ABC World News Was The Only Evening Network Newscast To Ignore The Net Neutrality Announcement

ABC World News Tonight with David Muir was the only one of the three broadcast evening newscasts to ignore the Obama administration's announcement supporting net neutrality. NBC Nightly News and CBS Evening News both covered the story.

President Obama issued a statement on Monday asking the Federal Communications Commission to “implement the strongest possible rules to protect net neutrality.” Obama asked the FCC to put into effect “bright-line rules” that would prevent Internet providers from blocking access to services, throttling Internet speeds or forcing one service to be prioritized over another. He also asked for providers to have to be more transparent in how their services operate.

ABC Net Neutrality

ABC World News Tonight did not cover the story on its November 10 or 11 broadcasts, but did find time to report on an offer by billionaire Richard Branson to reunite Led Zeppelin and advise viewers on the best day to shop for holiday bargains.

By comparison, NBC Nightly News reported on the announcement, and even disclosed that service providers like its parent company Comcast would be affected by the policy.

CBS Evening News reported the story as well.

In 2006, Disney Chairman and CEO Robert Iger said in a keynote presentation at a telecom conference that “we do not support any [network neutrality] legislation at this time” and that he believed “market forces” could police competition among providers. (Disney owns ABC.)

In the past, the networks have routinely failed to cover developments on net neutrality. It seems ABC is still asleep at the wheel.