With one disaster after another enveloping the Joe Biden and Democrats in 2022, it’s sometimes worth looking back on how it was unraveling exactly one year ago — despite the media’s efforts to protect Biden and his party.
On March 18, 2021, CBS offered pathetic spin for the growing crisis at the border. This Morning co-host Tony Dokoupil delicately contrasted the Trump administration’s border policies (“clear, if morally debatable”) and the Biden administration’s efforts (“a little bit more nuanced”).
Talking to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, offered this charitable contrast:
The prior administration had very clear, if morally debatable, message to families who wanted to come to the border and children. It was do not come. Your message is a little bit more nuanced. For families listening this morning, making a decision about staying where they are which is dangerous and coming to the U.S. border, what do you tell them?
But if you can believe it, this type of hack-y, partisan spin is actually the good old days when it comes to covering the disaster at the border. Because at least this is reporting ABOUT the border. As we’ve reported through NewsBusters studies, the networks eventually just dropped the border completely.
In January, there were 0 minutes and 0 seconds on the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts when it came to the crisis. In December, they did only marginally better: 297 seconds. ABC and CBS allowed less than a minute total, with just 17 seconds on World News Tonight and 20 seconds on the CBS Evening News.
Also one year ago this week: On March 15, 2021, the networks FINALLY bothered to ask Biden about then-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s sexual harassment abuse scandal and how it was spiraling out of control.
Here’s the sum total of the President’s comments on March 15: “I think the investigation is underway, and we should see what it brings us.” Rather than call that a slimy non-answer, Good Morning America reporters allowed a scant eight seconds on Biden in their 43 second total story on Cuomo. Reporter Stephanie Ramos sounded like a Democratic operative: “President Biden asked over the weekend whether Cuomo should resign, and he agreed we should wait to see the investigation's outcome.”
Spoiler alert: Cuomo would resign, thus damaging the national Democratic Party more.
We’ll continue to chart, week by week, how 2021 went badly for Biden and the Democrats — and how the media attempted to cover it up. For more examples from our FLASHBACK series, which we call the NewsBusters Time Machine, go here.
