Anthony Fauci’s private pandemic diary landed with a bang.
But on America’s biggest television networks, it barely made a sound.
ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and MS NOW aired no coverage of the newly released journal entries between Saturday afternoon and the end of Monday’s flagship morning programs, according to Fox News and a transcript search conducted through Grabien Media.
The diaries, released by Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul, offer Fauci’s private account of his extraordinary rise during the 2020 COVID-19 crisis. They chronicle his interactions with President Trump, governors, foreign leaders and prominent journalists while recording his growing frustration with the Trump White House.
They also show Fauci reflecting on the fame that came with his role.
1/9 — My investigation uncovered that Anthony Fauci kept a diary.
What he wrote privately and what he told the country are two different stories.Today I'm releasing his entries from December 2019 through December 2022. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/58LvmeYkCN
— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) July 25, 2026
One entry reportedly entertained the suggestion that it was “not hyperbole” to describe Fauci as “the most famous and talked about person in the country.”
The journals quickly exploded across social media. Television news executives apparently found other things to discuss.
“NBC Nightly News” and “Today” did not mention the diaries, according to the Grabien review. Neither did ABC’s “World News Tonight” and “Good Morning America” or the “CBS Evening News” and “CBS Mornings.”
The Sunday political shows also passed. ABC’s “This Week,” NBC’s “Meet the Press” and CBS’ “Face the Nation” reportedly offered no coverage.
CNN and MS NOW maintained the same silence through Monday morning. Grabien’s transcript search reportedly found that neither cable network mentioned the word “Fauci” once during the reviewed period.
CNN’s absence was especially striking because several of its most recognizable personalities appear in Fauci’s private account.
The former White House adviser documented calls, text messages and dinners with Jake Tapper, including gatherings at the CNN anchor’s Washington home. Fauci wrote that Tapper privately contacted him to make sure a CNN interview had not caused trouble with the White House.
When Atlantic writer Peter Nicholas suggested Fauci had been “humiliated” by the cancellation of a Tapper interview, Fauci recorded a blunt response in his diary: “F— you, Peter.”
CNN anchor Dana Bash also appears in the entries. After Fauci’s heated April 2021 exchange with Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Fauci wrote that Bash texted him to say he was “a better man.”
According to Fauci’s account, Bash also relayed that Wolf Blitzer joked nobody would have blamed Fauci if he had told Jordan to “go f— yourself.”
Fox News chief political analyst Brit Hume questioned whether those relationships helped explain the lack of interest.
“This is not getting the coverage it deserves,” Hume wrote on X. “Is that because so many media luminaries were so chummy with the man at the center of a major medical controversy?”
This is not getting the coverage it deserves. Is that because so many media luminaries were so chummy with the man at the center of a major medical controversy? https://t.co/d7uyfeC9gC
— Brit Hume (@brithume) July 27, 2026
Paul, one of Fauci’s most persistent critics, released the diaries as part of the committee’s continuing investigation into the government’s pandemic response and the origins of COVID-19.
In March 2020, Dr. Fauci bragged in his private diary about convincing NYC's mayor and California's governor to shut down schools, bars, and restaurants.
In 2022, he told Congress under oath, "First of all, I didn't recommend locking anything down."
He also filled his diary… pic.twitter.com/Iq2U1Imz9N
— Jenn Pellegrino 🇺🇸 (@JennPellegrino) July 27, 2026
