Across the dial, the Regime Media’s network evening newscasts showed mixed interest in covering an embarrassing blow to the Biden administration’s efforts in Gaza: the partial collapse of the temporary pier built at President Biden’s behest, in order to expedite the delivery of relief supplies to the civilian population- known derisively as “Port Biden”.
The most through reporting comes via NBC’s Raf Sanchez, who filed this dispatch within his Rafah recap:
RAF SANCHEZ: Meanwhile, NBC News has learned the U.S. military has been forced to halt aid deliveries into Gaza by sea, after three officials said bad weather damaged its temporary pier. This video showing part of the causeway floating away from the beach. It’s the latest setback for the American aid effort, after military boats washed up on the coasts of Israel and Gaza over the weekend, while a U.S. service member remains in critical condition after an accident on the pier last week.
Over at NBC News Now, Sanchez had enough time to elaborate further, and offered a brutal recap:
ELLISON BARBER: Raf Sanchez joins us now from Tel Aviv. Raf, do we have any sense, at this point, in terms of how long it will take the U.S. and everybody else involved to fix that pier, or could this be out of action for weeks on end?
SANCHEZ: So, Ellison, The Pentagon is saying tonight it’s going to take at least a week to fix that pier and that is a major blow to the humanitarian effort in Gaza, the effort to fend off famine, especially at a time when the Rafah Crossing, that main lifeline for food and aid from Egypt, remains closed. And you could argue this is also a blow to President Biden. He announced this pier in his State of the Union address. Humanitarian groups said at the time it was not very practical. It took two months to set up. It was operational for just two weeks and now it has suffered this pretty catastrophic damage. Ellison.
BARBER: Raf Sanchez, thank you.
The partial collapse of Port Biden, broken by rough surf, could have been its own story on NBC Nightly News, as we see from Sanchez’ additional reporting on NBC News Now. But we won’t quibble. This is more coverage than the story drew anywhere else.
Over at the CBS Evening News, the collapse drew an afterthought from correspondent Imtiaz Tyab, and barely made it into the Rafah recap package:
IMTIAZ TYAB: The mass displacement of civilians has triggered a humanitarian crisis the U.N. says it's struggling to contain as U.S. Officials say the $320 million humanitarian pier will be out of commission for at least a week after part of the causeway broke away in rough seas.
CBS’s half-sentence on the collapse, although paltry in comparison to NBC’s coverage, is a half-sentence more was shown on ABC World News Tonight, which continues to make its case as the most aggressively pro-Biden network of the broadcast network newscasts. Therefore, the story did not get any air.
One imagines the outraged wall-to-wall coverage had this pier collapse happened during the Bush 43 or Trump administrations. If it weren’t for Regime Media, we’d have none at all.
