NBC News was called out late Sunday over a pair of tweets it sent about an hour apart that critics said showed bias when reporting on President Donald Trump rallies and the protests that have emerged in the wake of George Floyd’s death in police custody, Fox News reported.
NBC News first tweeted a link to a protest in Brooklyn and wrote, “Rally for Black trans lives draws packed crowd to Brooklyn Museum plaza.”
About an hour later, the news outlet tweeted out another story, “President Trump plans to rally his supporters next Saturday for the first time since most of the country was shuttered by the coronavirus. But health experts are questioning that decision.”
Twitter users pointed out that it was only in the Trump tweet that mentioned the health risk of attending a rally during a global pandemic. Mark Hemingway, a senior writer at RealClearInvestigations, pointed out the tweets and wrote, “Little over an hour apart.”
Brian Stelter, the CNN anchor, retweeted Hemingway and wrote, “He has a fair, important point. Also: every time a reporter raises health concerns about Trump’s rally in Tulsa, the Trump camp is just going to bring up the recent protests in response…”
NBC News tweets come as the country is trying to emerge from devastating coronavirus lockdowns that have been blamed for essentially shutting down much of the U.S. economy since March in order to prevent the disease transmission.
States and cities issued stay-at-home orders and modified church services to limit any spread. These orders were, in many cases, enforced with police departments.
Rep. Val Demings, D. Fla., last week, told her Twitter followers that she would join a rally “to speak with our community as America grieves.” A few days later, she came out against Trump’s plan to hold rallies and called the decision “irresponsible and selfish.”
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo had previously lashed out at protesters calling to reopen the state, saying, “you have no right to jeopardize my health … and my children’s health and your children’s health.”
Cuomo said he now “stands” with those defying stay-at-home orders: “Nobody is sanctioning the arson, and the thuggery and the burglaries, but the protesters and the anger and the fear and the frustration? Yes. Yes, and the demand is for justice.”
Be the first to comment