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By Scott Whitlock
Editor's Note, 8:28 p.m. Eastern: Late Tuesday afternoon, Playboy admitted in a tweet that Karem is also at the White House as their correspondent. “Yes, that’s Playboy’s White House Correspondent @briankarem, having his 'Network’ moment—and giving 'em hell,” it wrote. So, take from that what you will.
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An anti-Trump journalist on Tuesday suffered a total meltdown, screaming at Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Brian J. Karem, a reporter for a local Maryland paper The Sentinel, lost it after Sanders fought back against a “barrage of fake news.” Sanders lectured the assembled journalists: “If we make the slightest mistake, the slightest word is off, it is just an absolute tirade from a lot of people in this room. But news outlets get to go on, day after day, and cite unnamed sources.”
Karem, who wasn’t called on, interrupted and yelled, “Come on! You're inflaming everybody right here right now with those words!” He exploded, “You're here to provide the answers and what you just did is inflammatory to people all over the country...”
Apparently dismissing the concept of media bias, Karem complimented the other journalists in the room: “Everybody in this room is only trying to do their job.”
Sanders quickly shut Karem down:
First of all, I think if anything has been inflamed, it's the dishonesty that often takes place by the news media and I think it is outrageous for you to accuse me of inflaming a story when I was simply trying to respond to his question.
Earlier in the briefing, Sanders offered another complaint about liberal journalists:
Things like the success at the VA barely get covered. They may get covered for an hour at a time, but this story gets covered day in, day out, and I think America is frankly looking for something better. They're looking for something more. And I think they deserve something better from our news media.
A transcript is below:
CNN Newsroom
6/27/17
3:13
SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS: I think it's the constant barrage of fake news directed at this President, probably, that has garnered a lot of his frustration. You point to that report. There are multiple other instances where that outlet that you referenced has been repeatedly wrong and had to point that out or be corrected. There's a video circulating now, whether it's accurate or not, I don't know.
But I would encourage everybody in this room and frankly everybody across the country to take a look at it. I think if it is accurate, I think it's a disgrace to all of media, to all of journalism. I think that we have gone to a place where, if the media can't be trusted to report the news, then that's a dangerous place for America, and I think if that is the place that certain outlets are going, particularly for the purpose of spiking ratings, and if that's coming directly from the top, I think that's even more scary. And certainly more disgraceful. And I hope that that's not the direction we're headed. I hope that outlets that have continued to use either unnamed sources, sometimes stories with no sources at all, we've been going on this Russia/Trump hoax for the better part of a year now with no evidence of anything. Things like the success at the VA barely get covered. They may get covered for an hour at a time, but this story gets covered day in, day out, and I think America is frankly looking for something better. They're looking for something more. And I think they deserve something better from our news media.
...
 SANDERS: If we make the slightest mistake, the slightest word is off, it is just an absolute tirade from a lot of people in this room. But news outlets get to go on, day after day, and cite unnamed sources, use stories without sources, have, you know, you mentioned the Scaramucci story where they had to have reporters resign.
BRIAN J. KAREM (The Sentinel newspapers): Come on! You're inflaming everybody right here, right now with those words! This administration has done that as well. Why in the name of heavens — any one of us, right, are replaceable — and any one of us, if we don't get it right, the audience has the opportunity to turn the channel or not read us. You have been elected to serve for four years at least.
There's no option other than that. We're here to ask you questions. You're here to provide the answers and what you just did is inflammatory to people all over the country who look at it and say, ‘See, once again, the President's right and everybody else out here is fake media.’ And everybody in this room is only trying to do their job.
SANDERS: I just — I disagree completely. First of all, I think if anything has been inflamed, it's the dishonesty that often takes place by the news media and I think it is outrageous for you to accuse me of inflaming a story when I was simply trying to respond to his question. Kevin.
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By Curtis Houck
Fresh off his newfound stardom after arguing with White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday afternoon, The Sentinel and Playboy writer Brian Karem told MSNBC’s Hardball host Chris Matthews that he (and the press corps) are “tired of being paddled” as liberal pushers of fake news.
