Media top headlines August 2
In media news today, Chris Cuomo gets ripped for accusing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis of holding the U.S. 'hostage' to COVID, critics slam DC Mayor Muriel Bowser for violating her own mask mandate, and ABC's political director calls out the Biden admin's 'confusing' COVID messaging
CNN’s "Reliable Sources" host Brian Stelter followed orders from the White House on Sunday, parroting talking points provided by the Biden administration to scold the media for overhyping COVID risk to vaccinated individuals.
The White House is reportedly irked by the way the media has covered the pandemic lately, so CNN’s media team appeared to jump in to clean things up for the frustrated Democratic administration.
"It is time for a reset. A reset in how COVID-19 is covered by the media," Stelter said to open the ratings-challenged CNN program on Sunday.
Brian Stelter’s Sunday monologue came less than 48 hours after White House Deputy Director of Strategic Communications & Engagement Ben Wakana essentially provided CNN with talking points on the topic.
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"Given that there is so much confusion right now, it is, as so many public health experts keep saying, a pandemic of the unvaccinated. So the news coverage needs to reflect that," Stelter said.
"For example, the word ‘cases’ doesn’t mean the same thing it did a year ago because a breakthrough cause when vaccinated, when you are infected and vaccinated, it is very, very different from a case when unvaccinated," the liberal CNN host continued. "The data is crystal clear that the vaccines are preventing hospitalizations and deaths."
Stelter’s monologue came less than 48 hours after White House Deputy Director of Strategic Communications & Engagement Ben Wakana essentially provided CNN with talking points on the topic.
The Biden administration staffer took to Twitter with rare condemnation of The Washington Post as well as The New York Times over tweets that hype the spread of the coronavirus among vaccinated Americans.
"Completely irresponsible," Wakana reacted to a Post tweet highlighting a CDC study that focused in on a "massive" outbreak in Massachusetts among the vaccinated.
"3 days ago the CDC made clear that vaccinated individuals represent a VERY SMALL amount of transmission occurring around the country," Wakana wrote. "Virtually all hospitalizations and deaths continue to be among the unvaccinated. Unreal to not put that in context."
Wakana also responded to a tweet The New York Times put out which read, "Breaking News: The Delta variant is as contagious as chickenpox and may be spread by vaccinated people as easily as the unvaccinated, an internal C.D.C. report said."
"VACCINATED PEOPLE DO NOT TRANSMIT THE VIRUS AT THE SAME RATE AS UNVACCINATED PEOPLE AND IF YOU FAIL TO INCLUDE THAT CONTEXT YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG," the White House official wrote in all caps.
Stelter, who was criticized earlier this year for a fawning interview with press secretary Jen Psaki where he pressed her on how the media could improve, echoed Wakana’s criticism of the Post.
"This Washington Post headline hyped the fact that most of the people infected were vaccinated. The paper then got called out for that," Stelter said. "Maybe hospitalizations is the better metric for the media to highlight now. Not cases but hospitalizations."
Stelter has long been criticized for openly favoring Democrats and trashing Republicans at every turn, but blatantly parroting Biden administration talking points is partisan even for him. He seemed to follow direction from the White House coming off the worst week of the year for "Reliable Sources," as the program hit a yearly low among viewership in the key demo of adults age 25-54.
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It’s unclear if helping the Biden White House spread its message du jour will add to the program’s dismal viewership but it surely made the president happy.
CNN reported on Monday that the White House is "frustrated with what it views as alarmist, and in some instances flat-out misleading, news coverage" of COVID.
"That's according to two senior Biden administration officials I spoke with Friday, both of whom requested anonymity to candidly offer their opinion on coverage of the CDC data released that suggests vaccinated Americans who become infected with the Delta coronavirus variant can infect others as easily as those who are unvaccinated," Oliver Darcy, who co-authors a newsletter with Stelter, wrote.
Darcy also followed the White House guidance and echoed Wakana’s talking point.
"Poorly framed headlines and cable news chyrons wrongly suggested that vaccinated Americans are just as likely to spread the disease as unvaccinated Americans. But that isn't quite the case. Vaccinated Americans still have a far lower chance of becoming infected with the coronavirus and, thus, they are responsible for far less spread of the disease," Darcy wrote.
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Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn and Andrew Kugle contributed to this report.
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