Related: How Mainstream Media Helps The Republicans Lie To The People - Part 2
Media Matters: Sunday show coverage of COVID-19 relief negotiations was again filled with false equivalency
For months, Republicans failed to make a proposal, and still are split on whether to continue COVID-19 aid at all. Instead of focusing on what was needed, Sunday shows instead frequently just blamed both sides for not coming to an agreement.
President Trump signed four executive orders following a congressional gridlock over negotiations about the second COVID-19 relief bill, which Republicans refused to enter into until the eleventh hour. Sunday political shows, however, continued with their false equivalency that both parties are to blame which forced the president’s hand.
The economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic have been devastating for millions of Americas. The Census Bureau estimated that sometime before July 21, nearly 30 million Americans did not have enough to eat. Millions are still unemployed, and the Congressional Budget Office expects the unemployment rate to remain “elevated” through 2021. Forty million people are reportedly at risk of being kicked out of their homes due to the pandemic, especially as eviction moratoriums across the country come to an end. The ending of enhanced unemployment benefits looks set to become an economic catastrophe.
It has been clear for months that August 1 would be when the coronavirus economic crisis would really escalate. And yet, Republicans did nothing, even after House Democrats in May passed the $3 trillion Heroes Act, a bill that would have sent a second round of stimulus checks to Americans and extended the $600 dollar unemployment insurance through January. Senate Republicans refused to take up the bill for a vote, essentially letting the unemployment benefits expire on July 31, having not even revealed their own bill until July 27, amid opposition within their own party.
On Saturday, The Los Angeles Times laid out how negotiations broke down. Republicans objected to funding for things like food, water, and utility assistance; additional funding for COVID-19 testing; as well as funding for states and municipalities whose budgets were gutted by the pandemic. In terms of unemployment benefits, Democrats wanted to extend the $600 payment through the end of the year but “Senate Republicans have not acted on it,” instead floating various cuts to the benefit.
Trump, for his part, blamed Congress’ inability to reach a deal on Democrats during a press conference at his New Jersey golf club, and announced he’d be signing executive orders. There are significant questions about the legality and effectiveness of the orders, particularly one that would ostensibly provide $300 per week to unemployed Americans. Trump’s proposed payroll tax holiday would cut funding for Medicare and Social Security while possibly leaving Americans on the hook for a tax bill in 2021. The executive order on evictions may not actually do much of anything at all.
Despite the abundance of evidence Trump’s legally dubious and potentially harmful executive orders are the result of the Republican Party dragging their feet (and in some cases just flat opposed to more action) on a second relief bill, Sunday show coverage implied both parties are to blame and implored Democratic politicians to give in to GOP demands.
Put another way, the implied goal of the questioning on the Sunday shows was not what the American people need in the time of a crisis and who is standing in the way of that. Instead, lines of questioning focused on 2020 politics and when congressional negotiations came up at all, it was frequently framed as what concessions were necessary to achieve a bipartisan deal -- without any care to whether that deal would actually help the people who need it.
During the August 9 edition of CNN’s State of the Union, guest host Dana Bash spoke to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and asked “Why not get back in that room and come up with a compromise on some of these core issues?” Bash went on to say she knows Pelosi wants the best for people, but then said “at some point, you’ve got to work with the other side, right?”
During an interview with White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, NBC’s Chuck Todd glossed over Navarro’s claim that Democrats would rather tank the economy and hurt the president than work with Republicans and pass a relief bill.
CHUCK TODD (HOST): Assuming negotiations continue and a deal happens maybe in a week or two weeks, I assume all these executive orders become null and void?
PETER NAVARRO: If Congress solves the problem, there's no need for the president to take executive action. Okay? That’s -- we'll see what we get, but here's the point.
Let's not go there. Let's go to this. We’ve got four actions President Trump has taken that will help workers, the unemployed, renters, homeowners, and students. Students who have student loans. What we need is sincere negotiation. We have to believe that both sides actually want a deal and there is this theory, Chuck, that the Democrats would prefer to see the economy go into the tank for another 90 days because that harms the president. I hope that Capitol Hill hasn't become that cynical, but watching these negotiations makes me wonder. Because we’ve been willing to bend. Mark Meadows is a great negotiator. We’ve been willing to bend --
TODD: I think the cynicisms are too extreme. I take your point.
ABC’s George Stephanopolous presented the negotiations as if both sides were refusing to budge during an interview with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer when he said “you say these proposals are narrow, they’re unworkable, they’re paltry. What the Republicans have said is that your trillion-dollar offer is nothing more than a budget gimmick” before asking Schumer if Democrats “will compromise more?”
