The tax-funded PBS NewsHour doesn't see itself as an objective news source. It's more like an advocacy group for "marginalized" people like LGBTQ advocates. They demonstrated it again over two separate segments last week. Republicans and conservatives were attacked, and their enemies were not described as liberals or leftists. They're just for "LGBTQ rights."
See how co-anchor Amna Nawaz introduced the Wednesday evening segment faulting Gov. Bill Lee (R-Tennessee) for rejecting federal money for “HIV prevention” (HIV is the virus that causes AIDS):
In Tennessee, a fight has been brewing over another public health issue, HIV. It comes as several Republican-led states move to restrict the rights of LGBTQ people. Our White House correspondent, Laura Barrón-López, recently went to Memphis, where advocates have sounded the alarm about the looming impact of those efforts.
Proving that leftists never need to have a large protest to be celebrated as "news," Barrón-López covered a protest of “dozens of people” in Memphis:
They stood in front of OUTMemphis, a local LGBTQ rights group, to protest new Tennessee laws that restrict drag shows in public and ban gender-affirming care for minors. But there was another reason for the gathering….Demonstrators condemned a move by Governor Bill Lee to reject more than $8 million in federal funding for HIV prevention. He argues the state should cover those costs, and have more say in who gets the money.
She talked to Emmitte James, who visits the local group Partnership to End AIDS Status “every few months for condoms.” (Are free condoms invariably a federal responsibility?)
To keep the focus on gays, etc., Barrón-López had to downplay the needs of both human trafficking victims and infants:
Barron-Lopez: In Memphis, like the rest of the country, the people at highest risk for HIV include men who have sex with men, heterosexual women and injection drug users. People of color are also at higher risk. But in statements about his funding plan, Governor Lee has emphasized other populations.
Gov. Bill Lee: Human trafficking victims, on the transmission to first responders, on the transmission from mothers to their babies, those are populations that we want to focus on….
Then she turned to Planned Parenthood -- a key funder of the Democrat base with all those abortion profits -- to decry the conservatives for "playing politics"!
Barrón-López: HIV advocates here accuse the governor of playing politics, reacting to growing anti-LGBTQ pressure from national conservative figures. Before rejecting the CDC grants entirely, advocates say, Lee tried to block the money from going to the state's Planned Parenthood chapter, which uses it for condom distribution and training HIV testers….
Francie Hunt, Planned Parenthood: After the Tennessee abortion ban, I think that these lawmakers had to turn their attention now to the LGBTQ community and to attack their rights….
Barron-Lopez didn’t challenge the portrayals of Republicans as haters, although she did interview Tennessee's Republican House Speaker, Cameron Sexton. For rebuttal, shen then rounded up more supposed victims of conservatism, talking to an HIV-positive man who complained he's “at the intersection of a lot of these issues, just being a gay black man living in a Southern state. So, it is becoming increasingly hard to live in a state that seems to be directly attacking me.”
Barrón-López: ….And while some advocates still hope the governor changes his mind, they worry, if he doesn't, more Republican-led states will follow Tennessee's lead.
The news mood was totally different the next evening. NewsHour co-host Geoff Bennett had a cozy interview with Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, using a new Democratic legislature to institute what Bennett called “a wide range of progressive reforms….The latest reforms safeguards the rights of trans people,” which translates to guaranteeing “gender-affirming care” in Minnesota, which could include both medication and surgery.
Walz replied with an emotionally exploitative talking point:
….our trans neighbors, our children, are feeling the pressure. That we see states that are using state power as an apparatus of cruelty, quite honestly and we know that these are communities that are always under risk. We know they have some of the highest suicide rates, attacks of hate crimes against them….
These anti-Republican, pro-“gender-affirming” segments were brought to you in part by BNSF Railway.
A relevant transcript is below, click “Expand” to read:
PBS NewsHour
March 15, 2023
7:18 pm ET
Host Amna Nawaz: In Tennessee, a fight has been brewing over another public health issue, HIV. It comes as several Republican-led states move to restrict the rights of LGBTQ people. Our White House correspondent, Laura Barrón-López, recently went to Memphis, where advocates have sounded the alarm about the looming impact of those efforts.
Laura Barrón-López: On a rainy afternoon, dozens of people crowded onto a sidewalk in the Cooper-Young neighborhood of Memphis.
Woman: We have a right to love, to live, to laugh, to openly be ourselves in the ways we weren't allowed to be as children.
Laura Barrón-López: They stood in front of OUTMemphis, a local LGBTQ rights group, to protest new Tennessee laws that restrict drag shows in public and ban gender-affirming care for minors. But there was another reason for the gathering.
Woman: There are over 20,000 folks infected with HIV, and they deserve our attention.
Laura Barrón-López: Demonstrators condemned a move by Governor Bill Lee to reject more than $8 million in federal funding for HIV prevention. He argues the state should cover those costs, and have more say in who gets the money. For years, the federal dollars, which come through grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have trickled down to community organizations. They use it for services like HIV testing, condom distribution, and access to the HIV prevention drug PrEP. One such group is the Partnership to End AIDS Status, or PEAS. How much of that CDC funding accounts for your organization?
Rosa Barber, Partnership to End AIDS Status: Ninety percent of our funding comes from the CDC.
Laura Barrón-López: Rosa Barber, the chief operating officer for PEAS, says the organization had to let go of its permanent space due to the funding uncertainty.
