NBC News reporter faces backlash for doing her job


A few days back, NBC News broadcasted an interview of Pennsylvania Senate Democrat Candidate John Fetterman by journalist Dasha Burns,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2h4H-NwA0M

Fetterman suffered a stroke in May causing his health to become a major issue in the Senate race.

Prior to her interview, Burns revealed that Fetterman “struggles to understand what he hears and to speak clearly”.

Burns also said a monitor was set up so her questions could be transcribed for Fetterman to read since she said he still has ‘lingering auditory processing issues as a result of the stroke'

https://twitter.com/BrentScher/status/1579921115044282370

Burns also revealed Fetterman struggled to make small talk and “still has challenges with speech struggling to pronounce words such as “empathetic”.

https://twitter.com/townhallcom/status/1579903752928366592

Burns's report was obviously amplified by Republicans and conservative media.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjSXGl4VLX4

This was enough to send reverberations of discord across the Democrat echo chamber.

It was almost as if they were saying “how dare the GOP use the media to their advantage, that is our privilege only'.

Burns had violated the Democrat groupthink i.e. Fetterman is normal.

The attacks on Burns were swift.

It began with far-left reporter Kara Swisher, who had a stroke herself in 2011. Swisher mocked Burns claiming that it was probably she who was poor at small talk.

Swisher recently conducted an interview with Fetterman for her podcast and claims to be “impressed with how well he’s doing."

https://twitter.com/karaswisher/status/1579997457903423489

Next was New York magazine reporter, Rebecca Traister, who also interviewed the candidate for a cover story titled “The Vulnerability of John Fetterman”

Traister claimed that Fetterman’s “comprehension is not at all impaired. He understands everything. It’s just that he reads it and responds in real-time ... It’s a hearing/auditory challenge.”

https://twitter.com/rtraister/status/1580023598160678912?s=20&t=qpgiceRXDpVJGBpJ4a5YcQ

New York Times correspondent Jonathan Martin also seemed to lament Burns's interview, he tweeted the article claiming that it was a “rough clip” for Fetterman and “will only fuel questions about his health.”

https://twitter.com/jmart/status/1579986004185739265

CBS News White House correspondent Ed O’Keefe seemed to support Burn’s interview he called it an “important interview with top Senate contender,” adding, “Will Pennsylvanians be comfortable with someone representing them who had to conduct a TV interview this way?"

https://twitter.com/edokeefe/status/1580002053723938816

MSNBC columnist Eric Michael Garcia seemed to suggest that Burns's report was an “ableist” attack on a person with a “disability.” He compared Fetterman to disabled senators and elderly Senators who need hearing aids.

https://twitter.com/EricMGarcia/status/1580022358085361665

This sentiment was echoed by Robert Shurm, director of the University of Southern California’s Center for the Political Future claimed that Burn’s reporting emanated from prejudice.

https://twitter.com/BobShrum/status/1580029316196274176

CNN contributed Kristen Powers followed the ableist attack spin.

https://twitter.com/KirstenPowers/status/1580287476131692544

Daily Beast columnist Wahajat Ali compared Fetterman’s impairments to Presidents Franklin Roosevelt's Polio, Lincoln's depression, and Madison's epilepsy.

https://twitter.com/WajahatAli/status/1580228871894761472

MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell prefaced his interview with Fetterman by also comparing the Democrat Senate candidate to FDR.

MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan stuck to the Democrat groupthink without making sense.

https://twitter.com/mehdirhasan/status/15802166720653189, 14

Adam Rogers with Business Insider also slammed Burns accusing her of fabricating a storyline.

https://twitter.com/jetjocko/status/1580030726799446017

Even the grand old non-profit news agency, the Associated Press,  joined the incensed partisan crowd and carried a piece that covered the Democrat media backlash to the interview, without making it explicit that the backlash was partisan.

The Wrap also attacked Burns.

The Democrat mouthpiece the Washington Post carried a piece in defense of Fetterman.

The WaPo referred to a letter in June from Fetterman’s cardiologist claiming he will be fine and able to serve in the Senate if he eats healthy foods, takes prescribed medication, and exercises.

The WaPo also carried a quote from Kevin Sheth, director of the Yale University Center for Brain and Mind Health who cautioned that people should not make judgments about Fetterman’s condition without an examination and based on his use of a language-assistance device.

Finally, on Wednesday morning, Burns appeared on her own network NBC’s News Today show where Savannah Guthrie did her bit to discredit Burns with the claim that other interviews saw nothing wrong with Fetterman.

Burns defended herself saying that hers was Fetterman’s first live, in-person interview which enabled her to see the aids Fetterman needed to comprehend the question.

Burns also said that other interviews were done remotely hence the interviewees probably didn’t notice the monitor where questions were transcribed because it was probably beyond the range of the camera.

Burns repeated that her entire interview team noticed that without closed captaining, Fetterman was unable properly process the conversation.

Burns repeated her statement that “once the closed captioning was on, he was able to fully answer questions throughout that 25-minute interview”

To sum it up Burns was doing her job as a journalist which is to report facts as objectively as she could about Fetterman's cognitive and sensory abilities which would be essential for him to be able to function as a Senator.

Penn State voters have a right to know these details about Fetterman prior to casting their vote.

Burn neither mocked Fetterman’s condition nor did she make any partisan attacks.

The outrage caused by factual reporting is a perfect example of the functioning of the mainstream media.

A lot of people think that the mainstream media has a liberal bias or is pro-Democrat. This is erroneous because they assume the mainstream media and the Democrats disparate entities and the Democrats are somehow influencing the media.

The fact is mainstream media functions as a propaganda wing of the Democrats and hence must be thought of as a department within the Democrat party organization.

There is perfect synchronicity between their utterances. 

They even use identical terminology while covering any given occurrence.

Words such as ‘collusion’ or ‘insurrection’, which are not part of common parlance, didn’t become the official terminology by accident.

A nefarious but adept Democrat wordsmith and mastermind supplied these terms to the mainstream media.

The media assiduously repeated these terms over a prolonged period, until they became official jargon.

It is not just terminology, the Democrat media managers also provide instructions on how to spin stories or overlook Democrat scandals.

A perfect instance of the mainstream media working in unison is the killing of the Hunter Biden laptop from hell story prior to the 2020 Presidential elections.

When the NY Post carried reports on Hunter’s laptop, prominent personnel on MSNBCNBC News, The Washington PostThe Daily BeastCNN, and The NY Times coordinated their efforts to discredit the story. This didn’t occur by accident, they were all acting on orders.

Yes, they are true believers of the cause, but coordination and uniformity in messaging are necessary to push propaganda. If everyone is saying the same thing, people tend to believe it.

It is hence quite amazing that Burn’s story exposing Fetterman’s health issues made it to NBC News without a Democrat loyalist on the NBC News's editorial board not blocking the story.

It will be interesting to see what happens to Dasha Burns now.

She has stood by her reporting, perhaps NBC News will attempt to placate their Democrat bosses by forcing Burns out, citing ‘ableism.’

The backlash Burns received sends a clear warning message to any reporter aspiring to expose inconvenient facts about the Democrats.

The viewer, hence, has no choice but to presume that all they consume is a falsehood until proven factual after meticulous verification.

Also appears on American Thinker 

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