Matthews swooned over Karem before the segment, promoting in a tease how he caused “fireworks in the White House briefing room as a reporter fights back against the White House charges of fake news.”
When Karem appeared in the next block, Matthews oozed nothing but praise:
Brian, thank you. I was very impressed by that. What got you? What made you do it today? Cause nobody else has done it before. It should have done, I think. You find it because they turn that, supposedly a service to the American people with people paid by American taxpayers to give us answers to questions which you have a right. That’s what a briefing’s supposed to — it’s not supposed to be a PR campaign of trashing everybody who disagrees with the President.
When the Hardball host wondered if Sean Spicer and Huckabee Sanders are “truth tellers,” Karem responded that this was “why we're here is to try to find out and there have been, what got me when you ask about what got me rankled, it’s the fact that they sit there and say, we're dishonest in the media and we're being dishonest.”
Showing the liberal reporter has no shame, he argued that the White House’s pushback against the liberal media included attacks on reporters who have died in dangerous corners of the world:
Well, there's consequences. But I have yet to hear anyone from this administration even admit a mistake and so, it is a little hard to take....In addition, there are reporters who have given their lives to get news to the public. And it would be just labeled as dishonest and fake media rankles me. And — you know, maybe I lost my temper that moment. But it was long time coming. It was six months.
Matthews had been due for an awkward, slightly-disturbing Notable Quotable, so it wasn’t a shock when he told Karem that the White House press corps are pawns in “a PR campaign” by the Trump administration in which “they have to sit there and be props, basically props for the White House press secretary, to use them and yell at them.”
“They're being used as a PR campaign. So the people from the more right wing reaches of the country who still believe in Trump, they're watching them being paddled basically,” Matthews added.
Karem shot back: “Yeah and I’m tired of being paddled and I don’t like that. I don't like being paddled. I don't like being spanked...Just give me the facts.”
Matthews concluded with more gooey compliments, telling Karem that he’s “made some noise” and “[i]n the regular, normal truth telling media, you'll be talked abouttonight and tomorrow.”
Here’s the relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball on June 27:
MSNBC’s Hardball
June 27, 2017
7:13 p.m. Eastern [TEASE]
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Pressing Questions]
 CHRIS MATTHEWS: Coming up, fireworks in the White House briefing room as a reporter fights back against the White House charges of fake news.
BRIAN KAREM: We're here to ask you questions. You're here to provide the answers and what you just did is inflammatory to people all over the country who look at it and say, see, once again, the President's right and everybody else out here is fake media and everybody in this room is only trying to do their job.
MATTHEWS: Well, that reporter, Brian Karem, joins us next.
(....)
7:18 p.m. Eastern
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Pressing Questions]
MATTHEWS: Welcome back to Hardball. Well, during today’s White House press briefing, deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders got into a heated exchange with Brian Karem, the executive editors for The Sentinel newspapers, two local papers here that cover the suburban Washington area. Let’s watch this.
SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS: We've been going on this Russia/Trump hoax for the better part of a year now with no evidence of anything. Things like the success at the VA barely get covered. They may get covered for an hour at a time, but this story gets covered day in, day out, and I think America is frankly looking for something better. They're looking for something more and I think they deserve something better from our news media.
KAREM: Come on! You're inflaming everybody right here right now with those words. This administration has done that as well. Why in the name of heavens — any one of us, right, are replaceable and any one of us, if we don't get it right, the audience has the opportunity to turn the channel or not read us. You have been elected to serve for four years at least. There's no option other than that. We're here to ask you questions. You're here to provide the answers and what you just did is inflammatory to people all over the country who look at it and say, see, once again, the President's right and everybody else out here is fake media and everybody in this room is only trying to do their job.
HUCKABEE SANDERS: I just — I disagree completely, first of all. I think if anything has been inflamed, it's the dishonesty that often takes place by the news media and I think it is outrageous for you to accuse me of inflaming a story when I was simply trying to respond to his question.
