AP reports that EPA bureaucrat Al Armendariz has resigned after “Republicans targeted him” over his 2010 remarks on videotape comparing the agency’s enforcement strategy to Roman crucifixions. This was a hot story in conservative circles, but what about the liberal media? This resignation didn’t come from their coverage.
The crucifixion remarks – exposed on Wednesday by Sen. Jim Inhofe – drew no coverage on ABC, CBS, NBC, or the PBS NewsHour. NPR had no story on this, but mentioned EPA on Thursday’s Morning Edition on a gasoline blend with more ethanol. MSNBC offered nothing in their prime-time shows (where transcripts are included in Nexis). USA Today had nothing, and The New York Times kept it contained to their Green blog.
CNN touched on the story twice last Thursday – with a brief report on The Situation Room and a full report on John King USA. Candy Crowley played the Armendariz clip on Sunday’s State of the Union in an interview with two governors. The Washington Post had one story – on Saturday’s edition, page A-2.
"It is kind of like how the Romans used to conquer villages in the Mediterranean - they'd go into a little Turkish town somewhere and they'd find the first five guys they saw and they'd crucify them," Armendariz said on the 2010 tape. "Then that little town was really easy to manage for the next few years."
This is now how the networks covered George W. Bush’s EPA. For just one example, about 10 years ago, an EPA official named Eric Schaeffer resigned in protest of Bush policies. That resignation was reported with fervor by ABC, CBS, NBC, and by Brian Williams on MSNBC. Then George Stephanopoulos interviewed him one on one for "This Week."
ABC's Peter Jennings relayed Schaeffer's claims without any rebuttal, announcing on World News Tonight: "In Washington today an important officer at the Environmental Protection Agency resigned in protest. Eric Schaeffer was the EPA's chief regulatory official for 12 years. And he says, 'the Bush administration is destroying the agency's power to enforce the rules that keep corporations from polluting the environment.'"
