After avoiding the awkward news from Tuesday that alleged liberal hero Joe Biden is reopening a detention facility for migrant children at the border — what journalists called “kids in cages” during the Trump era — CBS This Morning broke the silence on Wednesday with a scant 55 seconds of coverage. ABC and NBC are still hiding the uncomfortable details.
This Morning’s Vlad Duthiers offered spin and excuses as to why this is now different: “The Biden administration has reopened a Trump-era facility to house migrant teenagers at the border, telling critics it's temporary.... Now up to 700 unaccompanied children between the ages of 13 to 17 will be housed there. The administration says the pandemic forced its reopening.”
After playing a clip of White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki claiming that the kids are “safe,” Duthiers continued, “Our Ed O'Keefe pressed the White House Press Secretary who rejected any criticism that housing teens at the site was like holding kids in cages. Something the Trump administration was accused of. Immigration advocates say these facilities cannot become the norm.”
Duthiers mentioned CBS’s Ed O’Keefe and the fact that his colleague got a question at Tuesday’s briefing. But, of course, the morning show didn’t actually play any of the challenging query. O’Keefe grilled Psaki:
There’s the criticism that was made by candidates Biden and Harris and then there’s the criticism from some of these attorneys now who work with and represent these children who say this isn’t much different than what the Trump administration was doing.
(See a post by the MRC's Curtis Houck for more on that.)
Yet, at least CBS covered this developing story. ABC and NBC are still AWOL. Good Morning America on Wednesday instead offered almost four minutes to promoting the latest movie coming to Disney+. You can watch it on March 4, they told viewers, for the low price of $30. Shilling for ABC’s corporate bosses is fine, but no news that will offend the Democratic White House.
The scant coverage on CBS was sponsored by Walmart and Land Rover. Click on the links to let them know what you think.
A transcript is below. Click “expand” to read more.
CBS This Morning
2/24/2021
7:49 AM ET
VLAD DUTHIERS: So, the Biden administration has reopened a Trump-era facility to house migrant teenagers at the border, telling critics it's temporary. Journalists got a tour of the Texas facility in 2019 before it closed showing clean conditions. Now up to 700 unaccompanied children between the ages of 13 to 17 will be housed there. The administration says the pandemic forced its reopening.
JEN PSAKI: To ensure the health and safety of these kids, HHS took steps to open an emergency facility to add capacity where these children can be provided the care they need while they are safely — before they are safely placed with families and sponsors.
DUTHIERS: Our Ed O'Keefe pressed the White House Press Secretary who rejected any criticism that housing teens at the site was like holding kids in cages. Something the Trump administration was accused of. Immigration advocates say these facilities cannot become the norm.