MATTHEWS: Brian Karem joins us right now. Brian, thank you. I was very impressed by that. What got you? What made you do it today? Cause nobody else has done it before. It should have done, I think. You find it because they turn that, supposedly a service to the American people with people paid by American taxpayers to give us answers to questions which you have a right. That’s what a briefing’s supposed to — it’s not supposed to be a PR campaign of trashing everybody who disagrees with the President. Your thoughts.
 KAREM: Well, I had listened to it — look, first of all, I have a healthy respect for Sarah and I have a healthy respect for Sean and a healthy respect for what they do.
MATTHEWS: Why? Why do you have that? Explain that.
KAREM: Because it is a difficult job.
MATTHEWS: What do you respect what they do?
KAREM: I respect the fact that they have to face the likes of us every day and I'm not the easiest person in the world to get along with. Just ask people who actually like me?
MATTHEWS: Are they truth tellers? Are they truth tellers?
KAREM: That's — that’s why we're here is to try to find out and there have been, what got me when you ask about what got me rankled, it’s the fact that they sit there and say, we're dishonest in the media and we're being dishonest. Well, there's consequences. But I have yet to hear anyone from this administration even admit a mistake and so, it is a little hard to take. So, the people in that room I have a healthy respect for. I've been coming and going in this room off and on since the Reagan administration and there were — you know, those people, I have held up as heroes, some of the people that were here. In addition, there are reporters who have given their lives to get news to the public. And it would be just labeled as dishonest and fake media rankles me. And — you know, maybe I lost my temper that moment. But it was long time coming. It was six months. I would like the see that taken off and just taken off the table and let us talk about real issues. Let us ask our questions. Quit hitting us with faking media. I mean, everyone including Breitbart in there has been respectful. They've asked tough questions and the administration has not often been forthcoming with what I would say are factual answers. So yeah. I'm concerned.
MATTHEWS: I thought it was interesting cause you were really — let me try to interpret what you’re doing another way. The reporters who sit in those chairs there in the briefing room at the White House, have to sit there. They have to sit there because they've been assigned to that post, to that spot and if somebody up there is doing a PR campaign against them, they have to sit there and be props, basically props for the White House press secretary, to use them and yell at them and treat they will like high school kids or grade school kids that were disobedient and didn't get their homework in on-time and they’ve got to sit there. They're being used as a PR campaign. So the people from the more right wing reaches of the country who still believe in Trump, they're watching them being paddled basically.
KAREM: Yeah and I’m tired of being paddled and I don’t like that.
 MATTHEWS: You know, given a timeout if you will and you said — I think you’re right.
KAREM: I don't like being paddled. I don't like being spanked. I — you know, to me, the attitude that I get, I get it from my children and I say, you know, enough of that. Don't pour water in my ear and tell me it's raining. Just give me the facts and I would very much like if could I get this out of this administration and I —
MATTHEWS: Well, you made some noise. I’m telling you.
KAREM: Well, thank you.
MATTHEWS: In the regular, normal truth telling media, you'll be talked about tonight and tomorrow. Thank you so much, Brian Karem for coming Hardball.
KAREM: Sure.
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By Curtis Houck
CNN received their wish on Tuesday that the White House press briefing would allow cameras, but it wasn’t enough as senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta and media reporter Dylan Byers melted like liberal snowflakes over Breitbart receiving a question and deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders slamming the media’s thrist for destroying President Trump.
Also, the same network that bemoaned the off-camera briefings like it was a sign of the apocalypse declined to carry the whole briefing. Just over four minutes were dedicated to Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s remarks to the briefing room before pulling back and returning 34 minutes later when Sanders took to the podium.
Needless to say, Acosta’s out-of-control yelling was nowhere to heard.
