A NewsBusters analysis of five leading liberal Capitol Hill reporters has found that, by a margin of roughly two-and-a-half-to-one (72 to 28), they have taken to X more times since the start of the government shutdown to condemn Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and the House for being out of session than they have highlighted crucial government programs like food stamps and pay for soldiers that have been affected by the Democrat-created crisis.
With X posts starting with the shutdown itself on October 1 and running through Monday, NewsBusters chose five of the longest-tenured and well-known reporters on the Hill: PunchBowl’s John Bresnahan and Jake Sherman, The New York Times’s Annie Karni, independent reporter Jamie Dupree (formerly with Cox), and The Washington Post’s Paul Kane.
Concerning attacks on Johnson and the House, we found 72 relevant tweets using the following terms: Calendar, district, House, out, session, votes, and work. Tweets specifically discussing Congresswoman-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) were not included.
Karni had the fewest tweets with four, and one was an X post of her October 25 article that read like a column: “Keeping the House Absent, Johnson Marginalizes Congress and Himself.”
Showing the incestuous nature of the liberal D.C. press, Sherman shared Karni’s article as one of his 24 X posts about Johnson and the People’s House, calling it a “good [Annie Karni] story.”
Back on October 3, Sherman posted on X that “House Republican leadership has been all over the map on whether to bring the House back.” Five days later, he huffed: “House Republican leadership has felt fine keeping lawmakers at home and blaming the Senate.”
Bresnahan also shared Karni’s punditry as one of his 13 whiny posts, adding a quote of hers: “Speaker Mike Johnson’s decision to put the House on an indefinite hiatus … is the latest in a series of moves he has made that have diminished the role of Congress and shrunken the speakership at a critical moment.”
“The government has been shut down for weeks & the House GOP leadership won’t bring their own members back. Pretty stunning,” Bresnahan said just over a week earlier on October 17.
As for Dupree and Kane, they had 21 and 10 X posts, respectively.
This October 10 missive from Kane was particularly egregious in showing his bias. Check out his rejection of an argument that keeping the House around would make little sense (given they passed a clean continuing resolution): “This is a bonkers theory that some Rs are floating. Its core tenet suggests: Our members are too immature & insane to be here during important debates, better to hide them back in their districts. If this is the case, why should they ever be in DC? Abolish the House?”
Last week, Kane blasted Johnson: “In Oct '23, Rs settled on a low-profile member to become speaker because he was only one who could get the votes & reopen House after 3-week shutdown. On Saturday @SpeakerJohnson celebrates 2-yr anniversary by overseeing 35-day-and-counting shutdown of House.”
But when it came to substance, they were far less interested. To find our 28 X posts, we used these search terms: benefits, federal employee, federal pay, nutrition, pay, SNAP, troops, troop pay, veteran, and WIC.
Kane and Karni tied for one X post each.
Karni mentioned troop pay being in jeopardy on October 1, but as for Kane, he posted on October 16 about missed paychecks.
However, he wasn’t concerned about missed pay for air traffic controllers, troops, or other government workers who defend country: “That’s a wrap on this week of shutdown. With Senate adjourned until 5:30 pm Monday, it’s official: Thousands of Senate staff will miss a full payment for time worked this month. They get paid 5th & 20th each month. They will get back pay at end of shutdown. But only then.”
Brenahan was next as he fired off seven X posts on affected groups from October 1-27. Three were about troops, two on SNAP benefits, and one each on back pay and federal employees.
Dupree had eight X posts about troop pay having been in question as a result of the shutdown. Incredibly, all of them were kvetching about the legality of finding work-arounds to continue paying our servicemen and women.
“Maybe someone can cite the section of federal law which allows a President to move unused Pentagon funding into military pay for a new fiscal year - without Congressional approval,” he grumbled on October 11.
In another, he complained four days later: “Is this constitutional? 31 U.S.C. §1301(a) states: ‘ Appropriations shall be applied only to the objects for which the appropriations were made.’ Does leftover Pentagon RDT&E funding have a 'reasonable, logical relationship' to military pay? Doesn't seem like it.”
Sherman had the most on 11 X posts about affected parties (seven on troops, three on back pay, and one on WIC).
The liberal press have always been hostile toward Republicans and government shutdowns have long been an unfortunate but crystal clear contrast.
But given the fact that this shutdown has been driven by their fellow liberals, these journalists have used social media to eschew the usual tactic of accusing Republicans of being heartless to instead complain about....process.
