Thursday's NBC Nightly News gave viewers a taste of the kind of disinformation they planned to gaslight the public with during a Biden administration. While a CNBC report published Wednesday documented how Biden COVID advisor Dr. Michael Osterholm (not a real doctor) was advocating for a nationwide lockdown for at least a month, NBC News frantically told viewers that he was not for such a thing.
Inadvertently popping a hole in NBC’s lies, the CBS Evening News called like it was and seemingly touted it themselves.
From CNBC’s reporting (since updated with his backtracking), it was clear that what Osterholm was telling Yahoo Finance was an avocation for a national lockdown lasting between four to six weeks (click "expand"):
"We could pay for a package right now to cover all of the wages, lost wages for individual workers, for losses to small companies, to medium-sized companies or city, state, county governments. We could do all of that," he said. "If we did that, then we could lock down for four to six weeks."
(…)
"The problem with the March-to-May lockdown was that it was not uniformly stringent across the country. For example, Minnesota deemed 78 percent of its workers essential," they wrote in The New York Times. "To be effective, the lockdown has to be as comprehensive and strict as possible."
On Wednesday, Osterholm said such a lockdown would help the country bring the virus under control, "like they did in New Zealand and Australia."
But NBC White House correspondent Kristen Welker selectively edited what she wanted viewers to hear from President-Elect Biden’s advisor. “We could pay for a package right now to cover the -- all of the wages, lost wages for individual workers. [Transition] If we did that then we could lockdown for four to six weeks,” he said in the soundbite NBC ripped from Yahoo.
“Dr. Michael Osterholm tells NBC News he was talking about a past article and was not advocating for a nationwide shutdown,” Welker reported. “Osterholm adding: ‘It was not a recommendation. I have never made this recommendation to Biden's group. We've never talked about it.’” She failed to inform viewers that he was one of the co-authors of the article.
But there was another important bit of context missing from Welker’s soundbite (just compare it with the CNBC report) that CBS correspondent David Begnaud included in his report.
“Dr. Michael Osterholm, a member of President-Elect Biden's COVID-19 task force is recommending a nationwide lockdown,” he announced before playing this soundbite: “And we could lockdown for four to six weeks, and if we did that, we could drive the numbers down, like they've done in Asia, like they did in New Zealand and Australia.”
Note how the CBS soundbite picked up where NBC’s cut off. That’s the important missing context.
And as evidence of CBS picking up what Osterholm was putting down, Begnaud immediately huffed: “Some people are just not getting the message, or they're ignoring it. Today, what is being described as the nation's largest indoor water park opened in Austin, Texas.”
On top of this disinformation, none of the broadcast networks (ABC included) have reported how the head of Biden’s COVID task force wanted to withhold the vaccine from Americans and give it to the world first, effectively putting America last.
NBC disinformation against the push for a national lockdown from a Biden advisor was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Pacific Life and Dove. Their contact information is linked so you can tell them about the biased news they’re funding.
The transcripts are below, click "expand" to read:
CBS Evening News
November 12, 2020
6:35:20 p.m. Eastern(…)
DAVID BEGNAUD: Dr. Michael Osterholm, a member of President-Elect Biden's COVID-19 task force is recommending a nationwide lockdown.
DR. MICHAEL OSTERHOLM: And we could lock down for four to six weeks, and if we did that, we could drive the numbers down, like they've done in Asia, like they did in New Zealand and Australia.
BEGNAUD: Some people are just not getting the message, or they're ignoring it. Today, what is being described as the nation's largest indoor water park opened in Austin, Texas.
(…)
NBC Nightly News
November 12, 2020
7:07:57 p.m. Eastern(…)
KRISTEN WELKER: Meanwhile, one of Biden's top COVID advisers is speaking out after saying this.
DR. MICHAEL OSTERHOLM: We could pay for a package right now to cover the -- all of the wages, lost wages for individual workers. [Transition] If we did that then we could lockdown for four to six weeks.
WELKER: Dr. Michael Osterholm tells NBC News he was talking about a past article and was not advocating for a nationwide shutdown. Osterholm adding: “It was not a recommendation. I have never made this recommendation to Biden's group. We've never talked about it.”
(…)
