According to the Media Research Center (MRC), NBC's hand was forced by independent journalist Nick Shirley, who has been all over the scandal. His video showing that several Somali-run daycare centers in Minnesota were billing the state for taxpayer-funded childcare while apparently providing little or no service — showing doors locked, empty parking lots, and no children present – has garnered more than 100-million views online.
Still, virtually all of the details reported on "Nightly News" were broken by other journalists or outlets.
ABC's "World News Tonight" discussed the alleged fraud for only 25 seconds, portraying the Somalians as the victims of this story.
Though CBS is downplaying any mentions of the community's Muslim faith and "Evening News" co-anchors John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois also framed the Somalians as the real victims, MRC's Bill D'Agostino says the detailed reporting by Jonah Kaplan focused primarily on the multi-billion-dollar fraud scheme itself.
"Minnesota has the nation's largest Somali population," he reported. "The perpetrators are accused of ripping off state-run programs intended to feed low-income kids, house the disabled, and provide services to autistic children."
"CBS was the only network to offer more coverage of the actual fraud allegations than the resulting backlash against the alleged perpetrators," NewsBusters relays.
Before December 29, it was the only broadcast network to have aired even a single full-length report about the scandal.
D'Agostino believes CBS, specifically Jonah Kaplan, deserves credit for investigating and giving this story its due.
"ABC, meanwhile, remains the most journalistically bankrupt of the three big broadcast networks," the research analyst writes. "As of December 30, anyone who primarily relies on 'World News Tonight' for their news likely has no idea that anything is going on in Minnesota at all – aside from heavy snowfall, which anchor David Muir is always eager to discuss."
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has publicly criticized Gov. Tim Walz (D) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D) and says the situation is evidence of deeper problems under Democratic leadership.
