In Every Government Shutdown, the Media Are Eager Democrat Helpers

Tim Graham on Oct 3, 2025

If the national media can be counted on to spin anything dramatically toward the Democrats, it's a government shutdown. They feel passionately that the Democrats are the Party of Government, and the Republicans are the Haters of Government, so who naturally favors shutting it all down?

Even before the shutdown occurred, NPR and PBS issued their poll warning Republicans would get more of the blame than Democrats. That's why those partisan hacks deserved defunding. A substantial minority would blame both parties, because the independents told NPR, "They're just fighting like two little kids."

But pinning blame on Republicans is the perennial goal of press coverage. During the 1995-1996 shutdown, ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts (and CNN's World News) ran 48 stories in which reporters assigned blame: 23 blaming Republicans, and 25 blaming both Republicans and then-President Bill Clinton. Not one single story blamed Clinton alone.

Broadcast networks blamed Republicans in the 2013 shutdown under Obama, and the 2019 shutdown under Trump. It wasn't just there. In 2013, Republicans were "putting on their suicide vests," said British journalist Tina Brown on CNN. They're called "the suicide caucus," proclaimed NBC anchor Brian Williams on David Letterman's show. It's "economic terrorism," insisted MSNBC blowhard Ed Schultz.

They don't hide whose side they are taking. CNN anchor Pamela Brown -- whose dad was a Democrat governor of Kentucky -- tried to "fact-check" Speaker Mike Johnson on Thursday morning.

"All right, we're listening here to Speaker Johnson. He's trying to frame the shutdown as a Democratic shutdown. He also falsely claimed that Democrats want to give health care, extend health care to illegal immigrants. That is not true. Illegal immigrants are not eligible for federal health care programs."

Hours later, after House Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries spoke on the Capitol steps, CNN turned to repeater-not-reporter Arlette Saenz on the Hill, and she merely regurgitated all the Democrat talking points. No one "fact-checked" anything.

The "independent fact-checkers," including CNN's Daniel Dale, pounced on any claims that the Democrats shut down the government over their favoritism toward illegal aliens. PolitiFact threw a "False" flag at Vice President JD Vance. Actually, it is true that the federal government currently pays for health care for "noncitizens." Democrats object to Trump's moves to stop it.

Republicans posted video of a 2019 Democrat presidential debate where Savannah Guthrie nudged: "Raise your hand if your government plan would provide health insurance for undocumented immigrants." Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and everyone else on that stage raised their hand.

Republicans also posted the state government of New York -- home of Jeffries and Senate Democrat Leader Charles Schumer -- advertised that it has an insurance program through "Medicaid Managed Care" that gives health insurance to illegal immigrants over 65. They promoted "a more comprehensive benefit package for this population. ... The new insurance adds preventive and primary care benefits, including routine doctor visits, recommended screenings, lab tests, wellness services, prescription drugs and supplies, and more."

The actual details over the trend of federal spending -- always rising dramatically -- are treated as boring. How many journalists fixate on the annual deficit, or the accumulated national debt? That's not a serious question. Don't be a nerd. Reporters just want to cover this like it's a rhetorical boxing match that Republicans are always going to lose.

Democrat politicians feel the media bias enables them to be self-righteous holdouts in a shutdown, knowing they have a protection racket in the press corps. They pose as the reasonable moderates facing extremist "terrorists." Then they wonder why the media's trust ratings are in the toilet.

Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org. To find out more about Tim Graham and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.