During the first year of a new administration, a prominent elected official switches his political affiliation to the party that just came into power. The national media hail the news and warn the politician’s former party that it has become too extreme and out of touch with country. That was the scene in 2009, when Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter abandoned the Republican Party and became a Democrat in a desperate attempt to win a tough reelection fight.
However, on Thursday, when West Virginia Governor Jim Justice announced he was leaving the Democratic Party in favor of the GOP, the liberal media couldn’t be bothered to cover the stunning political news. The NBC and ABC evening newscasts completely ignored the story, while CBS Evening News only offered a pathetic 13 seconds of air time.
On Friday morning, things weren’t much better. The most CBS This Morning could manage was a 14-second clip during its “Eye Opener” segment of Fox News reporting on Governor Justice’s switch. NBC finally noticed the story, with correspondent Kristen Welker even calling it “a big victory for the GOP” during a report on the Today show. However, that “big victory” for Republicans was only worth a mere 22-second mention.
Amazingly, ABC News has not said one word about Justice becoming a Republican.
Contrast such paltry network coverage of the Democrats losing a moderate member of their own party to how the media hyped Senator Specter’s departure from the GOP in 2009 as a devastating political blow worthy of multiple full reports and analyses.
When the news broke on April 28 that year, the networks went wild. On CBS Evening News, Chip Reid touted that Specter “says he’s leaving the Republican Party because the Republican Party left him” and “blames the party’s increasingly conservative tilt.” On NBC Nightly News, correspondent Kelly O’Donnell fretted over Specter “facing a much more conservative challenger” in a Senate primary and “that voters who tend to turn out in the primaries tend to be on the fringe of the party, not a moderate Republican like he is.” On ABC’s World News, Jonathan Karl declared: “Specter said he had been driven out by the right-wing of the Republican Party.”
The coverage didn’t end there, the following morning on NBC’s Today, Chuck Todd proclaimed that Specter’s move was “devastating” for Republicans and questioned “what it says about the future of the GOP.” Days later, ABC’s World News Saturday and CBS Evening News used polling to blame Specter’s switch on the GOP’s social conservative agenda.
By the way, the same liberal talking points were employed by the press in 2001 when liberal Republican Senator Jim Jeffords left the Republican to become a Democrat.
The question now is, where are all the network stories about the Democrats moving too far to left and forcing moderates like Justice to jump ship? Where are the panel discussions analyzing how bad things have become for the party and demanding that it abandon extreme positions on a host of issues?
The silence is deafening and the double standard is glaring.
Here are transcripts of the August 4 “coverage” on the NBC and CBS morning shows:
Today
7:05 AM ET(...)
KRISTEN WELKER: This morning the President trying to keep the focus away from Russia and on his agenda, tweeting this morning, “West Virginia was incredible last night. Crowds and enthusiasm were beyond, GDP at 3%, wow! Dem governor became a Republican last night. That a reference to Governor Jim Justice switching his affiliation from the Democrat to Republican Party, a big victory for the GOP.
(...)
CBS This Morning
7:02 AM ET(...)
DANA PERINO [FOX NEWS]: Democratic Governor Jim Justice decided, “I’ve got to get on the Trump train,” became a Republican.
GOV. JIM JUSTICE [R-WV]: You know what else is unbelievable? This man now has a chief of staff that all of us can pronounce his first name.
(...)
