Eric Boehlert: Both Sides -- the press keeps screwing up Covid relief bill coverage

[babylonsister]

Both Sides — the press keeps screwing up Covid relief bill coverage
GOP in disarray
Eric Boehlert

snip//

Leaning into a "gridlock" and "dysfunction" narrative, the Beltway media have botched the story for most of this year. Last summer, journalists claimed "Congress" was to blame for weekly $600 relief checks being cut off. Wrong — the payments ended because Republicans forced them to end. That kind of Both Side coverage has given Americans a skewed understanding of why the federal government under Trump isn't functioning properly in a time of national crisis.

Background: Democrats in the House are currently offering a $2.2 trillion relief bill, which has already been drastically scaled back from the original $3.5 trillion proposal they passed in May. (Republicans ignored the May bill, in part, because White House aides were telling GOP leaders the pandemic would be over by September.) The $2.2 trillion bill includes $600 in weekly enhanced unemployment benefits, and checks of $1,200 to qualifying adults (or $2,400 for couples).

The White House says it supports a $1.8 trillion bill. So why don't both sides negotiate, meet in the middle, and sign a deal to help millions of Americans who need assistance, as the economy remains broken? That's the narrative the Beltway press locked in on — Congress is dysfunctional, and the Covid relief bill proves it! That preferred storyline is simple to understand and it blames Both Sides for the lack of Congressional action.

Instead of unpacking the two relief bills and highlighting what's so radically different about them — funding for unemployment benefits, child care, state and local governments, and the GOP's obsession with liability protections for corporations, nationwide testing — the press pays attention to the price tag. That leaves news consumers (and Wolf Blitzer) with the false impression that both bills are similar, it's just that the Republican one is slightly smaller.

The media malpractice is worse because there actually is no Republican Covid relief bill. Pelosi and Democrats are getting beat up in the press for not hammering out a deal with Republicans, but Republicans aren't offering a deal. Yes, the press generated headlines about a $1.8 trillion bill that Trump's White House recently floated. But as soon as the White House proposal was sent to the Hill, Republican senators eviscerated it as too costly.

• “An enormous betrayal” of Republican voters" — Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY)

• "There’s no appetite right now to spend the White House number or the House number" — Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN)

• "I don’t get it" — Senator Rick Scott (R-FL)

It's basically devolved into this:

Media: Why won't Democrats accept GOP's offer?

Democrats: There is no offer.

Media: But why won't Democrats accept it?!

more...

https://pressrun.media/p/both-sides-the-press-keeps-screwing

[gratuitous]

1. The media reports are so delusional one might almost conclude it's deliberate

How do the media conjure up a Republican "bill" when no such thing exists? Instead, it's all "Why won't Democrats negotiate against themselves in the absence of any kind of good faith movement by Republicans?" It's stupid on the face of it, but it's reported like that, straight-faced, by people who get paid a lot of money to be on the teevee.

[Caliman73]

2. Agreed. A lot of people are falling for that.

To be sure, Congress IS dysfunctional but the dysfunction is on the Senate side where McConnell has killed hundreds of bills aimed at helping Americans AND has bragged about doing so.

The problem is that there is a very loud megaphone that calls the mainstream press "BIASED" and "UNFAIR" unless it portrays the situation in any other way than "both sides".

It is ridiculous that Republicans are saying "betrayal, and "no appetite". Just garbage. People need the money. What Republicans don't like is that the money in the Democratic plan, will go more directly to the actual people instead of large corporate handouts.

There were some arguments on DU that Democrats should just accept the $500 billion proposal that McConnell pulled out of his ass the other day, so we can at least get something. There was anger expressed at Democrats for playing politics while people suffered.