Terrorists target America's shopping malls, but the nation is defenseless thanks to partisan Republicans shutting down the Department of Homeland Security. That's the ominous picture the three major networks painted this week. Instead of offering balanced coverage of a fight that tied DHS funding and Republican opposition to Barack Obama's executive order amnesty, ABC, NBC and CBS hyped the threat of an endangered United States.
An analysis of the morning and evening news programs from Monday, February 23 to the morning of February 26 found reporting skewed heavily towards hyperbolic, scary language. Out of 11 segments, network news viewers never heard a single word of criticism of President Obama's executive amnesty order that precipitated the conflict. Instead, ABC, NBC and CBS repeatedly trumpeted the White House spin that even a temporary "shutdown" would have dire consequences for national security.
Of the segments that included analysis of the fight, either with talking heads or by journalists, 15 examples promoted White House spin. Only two instances suggested that the warnings could be overblown. (One segment offered a mixed interpretation.)
Representative of the tone was Nightly News anchor Lest Holt fretting on February 23: "As malls step up security based on these new threats, believe it or not at the very same time, there's a big fight erupting in Washington over the money to fund Homeland Security."
Good Morning America co-host George Stephanopoulos wondered on the same day: "This is the department charged with protecting our borders, preventing attacks. What happens if Congress cuts off funding?"
Touting the White House's talking points, Today news reader Natalie Morales on February 24 suggested, "If funding runs out, the President warns it will have, in his words, 'a direct impact on America's national security.'"
CBS This Morning featured Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar to hyperventilate: "Our message to these terrorists cannot be that we are going to shut down the department of Homeland Security. That cannot be the message coming from the Senate."
In case that was too subtle, Nancy Cordes immediately underlined, "The urgency increased over the weekend when news broke about terrorists potentially targeting shopping malls."
On September 30, 2013, during the last shutdown, the Washington Post explained why such panic is unwarranted:
There are a whole bunch of key government functions that carry on during a shutdown, including anything related to national security, public safety, or programs written into permanent law (like Social Security). Here's a partial list:
-- Any employee or office that "provides for the national security, including the conduct of foreign relations essential to the national security or the safety of life and property." That means the U.S. military will keep operating, for one. So will embassies abroad.
-- Any employee who conducts "essential activities to the extent that they protect life and property." So, for example: Air traffic control stays open. So does all emergency medical care, border patrol, federal prisons, most law enforcement, emergency and disaster assistance, overseeing the banking system, operating the power grid, and guarding federal property.
The Post's Brad Plumer noted:
Department of Homeland Security: 14 percent of the 231,117 employees would go home. (Border Patrol would stay. Operations of E-Verify would cease. The department will also suspend disaster-preparedness grants to states and localities.)
So, 85-86 percent of DHS would not shut down. CBS journalists never mentioned this statistic in their reporting.
From Monday through Thursday morning, the networks offered 11 segments on the funding battle. NBC devoted the most time: Six stories with a total of five minutes and 40 seconds of coverage. CBS followed with two segments and two minutes and 45 seconds. ABC managed three segments with a total of one minute and 53 seconds.
The networks included two vague examples of opposition to the spin from the White House and congressional Democrats. Today reporter Peter Alexander on Tuesday suggested, "The President's critics insist the White House is overstating the threat to national security to try to put pressure on Congress."
On the February 23 NBC Nightly News, Chris Jansing sounded a similar theme: "Now, critics charge the White House is overstating the threat to national security just to put pressure on Congress."
Even when Republicans appeared, such as Senator Lindsey Graham on the February 23 CBS This Morning, it was to bash the position of the GOP: Graham insisted that the "worst thing to do" is "add gasoline to the fire by having the Republican Party defund the Department of Homeland Security."
NBC's Alexander on Tuesday related that "Republicans [are] fearing they'll get blamed" for a shutdown of DHS. With journalists overwhelmingly backing up the talking points of Obama and his Democrats in Congress, it's not hard to see why Republicans might cave in this fight.