On the day we met, they had set up in a small room at a Memphis beauty shop.
Rosa Barber: We have spent so many years drilling and making people feel good about testing and taking care of themselves. We built the trust within the community. So all of this is just going down the drain quickly. And it's affecting people who look like myself, people who — like my co-workers, and that's what is heartbreaking about the entire situation.
Laura Barrón-López: Emmitte James, who lives just across the river in Arkansas, visits PEAS every few months for condoms. He's also received testing through the organization.
Emmitte James, Tennessee: They actually help some people that's not fortunate enough to be able to go to a regular doctor. We need the prevention and that lets you know it's all safe, that you have people on your side, that you can get health — health care that you need.
Laura Barrón-López: The Memphis area has one of the highest rates of new HIV cases in the country. And officials here worry that prevention efforts will be crippled by the governor's decision. In January, the Tennessee Department of Health sent a letter to community organizations saying the CDC grants would end on May 31. It said the Lee administration was examining areas where it can decrease its reliance on federal funding and assume increased independence. Governor Lee declined an interview with the "NewsHour," but his spokesperson said: "The state is committed to maintaining at least the same level of funding and any claim that we are cutting funding is inaccurate."
Dr. Michelle Taylor, Shelby County Health Department: That's not true.
Laura Barrón-López: Dr. Michelle Taylor directs the Health Department in Shelby County, home to Memphis.
Dr. Michelle Taylor: This is a loss of funding, because these are federal funds that are earmarked for HIV for testing and surveillance and prevention. And now populations in Tennessee are going to go without these additional resources. Even if they are replaced by state resources, they pay for these additional resources that are supposed to come from the federal government.
Laura Barrón-López: In Memphis, like the rest of the country, the people at highest risk for HIV include men who have sex with men, heterosexual women and injection drug users. People of color are also at higher risk. But in statements about his funding plan, Governor Lee has emphasized other populations.
Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN): Human trafficking victims, on the transmission to first responders, on the transmission from mothers to their babies. Those are populations that we want to focus on. And in order to do so, those funds will then be directed at whatever organizations are serving those populations the best.
Laura Barrón-López: According to the AIDS research organization amfAR, in Tennessee those groups make up about 2 percent of the people at risk for HIV. Lee's administration later said that those groups were — quote — "additional vulnerable populations" that the state will serve with its funds.
Dr. Michelle Taylor: If you replace the word HIV with any other condition, if you replace it with diabetes, and you said, OK, the state of Tennessee is about to send back funding for diabetes care, testing, treatment for the population that is most at risk for having this condition, there would be so much outrage, people would say, how dare you send back funding for a health condition that we know people need additional support for?
Laura Barrón-López: HIV advocates here accuse the governor of playing politics, reacting to growing anti-LGBTQ pressure from national conservative figures. Before rejecting the CDC grants entirely, advocates say, Lee tried to block the money from going to the state's Planned Parenthood chapter, which uses it for condom distribution and training HIV testers. Francie Hunt is the advocacy and organizing director for Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi.
Francie Hunt, Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi: After the Tennessee abortion ban, I think that these lawmakers had to turn their attention now to the LGBTQ community and to attack their rights. What's alarming is that they're not only trying to punish Planned Parenthood politically, but several different community organizations as well.
Laura Barrón-López: When asked, Governor Lee's office didn't say whether the same organizations who currently receive federal funding will now get money from the state. So where will people access services?
State Rep. Cameron Sexton (R-TN): I would say different associations, different areas of the state, not like Planned Parenthoods, but maybe free health clinics or whatever else may be out there that's a network.
Laura Barrón-López: Cameron Sexton is the Republican speaker of the Tennessee House.
State Rep. Cameron Sexton: In Tennessee and in other red states, I think you look, and if you can fund things yourself without the restrictions or the stipulations that the federal government wants to put on you, and you can do it yourself, you're better off funding it with Tennessee dollars, not federal dollars.
Laura Barrón-López: Will the groups that are most high-risk, according to health experts in your state, still receive these services?
State Rep. Cameron Sexton: Look, the population that needs HIV prevention with these medications or services will still be able to get it. Whether they go through this organization or that organization, they will still have the capability of getting it. Whether you prioritize a certain number or certain locations, you can put that up for debate. But at the end of the day, I'm confident that, if you're funding HIV prevention, those who need it will get it.
Laura Barrón-López: This change would have impacted you go years ago?
Josh Hall, OUTMemphis: Yes. that's immediately what I thought about.
Laura Barrón-López: But people like Josh Hall aren't so confident. He tested positive for HIV in 2019 and now works for OUTMemphis, which also receives federal funding.
Josh Hall: It kind of felt like a gut punch, to be honest. I want to say I'm shocked, but it felt like a little inhumane. Like, we're talking about lifesaving drugs. To turn that into a political issue just feels below human. I find myself at the intersection of a lot of these issues, just being a gay Black man living in a Southern state. So, it is becoming increasingly hard to live in a state that seems to be directly attacking me.
Laura Barrón-López: Organizations like OUTMemphis have asked the CDC if they can bypass the state to continue receiving federal funding. And while some advocates still hope the governor changes his mind, they worry, if he doesn't, more Republican-led states will follow Tennessee's lead. For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Laura Barrón-López in Memphis.