Once the contentious briefing ended (including Sanders tussling with small, liberal Maryland newspaper reporter Brian Karem), Acosta took to Twitter:
As this space told Acosta on Twitter, fellow establishment media colleagues such as CBS’s Major Garrett, Bloomberg’s Jennifer Jacobs, NBC’s Kristen Welker, and NPR’s Mara Liasson all received questions. Further, who died and made Acosta king of who deserves a question?
So, in other words, this claim can be deemed pants on fire.
Meanwhile, Byers did his best to rival Acosta. His tweets started off as normal (but from the left), but nothing out of the ordinary:
Byers retweeted one argument that “White House loves this showdown over media coverage in the White House with indignant reporters” before displaying perhaps the biggest case of smugness and disdain for conservatives as anyone will see. Here it is:
If “real reporters” mean throwing hissy fits when you don’t get a question, count me out (along with most of the country). If only “real reporters” existed, any one of the Obama scandals would have been quickly forgotten or ignored. If only “real reporters” existed, the whole country would be voting 100% Democratic. And if only “real reporters”existed, conservatives and Christians would be minuscule and further marginalized. Now, THAT would be a real 1984.
Right on cue, Byers took to promoting Karem with all his might, tweeting a line from his attack on Sanders for daring to question the media: “What you just did is inflammatory to people all over the country.”
When former CNN host Piers Morgan responded to Byers by arguing what’s actually“inflammatory” is “CNN reporting an untrue story re Trump/Russia to damage the President,” Byers responded:
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By Nicholas Fondacaro
 Late last week, CNN was forced to remove a story that falsely claimed former Trump aide Anthony Scaramucci was being investigated by Congress for alleged ties to a Russian bank. And on Tuesday, President Trump took to Twitter to rub the fake news in CNN’s face after three people involved with the story resigned. CBS took acceptation with Trump’s gloating and whined about it during CBS Evening News, later that day. “And now to the White House where tensions between the administration and the news media are growing,” announced Anchor Anthony Mason at the start of the segment.
White House Correspondent Major Garrett started his report by reading Trump’s scornful tweet. “’Wow, CNN had to retract big story on Russia with three employees forced to resign,’ the President wrote. ‘What about all the other phony stories they do? Fake news,’” he read. Garrett appeared to stick up for CNN, noting how they had apologized to Scaramucci for dragging his name through the mud.
Garrett wagged a reproving finger at Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders for daring to bring up CNN’s fake story at the press briefing on Tuesday, despite the apology. “We've been going on this Russia/Trump hoax for the better part of a year now with no evidence of anything. America is, frankly, looking for something better,” Huckabee Sanders said to the press pool.
The CBS correspondent admitted that most people don’t believe the media, citing a Gallup poll that found 32 percent of Americans mistrust the media. But like a bandit that was caught stealing, Garrett pointed a finger and Trump. “But the White House has credibility issues of its own,” he deflected.
He rambled on about how The New York Times “accused the President of saying something false every day for the first 40 days of his administration.” Reading from the hit piece, Garrett said: “There is simply no precedent for an American president to spend so much time telling untruths … He is trying to create an atmosphere in which reality is irrelevant."
During the press briefing a reporter for The Sentinel, Brian Karem, blew a gasket and lambasted Huckabee Sanders and Trump for calling the press out on their fake news stories. Garrett actually touted Karem’s out-of-turn outburst, claiming he was venting “his frustration with the Trump press team.”
“The White House tried to use the CNN story to brand all Russia-related news as phony,” Garrett prefaced as he tried to mock the President. “But, Anthony here's what's not phony: Two congressional investigations and a special counsel probe into the matter.”
But what Garrett failed to mention was the undercover video also released on Tuesdayby Project Veritas, which exposed CNN producer John Bonifield admitting the Russia story was “mostly bulls—t right now...” Bonifield also admitted that his network kept pushing the Russia story because of the ratings.
And despite Garrett’s mocking of the President by noting the investigations, the CNN producer told the undercover operative that right now investigators are turning up nothing. “I don’t know. If they were finding something, we would know about it,” he explained. “The way these leaks happen, they would leak it. They’d leak. If it was something really good, it would leak.”
