Friday afternoon, CNN and MSNBC anchors tried to discount Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) after he tried to get Dr. Fauci to say whether or not protests spread coronavirus, during a congressional hearing today. CNN’s Brianna Keilar and MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell were not amused by Jordan exposing the double standard placed on left-wing protesters vs. churchgoers, and each tried to discredit him in their own way.
Keilar tried to reason away the glaring hypocrisy, suggesting it wasn’t “smart” to go to church and had more “risks” because it was indoors. She then prompted her guest contributor, Dr. Roshini Raj to explain this to the CNN audience:
I mean I think this speaks to one of the toughest conversations about what is smart and what is not as smart when you're talking about protests and you’re talking about church going. Those really seem to be difficult. Of course protests are outside and church is inside. They're both protected. But just explain the difference in risks, as you see it and things that also mitigate risks for both of these activities.
While CNN sanctimoniously lectures about how it isn't "smart" to go to church vs. attend a [liberal] protest, let’s not forget their network has been hostile to churchgoers since the beginning of this pandemic. While Keilar was more subdued in this segment, in May she let her true feelings be known by fuming it was “dangerous” and “political” for President Trump to call churches “essential.”
Not to mention that CNN is selective about when outdoors is actually "safer"; just last week they attacked Christians attending an outdoor worship service in Northern California.
Meanwhile on MSNBC, anchor Andrea Mitchell took a decidedly more annoyed tone at Jordan’s questioning. She was offended at the Republican daring to bring up the left’s and yes, even health officials’ double standard praising protests while condemning church. Like the media’s done all day today, Mitchell whined this was just a “partisan” distraction from Republicans not bowing to Democrats’ demands to extend $600/week “emergency aid” due to the pandemic.
“Here they are fighting over protests versus church!” she grumbled in disgust.
It is not surprising that this was partisan, but the Jim Jordan questioning and some of the other Republicans' questioning of Dr. Fauci and the other public health officials seemed to really, really show just how bad things are in the midst of this pandemic, when they have not approved any agreement on emergency aid, which is expiring tonight, emergency employment comp, we'll get to that a bit later in the program, and here they are fighting over protests versus church!
CNN's anti-religious bias was brought to you by Procter and Gamble. You can tell CNN and MSNBC's advertisers how you feel here.
Read the transcripts below:
Andrea Mitchell Reports
7/31/2020
12:35:08-12:35:36 PM EST
ANDREA MITCHELL: It is not surprising that this was partisan, but the Jim Jordan questioning and some of the other Republicans' questioning of Dr. Fauci and the other public health officials seemed to really, really show just how bad things are in the midst of this pandemic, when they have not approved any agreement on emergency aid, which is expiring tonight, emergency employment comp, we'll get to that a bit later in the program, and here they are fighting over protests versus church!
CNN Newsroom
7/31/2020
2:11:28-2:13:40 pm EST
KEILAR: I mean I think this speaks to one of the toughest conversations about what is smart and what is not as smart when you're talking about protests and you’re talking about church going. Those really seem to be difficult. Of course protests are outside and church is inside. They're both protected. But just explain the difference in risks, as you see it and things that also mitigate risks for both of these activities.
DR. ROSHINI RAJ: Well, I think that honestly, they're both risky. I think anytime you're getting a group of people together, it is a risk. And the protests have the advantage of being outdoors, as you said. But it also involves people potentially yelling and putting out particles in the air, potentially infectious violence particles.
Certainly if they're wearing masks, it's safer than that. And in the church, if its smaller amounts of people, and if you're limiting the number of people, that's better but it's still not wonderful. Again People are singing in church, potentially, talking, you’re getting a mix of a large group of people. And neither of the situations is ideal when it comes to covid. I think Dr. Fauci has done a fantastic job and I think he was trying to avoid getting embroiled into a political puzzle with the question.
But the truth is that States for sure have said we should limit the number of gatherings in terms of people and at one point in New York it was down to a very small number of people, and that would have meant protests were not allowed, But of course there's a political aspect to it. And one of the issues we've had from the beginning in the country is that politics are playing a role, when public health should take precedence over that. So, this issue of is it my right to not wear a mask or wear a mask? All of these things, I think have really slowed us down and hampered the effort to curb the spread of the virus.
KEILAR: Thank you so much for outlining that. I think it's just such an important conversation as Americans. They want to exercise their rights. They want to go to church. Some of them want to protest, and it's so important to have this discussion about the public health aspect of this.
