Having spent the Winter Olympics alternately freaking out that athletes were asked about politics and also that a U.S.-trained athlete who’s competing for China was not asked about politics, the Media Research Center moved on to a more pedestrian complaint: that the antics of FBI director Kash Patel partying with the U.S. Olympics hockey team was reported. Curtis Houck groused in a Feb. 23 post:
On Monday, ABC’s Good Morning America was surprisingly the only major broadcast network morning newscast to pitch a fit over FBI Director Kash Patel’s attendance at Sunday’s gold medal game in men’s ice hockey at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics and subsequent postgame locker room appearance with the victorious United States over the losers to the north in Canada.
Chief Justice correspondent Pierre Thomas decried this as “causing controversy” and cited the Nancy Guthrie kidnapping and possible military against Iran was reasons he shouldn’t have gone.
“Overnight, FBI Director Kash Patel’s trip to Milan during the winter games causing controversy after he was seen celebrating with Team USA after the American men won their gold medal hockey game. The FBI director, a long time hockey fan, is seen chugging what appears to be beer and yelling, banging his fist in the locker room,” Thomas complained.
Following a snippet of President Trump’s call from Patel’s phone to the victorious locker room, Thomas huffed “[o]ne video shared on social media Patel is seen apparently talking to President Trump about the victory.”
The longtime ABC correspondent said “Patel traveled to Italy using the agency jet funded by the American public,” which was an example of travel “[c]ongressional Democrats have criticized” as Patel using the government jet for “personal outings, including a golf trip to Scotland, and a luxury hunting trip.”
He at least allowed three sentences for Patel’s team explaining the game was part of a broader trip to observe security measures (which, left unsaid, made sense given the next Olympics are the 2028 summer games in Los Angeles):
[…]As has become the case for the leftist Good Morning America, they added their own personal opinions instead of thanking the reporter and moving on.
Here, Robin Roberts huffed: “Mmhmm! Many feel that way.”
Houck didn’t explain how that was a “personal opinion” and not a common-sense observation. Note that Houck didn’t rebut the charges that Patel used a government jet for personal outings.
Less then an hour later, Nicholas Fondacaro continued the grousing in his daily hate-watch of “The View”:
FBI Director Kash Patel raised some eyebrows over the weekend by partying and pounding beers with the U.S.A. Olympics Men’s Hockey Team following their gold medal win over Canada. Of course, this irked the liberal ladies of ABC’s The View. While the Cackling Coven called Patel unserious, during Monday’s show, they argued that the FBI’s time would be better spent preparing for an apparent coming war with Iran and retaking the swaths of Mexico that were captured by a cartel fighters.
“I don’t even know what Kash Patel was doing there,” groaned co-host Ana Navarro. “Honey, you’re not playing.”
While complaining that “the world doesn’t feel settled or stable,” co-host Sara Haines suggested that it was the job of the FBI director to deal with global disorder. Topping the list of what she felt should be Patel’s priorities was somehow dealing with the narco terrorists who launched attacks across Mexico and were battling the Mexican Army; even ahead of domestic cases:
Fondacaro went on to whine that “Moderator Whoopi Goldberg, who was the only cast member not in the studio because of the snow, claimed that other FBI agents told Patel to go to the Olympics because they wanted him out of the office so they could do their jobs in peace and quiet.”
Jorge Bonilla complained about the coverage as well in a Feb. 24 post:
The Elitist Media Evening News continued their long-running freakout over FBI Director Kash Patel’s gold medal detour while in Italy on official FBI business. The time devoted to this collective freakout and whining over alleged resources steered away from fighting crime gave the media cover to completely omit another event devoted to the victims of crimes committed by illegal aliens.
[…]CBS’s Scott MacFarlane followed a similar track: Kash pounded beers with the hockey team, Kash flew the G5, Kash will reimburse personal expenses. Wash, rinse, repeat.
[…]The NBC Nightly News was both more concise and more substantive, despite echoing similar themes. Contrary to his ABC and CBS counterparts, Gabe Gutierrez’ brief somewhat acknowledged the nature of the business end of Patel’s trip to Italy:
[…]All had time for their little Kash Patel freakout. None had a second to spare for The White House’s Angel Mom event, wherein President Trump hosted the loved ones of Americans who died at the hands of criminal illegal aliens- the sorts of deaths that the media grossly underreport unless they are shamed into doing so. Nothing whatsoever on ABC, CBS, NBC, an unfortunate par for the course.
Bonilla didn’t explain why the failure to help Trump politicize tragedies is of equal news value to the FBI director chugging beers with a hockey team.