Wednesday marked the third day this week that NBC Nightly News had refused to call the record illegal border crossings a “crisis,” as apprehensions of unaccompanied minors flooded President Biden’s cages for children. The network essentially went to bat for the Biden administration as they promoted Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s ridiculous congressional testimony declaring there was no crisis at the southern border.
As NewsBusters reported on Tuesday, NBC anchor Lester Holt was straining himself to near harmful limits as he tried to avoid calling it a “crisis.” “The migrant surge at the southern border proving to be an early test for the new administration's immigration policies, and leaving President Biden wide open for criticism,” he said. “Authorities on pace to encounter more border crossers than in the last 20 years.”
It was almost an encore on Wednesday as Holt teased the immigration segment. “On the southern border, another round of migrants illegally crossing into the U.S. as the Homeland Security chief is grilled by Congress. Why he's refusing to call the record border surge a crisis,” he announced.
When they finally got around to the immigration segment, Holt and White House correspondent Peter Alexander tried to prop up Biden’s weak plea for migrants not to come to the U.S. yet, even bemoaning their defiance of the President:
HOLT: All right, we’re back now with the thousands of migrant children detained at the border. And today even more entered the U.S. despite President Biden's message, “do not come.” Peter Alexander is at the White House.
(…)
ALEXANDER: They're coming despite President Biden's urgent message to stay home.
“The President speaking to ABC News, rejecting criticism that his reversal of several Trump-era immigration policies is to blame for the recent surge,” Alexander added.
From there, he boosted “The head of Homeland Security today pushing back against calling it a crisis,” and highlighted Mayorkas going at it with Republican lawmakers:
CONGRESSMAN JOHN KATKO (R-NY): President Biden wasted no time. In fact, one of his first acts was to pull out his pen and unravel our border security.
CONGRESSMAN JEFF VAN DREW (R-NJ): Mr. Secretary, don't tell me this isn't a crisis. It is.
(…)
MAYORKAS: I will share with you how I define a crisis. A crisis is when a nation is willing to rip a 9-year-old child out of the hands of his or her parent and separate that family to deter future migration.
This was the direction NBC was going on Wednesday despite how they reported about children crying almost non-stop and going unwashed for days on Tuesday.
How was that not a sign of a crisis?
And to prove how ridiculous their reporting was for the segment, after the video portion, Holt prompted Alexander to speak about tax day getting pushed back a month.
All of this was an obvious editorial decision in regards to what they wanted viewers to see on TV. We know this because we saw Alexander grill White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki about the border crisis during the press briefing earlier in the day. But none of that was included in the report.
NBC’s refusal to admit what the reality was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Prevagen and United Healthcare. Their contact information is linked so you can tell them about the biased new they fund.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
NBC Nightly News
March 17, 2021
7:01:02 p.m. Eastern [Opening tease]LESTER HOLT: On the southern border, another round of migrants illegally crossing into the U.S. as the Homeland Security chief is grilled by Congress. Why he's refusing to call the record border surge a crisis.
(…)
7:09:29 p.m. Eastern
HOLT: All right, we’re back now with the thousands of migrant children detained at the border. And today even more entered the U.S. despite President Biden's message, “do not come.” Peter Alexander is at the White House.
[Cuts to video]
PETER ALEXANDER: Along the Texas border today, another round of migrants illegally entering the U.S. This woman cradling her baby. Many at the end of a dangerous journey include Nelson from Honduras, who our Telemundo colleagues met at the border crossing, his hands shaking.
(…)
ALEXANDER: They're coming despite President Biden's urgent message to stay home.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Don't leave your town or city or community.
ALEXANDER: The President speaking to ABC News, rejecting criticism that his reversal of several Trump-era immigration policies is to blame for the recent surge.
BIDEN: The idea that Joe Biden said come because -- I heard the other day that they're coming because they know I'm a nice guy and I won't do what Trump did.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: They're saying this?
BIDEN: Yeah. Well, here's the deal. They're not.
ALEXANDER: The Biden administration sending back migrants and families, but allowing unaccompanied minors on humanitarian grounds to stay while they seek asylum. With more than 4,000 now being detained.
REP. JOHN KATKO (R-NY): President Biden wasted no time. In fact, one of his first acts was to pull out his pen and unravel our border security.
REP. JEFF VAN DREW (R-NJ): Mr. Secretary, don't tell me this isn't a crisis. It is.
ALEXANDER: The head of Homeland Security today pushing back against calling it a crisis.
ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS (DHS Secretary): I will share with you how I define a crisis. A crisis is when a nation is willing to rip a 9-year-old child out of the hands of his or her parent and separate that family to deter future migration.
ALEXANDER: The administration now scrambling to accommodate the record influx of minors with plans to temporarily house up to 3,000 teenage boys in this Dallas convention center. And immigration lawyers telling NBC News that some migrant families are choosing to send their children alone as their best chance to remain in the U.S.
[Cuts back to live]
HOLT: And Peter, separate of all this we understand there's word that the tax filing deadline is being pushed back. What can you tell us about that?
(…)
