Earlier this year, the broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) defended President Biden from the obvious fact that he was beholden to Democratic special interests like the teachers’ unions, who were holding the welfare of students hostage by refusing to reopen schools. But over the weekend, the New York Post broke a major story that exposed how teachers’ unions were influencing Biden’s CDC on reopening policy. Of course, the networks helped to cover it up.
According to The Post, “The American Federation of Teachers lobbied the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on, and even suggested language for, the federal agency’s school-reopening guidance released in February.”
They added: “The powerful teachers union’s full-court press preceded the federal agency putting the brakes on a full re-opening of in-person classrooms, emails between top CDC, AFT and White House officials show.”
The broadcast networks had three days to give airtime to what was uncovered in The Post’s report and they utterly refused to. Once again, they were prioritizing the protection of the Biden administration over telling the truth to their viewers.
Fortunately, it was the first topic covered by Fox News Channel’s Special Report on Monday.
“Breaking tonight, two big stories involving special interests influencing the Biden administration,” announced anchor Bret Baier. “And one of the largest teachers’ unions in the country has had substantial input on when public school classrooms should reopen after pandemic shutdowns and what the messaging around that should sound like.”
In her report on the matter, White House correspondent Kristin Fisher showed how a policy suggested by the American Federation of Teachers made it almost word for word into the CDC’s guidelines:
In one email, the American Federation of Teachers told the CDC, quote, "Thank you for your continued openness to our suggestions and input." And added this suggestion: “It would be great to see the insertion of some variation of the following: ‘In the event, high community transition results from a new variant of SARS-Cov-2 a new update of the guidelines may be necessary.”
And indeed, just one day later, a nearly identical line appeared in the CDC's official guidelines.
“Both the CDC and the teacher’s union say that these kinds of communications are normal and routine,” Fisher added, before noting opposition from Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton (R). “We shouldn’t have a publicized public health bureaucracy like the CDC answering at the beck and call of the teacher’s union. We need kids back in school. And back in real school,” Cotton told Fox News.
In January, CBS had urged the Biden administration to give “cover” to his “fellow Democrats” the teachers’ unions who were keeping schools closed. In early February, ABC and NBC had omitted CDC Administrator Rochelle Walensky saying vaccines were not needed to reopen schools safely from their COVID reports. And later that month, ABC chief Washington correspondent Jon Karl refused to admit Biden was beholden to the unions.
And on Tuesday, NBC’s Today and Nightly News celebrated National Teacher Appreciation Day. Lucky them.
The network cover-up of the Biden administration’s reliance on Democratic special interests to write public health policy was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Ford Motor Company on ABC, Ensure on CBS, and TD Ameritrade on NBC. Their contact information is linked so you can tell them about the biased news they fund.
The transcripts are below, click "expand to read:
Fox News Channel’s Special Report
May 3, 2021
6:00:23 p.m. EasternBRET BAIER: Breaking tonight, two big stories involving special interests influencing the Biden administration. The President is lifting the nation’s refugee cap from the Trump-era limit of 15,000 per year to 62,500. And one of the largest teachers’ unions in the country has had substantial input on when public school classrooms should reopen after pandemic shutdowns and what the messaging around that should sound like.
(…)
6:01:48 p.m. Eastern
KRISTIN FISHER: Now, in addition to accusations that the Biden administration is bowing to progressives in terms of raising the refugee cap, the administration is also facing accusations that it is bowing to pressure from one very large teacher’s union.
[Cuts to video]
Emails obtained and the New York Post through a Freedom of Information Act request from the group Americans for Public Trust show several communications between the CDC and the country's second-largest teachers union in the days leading up to the release of the agency’s guidelines for reopening schools.
In one email, the American Federation of Teachers told the CDC, quote, "Thank you for your continued openness to our suggestions and input." And added this suggestion: “It would be great to see the insertion of some variation of the following: ‘In the event high community transition results from a new variant of SARS-Cov-2 a new update of the guidelines may be necessary.”
And indeed, just one day later, a nearly identical line appeared in the CDC's official guidelines.
Both the CDC and the teacher’s union say that these kinds of communications are normal and routine, with the union's president telling Fox that, quote, "The AFT represents 1.7 million educators, health care professionals, and public employees who spent the last 14 months serving on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. So naturally, we have been in regular touch with the agency setting policy that affect their work and lives including the CDC.”
But Republican Senator Tom Cotton argues that the world’s premier health agency is being inappropriately influenced by the American Federation of Teachers, which spent more than $20 million during the 2020 campaign cycle supporting Democrats.
SEN. TOM COTTON (R-AR): We shouldn’t have a publicized public health bureaucracy like the CDC answering at the beck and call of the teacher’s union. We need kids back in school. And back in real school.
(…)
