Networks Applaud GOP Caving on Debt Ceiling: 'America One Step Closer to Being Able to Pay Its Bills'
All three network morning shows on Wednesday cheered House Republicans
giving up on trying to attach conditions to raising the nation's
borrowing limit. On NBC's Today, news reader Natalie Morales proclaimed: "America is one step closer to being able to pay its bills next month."
None of the coverage acknowledged that the move actually meant adding
to the nation's massive $17 trillion debt without making any effort to
reduce government spending. [Listen to the audio]
On ABC's Good Morning America, co-host George Stephanopoulos
touted "some good news coming out of Washington" as the "debt limit
finally passed without real controversy." White House correspondent Jon
Karl gushed: "Yeah, this was a really big deal. Republicans completely backed down on this. No strings attached, did exactly what President Obama asked them to do..." Stephanopoulos added: "First time in three years."
On CBS This Morning, Capitol Hill correspondent Nancy Cordes declared:
Normally this is such a bitter fight, but this time the House Speaker allowed this vote to raise the debt ceiling, no strings attached, two weeks before the deadline. Before the markets even had a chance to get nervous. It's a sign that he is now less willing to fight what he sees as losing battles on behalf of the Tea Party wing of his party.
While
the NBC and ABC morning shows gave mere seconds to the development, CBS
actually provided a full two-minute report that included Republican
sound bites. Cordes even briefly mentioned one of the policies the GOP
hoped to push in a debt ceiling deal: "Boehner had tried to attach some
Republican priorities to the debt ceiling bill, like approval of the
Keystone XL oil pipeline."
She then proceeded to blame the right for the failure to reach that
deal: "But conservatives, including Tim Huelskamp of Kansas, signaled
none of it was enough to win their support for raising a borrowing limit
they think is already too high."
Talking to Huelskamp, Cordes pressed: "Speaker [Boehner] says members
like you left him no choice because there's almost nothing that he can
put forward that will get your vote."
She noted that "conservative groups were furious about Boehner's move"
and how Boehner "has been very frank that what those groups and some of
his own members want is simply unrealistic in a divided government and
he was not eager to engage in another damaging showdown with Democrats."
The segment concluded with a sound bite of Democratic Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid gloating: "I'm very happy to see that the House is
legislating the way they should have been legislating for a long, long
time."
On Tuesday evening, ABC's World News hailed the debt ceiling "breakthrough" while still avoiding any mention of the nation's growing debt.
Similarly, CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley offered a news
brief on how a "showdown was avoided" and noted that "Battles over the
so-called debt limit last year threatened the nation's credit rating."
NBC Nightly News made no mention of the topic.
— Kyle Drennen is Senior News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Kyle Drennen on Twitter.
