Press Coverage of Shutdown Does Not Depict Reality

To be fair, it’s still the fourth quarter and the game, that isn’t a game, isn’t over. But thus far the media’s coverage of the government shutdown has been decidedly slanted in favor of Democrats and Resident Obama. Unlike the 1995 shutdown, the polls show a more even split in the blame. I

t’s my belief that this stems from the Obama’s and Reid’s positions that they’ve repeated over and over, “WE WILL NOT NEGOTIATE.”  That’s all well and good, but the GOP was elected in 2010 to a majority in the House by the American people to slow the extreme left-wing, liberal train down. Many, not just Republicans, are starting to recognize that the GOP isn’t entitled to 100 percent of what they want, but they shouldn’t get ZERO as Reid and the Resident are insisting.

The polls confirm, this isn’t 1995.  It might be because in 1995 President Clinton negotiated. He negotiated right up until the shutdown happened.

Compare that with Resident Obama’s refusal to negotiate. The coveted Independents, persuadable Democrats, and nearly all members of the GOP do not appreciate an occupier of the Oval Office who refuses to talk to the other side. Resident Obama’s poll numbers, according to Gallup, have fallen by three points since the shutdown. Other polls are showing a spreading of the blame among the parties. According to a CBS poll Republicans in Congress receive 44 percent of the blame while 35 percent blame Obama and the Democrats in Congress.  A Fox News poll says the folks Blame Republicans like Speaker John Boehner and Ted Cruz by 42 percent while Obama and his Democrats shoulder 32 percent of the blame.

Contrast these numbers with 1995: CBS found 51 percent of Americans blamed the Republicans in Congress, while only 28 percent blamed  Clinton.

These numbers are despite left-wing slanted coverage from the once-dominant mainstream press.

Like the sequester, Resident Obama and his administration have sent out directives to make the shutdown as painful as possible. Despite the near media blackout, we’ve learned that World War II vets defied the blockading of open-air memorials. In response the administration hired security to enforce the shutdown, an expense that exceeds the operation of these memorials when they are open.

The administration has closed beaches, an elderly couple’s home, and even demonstrated their continued loathing for the Catholic Church by threatening priests with arrest if they ministered to our troops. The last effort was met with a strong rebuke from Congress. The House voted 400-to-1 to prevent the arrest of Catholic priests. The one person who wouldn’t protect the priests was a Democrat. The Senate is expected to pass the measure. If you are a religious watcher of the old media, much of this wasn’t reported.

Most would be surprised to learn that the GOP has tried three different compromises to get past the shutdown. They pledged to fund the government in it’s entirety, in exchange for defunding Obamacare.   hen Democrats rejected that, they proposed full funding, but a year delay on the individual mandate, a match for Resident Obama’s one-year delay for big business.

When Democrats shot that down, the GOP said fund everything but repeal the medical device tax - which had bi-partisan support - and do away with the tax-payer funded subsidy that members of Congress and their staff get to blunt the costs of Obamacare. It bears pointing out that American’s, matching the income level of the afore mentioned staffers and law makers, can’t get the same subsidies once thrown into the exchanges. The Democrats once again said no.

Most of this shenanigans perpetrated by liberals has been ignored by the national press. One can assume that is to protect Obama.

The problem is, Americans are still finding out about these things. Catholics in the pews are spreading the word among the pews, and then going home to find their news channel of choice is not reporting the story.

Americans are blaming both parties for the impasse in government, but almost all media outlets say that Americans are blaming the GOP. With each major story that goes unreported, with each bit of reportage that doesn’t meet with a person’s reality, the mainstream media loses credibility and audience. When that happens, they lose revenue.  That’s a cautionary tale for my former compatriots in the press.

Feature Photo Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

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