On Friday's NBC Today, substitute co-host Savannah Guthrie eagerly
to
uted liberal talking points attacking a hearing held by House
Republicans over the controversial ObamaCare contraception mandate on
Thursday: "[They] held a hearing on the matter and Democrats got
a lot of mileage out the fact that, that first panel of witnesses was
all men."
On to discuss the political fallout, Meet the Press host David Gregory concluded: "You look at a scene like yesterday and it
just underscores the fact that not only government, but our religious
institutions, are dominated by men. It was an unfortunate image to put
out there." Guthrie added: "...maybe Republicans stepped into it a little bit on that."
After
Guthrie cited a derisive tweet from Nancy Pelosi condemning the GOP for
"having a panel on women's health and they don't have any women on the
panel," Gregory voiced his agreement with the left-wing framing of the
issue: "I think Nancy Pelosi underscores the point for a lot of women in
the country that this is not about birth control, that contraception
today, as you well know, is much more about women's health and is
prescribed much more widely than just birth control."
At the top of Thursday's NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams did
his part in promoting the Democratic line of attack: "What's wrong with
this picture? The image that's getting a lot of attention and outrage.
Tonight, the exploding disconnect involving women, birth control and
politics."
Later, in a full report on the supposed controversy, correspondent
Kelly O'Donnell announced to viewers: "The politics of contraception
provoked outrage today....This picture set off that anger, when only men
had a seat at the witness table during a hearing related to
contraception."
Introducing
the report, Williams remarked: "Today a congressional hearing about
contraception got heated. Lawmakers got angry because of what was
missing."
Well, let's take a look at what was "missing" from the NBC News
coverage. While O'Donnell included several sound bites of Democrats and
Republicans at the hearing, she failed to make any mention of Virginia
Democratic Congressman Gerry Connolly berating the religious leaders [1] who appeared, calling their testimony "shameful" and accusing Republicans of using "Stalinist-like tactics." [2]
Why didn't Williams and O'Donnell describe the "outrage" over those offensive comments?
Surprisingly, ABC and CBS hardly touched the issue. ABC's Thursday
World News did not cover the story and Friday's Good Morning America
only featured a news brief, with news anchor Josh Elliot reporting:
New political drama, meanwhile, surrounding that controversial plan to require health insurance companies to cover contraception, even for religious institutions. Congressional Republicans hosted two hearings, Tuesday, but no women were invited to the first one and the only women at the second hearing opposed the President's birth control mandate, prompting Democrats to walk out in protest.
CBS did not cover the hearing at all on Thursday's Evening News or Friday's This Morning.
Here is a portion of Guthrie's February 17 exchange with Gregory:
7:08AM ET
(...)
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: And then yesterday, House Republicans held a hearing
on the matter and Democrats got a lot of mileage out the fact that, that
first panel of witnesses was all men. Here's what Nancy Pelosi had to
say, quote, "Imagine, they're having a panel on women's health and they
don't have any women on the panel. Duh!" You know what strikes me about
this, David, neither Republicans nor Democrats seem very anxious to move
on from this issue in an election year that's supposed to be about the
economy.
GREGORY: Well, I think that's the important point. And I think that on
both sides they're itching for this fight. Republicans see this as not
just a women's health issue, as a matter of fact, they'd rather
de-emphasize that. They see it as a religious freedom issue, they see it
as a role of government, government making decisions about health care
for Americans. That energizes a lot of conservatives around the country
who think that the government has intruded into our lives too much.
But I think Nancy Pelosi underscores the point for a lot of women in
the country that this is not about birth control, that contraception
today, as you well know, is much more about women's health and is
prescribed much more widely than just birth control. You look at a scene
like yesterday and it just underscores the fact that not only
government, but our religious institutions, are dominated by men. It was
an unfortunate image to put out there.
GUTHRIE: Well, and maybe Republicans stepped into it a little bit on that.
(...)
-- Kyle Drennen is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. Click here [3] to follow Kyle Drennen on Twitter.