During a panel discussion on the August 9 edition of NBC’s Meet the Press, MSNBC anchor Joshua Jackson called it “telling that both sides can’t can't seem to come to an agreement perhaps because of the publicity around these negotiations.” He went on to say “as we get closer to the election, unfortunately less and less is getting agreed to.”
Some mainstream news outlets also published articles Sunday about “both sides” failing to come to an agreement.
This is a continuation of the August 2 Sunday show coverage, during which Bash asked about Democrats supposedly making a “political play” and “trying to maximize” their leverage in the discussions and ABC’s Martha Raddatz said Democrats turned down short term extension before asking Pelosi “what do you say to those 30 million Americans who are now without federal unemployment help?”
This is a horrific crisis, and millions of people need help. Bipartisan platitudes are not going to cut it.
Media
- How Mainstream Media Helps The Republicans Lie To The People - Part 2
- How Mainstream Media Helps The Republicans Lie To The People - Part 1
- Media Matters Proves Corporate Media's Journalists Aren't Real Journalists
- Media Ignore Trump's Well Wishes To Alleged Underage Sex Trafficker And Instead Try To Enhance His Image, A Common Theme When Media Has To Deal With Republicans
- John Oliver Scoops Mainstream Media By Showing How Fox News Controls Trump's Words & Actions On Coronavirus
- Media Fear Offending Right Wing America While The Right Assaults Facts & Everyone Who Doesn't Agree With Them (Certainly Explains The Covid 19 Fallout)
- Media Matters: NY Times Shouldn't Treat Matters Of Facts As Opinions, And Opinions Shouldn’t Be Treated As Matters Of Fact
- Washington Post & NY Times Buried The Lead - And The Facts - With A Pro-Republican Lies Push On A Coronavirus Bill
- CNN Buries The Lead - And The Facts - With A Pro-Republican Push (Does CNN Or Its Parent Company Get Money From This Stimulus Bill?)
- Joe Biden's Lies - Backed By The Democratic Establishment - Debunked (Not Covered On CNN/NBC/CBS/ABC So As Not TO Inform The Voters)
- How MSNBC/NBC Used Deception To Help Joe Biden Against Bernie Sanders, Carefully Outlined By Krystal Ball
- NY Times Has Proven Its Biased Against Bernie Sanders And Thus Not A Real News Organization
- NY Times Helps Trump Lie About Obama Concerning Coronavirus Response
- Chris Mathews, A Useless Newsman/Journalist Has Left NBC/MSNBC, Thank God!
- Media Fail To Inform The Public That Trump Fired The Infectious Diseases Experts In Place To Protect The United States Of America... To Save Money For Golf Or To Make The Government Smaller
- Mainstream Media Is Markedly Pro-Right Wing Lies - Part 2
- The Phenomenon Of The Muslim Narrative In America Part 2
- Bernie Sanders’ Rise Prompts Media Meltdown, Establishment Panic: A Closer Look
- Mainstream Media Is Completely Failing In Covering The Enormity & Context Of Trump's State Of The Union Speech
- Obama Notices The GOP Are Like Nazis And Warns Us About Being Complacent (& Media Completely Ignores Obama's Warning!)
- We Know That Most People Only Read Headlines So Is Mainstream Media Being Incredibly Stupid Or Are They Intentionally Pushing Untruths?
- CNN's "Civility" Argument Shows CNN Anchors/Hosts Can't Put Facts In Context Of What's Going On!
- CNN Hires A Well Known And Proven Liar To EDIT The News In Secret (i.e. No Disclaimer On Anything Edited By Her!)
- War Based Money Con: Chuck Todd Of Meet The Press Promoted Pro-Iran War Views By Hosting A Lobbyist/Briber Without Disclosing That He Was Doing That And Helped The Guys Companies Stock Go Up!
- BREAKING: Corporate Media Is Helping The GOP With Their Lies On Iran The Way They Did With Iraq
- CNN's "Editor At Large" (Chris Cillizza) Lies About And Frames Elizabeth Warren! What's That About And Who's Paying/Influencing Him To Do It? DNC/Biden?
- Media Uselessness Example: Ignoring Historical Context To Explain The Trump VS Lincoln Poll Of Republicans
- Moment Of Zen: Fox News Was Designed To Protect A Republican President From The Constitution!
- The Many Times The Washington Post Has Betrayed The Public's Trust
- Mainstream Media Is Markedly Pro-Right Wing Lies
- Media Uselessness Example: Corporate Media Gives Steve King A Pass On White Supremacism
- Here Is Chuck Todd Skewing Viewers Perceptions With A Pro-Republican Piece Using NBC's Meet The Press
- The Coast Guard Domestic Terrorist Is Just The Latest Right Wing Terrorist Enabled By Media Silence On Fox News Incendiary Rhetoric
- Why Do News Outlets Bring On Non-Scientists To Argue Against Science?
