CBS Goes to Statue of Liberty to Hype Shutdown's 'Ripple Effect'
On Friday's Early Show, CBS's Betty Nguyen used the Statue of Liberty as a live backdrop to play up how "visitors would miss out on the Smithsonian and its 19 museums...even the National Zoo" if the federal budget impasse leads to a government shutdown. Nguyen also highlighted that the "Cherry Blossom Festival...[is] set to wrap up this weekend, but the parade may not march on if the government shuts down."
Fill-in anchor Rebecca Jarvis introduced the correspondent's report, which ran 10 minutes into the 7 am Eastern hour, by outlining that the cost of a shutdown might be $8 billion a week "because there are so many government employees who won't be working, agencies that will shut down, and there are costs to restarting them, including our country's national parks, which is where we find...Betty Nguyen at Liberty State Park, in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, with more on the expected impact at those locations."
Nguyen began with the shutdown's possible effect on the visitors to the monument in New York Harbor and expanded out to what might be the negative effects at all of the national parks, along with the government-funded sights in Washington, DC:
NGUYEN: The Statue of Liberty is just one national monument that would close if the government does shut down. Now, let me put this in perspective for you: 10,000 people visit her every single day- that is 5 million people each year- and she is just one of many of the different national parks in the system. There are 394 national parks across the country. In April, some 800,000 visitors will spend $32 million a day at these parks. Now, that's money that would be lost from local economies across the country. Even more bad news: nearly 20,000 park employees would be sent home.
Now, out west, one major attraction that would be affected is Yellowstone National Park. It's a popular destination for campers who might have to pitch their tents elsewhere, if the government shuts down. Another big attraction: Washington, DC- visitors would miss out on the Smithsonian and its 19 museums, galleries, even the National Zoo. Also in DC, the Cherry Blossom Festival- that's set to wrap up this weekend, but the parade may not march on if the government shuts down. Now, along with government employees that would be furloughed, some 15,000 people, who work around these national monuments and parks- in the hotels, the restaurants, the gift shops- they would be deeply affected if the government does shut down.
After the end of the report, Jarvis added, "There's a ripple effect on all of these things." Anchor Chris Wragge replied, "Yeah, without a doubt, and we wait and see what happens."
Nguyen's report lines up nicely with the mainstream media's playbook from the 1995 shutdown. The MRC's Geoffrey Dickens noted on Thursday that this kind of coverage is a rerun of the cliches that the liberal media ran 15 years ago.
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Comments
doh...President Obama cancels family weekend
Submitted by vrwc13 on Fri, 04/08/2011 - 4:27pm.
"President Obama cancels family weekend in Williamsburg, Virginia, and will stay in D.C. due to budget crisis" - CNN
...probably thought it was a National Park that could be closed!
v
The burden of life is from ourselves, its lightness from the grace of Christ and the love of God. - William Bernard Ullanthorne
I bet Obama realized most
Submitted by Free Stinker on Fri, 04/08/2011 - 4:40pm.
I bet Obama realized most Ameticans blame him for the shutdown.
/// Sarah Palin Fan since July 11, 2007 /// خال
Yeah...but Rove said today
Submitted by vrwc13 on Fri, 04/08/2011 - 4:46pm.
Yeah...but Rove said today that this could actually help the man in the Whitehouse re-election bid!
Let's hope Trump et al get to him first...
btw: too bad for the family though, what's it been two weeks since the last vacation?
v
The burden of life is from ourselves, its lightness from the grace of Christ and the love of God. - William Bernard Ullanthorne
Vacation
Submitted by Model850 on Fri, 04/08/2011 - 5:06pm.
This morning the local paper (Norfolk VA area) had a story about the planned trip. A comment on the story at the paper's web site said, "The President has the toughest job in the world. There is nothing wrong with him taking a vacation."
Rove? I'm not going to
Submitted by Free Stinker on Fri, 04/08/2011 - 9:03pm.
Rove? I'm not going to listen to the guy who told Bush-43 to expand Medicare . . . or to never veto a congressional spending bill . . .
/// Sarah Palin Fan since July 11, 2007 /// خال
"And they will begin dismantling Lady Liberty tonight"
Submitted by SickofLibs on Fri, 04/08/2011 - 4:34pm.
That would be the LEAST outrageous claim I've heard in the last few days.
Why is it
Submitted by Tugboat Phil on Fri, 04/08/2011 - 4:46pm.
that if a union wants to get something, shutting down a business is a great thing to libs? If a political party wants to shut down government, it's the worst catastrophe ever!
wow
Submitted by donabernathy on Fri, 04/08/2011 - 4:52pm.
"visitors would miss out on the Smithsonian and its 19 museums...even the National Zoo"
3.6 Trillion Dollars, sure don't buy much...nowadays
roflmao
Damn,...
Submitted by BBallleaper on Fri, 04/08/2011 - 4:56pm.
the one day in 20 years I was going to visit the SoL and those mean, angry, gun-clutching, extremist Christian GOP'ers shut it down. Oh well, at least the local nudie bar is still open. See ya later...................
I can't believe you said that on this site!
Submitted by paragrouper on Fri, 04/08/2011 - 6:33pm.
Now the place will be packed!
Say What?
Submitted by Ashrak on Fri, 04/08/2011 - 5:42pm.
Only in a leftists mind does shutting down cost more money.
Might it mean less money is collected? Well sure. But collecting less is not the same spending more. This is that idiocy of tax cuts equal spending. Bologna.
Why would people have to "pitch their tents elsewhere"? Simply because there is no one there from government to take their money away? Nothing like holding taxpayers land hostage to extortion payments, huh?
An economy dependent upon government is certainly no free economy at all, it is just a government allowance.
I am hoping deeply that a shutdown occurs and I hope it lasts a while. Folks can then see just how much government claims as its own (when those things are supposed to belong to all of us) and how we don;t really "need" the vast majority of it and life goes on just fine without it. Isn't it the progressives who always talk about "need"?
Democrats are scared out of their wits that government is about to get shut down based on the fact that THEY didn't pass a budget when THEY held majority in the House Senate and the White House. Democrats are desperate and John Boehner better stand tall and the Planned Parenthood had better be done with tax dollar funding PERIOD. Reid can suck eggs because PP is an abortion provider first and foremast and there is no justification for taxpayers footing a bill for that. None whatsoever.
One thing is for sure, media can play its game all it wants to. It did in the run up to the 2010 election and they, along with their progressive compatriots LOST anyway. So too will they again.
no parade... and this affects my life how exactly??
Submitted by wizardjr on Fri, 04/08/2011 - 5:48pm.
I've heard several people whining about this. Big deal. Not.
Then there's the folks whining about not being able to visit some of the DC monuments on a vacation they've "planned for years", etc. Well there's tons of other things to see on the East Coast/DC area that won't be closed. Grow up. Adapt. Overcome.
A few other people will be inconvenienced by a shut down. No passports processed, but that usually affects the terminally lazy that leave things to the last minute. The bottom line is that this is entirely on the Demoncrats and Obumbles. THIS budget was required to be passed last year already. Personally I think everyone in the majority last session should be jailed for felony failure to exectue their Constitutional duty to pass a budget.
Boo the hell hoo. They are
Submitted by ricklail on Fri, 04/08/2011 - 6:42pm.
Boo the hell hoo. They are not going to stop the Masters and that is all that matters as far as entertainment goes this weekend. Most kids are in school anyway. How can mom and dad take a trip to Jellystone? They are not going to shut down the Smokies or the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Hatteras Seashore will be open. I think the Cape Hatteras light house is closed as far as going to the top. So how does that matter?