The networks this spring and summer blasted states like Georgia for election security laws, deriding them as racist power grabs. But when the deeply liberal and Democratic state of New York suffered a massive debacle on Tuesday, the networks were virtually silent. ABC’s Good Morning America on Wednesday offered ZERO coverage to New York City’s mayoral race descending into chaos as over a hundred thousand test ballots accidentally were included in the voting totals.
NBC’s Today show allowed a scant 31 seconds and CBS This Morning mirrored that with just 32 seconds of coverage. In total, these three morning shows are six hours long, but allowed just 63 seconds. GMA devoted 3 minutes and 1 seconds to whether pot customers are getting ripped off by low levels of THC in their marijuana. So, clearly, there was time available for an actually important story.
Here is CBS’s coverage from co-host Anthony Mason:
New York City's mayoral race was thrown into disarray last night after officials released the wrong results. The city's board of elections says 135,000 test ballots were accidentally included in the count for round two of the city's rank choice vote tally. The initial announcement reflected a very close race in the Democratic primary between Brooklyn borough President Eric Adams and former sanitation commissioner Catherine Garcia. But now there will be a recount. This comes at a sensitive time for the board of elections which has faced accusations of incompetence in the past. Under New York City's rules, it may be weeks before the primary's winner is announced. Oops.
Oops, indeed.
Here’s the NBC coverage from Tom Llamas:
Now to a ballot discrepancy creating confusion and frustration here in New York City in the Democratic mayoral primary. Yesterday, the Board of Elections released new results showing a tight race, but then just hours later, the new numbers were removed after officials found 135,000 test ballots were accidentally included in the tally. Now they’ll have to recalculate multiple rounds of ranked-choice voting. This is the first time the city is using that system. We may not know the official winner until mid-July.
Mid-July? With all the outrage over Georgia, you’d think the networks would show similar disgust over New York City. But This Morning’s Dokoupil summed up the liberal hypocrisy by dismissing, “We want them to get it right, not fast.” How about both? Maybe election results that take less than a month?
The excusing of New York City’s incompetence was sponsored on CBS by Progressive insurance. On NBC’s Today, it was McDonald’s. The hiding of the story on ABC was sponsored by Dove soap. Click on the links to let them know what you think.
Transcripts are below. Click “expand” to read more.
CBS This Morning
6/30/2021
7:25 AM
32 secondsANTHONY MASON: New York City's mayoral race was thrown into disarray last night after officials released the wrong results. The city's board of elections says 135,000 test ballots were accidentally included in the count for round two of the city's rank choice vote tally. The initial announcement reflected a very close race in the Democratic primary between Brooklyn borough President Eric Adams and former sanitation commissioner Catherine Garcia. But now there will be a recount. This comes at a sensitive time for the board of elections which has faced accusations of incompetence in the past. Under New York City's rules, it may be weeks before the primary's winner is announced. Oops.
GAYLE KING: Imagine being the one who discovered that mistake.
TONY DOKOUPIL: We want them to get it right, not fast.
Today
06/30/21
8:04 AM31 seconds
TOM LLAMAS: Now to a ballot discrepancy creating confusion and frustration here in New York City in the Democratic mayoral primary.
[Ballot “Discrepancy” in NYC Mayoral Primary]
Yesterday, the Board of Elections released new results showing a tight race, but then just hours later, the new numbers were removed after officials found 135,000 test ballots were accidentally included in the tally. Now they’ll have to recalculate multiple rounds of ranked-choice voting. This is the first time the city is using that system. We may not know the official winner until mid-July.
