BROADCAST BIAS: Networks go from hiding Fauci diaries to defending him from Republicans

An easy way to demonstrate that the broadcast networks have a deep-seated Democratic Party bias is to evaluate how they cover congressional committee investigations. If a committee is assembled to destroy Republican reputations, everything it does is newsworthy. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s January 6 Committee was Exhibit A. It was "perfect," in that it had no Republican counterweight on it.

If a committee is trying to hold Democrats accountable for government overreach, the networks avoid it like … a deadly bat virus. On July 25, Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul released more than 1,100 pages of COVID-19 czar Dr. Anthony Fauci's personal diary (from his government computer) spanning 2019 to 2022.

Two days later, "CBS Evening News" broke the network silence with a 24-second report. Then there was nothing for another two days until the morning Fauci was scheduled to appear before Paul’s committee.

FAUCI'S NEWLY RELEASED COVID DIARIES REVEAL BIZARRE FIXATION ON FAME AS PANDEMIC DEATHS MOUNTED

It's not like there was nothing newsworthy in Fauci’s diary entries. For example, he admitted early on that COVID did not emerge from the Wuhan wet markets, but he spent 2020 aggressively denouncing the lab-leak thesis as a fringy conspiracy theory – with much media amplification.

Surely, the entries the networks hated the most were the references to the fawning friendships he developed with TV anchors and hosts. ABC’s George Stephanopoulos texted, "Thank you, Tony, so impressive" after one interview. He recounted a warm conversation with then-NBC anchor Chuck Todd about how to deal with the cantankerous conservative media.

In July 2020, Fauci gushed that he was forming a friendship with CNN’s Jake Tapper. "Had dinner over Jake Tapper and Jen Tapper’s home in DC. Terrific couple. Friendship building," Fauci wrote. Later that month, Fauci wrote that he "gave Jake some questions to ask" Trump adviser and pediatrician Brett Giroir during a very hostile interview on CNN’s "State of the Union."

INSIDE FAUCI'S PRIVATE DIARY: WHAT HE WROTE ABOUT TRUMP, TV PERSONALITIES AND CELEBRITIES

Then on Oct. 23, 2020, there was more: "Had dinner at my home with Jake and Jennifer Tapper. Relaxed, good time. Jake clearly believes that Trump is totally nuts." These dinners came at a time when this kind of socializing was strongly discouraged between family members, but clearly the elitist media and government officials were exempt from these orders.

Once the networks began covering the Fauci hearing, it became clear they were like Fauci’s unpaid defense lawyers. Before the hearing, ABC reporter Jay O’Brien fretted on "Good Morning America" that it would be a "fiery hearing" for poor Fauci at "85 years old," who "has long been a target" of Sen. Paul, noting his lawyer said Paul’s conducted a "years-long public crusade against the doctor, not a genuine quest for information." That sounds like ABC’s reporting on Trump.

"CBS Mornings" previewed the hearing with Biden transition-team adviser Dr. Celine Gounder, who bizarrely claimed Fauci never had authority to close the country down, even as Fauci bragged about all the politicians taking his advice. She also denied Fauci had ever reveled in being famous, which is just a brazen lie.

WATCH: FAUCI ATTORNEY EJECTED FROM SENATE HEARING AFTER CHAOTIC EXCHANGE: ‘YOU ARE NOT RECOGNIZED!’

On both NBC’s morning and evening news shows on hearing day, reporter Monica Alba actually quoted from Fauci’s writings, including the part reveling in his fame. But the networks repeatedly made it sound like Paul did something wrong or impolite in releasing Fauci’s "private diaries," which were composed on a government computer as preparation for his impending book deal.

"CBS Evening News" harped on the "angry Senate hearing" where Paul "kicked one of Fauci’s lawyers out" (for trying to answer for Fauci) while "Democrats accused the GOP of conducting a biased investigation." At least fill-in anchor Matt Gutman aired excerpts of his interview with National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a longtime Fauci critic, who explained there was American support for "gain-of-function" research to engineer a more dangerous virus in China.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION

On both Wednesday night and Thursday morning, ABC’s Jay O’Brien touted Fauci as "the man millions of Americans turned to for answers during the COVID pandemic." His refusal to answer was presented as merely sad: "The 85-year-old Fauci, who served in government for 54 years and has testified in more than 200 hearings, sitting stone-faced as Republicans needled him." Republicans pounced on The Science was the gist of it.

The drop-dead funniest proclamation came the next morning from ABC "Good Morning America" co-host George "so impressive, Tony" Stephanopoulos. He mourned it was "a sign of the times" that the Fauci hearing was "about as partisan as it gets." But there was somehow no partisanship during the January 6 hearings, as Stephanopoulos touted former Rep. Liz Cheney’s "lonely path" as a Republican serving Pelosi’s purposes.

So Republican hearings, when they’re actually mentioned on the news, are spun as angry partisan spectacles, but Democrat hearings are presented as the noblest expressions of democracy and accountability. This blatantly partisan spin is why public trust in the elitist media is so low.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM TIM GRAHAM