This week in liberal media double standards, ABC, CBS, and NBC spent the weekend and Monday morning defending far-left Congressman Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) after he pulled a fire alarm inside a House office building, delaying a vote to keep the government open. In all but two instances, the “big three” uncritically accepted his excuse that it was an “accident.” If this were a Republican, it’d be a safe bet they’d cover it differently.
With college football airing Saturday on ABC, only CBS Weekend News and NBC Nightly News aired. In both cases, they only relayed what happened and Bowman claimed it was a mistake.
On CBS, correspondent Scott MacFarlane took a timeout from covering the January 6 fallout to play press secretary:
Just ahead of votes as Democrats complained about a rushed process, New York Democrat Jamaal Bowman was accused of pulling a fire alarm in a House Office Building, which House leaders say they’ll investigate. Bowman declined CBS News’s request for an interview and then issued a statement saying he didn’t “realize he would trigger a building alarm as he was rushing to make an urgent vote.”
Over on NBC Nightly News, Capitol Hill correspondent Ryan Nobles boasted that “the last minute passage was not without drama” as “Bowman admitted to pulling a fire alarm in a House office building” and “said it was by accident” even though “Republicans accusing him of doing it on purpose to delay the vote.”
Bowman escaped coverage on the traditional morning news shows on Sunday with nothing on ABC’s Good Morning America (GMA) and NBC’s Sunday Today preempted.
Even though Sunday night saw ABC, CBS, and NBC all have their flagship newscast air, only NBC Nightly News brought Bowman up. Here was Capitol Hill correspondent Julie Tsirkin: “Meanwhile, McCarthy is calling for Congressman Jamaal Bowman to face punishment. Republicans are accusing the New York Democrat of pulling a fire alarm on Capitol Hill to delay the funding vote. Bowman denying it was intentional.”
Tsirkin’s colleague, Garrett Haake picked up the baton and spun for Bowman on Monday’s Today:
HAAKE: Then, as Republicans rushed the bill to the floor, New York Democrat Jamaal Bowman pulled a fire alarm on Capitol Hill, later calling it an “accident.” Republicans accusing him of attempting to delay the vote and calling for punishment.
CONGRESSMAN BRIAN FITZPATRICK (R-PA): It's very dangerous. I don't know what happened.
Thankfully, a few liberal journalists chose to quit merely accepting his lame, totally pathetic excuse.
ABC senior congressional correspondent Rachel Scott wasn’t buying it on Monday’s GMA, noting he pulled something that’s marked “red” and “is clearly labeled with the word ‘fire’” (click “expand”):
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: New This Morning; Congressman Pulls Fire Alarm at Capitol; Claims It Was “Innocent Mistake” as McCarthy Calls for Investigation]
LINSEY DAVIS: And there was a bizarre incident over the weekend. What can you tell us about a congressman pulling a fire alarm in the Capitol?
RACHEL SCOTT: Yeah, this is playing out during one of the most chaotic events over the weekend. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy called a last minute vote. Democrats were trying to delay this. And then, all of a sudden, a fire alarm went off, evacuating a House office building. Congressman Jamaal Bowman, a Democrat, was caught on camera pulling that fire alarm. He says this was an “innocent mistake,” but that’s prompting even more confusion. The fire alarm is red, it is clearly labeled with the word fire. And now, Capitol Hill Police is investigating, Lindsey.
CBS Mornings had a full segment on Bowman as part of its “What to Watch” block and co-host Vladimir Duthiers noted Bowman’s excuse runs counter to “images obtained by Punchbowl News” that “show the exit with a number of signs warning about an alarm sounding if you push on the door clearly labeled ‘emergency use only.’”
“It's the same one we all have in this building, in high school, in elementary school. It says ‘fire.’ ‘Pull in case of’...I like what Republican Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis from New York said, ‘this is the United States Congress, not a New York City high school,’” he added.
Co-host and Democratic donor Gayle King seemed sympathetic to Bowman, but even she conceded it’s “a little difficult” to accept him saying he didn’t think the lever he pulled “was a fire alarm.”
“It says fire...We gotta call it for what it is. You’re a congressman,” Duthiers replied.
King tried to come to his defense, but Duthiers and co-host Nate Burleson still weren’t having it (click “expand”):
KING: I don’t understand, but —
DUTHIERS: You —
KING: — do you think he was trying to delay the vote?
DUTHIERS: Well, the vote was, you know, as we had reported —
KING: That doesn’t make sense to me.
DUTHIERS: — was — they only —
DOKOUPIL: No.
DUTHIERS: — Congress only had an hour or so to read the 72-page document that —
BURLESON: Yeah.
DUTHIERS: — was being voted on.
KING: Yeah.
DUTHIERS: And that's why Hakeem Jeffries spent some 50 minutes —
BURLESON: He did.
DUTHIERS: — on the floor filibustering, right? So, there was a time squeeze that was happening.
DOKOUPIL: He was trying to get across the street fast, and that was his option. That's what it would appear to be to me.
KING: Yeah.
BURLESON: I don’t know. I’ll just say this, come on, Jamaal.
DUTHIERS: I think we all say that.
BURLESON: Come on, Jamaal.
KING: Not a good look, as the kids of today say.
DUTHIERS: That’s right. It’s not.
KING: Gayle, what do the [inaudible] think?
