Joe Schoffstall at Fox News is offering one of those stories the liberal media don't want you to hear. New emails released through the Freedom of Information Act reveal the teachers unions put a lot of pressure on the Biden administration to toughen masking standards in schools.
The Biden administration tightened its masking guidance after a prominent teachers union threatened White House officials with publicly releasing harsh criticism, internal emails show.
The National Education Association sent a draft statement to White House officials that included harsh criticism of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's masking guidance, the emails show. But the teachers union ultimately published a version with a much softer tone, and the CDC clarified its guidance to indicate that everyone should be masked in schools, regardless of vaccination status....
The CDC announced on May 13 that fully vaccinated Americans could stop wearing masks indoors and outside, which sparked confusion about how this policy would apply to schools.
One day later, on May 14, Erika Dinkel-Smith, the White House director of labor engagement, said she stopped the NEA from releasing a critical statement that had called for immediate clarification.
The emails. sought by the group Americans for Public Trust, show CDC chief of staff Sherri Berger calling up Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers and Becky Pringle of the National Education Association.
The next day, on May 15, the CDC updated its masking guidance to indicate that all people should wear a mask at school regardless of vaccination status.
"This batch of emails came just weeks after we already exposed the teachers unions influenced the CDC on school openings," Americans for Public Trust Executive Director Caitlin Sutherland told Fox News. "Lo and behold, less than two weeks later, they're at it again, but this time in relation to mask guidance."
But the liberal networks, highlighted a different set of facts, the narrative the unions wanted. A Nexis search for news on "teachers unions" brought a drumbeat of stories on 13 school employees in Miami-Dade Public Schools dying of COVID. Take CNN's New Day on Wednesday morning:
BRIANNA KEILAR: And in Florida, 13 employees from Miami-Dade public schools have died from coronavirus since mid-August. Their families say that all of them were unvaccinated. The president of the Miami-Dade teachers' union, Karla Hernandez-Mats, joining us now to talk about this. Karla, thank you so much for being with us this morning.
Thirteen staffers. And we should be clear, we're not just talking about teachers. There's also bus drivers, cafeteria workers and others. How are you all managing this? How are you -- how are you responding and dealing with this loss?
This narrative also surfaced Wednesday night on ABC's World News Tonight:
DAVID MUIR: In Miami-Dade County, Florida, the teachers' union reporting 13 school district staffers have died of COVID in the last three weeks. Officials say none of them were vaccinated.
On Thursday afternoon on MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports, this narrative was shared again, and former Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs used it to drive home tougher vaccine mandates: " I think Joe Biden has to get on the phone with the teachers' unions, and make sure that those vaccine mandates happen. It's time to sort of put aside the carrots and get out the sticks, because we know vaccinating people is almost assuredly going to keep them out of the hospital and keep them from dying."
