MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts is a news anchor. Just ask him. Ask NBC News. They describe him as a “News Anchor.” Not a host, like Ed Schultz or Rachel Maddow or Al Sharpton. No, those MSNBC prime time types are there to get ratings with their opinions and commentary. But during the day, Roberts handles the “news” and he’s a serious, unbiased anchor.
Today, when hosting a “serious” discussion about immigration reform, Roberts focused on the leaked plan from the White House this weekend which Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) decried and labeled as “dead on arrival.”
Roberts set his entire segment up under the premise that Republicans had no real substantive opposition to the President’s plan; they just opposed it because they hate Obama. His question to his guest, Rep. Henry Cueller (D-TX) was, “Is this strictly because President Obama’s name is attached to it?”
To set up his question, Roberts showed a clip of Rep. Ryan on ABC News’ “This Week.” The clip was meant to make it look like the Wisconsin congressman was opposed to the bill simply due to the fact that the President is for it, and not on any substantive level. However, take a look at the clip. MSNBC selectively edited Ryan in a very deceitful way. The transcript of the Roberts edit is as follows:
Ryan: “Leaking this out does set things in the wrong direction …EDIT… This particular move, very counter-productive.”
That quote certainly helps Roberts’ premise, doesn’t it?
But, read the full quote from Ryan. Read what MSNBC deceptively removed from the congressman’s statement (in bold):
“Leaking this out does set things in the wrong direction. Look, the question that we always have to ask ourselves, particularly with this White House, is the president looking for a partisan advantage, or is he looking for a bipartisan law?
And by putting these details out without a guest worker program, without addressing future flow, by giving advantage to those who cut in front of line for immigrants who came here legally, not dealing with border security adequately, that tells us that he’s looking for a partisan advantage and not a bipartisan solution. There are groups in the House and the Senate working together to get this done, and when he does things like this, it makes it much more difficult to do that, and that’s why I think this particular move, very counterproductive.
So Roberts plays the deceptive clip as a premise for a full segment on how Republicans only oppose the President’s plan because Obama’s name is on it. But Ryan had very specific, policy related reasons why he opposed it. “And by putting these details out without a guest worker program, without addressing future flow, by giving advantage to those who cut in front of line for immigrants who came here legally, not dealing with border security adequately…” Does that sound like a person who opposes a plan simply because it was proposed by the President?
Also, didn’t a majority of Republicans oppose a stricter immigration plan when it was proposed by President George W. Bush?
It doesn’t matter. As long as MSNBC and “news anchors” like Thomas Roberts have a narrative to paint, they will paint it. Even if it means deceptively editing their ideological opponents to paint that narrative.
It is remarkable how members of the media are so successful in portraying President Obama, the leader of the free world, as a victim. And it’s equally remarkable how the deceptive editing at NBC News continues unabated.
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