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October 13, 2022

NBC News reporter faces backlash for reporting factually about Fetterman's health issues

By Rajan Laad

A few days back, NBC News broadcast an interview of Pennsylvania Senate Democrat candidate John Fetterman by Dasha Burns:

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."

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

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

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., that Fetterman is in normal health.

The attacks on Burns were swift.

It began with former New York Times and Washington Post reporter and podcaster Kara Swisher, who had a stroke in 2011.  Swisher mocked Burns, claiming that it was probably Burns who was poor at small talk.

Swisher recently conducted an interview with Fetterman and claims to be "impressed with how well he's doing."

Next was New York magazine's 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" and he had just a "hearing/auditory challenge."

The NYT's Jonathan Martin also seemed to lament Burns's interview.  He tweeted that the article claiming that it was a "rough clip" for Fetterman and "will only fuel questions about his health."

CBS News's Ed O'Keefe supported Burn's interview, calling it an "important interview with top Senate contender."

NBC News's sister network, MSNBC, however, piled on with the attacks on Burns.

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.

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

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

CNN contributor Kirsten Powers followed the ableist attack spin.

Daily Beast columnist Wajahat Ali compared Fetterman's impairments to Franklin Roosevelt's polio, Lincoln's depression, and Madison's epilepsy.

Adam Rogers with Business Insider accused Burns not of reporting what she saw, but of fabricating a storyline.

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 attacked Burns, while the Daily Kos called Fetterman an inspiration.

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, on 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 questions.

Burns also said that other interviews were done remotely; hence, the interviewers probably didn't notice the monitor where questions were transcribed because it was probably beyond the range of the cameras.

Burns repeated that her entire interview team noticed that without closed captioning, Fetterman was unable to 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, which is valuable information to voters.

Pennsylvania voters have a right to know these details about Fetterman prior to casting their votes.

Burns neither mocked Fetterman's condition nor made 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 the mainstream media have a liberal bias or are pro-Democrat.  This is erroneous because they assume that the mainstream media and the Democrats are disparate entities and the Democrats are somehow influencing the media.

The fact is, the mainstream media function 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" and "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 election.

When the New York Post carried reports on Hunter's laptop, prominent personnel on MSNBC, NBC News, the Washington Post, the Daily Beast, CNN, and the New York 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 Burns's story exposing Fetterman's health issues made it to NBC News without a Democrat loyalist on the NBC News 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 its 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 he consumes is a falsehood until proven factual after meticulous verification.

Image: Twitter screen shot.

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