This is why the public’s trust in the media is in the toilet. And this is how the White House will continue to have ammunition to fight off the liberal media obsessed with bringing it down.
Transcript below:
CBS Evening News
June 27, 2017
6:33:45 PM Eastern
ANTHONY MASON: And now to the White House where tensions between the administration and the news media are growing. Major Garrett is there.
[Cuts to video]
DONALD TRUMP: So I'll ask the press to leave. I greatly appreciate you folks being here.
MAJOR GARRETT: President Trump tried to make nice with the press this afternoon hours after assailing CNN on Twitter. "Wow, CNN had to retract big story on Russia with three employees forced to resign," the President wrote. "What about all the other phony stories they do? Fake news." CNN retracted and apologized for an online story linking former Trump aid Anthony Scaramucci with a Russian bank. The network also announced the resignation of three employees.
Scaramuci accepted the network's apology, but Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders pounced.
SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS: We've been going on this Russia/Trump hoax for the better part of a year now with no evidence of anything. America is, frankly, looking for something better.
GARRETT: Last year a Gallup poll found only 32 percent of Americans had a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media. Among Republicans, the number was 14 percent. But the White House has credibility issues of its own.
The New York Times has accused the President of saying something false every day for the first 40 days of his administration. "There is simply no precedent for an American president to spend so much time telling untruths,” The Times wrote last week. "He is trying to create an atmosphere in which reality is irrelevant."
Today, Brian Karem of Sentinel Newspapers vented his frustration with the Trump press team.
BRIAN KAREM: What you just did is inflammatory to people all over the country who look at it and say, "See, once again, the President is right and everybody else out here is fake media."
[Cuts back to live]
GARRETT: The White House tried to use the CNN story to brand all Russia-related news as phony. But, Anthony, here's what's not phony: Two congressional investigations and a special counsel probe into the matter.
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By Kyle Drennen
During a contentious interview with Republican Florida Congressman Francis Rooney on Friday over the GOP health care plan, MSNBC anchors Stephanie Ruhle and Ali Velshi repeatedly grilled him on efforts to defund Planned Parenthood at the federal level. When the Congressman pushed back with inconvenient facts about the nation’s largest abortion provider, Ruhle denied reality. Then on Tuesday, the liberal host doubled down on her false assertions.
On Friday, Ruhle lectured Rooney: “Planned Parenthood is where millions of women and some men get essential health services....there will be a shortage, millions of people go to Planned Parenthood every year not for abortions.” Later in the exchange, the GOP lawmaker accurately pointed out: “I read some statistics last week that the non-abortion activities of Planned Parenthood declined precipitously.”
Ruhle completely lost it:
I don’t know where you read that, but I don’t believe that’s true. Based on our reporting and what we cover, it’s actually somewhat stagnant what Planned Parenthood does in terms abortion, but they’ve seen huge increases in breast cancer screenings, cervical cancer screenings, and actaully the amount of men that are now going to Planned Parenthood to get screenings.
Well, not surprisingly, Ruhle was in such a hurry to recite left-wing talking points that she got her facts wrong. Simply by looking at Planned Parenthood’s own annual reports in 2004 and 2016, National Review was able to do some basic math and figure out that total cancer screenings provided by the organization decreased by over 70 percent in the 12-year period (over two million screenings in 2004 vs. less than 634,000 in 2016).
By contrast, the group’s abortion services have continued to be on the rise. In 2004, Planned Parenthood performed 255,015 abortions. In 2016, that number rose to 328,348.
At the end of Tuesday’s 11 a.m. ET hour, Ruhle reminded viewers of her exchange with Rooney:
Last week, Congressman Francis Rooney came on our show to talk about TrumpCare. We asked him about cuts to Planned Parenthood and he said that he read in a research report that non-abortion services are way down at Planned Parenthood and there were some out there who said that when I challenged him, I was a liar and I was fudging the truth.
