to have to report that Trump claimed to rescue the nation from evil. That aside, her reporting was limited to a minor fact-check on inflation (again with the sudden interest) and to make note of the Warrior Dividend payout.
NBC fell somewhere in the middle. Not as awful as ABC but worse than CBS:
NBC's Tom Llamas doing a Muirean introduction of Peter Alexander, whose recount of Trump's address is saltier than we remember during the Biden years. pic.twitter.com/UTRj3iISGC
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) December 18, 2025
NBC NEWS NOW SPECIAL COVERAGE
11/17/25
9:20 PM
TOM LLAMAS: We've just been listening to President Trump there give a year end review in his first year back in The White House, essentially a greatest hits: some real, some perceived, for his first year back in The White House. I want to bring in NBC News Chief White House Correspondent Peter Alexander. Peter, as we sort of unpack what the president just said, we should also set the table that this is going to sort of lead into the midterms. And the president has said, The White House has said that even though he won't be on the ballot, he very much will be campaigning.
And tonight felt it was all about the economy and all about affordability and what he has said his government and his administration has done for the American people, and trying to bring down costs, and also announcing that warrior dividend that active duty military members will get a bonus of $1,776, a nod to the 250th anniversary of this great country, but also sort of muddying the waters when it comes to health care, saying that he will take on the health insurance companies come next year, but also not exactly explaining what's happening with Obamacare, what's going to happen with the subsidies come next year.
PETER ALEXANDER: Yeah, Tom, I think there's a lot to unpack. To be very clear, what you just heard from the President Trump tonight from The White House was indistinguishable in many ways from what you hear on the trail in the form of a political rally, except he had the sort of cheery greenery here behind him. I think fundamentally what the president did was, with the sort of brisk pace and that intense energy, is again lay out a series, a lot of his grievances, many falsehoods in the course of it.
And again, repeatedly, he blamed right out of the gates, his predecessor, Joe Biden. There are a series of things to fact check, including the president's claim that when he inherited this mess, as he described it, it was the highest inflation the country's ever had. That is not true. By the time he took over, inflation had dropped significantly and remains at that place right now. But fundamentally, Tom, for the president, the challenge he faces going forward is that he, like his predecessor, is trying to tell Americans that things are better than they say they are feeling. Two thirds of Americans right now said they are dissatisfied with his handling of the cost of living and inflation, Tom.
LLAMAS: All right, Peter Alexander for us.
Tom Llamas, with his lengthy Muir-like introduction, shows that he left ABC but ABC didn’t leave him. But at least he had the courtesy to not bigfoot Peter Alexander’s “analysis.”
Alexander, on the other hand, played this just like Mary Bruce did. Scathing and with a sudden interest in fact-checks and concerns over tone and tenor, incensed that Trump would blame Biden for anything after biting their tongues as Biden did the same for the four years preceding. Alexander seemed legitimately upset that Trump delivered this speech in a space that was festooned with Christmas decorations.
In all, the legacy nightlies reminded us that, when it comes to presidential addresses and their subsequent coverage, things really are (D)ifferent. Were it not for double standards, there’d be none at all.
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