The Media Research Center’s Trump Regime Media routine on the government shutdown continued with an Oct. 4 post by Alex Christy cheering that a conservative stuck to the approved narrative:
A Friday episode of PBS News Hour where New York Times columnist David Brooks manages to actually say something that fully triggers MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart is a rare occurrence, but this Friday Capehart could not tolerate the idea that Democrats are the ones corroding democracy with their government shutdown.
Capehart simply wasn’t having a fun time on Friday. When asked by host Geoff Bennett why Democrats aren’t being hypocritical, given their rhetoric around previous shutdowns, Capehart basically said it was different because Democrats are good and Republicans are bad.
Bennett then turned to Brooks and asked the opposite question, “And one of those reasons Democrats say is about extending Obamacare subsidies, with premiums set to skyrocket. Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, he shared this example on social media. A Georgian earning $65,000 a year would see premiums jump from about $300 a month to over $950 a month. And, David, shouldn’t the party that controls the House, the Senate and the White House do more to end a shutdown than just dig in?”
At first, Brooks simply stated, “No.”
He then elaborated, “I hate the fact that we’re here. So here’s what happened. In 2020, the Democrats win an election and they have power. And so, in 2021, they passed a bill which further increased the health insurance subsidies as part of Obamacare. And when they did it, they passed it to sunset in 2025. In 2024, the Republicans win an election. And guess what? They passed legislation that go with their policy priorities and they let the subsidies sunset.”
Christy groused some more:
ABC senior White House correspondent Selina Wang brought out the emotional heartstrings on Saturday’s Good Morning America to warn that people “could suffer” if Democrats cave on the government shutdown.
Wang teed up a clip of Senate Majority Leader John Thune by declaring Republicans are “refusing to negotiate until Democrats reopen the government.”
[…]While Thune was portrayed as a man demanding Democrats vote for a Republican bill, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was portrayed as a man who cares about health care, “Democrats digging in, refusing to cave until Republicans agree to reverse Medicaid cuts and extend Obamacare subsidies to keep premiums from increasing for millions.”
In his soundbite, Schumer claimed, “Failure to act would be devastating, and Republicans know it, even Donald Trump knows it.”
What Wang does not mention is that the Obamacare subsidies being discussed are actually a Biden-era expansion that was supposed to be a temporary COVID-relief measure that Democrats themselves sunset in order to save money to appease former Sen. Joe Manchin.
Democrats like to say that if the subsidies are not extended, people who rely on the exchanges will see their premiums go up an average of 75 percent, but Wang took it a step further as she introduced, “Kristin Fuhrmann-Simmons in Maine, who is battling MS, says if the Obamacare subsidies expire her premiums could go up 169 percent and her health could suffer.”
Christy doesn’t actually dispute any of the claims made in the report.
Clay Waters complained that right-wing OMB director Russ Vought’s creepy obsession with slashing the federal budget was noted:
The Atlantic’s take-over of PBS’s weekly journalist roundtable has formed a closed circle of liberal grievance. After Washington Week with The Atlantic moderator Jeffrey Goldberg cracked jokes about Rep. Mike Lee’s (R-UT) comment about Office of Management and Budget director Russ Vought wanting to shut down the government “since puberty.” He said “I remember when I was undergoing puberty, I wanted to slash the workforce at Medicare and Medicaid myself, personally.”
Waters then tried to equivocate: “Is it ‘devastating’ to federal employees if they’re off the job for seven or eight days? If it is, aren’t the Democrats at least half-responsible?” He then huffed that a reference to the slogan “the cruelty is the point” when describing right-wing efforts to destroy government and the people it helps comes from ” wacky 2018 take by left-wing Atlantic writer Adam Serwer.” But in writing about that article at the time, Waters didn’t dispute the accuracy of that take, let alone demonstrate how it’s “wacky.”
Curtis Houck cheered a non-right-wing outlet for nodding toward the right-wing narrative, touting how NBC went after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries “on his past statements about government shutdowns and Democrats refusing to reopen it.” He concluded with his own fit of huffing: “?If the shutdown continues to drag on, it’ll be worth monitoring whether any degree of scrutiny toward the left would continue or whether NBC and co. would resort to decades-old talking points blaming the right for shutdowns.” Houck didn’t explain how those “talking points” aren’t true.
Steve Malzberg — the right-wing radio host who now fancies himself a “media researcher” — complained that a key right-wing talking point on the shutdown, that Democrats want to give health care to undocumented immigrants, got corrected in real time:
Last Thursday morning, as the government shutdown began it’s second day, House Speaker Mike Johnson was holding a news conference and speaking on various aspects of the issue. But a funny thing happened to Speaker Johnson, and to those watching him on both CNN and MSNBC. He was interrupted, taken away, replaced by, and then “corrected” by the anchors in place at each respective network. Why? To prevent the distribution of “misinformation” by Johnson! I kid you not.
[…]This is so outrageous but certainly not unfamiliar. How many times have these two networks either cut away from a Donald Trump speech or Q & A session? How many times have they not broadcast any of it at all? When have we ever seen CNN or MSNBC cut out of a Joe Biden, or Kamala Harris or Chuck Schumer presser, or cut away from Hakeem Jeffries, or any Democrat, to “prevent misinformation” from being dispersed? When have we seen CNN or MSNBC anchors say, “that’s just not true”, following a claim from a Democrat?
It certainly looks like the instructions were out. For CNN and MSNBC to cut away from Mike Johnson while he was discussing one particular topic, and to have their similar “disclaimers” ready to go seems like more than just a coincidence. What is wasn’t, was journalism.
It certainly looks like Malzberg was following instructions from the Trump Regime Media powers that be to defend Trump’s shutdown no matter what.