She doubled down on her faulty data:
Well, I beg of you, please check out this graphic. Now, while contraception and cancer screening/prevention services are slightly down. STD testing and other women’s health services are up. What does that include, other services? Pregnancy tests, prenatal services, miscarriage care, as well as well-woman exams. And other services for Planned Parenthood are family practice services for women and men, adoption referrals, and urinary tract infection treatments.
Ruhle dismissed her critics: “So for those of you out there who said I was fudging it, here’s another ‘F’ to send you. This ‘F’ is a fact.”
Actually, that ‘F’ stands for fake. The problem with the numbers Ruhle cited was that she was only looking a Planned Parenthood services from 2015 to 2016, in which there were modest increases and decreases in certain numbers. However, by ignoring the long-term trends over more than a decade, she was blind to the glaring fact that the abortion provider has become increasingly focused on exactly that, at the expense of all of the other “essential health services” it claims to provide.
Tuesday’s biased reporting was brought to viewers by Kia and AARP.
Here are transcripts of the June 23 and 27 exchanges:
06/23/17
11:27 AM ET
(...)
STEPHANIE RUHLE: Day in, day out, people need health care. Throughout the southeast, part of your district, you’ve got 11 Planned Parenthoods. And Planned Parenthood is where millions of women and some men get essential health services. Without funding Planned Parenthood, where will those people go?
REP. FRANCIS ROONEY [R-FL]: Stephanie, you know, the issue to me about Planned Parenthood is not what does Planned Parenthood do besides abortions, but the fact that they do abortions and the fact that there’s so many community health clinics, 360-something of them in Florida, 20 times as many as are Planned Parenthood places, that provide adequate women’s care.
RUHLE: So will you take all of – will the government look to take all of that funding that had been geared to Planned Parenthood and redirect it to community health centers where they can get all of those other services besides abortions?
ROONEY: Not a bad idea. As I understand it now, most states are adequately served by community health clinics, but that’s the obligation of a government to provide the women’s care without the side benefit of – or the side duty that Planned Parenthood seems to devote itself to of doing over 300,000 abortions a year.
RUHLE: But sir, there will be a shortage, millions of people go to Planned Parenthood every year not for abortions. So if they’re not going to be going to Planned Parenthood because they don’t have enough money....
ALI VELSHI: They do have to go somewhere.
RUHLE: ...they’re going to have to go to those community health centers that don’t have the budget. So they’re going to need the money that the U.S. government is now taking from Planned Parenthood.
ROONEY: Well, I could speak specifically about Lee and Collier county, District 19, and there’s a lot of capacity in the existing network of community health clinics to take care of the people there.
VELSHI: Yeah, but you know, sir, you’re a United States representative, that’s not the case across the country. I think we can get ten women’s health advocates in the room and they can all tell you, we’re not over capacity in terms of ability to help women. There’s been some remarkable advances in the last five to ten years in access to basic health for women. That’s part of what a lot of people are seeing as a threat in both the House bill and the Senate bill.
ROONEY: One other thing about Planned Parenthood, I read some statistics last week that the non-abortion activities of Planned Parenthood declined precipitously.
RUHLE: I don’t know where you read that, but I don’t believe that’s true. Based on our reporting and what we cover, it’s actually somewhat stagnant what Planned Parenthood does in terms abortion, but they’ve seen huge increases in breast cancer screenings, cervical cancer screenings, and actaully the amount of men that are now going to Planned Parenthood to get screenings. More men than ever because men aren’t working in traditional companies, and so they are not getting health care. So they need it to get those screenings. That’s where we’re seeing a huge increase.
ROONEY: Well, I’ll try to find the stuff and send it to you, because I did receive it in writing and I have it somewhere in my files. But the other thing is, I agree women need essential health care, and the community health clinics, at least the places I know about in Florida, have capacity to serve them and they don’t do the bad thing as well.
(...)
