On November 19, New York City-based CBS News joined the ranks of parents made irate by Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio abruptly shutting down the public school system with no notice. It’s understandable many CBS employees were likely harmed by the chaos it caused to their daily lives. But after de Blasio reversed course over the weekend, CBS spent part of Monday’s Evening News railing against Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis for not shutting down all public schools in the state.
It was CBS correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti who shared the network’s displeasure with DeSantis:
VIGLIOTTI: In Florida, schools will remain open despite concerns from teachers. The state's governor not mincing words.
DESANTIS: People who advocate closing schools for virus mitigation are effectively today’s flat-earthers.
Now contrast that with how anchor Norah O’Donnell sided with upset New York City parents protesting the decision. “Today, thousands of parents of New York City schoolchildren sent a petition to the city's mayor and the state's governor demanding that the nation's largest school system reopen immediately for in-person learning,” she said.
O’Donnell used to be up in New York when she co-anchored This Morning. She has since moved to the Washington, DC area after taking over Evening News, but she likely still has friends in New York City.
“There was anger on the steps of New York City Hall, parents demanding schools reopen for in-person learning. The shutdown sent parents of some 300,000 students scrambling Wednesday night,” added correspondent Meg Oliver, who spoke with a mother and pharmacist who wasn’t ready to convert to remote learning. She also noted that “about 60,000 students don't have devices for remote learning.”
Oliver actually spoke with a doctor who told viewers that it was safe to have kids in school:
OLIVER: Is it safe to send students back to school in New York City?
DR. UCHE BLACKSTOCK: I do think right now it is safe. They're going back in smaller cohorts. They're wearing masks, as are the teachers.
CBS’s Monday report with Vigliotti came a day after Dr. Anthony Fauci of the Coronavirus Task Force told ABC’s This Week that we should be trying to keep kids in school. He even admitted that kids didn’t spread the virus as much as was initially feared.
“[T]he default position should be to try as best as possible, within reason, to keep the children in school or to get them back to school,” Fauci told ABC. “If you look at the data, the spread among children and from children is not really very big at all, not like one would have suspected.”
No broadcast network repeated those words Monday evening, including ABC’s World News Tonight. They only quoted Fauci as saying we’re facing “a surge on top of a surge” because of people traveling for Thanksgiving.
The blatant double standard in their outrage when it affected them showed that CBS only cared about the education that THEIR kids received, and not yours.
CBS’s double standard of only caring about the education of their kids was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Blue Cross Blue Shield and Gillette. Their contact information is linked so you can tell them about the biased news they’re funding. CBS Evening News has also asked people to text Norah at this number: (202) 217-1107.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CBS Evening News
November 30, 2020
6:35:36 p.m. Eastern(…)
JONATHAN VIGLIOTTI: In Florida, schools will remain open despite concerns from teachers. The state's governor not mincing words.
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): People who advocate closing schools for virus mitigation are effectively today’s flat-earthers.
(…)
CBS Evening News
November 19, 2020
6:43:34 p.m. EasternNORAH O’DONNELL: Today, thousands of parents of New York City school children sent a petition to the city's mayor and the state's governor demanding that the nation's largest school system reopen immediately for in-person learning. Public schools were abruptly closed after the city hit a threshold three percent of COVID tests now coming back positive. We get more now from CBS's Meg Oliver.
[Cuts to video]
PROTESTERS: Open our schools!
MEG OLIVER: There was anger on the steps of New York City Hall, parents demanding schools reopen for in-person learning. The shutdown sent parents of some 300,000 students scrambling Wednesday night.
(…)
OLIVER: Dr. Uche Blackstock has treated thousands of COVID patients and has two boys in New York City public schools.
Is it safe to send students back to school in New York City?
DR. UCHE BLACKSTOCK: I do think right now it is safe. They're going back in smaller cohorts. They're wearing masks, as are the teachers.
(…)
[Cuts back to live]
OLIVER: Here in New York City, they haven’t announced a date when schools will reopen for in-person learning, raising concerns that more students will get left behind. As of tonight, about 60,000 students don't have devices for remote learning.
