NBC and CBS on Wednesday night and Thursday morning failed to cover the "impassioned" demand by big labor unions to reject large portions of ObamaCare. Only ABC's Good Morning America, allowing just a 24-second news brief, covered the complaints that the law will spike the cost of health care. At a convention in Los Angeles, the AFL-CIO adopted an angry resolution in opposition. [MP3 audio here [1].]
News reader Josh Elliott quickly explained, "And big labor is demanding changes be made to President Obama's health care law." An ABC graphic hyped "Big Labor Vs. 'ObamaCare." According to the Hill [2], Terry O'Sullivan, President of the Laborers' International Union of America, railed, "But we will be damned if we are going to lose our health insurance because of unintended consequences in the law. It needs to be changed. It needs to be fixed. And it needs to be fixed now."
NBC's Nightly News, as well as CBS's Evening News and This Morning, both skipped this inconvenient rift between traditional liberal allies. ABC ignored it on World News and Nightline, briefly covering it on GMA.
The Hill's Kevin Bogardus detailed the growing fight:
During floor debate on the resolution, Joseph Nigro, president of the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Union, underlined ObamaCare’s dire consequences for labor if a fix isn’t forthcoming.
"You allow an ACA bill to go through like this, I guarantee you by your next convention four years from now, you won’t meet a quarter of this room. We won’t be here," Nigro said.
...
"We are not going to take it anymore! We are going to fight for our workers! Every one of our members is important to us," said Nigro to growing applause in the hall.
Back in late August, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka offered a similar attack, giving a speech in which he highlighted the "mistakes [3]" of ObamaCare. All three networks ignored this development, too.
Apparently, the White House has attempted to dissuade the union from issuing its resolution [4]:
A labor official told The Associated Press that White House officials had been calling labor leaders for days to urge them not to voice their concerns in the form of a resolution. The official, who wasn't authorized to discuss the conversations publicly and requested anonymity, said many union leaders insisted that they wanted to highlight their concerns.
Considering that the three networks enjoy covering conflict between various factions within the conservative movement, they owe it to their viewers to highlight this liberal rift.
A transcript of the September 12 GMA news brief is below:
7:07
ABC GRAPHIC: Big Labor Vs. 'ObamaCare' Demands Changes, Warns of Higher Costs
JOSH ELLIOTT: And big labor is demanding changes be made to President Obama's health care law. At its convention in Los Angeles, the AFL-CIO outlined flaws the group says that will drive the cost of union-sponsored health plans so high workers and employers will both be forced to abandon them. But the union, one of the President's biggest supporters, said it still back the law's overall goal of reducing costs for all Americans.
-- Scott Whitlock is the senior news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here [5] to follow him on Twitter.