06/27/17
11:59 AM ET
 STEPHANIE RUHLE: Last week, Congressman Francis Rooney came on our show to talk about TrumpCare. We asked him about cuts to Planned Parenthood and he said that he read in a research report that non-abortion services are way down at Planned Parenthood and there were some out there who said that when I challenged him, I was a liar and I was fudging the truth.
Well, I beg of you, please check out this graphic. Now, while contraception and cancer screening/prevention services are slightly down.
ALI VELSHI: Slightly.
RUHLE: STD testing and other women’s health services are up. What does that include, other services? Pregnancy tests, prenatal services, miscarriage care, as well as well-woman exams. And other services for Planned Parenthood are family practice services for women and men, adoption referrals, and urinary tract infection treatments. So for those of you out there who said I was fudging it...
VELSHI: Those are the facts.
RUHLE: ...here’s another ‘F’ to send you. This ‘F’ is a fact.
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By Scott Whitlock
The snide journalists at CBS on Tuesday wondered why Republicans are intentionally hurting the gullible voters who support them. The hosts of CBS This Morning talked to Shannon Pettypiece of Bloomberg about the Senate GOP’s plan to repeal ObamaCare. At one point, co-host Charlie Rose blundered, “How do [Republicans] justify the fact that it will hurt the people that supported them most enthusiastically during the election?”
Is it possible that Republicans and conservatives feel that repealing ObamaCare might actually help Americans, including those who voted for them? Rose didn't ask that question. Instead, he skeptically wondered, “Why are the tax benefits for wealthy people?”
Earlier, the CBS journalists pushed the discredited idea of “steep Medicaid cuts.” In reality, the bill simply slows the rate of growth, something that Norah O’Donnell eventually acknowledged as she noted “the largest savings come from reductions in the Medicaid spending.” Not cuts.
Guest Pettypiece fretted that “lower income Americans” would bear “the biggest brunt of these changes.” In a previous appearance on CBS This Morning, the Bloomberg correspondent insisted that ObamaCare is doing fine. It just needs “more subsidies and regulations.”
This biased segment was brought to you by Breyers ice cream and Ford.
A transcript is below:
 CBS This Morning 6/27/17 8:05:51 to 8:09:25
NORAH O’DONNELL: Let’s now take a closer look at those Senate numbers and how the legislation should affect your coverage. Shannon Pettypiece, White House correspondent for Bloomberg News is with us from Washington. Good morning. So just after sharing with our viewers those numbers, I mean, what factors into how much someone pays for health care?
SHANNON PETTYPIECE: Two of the big factors are the subsidies and how much insurers can charge people who are older. As those charts illustrated really well, insurers can now charge older people more for insurance. So a 64-year-old, someone in their 50s or 60s can now pay as much as five times a healthy person. So, you see their costs go up. And at the same time, the subsidies for people who are sort of upper, lower, middle income go down. So they don't get as much of a subsidy and a tax credit and so that's what has these sort of older, lower income Americans feeling really — bearing the biggest brunt of these changes.
 CHARLIE ROSE: Why are the tax benefits for wealthy people?
PETTYPIECE: The — fits in with larger Republican ideology of cutting tax credits, you know, believing that fewer taxes is going to be better for economic growth, one of the key principles driving Republicans' desire to replace ObamaCare is to get rid of these taxes as part of a low tax economy.
GAYLE KING: Now, the largest savings come from reductions in the Medicaid spending. And as you know nearly 70 million Americans really rely on Medicaid. So what does this mean for them, Shannon?
 PETTYPIECE: Eventually millions of people will lose Medicaid coverage according to the CBO estimate. The expansion will eventually be rolled back. It will be harder in the future to qualify for medicaid and hospitals and nursing homes and institutions that depend on those Medicaid payments will eventually see cuts as this bill reduces how much money is given to states and how quickly the money given to states can grow.
O’DONNELL: One of the things ObamaCare did was cover essential benefits. Birth control, maternity care. Vaccines. Mental health. This bill does not. So how would this affect coverage?
