Do you think it’s journalism to cover public remarks delivered straight from the president of the United States during the middle of a government shutdown?
MSNBC doesn’t. On Thursday, the cable channel had other, more important things to cover.
Recommended Stories
The White House scheduled what it called a “press briefing” with little notice and no details. But in a rare spectacle, Trump himself showed up at the lectern. He congratulated newly named House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on her election to leadership and then insisted, again, that the partial government shutdown would last until congressional Democrats offered more money for his administration to construct a border wall.
After his initial remarks, Trump turned over the microphone to Border Patrol officials who all said additional funding for border security was crucial for their jobs. At that precise moment, yes, anchor Katy Tur cut from the briefing, complaining that Trump wanted to “change the subject” from Democrats being sworn in (MSNBC had been covering this all day) to the very issue behind the government shutdown — his demand for border wall money.
MSNBC decided it would rather serve their audience with electric analysis from ratings magnet Bret Stephens, the anti-Trump New York Times writer who recently dedicated an entire column to complaining that he didn’t find Trump humorous. After the agents spoke, Trump returned to the microphone, and MSNBC still refused to cut back to the event.
Fox News and CNN carried the remarks in full.
