CNSNews.com may develop selective amnesia when it comes to reporting relevant details about its fellow conservatives, but when a Democrat or liberal does something it can exploit for its fellow travelers, CNS is ON IT.
Patrick Goodenough wrote disdainfully in a Feb. 5 article:
As President Trump completed his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) slowly and deliberately tore in half what appeared to be her copy of the speech, before tossing the bits of paper onto the desk.
“The American age, the American epic, the American adventure has only just begun,” Trump said. “Our spirit is still young. The sun is still rising. God’s grace is still shining. My fellow Americans, the best is yet to come. Thank you. God bless you, and God bless America.”
Scarcely had the words left his mouth when Pelosi held up a sheaf of papers. She tore them in two, then – as seen from various camera angles – repeated the action three more times, before throwing down the stack of ripped pages.
Goodenough encapsulated CNS’ right-wing bias by quoting three politicians commenting on Pelosi’s act — two of whom were Republicans but only one (Rep. Liz Cheney) was identified as such; the other, Dalia al-Aqidi, is identified only as running to unseat Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar — and, as it turned out, who Goodenough did a fawning profile of just last month.
CNS followed up with more biased reporting in the form of attacks on Pelosi for her act:
- Trump fangirl Susan Jones dutifully transcribed Trump’s tweetstorm bashing Pelosi, touting how Trump was “retweeting some of the #PelosiTantrum criticism.”
- Melanie Arter featured how Trump White House official Kellyanne Conway claimed on Fox News that Pelosi’s act “demonstrates that the Democratic Party has devolved into a petty, peevish and partisan party.” In her lengthy summary of Conway’s appearance, Arter did note whether Conway was ever asked if Trump’s anti-Pelosi tweetstorm was an example of him being “petty, peevish and partisan.”
- Craig Bannister repeated how Jody Jones, who earned an invitation to the State of the Union address because his brother “was shot and killed by an illegal alien,” went for the full-drama effect by declaring (on Fox News, natch) that Pelosi’s speech-ripping “ripped our hearts out … it just tore us up.”
- Managing editor Michael W. Chapman cheered how House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy “mocked” Pelosi’s “stunt” and responding with a “video on Twitter, in which he declares, ‘Acquitted for life’ and tears up what, presumably, are the articles of impeachment.”
- Bruce Truax wrote that “In reference to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) tearing up the president’s speech on national television after the State of the Union on Tuesday, Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del) said he was surprised that Pelosi did not ‘hit’ Trump with the speech.”
- Chapman followed up on Goodenough’s reference to Cheney by giving her her own article to rant that the speech-ripping allegedly showed that Pelosi is “unfit for office.”
- Finally, for some reason, editor in chief Terry Jeffrey felt the need to hunt down a Republican senator from North Dakota for his opinion of Pelosi’s speech-ripping and then devote an article to said opinion, which could largely be summarized by his calling it “very, very, very odd.”
That’s a total of eight articles focused on a couple seconds of Pelosi ripping up a speech — six of which were devoted exclusively to attacking Pelosi. Good thing CNS doesn’t have to live up to the standards of fairness and objectivity its parent, the Media Research Center, demands from other media outlets.