PETTYPIECE: Well, that's an excellent point. So now insurers do not have to provide these sort of basic services, you know, even doctors visits, prescription drug coverage which they didn't have to do before this law. So if you have an employee plan, you don't think this affects you. Well, now your employer could provide you a really skinny basic plan that maybe doesn't even cover doctor's visits or prescription drug benefits or mental health or maternity care vaccines. So all those things, even people who think “I have coverage from my employer.” Well, your employer doesn't have to provide those thing to you anymore which they had to under the Affordable Care Act.
CHARLIE ROSE: How do they justify the fact that it will hurt the people that supported them most enthusiastically during the election?
PETTYPIECE: You know, this bill really is in line for what Republicans have been talking about ideologically for more than eight years. Of course, they have been talking about repeal and replacing ObamaCare. They were elected on that. I don't think anybody doubted their interest in repealing ObamaCare. But they also don't like entitlement. So the cuts to the Medicaid program which is something that, you know, a lot of supporters in red states benefit from, you know, the Republicans view that as an entitlement and they feel the program has gotten too big, too expansive. It's government run health care. There's a lot of waste in the system and they're trying to bring it back to people who are disabled or pregnant women or children and not able-bodied adults. That's the Republican ideology behind this.
KING: All right, Shannon Pettypiece. To be continued.
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By Nicholas Fondacaro
 On Tuesday, The Washington Post broke a disturbing development in the story of a Muslim girl killed by an illegal immigrant in an apparent case of road rage. According to The Post, a week prior to the slaying, accused murderer Darwin Martinez Torres put a woman in the hospital. Torres “had punched, choked and sexually assaulted her and was a member of the MS-13 street gang.” Previously, only ABC and NBC has touched the story at all. But despite these new details about the alleged murderer, the story was nowhere to be seen during their evening broadcasts.
“The acts allegedly occurred in the presence of a young child, which prompted a call to Loudoun County’s Child Protective Services agency, which in turn filed a report with the county sheriff,” wrote The Post. “But the woman told CPS that she did not want to pursue charges or accept any social-services help, and so no further action was taken. Days later, 17-year-old Nabra Hassanen was dead.”
With the killing of Hassanen reaching nation attention, “CPS staff recognized that [Torres] was the person allegedly involved in the domestic assault incident and flagged the connection to the sheriff’s office.”
The journalists for The Post noted that the unnamed victim in the hospital “remained overnight at the hospital because she also said she feared the man, the report said.” “The woman also said the man who attacked her was an MS-13 gang member whose violence against her had been escalating, according to the report made to CPS,” they added. They also reported that CPS didn’t think the woman’s case met the standard required for them to advise police involvement.
Local police couldn’t comment because it was an active investigation. But what was known was that Immigration and Customs Enforcement placed a detainer on Torres because he’s an illegal immigrant from El Salvador and could face deportation.
When the news first broke onto the national scene, CBS and NBC ignored the case. Meanwhile, ABC censored how Torres was in the country illegally and speculated that Hassanen was the victim of a hate crime during their 18-second long news brief.
It took NBC News two full days to finally report the heinous attack on the innocent girl. But they too omitted Torres’ legal status while pushing unsubstantiated claims it was a hate crime. “Police say it was a result of road rage, but prosecutors say they can't rule out a hate crime. It's a deadly incident that's touched a nerve across the country,” announced Anchor Lester Holt part way through NBC Nightly News that evening.
Both Spanish-language networks, Univision and Telemundo, omitted the gang affiliation update from their evening broadcasts Tuesday. Instead of reporting on the murder, Univision covered a baby that was born on an airplane. Telemundo actually covered a recent road rage incident in California and discussed America’s road rage in general, but they ever got close to the murder.
The blackout of Torres' legal status, coupled with the blackout of his affiliation with the extremely violent MS-13 demonstrates how the Big Three Networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) refuse to report on the crimes committed by illegal immigrants. But they were quick to push false claims that it was a hate crime. CBS has yet to mention the murder of Hassanen at all since the story went national.
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