Americans across the country were hurting and desperate to support their families as the coronavirus crisis had caused many states to shut down their economies to stop the spread. With protests breaking out in state capitals, NBC Nightly News made it clear the media elite didn’t care. Anchor Lester Holt even started the show by claiming the “drumbeat to reopen the economy is landing with a dull thud” and pitted protesters in Michigan against an E.R. nurse from New York City.
Holt set the tone for the report right from the beginning. “As the number of COVID deaths surged to at least 32,000 in this country, that drumbeat to reopen the economy is landing with a dull thud in regions still seeing their deadly days,” he chided. “Daily deaths in New York still routinely hovering above 700 and where there is not enough testing capacity to safely ease restrictions.”
Correspondent Gabe Gutierrez kicked off his report by highlighting protesters in Michigan who gathered in Lansing. And despite Holt claiming they were just a “dull thud,” Gutierrez noted that “the calls to reopen parts of the nation's economy are growing louder.” Adding: “Protesters at the Michigan state capitol blasted the governor's straight stay-at-home order…”
While he did show a soundbite of a Michigan woman calling the mass unemployment a “disaster,” Gutierrez chided how “President Trump is now suggesting some states might start reopening before May 1,” by citing New York’s growing death toll.
Twistedly, Gutierrez then pitted a distraught New York City emergency room nurse against those desperate to support their families. “Michael Merit is an E.R. nurse in New York whose patient died within an hour of getting to the hospital,” he reported. “He has this message for those who want the country to reopen,” he added. Here’s that message against reopening:
MERIT: I'm sorry for people that's suffering from unemployment, but I'm seeing so much pain and sadness and sickness every single day. I don't understand why they would even consider it. Not until we're in the clear.
In a follow-up report, correspondent Blayne Alexander threw South Dakotans into the fray, because that’s “where some residents are desperate for an order to stay at home.”
She went on to lament that “South Dakota is among only a hand full of states with no statewide mandate to shelter in place, despite the fact COVID-19 cases have tripled in just one week, more than half traced to this one plant. The Smithfield Foods pork processing facility.” Alexander would later note that the governor said the plant wouldn’t have closed because it was an essential business since it dealt with food production.
NBC didn’t need to divide Americans and pit them against each other like that. The unemployed protesters and the nurse were desperate and doing what they could to help people get through the crisis. And to just brush aside those hurting economically because of government, as Holt did, was disgusting.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
NBC Nightly News
April 15, 2020
7:01:43 p.m. EasternLESTER HOLT: Good evening. As the number of COVID deaths surged to at least 32,000 in this country, that drumbeat to reopen the economy is landing with a dull thud in regions still seeing their deadly days. Daily deaths in New York still routinely hovering above 700 and where there is not enough testing capacity to safely ease restrictions. All, as the new crisis grows around the country, hunger. Our correspondents have it all covered, first Gabe Gutierrez.
[Cuts to video]
GABE GUTIERREZ: Tonight, the calls to reopen parts of the nation's economy are growing louder. Protesters at the Michigan state capitol blasted the governor's straight stay-at-home order, which, among other things, even restricts interstate travel.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Putting all of these workers out of business is just – it’s a disaster.
GUTIERREZ: President Trump is now suggesting some states might start reopening before May 1st.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We have beautiful pieces, beautiful states with capable governors. They know when it's time to open.
GUTIERREZ: But in the northeast, the crisis is far from over. COVID-19 took 752 lives in New York State and those are only the confirmed cases. Still, ICU admissions and intubation are down again.
(…)
MICHAEL MERIT: It’s so hard.
GUTIERREZ: Michael Merit is an E.R. nurse in New York whose patient died within an hour of getting to the hospital.
MERIT: I FaceTimed the family while the man was dying so they could be with him.
GUTIERREZ: He has this message for those who want the country to reopen.
MERIT: I'm sorry for people that's suffering from unemployment, but I'm seeing so much pain and sadness and sickness every single day. I don't understand why they would even consider it. Not until we're in the clear.
(…)
7:04:30 p.m. Eastern
BLAYNE ALEXANDER: I'm Blayne Alexander in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where some residents are desperate for an order to stay at home.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: They want to keep their family and community safe.
ALEXANDER: South Dakota is among only a hand full of states with no statewide mandate to shelter in place, despite the fact COVID-19 cases have tripled in just one week, more than half traced to this one plant. The Smithfield Foods pork processing facility. Governor Kristi Noem says a statewide order would not have stopped the virus because the plant is an essential business.
GOVERNOR KRISTI NOEM: This plant is incredibly important to our food supply and this country.
(…)
