CNN and MSNBC Bash DeSantis and Red States for Covid Surge While Ignoring Covid Crisis at Border

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Last week, CNN and MSNBC trained their sights on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and other Republican officials amid surging coronavirus cases. At the same time, those outlets ignored the dire coronavirus situation at the southern border as the Biden administration releases illegal immigrants into the United States.

“Nearly every county, every county in the state of Florida is listed as a high-transmission area for Covid right now. And There is no sign that Governor DeSantis is going to change course at all,” CNN anchor Jake Tapper snarkily said on Tuesday’s The Lead.

On Friday, CNN Newsroom had a segment about Republican Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson planning on calling a special legislative session to amend the state law banning mask mandates in schools amid a spike in coronavirus cases in the state. Anchor Poppy Harlow interviewed a parent and her attorney planning to file a lawsuit on Monday against the amendment.

“It is no coincidence that you see a lot of darkness in Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, across the southeast. That’s where we see cases going up,” said CNN anchor John King on Inside Politics on Thursday.

Following a soundbite of a Missouri doctor talking about the unvaccinated finally getting vaccinated despite peer pressure from those against vaccination, King arrogantly said, “I can’t wrap my mind around that. People who finally maybe belatedly but finally making the decision to protect themselves, protect their children, protect their families, protect their neighbors, protect their co-workers, are afraid to tell anybody because they think they’ll be shamed for getting a vaccine.”

Over on MSNBC, a report on Thursday by reporter Kerry Sanders about the latest spike in Covid cases in Florida mentioned Disneyworld and Universal Studios requiring masks indoors regardless of vaccination status “because we have seen such a large number of cases. At the same time, you have the governor of Florida, Republican Ron DeSantis, who has been somewhat mocking of these decisions and talking about the idea of forcing masks.”

On Friday, Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski said, “In Missouri, Covid-19 hospitalizations have more than doubled since the start of June and the number of ICU patients has more than tripled. According to the AP, many patients now are younger, in their 20s, 30s or 40s, and sicker than ever before. Nearly everyone hospitalized is unvaccinated.”

While Florida had the highest seven-day average of cases last week, California was next. However, MSNBC and CNN have not also given wall-to-wall coverage on the surge in cases in that Democratic state. This omission exemplifies the liberal bias of outlets like CNN and MSNBC. And another Democratic state, New York, is in the top 10 of states with the highest seven-day average. The same state that had countless Covid scandals under the leadership of a governor who was responsible for and covered up nursing home and sexual harassment scandals, yet has been celebrated by the media and still gets a free pass.

Meanwhile, MSNBC and CNN have not covered the overall dire situation at the border, let alone how the coronavirus is being addressed there as illegal immigrants – including ones who have Covid – are reportedly being released into the United States.

As of a couple weeks ago, there has been a 900 percent increase in the number of coronavirus cases among detained migrants in the Rio Grande Valley sector along the border, Fox News reported.

No, that 900 percent figure is not a typo. It is important to remember that the Rio Grande is the locus of the border crisis.

Aside from an article on its website, CNN has not covered a complaint sent to Congress and two government agencies this week that whistleblowers were instructed by the Department of Health and Human Services, which works with other federal agencies on migrant accommodations at the southern border, to downplay an outbreak of coronavirus at the housing facility for migrant children at Fort Bliss, Texas. The facility has come under fire for poor conditions as a complaint was sent, also to  Congress and the same government watchdogs, earlier this month.

MSNBC, in addition to an article on NBC News’s website, has barely covered the alarming situation at Fort Bliss, doing so only three times over the past week.

The troubling coronavirus situation at Fort Bliss and the U.S.-Mexico border overall should be getting just as much coverage as the reports of increased cases in parts of the United States. Media bias includes not only what and how something is covered but also what is omitted.

Instead of picking and choosing what to and what not to cover extensively, objectivity, not partisanship, should be the standard. CNN and MSNBC failed this test as it pertains to coronavirus outbreaks nationwide.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.