As the election looms and the media burrows deeper into the bag for the Democratic presidential ticket, the online headlines at PBS News Hour are getting sharper and more partisan, like this one to accompany a Wednesday evening segment by the show’s most partisan reporter, Laura Barron-Lopez: “Harris kicks off Georgia tour as Trump posts grievances on social media.”
The contrast was sharp from the start.
Co-anchor Geoff Bennett: Vice President Kamala Harris launched a two-day swing through Georgia today. It's her seventh trip to the state this year, and it ends with a rally in Savannah.
Co-anchor Amna Nawaz: Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump spent the past 24 hours posting across social media platforms, including various grievances and conspiracy theories.
Laura Barron-Lopez tracked Harris and Walz on the trail, including a Walz clip claiming Republicans don’t like freedom anymore.
Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), Vice Presidential Candidate: ….they want government to have the freedom to invade every corner of your life, from our union halls to our kids' schools, even our doctor's office.
A balanced report could have interjected that “freedom” Democrats enforced draconian COVID edicts, including making vaccines mandatory for college students or in certain lines of work – that’s hardly “keeping the government out of your doctor’s office.” Needless to say, that’s not what we got from Barron-Lopez.
Then Barron-Lopez, the paper’s White House correspondent (who may not have much to do in that capacity these days, considering the White House’s reclusive current occupant) let a phony accusation against Trump from the Harris-Walz team stand unchallenged.
Barron-Lopez: Harris and Walz have blasted Donald Trump for the Project 2025 agenda crafted by the former president's allies.
Walz: Donald Trump trying to hide from that Project 2025 plan. They're going to use it.
Barron-Lopez: In a new campaign ad targeting battleground states and Trump's home market in Palm Beach, Harris doubled down.
Campaign ad narrator: Donald Trump may try to deny it, but those are Donald Trump's plans.
But as PBS knows but didn’t say, Trump has emphatically rejected the conservative policy proposals in the large document from the Heritage Foundation think tank, even calling some of its ideas “abysmal.” The reporter strolled past that fact.
In contrast, Barron-Lopez was hypersensitive to Trump’s own campaign rhetoric and solemnly forwarded another tax-funded outlet's hostile reporting on Trump's Arlington National Cemetery controversy.
Barron-Lopez: Tuesday evening, Trump ranted on TRUTH Social that his own Justice Department appointees rigged the 2020 election against him. On Monday, Trump attended a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, an event which spiraled into controversy after NPR reported Trump's campaign staff had an altercation with cemetery officials over photographer access. NPR reporter Quil Lawrence broke the news of the incident.
Quil Lawrence, National Public Radio: ….an official from Arlington National Cemetery approached them to say, no, you can't bring a videographer or photographer into Section 60. And that person was verbally abused and pushed aside.
Barron-Lopez: In a statement, Arlington National Cemetery said it "can confirm there was an incident and a report was filed. Federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military cemetery." Trump's team denied the characterization of the incident. But Lawrence said the rules are in place for a reason.
Lawrence: In one of the photos that's widely circulating and being used by the Trump campaign, former President Trump is with family members of a fallen soldier. But to the left and the right of that soldier's grave, you can see two other tombstones. And it seems fairly clear that neither of those families has given consent for the Trump campaign to use these photographs. And that's incredibly painful for these families. And many of them are still grieving the loss of their loved one.
Barron-Lopez didn’t mention that Trump was there at the request of the Gold Star families. She didn’t mention their presence at all. NewsBusters’ Tim Graham wrote about Quil Lawrence’s spin.
PBS won’t give up the story, X’ing on Thursday an Associated Press link thusly: "An Arlington National Cemetery official was “abruptly pushed aside” in an altercation with former President Trump’s staff during a wreath-laying ceremony to honor service members killed in the Afghanistan War withdrawal….”
This segment was brought to you in part by Consumer Cellular.
A transcript is available:
PBS News Hour
8/28/24
7:16:35 p.m. (ET)
Geoff Bennett: Vice President Kamala Harris launched a two-day swing through Georgia today. It's her seventh trip to the state this year, and it ends with a rally in Savannah.
Amna Nawaz: Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump spent the past 24 hours posting across social media platforms, including various grievances and conspiracy theories. Laura Barron-Lopez reports.
Laura Barron-Lopez: In their first joint visit to Georgia, Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Governor Tim Walz, embarked on a bus tour through the Peach State. The goal, hold on to the battleground state that Biden narrowly won in 2020.
Before joining Harris in Georgia, Walz spoke to the International Association of Firefighters in Boston.
Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), Vice Presidential Candidate: When Republicans used to talk about freedom, they meant it. They meant it. Not anymore. These guys over there, they want government to have the freedom to invade every corner of your life, from our union halls to our kids' schools, even our doctor's office.
Laura Barron-Lopez: Harris and Walz have blasted Donald Trump for the Project 2025 agenda crafted by the former president's allies.
Gov. Tim Walz: Donald Trump trying to hide from that Project 2025 plan. They're going to use it.
Laura Barron-Lopez: In a new campaign ad targeting battleground states and Trump's home market in Palm Beach, Harris doubled down.
Narrator: Donald Trump may try to deny it, but those are Donald Trump's plans.
Donald Trump, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: Well, revenge does take time, I will say that. And, sometimes, revenge can be justified.
….
Laura Barron-Lopez: Trump himself has largely limited his campaigning to friendly interviews. In a conversation with TV personality Dr. Phil McGraw, he again lied about the 2020 election results.
Donald Trump: I look at California. I gave a speech. I had so — I had a crowd so big. I said there's no way I could lose California, but automatically they mark it down if you're a Republican as a loss, that you lose by five million votes. I said, five million votes? I guarantee, if Jesus came down and was the vote counter, I would win California, OK?
Laura Barron-Lopez: Tuesday evening, Trump ranted on TRUTH Social that his own Justice Department appointees rigged the 2020 election against him.
On Monday, Trump attended a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, an event which spiraled into controversy after NPR reported Trump's campaign staff had an altercation with cemetery officials over photographer access.
NPR reporter Quil Lawrence broke the news of the incident.
Quil Lawrence, National Public Radio: Well in advance of the visit, they had been told that there would not be allowed to bring a personal outside photographer to Section 60, which is where most of the Iraq and Afghanistan casualties are buried.
And when they arrived, an official from Arlington National Cemetery approached them to say, no, you can't bring a videographer or photographer into Section 60. And that person was verbally abused and pushed aside.
Laura Barron-Lopez: In a statement, Arlington National Cemetery said it "can confirm there was an incident and a report was filed. Federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army national military cemetery." Trump's team denied the characterization of the incident. But Lawrence said the rules are in place for a reason.
Quil Lawrence: In one of the photos that's widely circulating and being used by the Trump campaign, former President Trump is with family members of a fallen soldier. But to the left and the right of that soldier's grave, you can see two other tombstones. And it seems fairly clear that neither of those families has given consent for the Trump campaign to use these photographs. And that's incredibly painful for these families. And many of them are still grieving the loss of their loved one.
