A month after President Trump had invoked the Defense Production Act calling on General Motors to manufacture ventilators for the coronavirus crisis, the CBS Evening News refused to acknowledge that fact as they praised to automaker on Monday. This came after the newscasts had repeatedly insisted the Trump administration wasn’t doing anything to have desperately needed equipment made here at home. CBS also misled viewers on how the federal government would handle virus testing.
“General Motors announced today they are hiring 1,000 new workers at their plant in Kokomo, Indiana, to help build 30,000 ventilators by August,” anchor Norah O’Donnell announced at the top of her report. “On Sunday’s 60 Minutes we showed you how the automaker has retooled their factories in a wartime-like effort to fight the coronavirus.”
Since O’Donnell mentioned her 60 Minutes piece, a look back at that revealed that she did mention Trump’s use of the Defense Production Act to sign a $500 million deal for 30,000 ventilators. So, she knew about it but didn’t care to mention it on her own newscast, which would have taken mere seconds to say.
The liberal media have been ignoring Trump’s use of the DPA to compel companies to make essential equipment to fight the virus. Trump and the media have been equating that fight to the mobilization of the U.S. war machine to fight World War II. And O’Donnell happened to use that analogy in her report:
O’DONNELL: You know, some have even compared this to the efforts that the automakers made in World War II.
GEORGE VANDENMEYER: I have been through a war that we had. And that's how I feel. I feel like this is wartime and this whole group is coming together and just making sure that, in fact, we're going to get these ventilators done, we’re going to get them out to the people that need them. We have posters all over this place. It says, everything we're doing here is to save another person's life.
In that same vein, CBS has refused to talk about how Trump rallied other companies to make personal protective equipment for health care workers, companies such as Jockey International. Their CEO had joined Trump and other CEOs at a White House press conference in late March. There, the CEO told the story of how their company made parachutes for the U.S. military during WWII and they were answering the call again.
On top of skipping Trump’s role there, O’Donnell repeatedly misled viewers on the President’s announcement regarding the national plan for coronavirus testing.
In her opening monologue, O’Donnell claimed the new administration guidelines “require individual states to find testing supplies and conduct their tests rather than the federal government.” And repeated something similar when they got to the report.
But White House correspondent Weijia Jiang, who has made it abundantly clear she hates the President, admitted: “[T]he administration would give all 50 states enough tests each month to screen two percent of their populations, a rapid response program would isolate people who test positive and trace contacts.”
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CBS Evening News
April 27, 2020
6:44:47 p.m. EasternNORAH O’DONNELL: General Motors announced today they are hiring 1,000 new workers at their plant in Kokomo, Indiana, to help build 30,000 ventilators by August. The move comes as car production here in the U.S. has been shut down and many workers have been furloughed or laid off. On Sunday’s 60 Minutes we showed you how the automaker has retooled their factories in a wartime-like effort to fight the coronavirus. Well tonight, a closer look at the workers who answered the call and made it all happen.
[Cuts to video]
MICHEAL LEE LYNCH: I was on indefinite layoff.
O’DONNELL: Like so many in the auto industry, GM’s Michael Lee Lynch knows what it's like to be out of work.
There's a lot of people hurting throughout that don't have jobs.
LYNCH: Yep. Yeah, there is. I mean, this isn't my first layoff from General Motors, so I know how it feels to not know whether you're going to have another job. So when they made this call and I could come back, it was just wonderful.
O’DONNELL: When GM's Tracy Streeter got the call, he told his wife, who work as a nurse.
TRACY STREETER: I have a 16-year-old son. She’s like, “Trail, your dad is going to make history.”
O’DONNELL: Has your wife ever been so proud of you?
STREETER: She reminds me every day.
O’DONNELL: For Tracy, his new job is personal. His sister was recently hospitalized after a severe asthma attack.
STREETER: She was on the ventilator for a couple weeks, and they were – Basically it was keeping her alive. I'm building the very thing that saved my sister's life. It kind of puts that in a sense and makes it surreal.
O’DONNELL: All the workers we spoke with were driven by one thing, purpose.
BILLY PAGAN: This is probably the greatest thing I have done in the 25 years that I've been working in General Motors.
O’DONNELL: Billy Pagan communicates daily with his 15-year-old daughter via Snapchat.
PAGAN: I think my daughter looks up to me. I know when she sees me doing something like this, that there's a little extra, a little extra pride that she has knowing that I'm doing this.
O’DONNELL: And that sense of pride and purpose is what made putting off retirement for GM's George Vandenmeyer worth it.
You know, some have even compared this to the efforts that the automakers made in World War II.
GEORGE VANDENMEYER: I have been through a war that we had. And that's how I feel. I feel like this is wartime and this whole group is coming together and just making sure that, in fact, we're going to get these ventilators done, we’re going to get them out to the people that need them. We have posters all over this place. It says, everything we're doing here is to save another person's life.
[Cuts back to live]
O’DONNELL: Makes you wonder if we need a resurgence of American manufacturing. Great workers.
