Throughout the day on Tuesday, MSNBC anchors and pundits were in full panic mode over the news that the Commerce Department was planning to add a question about citizenship status to the 2020 census. Hour after hour, the move was blasted as “racist,” “illegal,” and even predicted to cause a public health crisis. From 9:00 a.m. ET to 3:00 p.m. ET, the liberal cable channel’s coverage of the topic was 90% negative.
“This morning, the Commerce Department is getting slammed for its decision to add a question about citizenship to the 2020 U.S. Census, something that got thrown out decades ago,” fill-in co-host Chris Jansing proclaimed during 9:00 a.m. ET hour. Noting that California Democrats were suing the Trump administration, she touted them “arguing the citizenship question violates the Constitution.”
Discussing the topic with her political panel minutes later, Jansing ranted: “I mean, let’s be realistic about this. Do we think this is about getting an accurate view of the census and protecting voting rights? Or is it to, in fact, suppress minority voting, to hurt the Democrats as that redistricting takes place?”
Slate’s Mike Pesca replied: “Well, it’s not exactly to suppress voting, it’s to suppress representation.....This will be bad for our representative democracy. It would make our democracy unrepresentative.”
Jansing hammered the White House: “And the argument that a lot of people are making is look at the history of this administration. This is an administration that has consistently tried to suppress voting rights, to suppress minorities.”
In the 10:00 a.m. ET hour, anchor Hallie Jackson sounded the alarm:
...critics of this say the question might intimidate immigrants, might discourage them from responding. And then what would that mean? Well, the argument goes undercounting certain communities might mean some states could lose seats in Congress, maybe even lose electoral votes, maybe lose federal money when it’s based on census counts. There are real implications to this.
She further worried that Democrats would be harmed by any adjustment in congressional representation: “California could actually lose a seat in the House, which Politico notes is unheard of in California....adding, ‘In such a solidly-blue state, the loss of a seat would have a disproportionate impact on the Democratic Party.’”
Axios Deputy News Editor Alexi McCammond joined in the hand-wringing: “There’s a huge political aspect to that. And Democrats are obviously trying to take a huge number of Republican House seats in California....So that could totally shift things in 2018 and beyond for decades...” Moments later, she slammed the President: “Trump launched his 2016 candidacy bashing immigrants, he’s now starting his 2020 re-election campaign doing the same thing.”
Substituting again for anchors Stephanie Ruhle and Ali Velshi in the 11:00 a.m. ET hour, Jansing declared: “California is now suing the federal government after a late night announcement that the 2020 census will include a controversial question about citizenship status. Civil rights groups say the question is racist and unconstitutional.”
On her 12:00 p.m. ET hour show, anchor Andrea Mitchell feared public health would be endangered:
A major battle is brewing over the Trump administration’s decision to add a question about citizenship to the 2020 census. Something that has not happened since the 1950s. Civil rights groups slamming the move, saying it could significantly reduce responses from immigrants fearful of deportation. It could sabotage the entire census count, which is critical for medical decisions and housing and the like.... the CDC depends on these census counts for calling to see whether people are immunized. I mean, there’s a public health component to this as well.
In the 1:00 p.m. ET hour, fill-in co-host Yasmin Vossoughian hyped: “Democrats charge that Republicans have devised an illegal way to help their electoral chances in the near and distant future.”
NewsBusters intern Bill D’Agostino looked at every hour on MSNBC from 9:00 a.m. ET until 3:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday. He crunched the numbers and found that coverage of the census issue was 90.5% negative during that six-hour period. The coverage during each individual hour ranged from 85% to 100% negative.
Once the journalists at MSNBC have decided on their liberal talking points for the day, they stick to that narrative.