- Examples Of How The "Fact Based" News Media Distorts Public Perception Of Truth Because Of Unusually Bad And/Or Incompetent Journalism
- As Fox News Launches Fox Nation, I Would Like To Note That Mainstream Media Lets Fox Lie Unchallenged And Don't Fight Fox To Dominate The Ratings By Suppressing Their Lies... Thus Fox Has Been #1 For Decades. "Fact" Based Media Has Enabled Right Wing Hate & Are Thus A Threat To National Security!
- BREAKING: Fox News Is The Real President
- Don't Let Chuck Todd Fool Ya. The GOP Really Is Very Very Bad
- Chuck Todd: Spreading Lies By Sanitizing Right Wing Nuts Talking Points
- The Last GOP Bill Condemned 28,600 Americans To Death (Approx), Media Ignores Story
- Trump's Terrorist Attack On the Press (With Fox News Support)
- Fox News Has Literally Been Created For Obstruction Of Justice (i.e. Choosing Party Over Country Is What They Are All About)
- The Ultimate Proofs That Fox News Is Basically Just A Group Of White Supremacists/Nationalists/Nazis
- The Infowars Style Group Of Hate & Violence Mongers, Include Fox News & Fox Business!
- Fox News Is A MAINSTREAM Fearmongering Media Channel Mistakenly Labelled Real News Followed By A Bunch Of Sheep Who Don't/Can't See The Con!
- Media: How The "Left" Enables GOP Tyranny - The Southern Strategy By The GOP Created Modern Politics But They Continuously Get Away With It!
- Media: How The "Left" Enables GOP Tyranny: The Paul Ryan Example, i.e. "Paul Ryan Is A Bad Person", So Why Won't The Media Tell The American People?
- The Main Political Commentators At Fox News & Alex Jones (Infowars) Are Now Joined At The Hip
- How Media Enables The GOP's Southern Strategy: The Puerto Rico & Hurricane Maria Example
- NRA, Infowars, Fox News, Breitbart And Sinclair Function As A Terrorist Propaganda Wing Of The GOP That Seeks To Build Hate & Muddy The Waters (Kinda Like State TV)
- Note - Gerrymandering Is A Subset Of "Rigging Elections" Or "Election Fraud", An Important Aspect That Gets Left Out Of Media Coverage
- Fox News - And Right Wing Media - Is Nothing More Than A Conspiracy & Nazi-Style Propaganda Ring
- Media: How The "Left" Enables GOP Tyranny - Making Russia Seem Worse Than The GOP (& How Russia & The Right-Wing/GOP Are Really In A Symbiotic Relationship!)
- Media: How The "Left" Enables GOP Tyranny - The Ongoing Iraq War Lies Coverup By Richard Engel & NBC
- The Right Wing Are Basically Terrorists Or "Terrorist Creators" (Alt Right Terrorists Is The Politically Correct Term)
- The Last GOP Bill Condemned 28,600 Americans To Death (Approx), Media Ignores Story (Choosing Politeness Over Saving Lives?)
- The Liars & Bullshitters Of The Iraq War (Such As John Bolton) Are Still Treated With Respect By Mainstream Media (Despite Being Constantly Wrong... Its Like Being Respectful To Nazis Because They Are Americans)
- FLASHBACK: The Tea Party Wasn't Authentic Because Outside Groups (Fox News & The Kochs) Created, Organized And Spread It
- Outlining The Kochs Treasonous Agenda: Proofs That The Koch Brothers OWN The Right Wing & Thus The GOP Could Be Renamed "KOCH"
- NBC/MSNBC's Hidden Role As "The Rights, Left"
- CNN's Model For Reporting & Journalism Has A Problem With Conveying The Whole Truth Based On Facts To Its Viewers Because Of Its "Both Sides" Format That Places Outright Lies On the Same Footing With Facts On Their "Facts First" Apple-Banana Channel
- An Introduction To, & Overview Of, The Mainstream Corporate Media
- FCC's Anti-Constitutional Push Under Trump To Cut Of Net Neutrality To Increase Authoritarianism
- BREAKING... The Misunderstood Economy: What Counts and How to Count It OR Real Economics VS Fake Economics: How The Kochs Are Destroying America By Attacking Its Societal Structures In Favor Of Social Darwinism Or "Survival Of The Fittest"
- Trump's America: The GOP Sentences At Least 15,000 To 17,000 Americans To Death EVERY YEAR! (i.e. The Effects Of 13 Million Uninsured)
- How "Liberal" Media Helps The GOP With It's Fake Healthcare (More Examples Of The Corporate Media's Coverups)
- Corporate Media's Iraq War Coverup: Incontrovertible Proof Of Network News & The Beltway Media Covering Facts About The Iraq War For Their GOP Masters
No comments:
Post a Comment