A public radio station based in Washington state announced it will no longer broadcast the White House Coronavirus Task Force daily briefings.
KUOW, NPR’s local station in the Puget Sound region, said Tuesday that it won’t air the briefings live because of misinformation being provided by the task force.
“KUOW is monitoring White House briefings for the latest news on the coronavirus — and we will continue to share all news relevant to Washington State with our listeners,” the radio station posted on social media, before adding in a subsequent tweet, “However, we will not be airing the briefings live due to a pattern of false or misleading information provided that cannot be fact checked in real time.”
The White House said the Seattle-area station is failing to serve its listeners.
“It’s not surprising, but also a failure of their duty to the American people, that some media outlets would choose to block their audiences from receiving accurate, up-to-date information on President Trump’s whole-of-government approach to slowing the spread of COVID-19,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said.
However, we will not be airing the briefings live due to a pattern of false or misleading information provided that cannot be fact checked in real time. (2)
— KUOW Public Radio (@KUOW) March 24, 2020
After publication, Nancy Barnes, NPR’s senior vice president, told the Washington Examiner, “We make our editorial coverage decisions based on the news environment in any given hour, on any given day; our decision regarding providing live coverage of the White House daily COVID-19 briefings is no different. Today, we have decided to lean into our original reporting and analysis on our daily programs like Morning Edition and All Things Considered while offering our Member Stations a live stream of the White House briefings on a separate channel, but our coverage decisions will continue to evolve daily.”
In a statement released Wednesday evening after its announcement gained national attention, the staff at KUOW said its decision was not “politically based.”
“After airing the White House briefings live for two weeks, a pattern of false information and exaggeration increasingly had many at KUOW questioning whether these briefings were in the best service of our mission — to create and serve a more informed public. Of even greater concern was the potential impact of false information on the health and safety of our community,” KUOW said, while noting it “will revisit this decision daily.”
The statement included examples of “exaggerations and false information” by Trump “that were not fact checked in real time.”
Jason Rantz, a conservative radio host based in Seattle, blasted KUOW’s decision but said he’s not surprised by it.
“Given the new polling by Gallup, perhaps they thought the president was doing too good a job? If they have complaints about false information, they could, you know, do their jobs and correct the record. This is likely more driven by an angry, progressive Seattle base of listeners that complained. They’re simply triggered by the president’s voice, still upset they lost in 2016,” Rantz told the Washington Examiner Wednesday.
“Their staff is full of progressive activists masquerading as honest journalists,” he continued. “It’s not so much that I care they’re progressive and have an agenda; it’s that they pretend not to. And this exposes them for what they are. But, hey, it’s Seattle. They’ll probably be called brave for keeping important information from the public.”
Rantz also added that he plans on airing announcements from both Trump and the state’s Democratic governor, Jay Inslee, on his KTTH radio show because “it’s a public health emergency” and the “public deserves to hear from our leaders.”
KUOW did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Washington has been one of the hardest-hit states in the country. As of Tuesday evening, it had nearly 2,500 confirmed cases, which has led to more than 120 deaths, according to the state’s Department of Health.
