Networks bracket Comey with own talk

NEW YORK — Broadcast networks cast aside their regular schedules Thursday to provide coverage of former FBI Director James Comey’s Senate testimony about President Donald Trump and Russian involvement in the presidential campaign. So did cable news networks, bracketing Comey’s session before the Senate Intelligence Committee with hours of its own talk.

“Capitol Hill has not seen a day like this in years,” said ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos.

Evidence of the political battle came in the bits and pieces of Comey’s testimony emphasized on different outlets and social media accounts. The was particularly true when Comey said that he leaked contents of a memo about his conversation with Trump to The New York Times through a friend, later identified as Columbia University law professor Daniel Richman. Comey wanted to get his account out, perhaps encouraging the appointment of a special prosecutor.

“This whole thing is a giant nothing-burger,” the conservative website Breitbart News wrote as Comey talked, “except for Comey implicating himself as a leaker.”

On the liberal site Talking Points Memo, the same detail was hailed as evidence of “how Comey outflanked Trump.”

“Depending on which camp you’re in, you could say that Comey totally condemned President Trump today, or you could say the president was exonerated by Comey,” commentator Dana Perino said on Fox News Channel. “The thing is, this was just another log on the fire, because America is going to continue to push forward on this.”

Television commentators did not break in to Comey’s testimony, but through headlines put onscreen — called chyrons — they were able to choose often contradictory points of emphasis. That was the case when Comey talked about Trump’s discussion with him about former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

On Fox, a chyron read, “Comey: President did not order me to let Flynn probe go.” On CNN, the message read “Comey: I took Trump’s request about Flynn as a directive.”