In their internal strategy sessions, Democrats clearly tell each other that they can shut down the federal government with the confidence that the national media will blame it on Republicans no matter what. You might imagine that internally, Republicans would fear a government shutdown, knowing the media will blame it on them.
This has been the pattern with the broadcast networks since Bill Clinton vs. Newt Gingrich three decades ago.
When Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., voted to avoid a shutdown in March, the party’s base was furious. Taxpayer-funded PBS anchor Geoff Bennett took Schumer to task in an interview: "There are Democrats who say that, if the government had shut down, you force Republicans to own it. All the pain that Americans would feel that you just described, Republicans would pay the political price. Why not be as tactically ruthless as Republicans have shown themselves to be?"
Journalists reward "tactically ruthless" Democrats and punish the ones who bend. They’re not going to spend any time reflecting on how Democrats have horrible poll ratings right now, and Schumer’s afraid of being challenged in a primary campaign by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. Democrats are always presumed to be noble in their resistance, not selfish.
On September 24, Bennett interviewed Schumer again, and they were more aligned. But the PBS host was still pushing ruthlessness: "Democrats are outraged by what they see as President Trump's abuse of power. But has the way he's wielded power made you rethink how Democrats should govern if you regain the White House, given the tools, the expanded executive authority, and the approach that he will have left behind?"
ABC reporter Rachel Scott used the term "Democrats say" three times in her evening story before the shutdown on September 26. There was no "Republicans say" sentence. Then three days later, Scott repeated the DNC points: "Democrats refusing to back down, saying they will not vote to fund the government unless Republicans reverse cuts to Medicaid and keep healthcare premiums from rising for some 20 million Americans."
Scott kept the Republican response to Trump "mocking Democratic leadership with an A.I. generated video on social media, with fabricated and false audio. The video shows an A.I. version of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., wearing a sombrero and a fake mustache, with fabricated audio of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer." In other words, don’t laugh. They’re bad and bigoted people.
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The networks always drag out the sob stories for their blame-Republican spin. Scott laid out the consequences: "If the government shuts down, as many as four million federal employees could go without a paycheck. Two million troops could be forced to work without pay, leaving military families in limbo. Heather Campbell's husband is a Major in the Air Force in Alabama. She worries about making ends meet for their three kids."
ABC’s Jack Smith pushed this tactic during a shutdown in December 1995: "And the shutdown now has a human face. Joe Skattleberry and his wife Lisa both work for the government. Both have been furloughed. They can't afford a Christmas tree." The next month, CBS reporter Scott Pelley was worse: "In April, terrorists tried to kill them. Today, politicians stopped their paychecks. In Oklahoma City's Social Security office, they're being ordered to work for nothing."
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Democrats and Republicans face wildly different interviews on broadcast networks. Exhibit A was ABC morning host George Stephanopoulos, the former Clinton press secretary. Speaker Mike Johnson faced hardball questions from Stephanopoulos: "The Democratic proposal is designed to prevent millions of Americans from losing their health insurance, losing Medicaid coverage, or paying higher healthcare premiums. Why are you against that?"
Speaker Johnson replied: "That’s an absurd statement what you said there. Let’s be clear about what happened last night, George." Stephanopoulos shot back: "It’s a factual statement."
Then ABC switched to Democrat leader Hakeem Jeffries, who fielded a series of "your response, sir" set-up questions from Stephanopoulos: "You also heard the speaker say the Democrats want a fund for health care to illegal aliens and immigrants trying to reverse what was in the President’s domestic spending bill earlier this year. Your response?"
Despite this, every aggregator on the internet puts ABC News in the "reliable source" category, while conservative sources are considered unreliable. It all depends on how you define "reliable." ABC News was also "reliable" for Democrats on their program "The View." Moderator Whoopi Goldberg read Democrat talking points off a note card.
When CBS morning host Tony Dokoupil attempted to underline some reality in Democrats backing health care funding for illegal immigrants, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. practically yelled at him for being disobedient. "It is a flat-out lie. It is a flat-out lie! … There is nothing in Medicaid, nothing in Medicare, that permits one undocumented immigrant to get one dollar of assistance. None." That’s false. Blue states like New York openly advertise their Medicaid benefits for illegal migrants.
Dokoupil didn’t back down. "Sorry, in the Democratic counter-offer, the proposal for funding, there is a restoration of Medicaid benefits for certain noncitizens that had been taken away in the ‘Big, Beautiful Bill,’ as Republicans put it."
Just as most political observers aren’t optimistic that the shutdown will end any time soon, we should presume, based on decades of evidence, that there’s no reason for the broadcast networks to be any less partisan for the rest of this shutdown.
The fix is always in. The game is always rigged.