Government 'slimdown': How the conservative media is covering the shutdown (or not)
What shutdown?
For the first time in nearly two decades, lawmakers failed to pass a budget on time, triggering a government shutdown.
Some 800,000 federal workers have been furloughed, and all non-essential government services have been closed. NASA, celebrating its 55th birthday Tuesday, has virtually turned off the lights.
In other words, the government shutdown is what Joe Biden would call a BFD. But you wouldn't have guessed that if you happened to be on a conservative media website on Monday afternoon. In fact, you may not have noticed the shutdown at all.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The shutdown is "turning out to be more of a 'slimdown,'" a lead story on Fox News claimed, while suggesting it wasn't so bad after all. However, the same article noted, further down, that only a "patchwork" of services remained open, and that "the impact of the partial shutdown will begin to be felt across the country, as other agencies cut back their staff and national parks and other locations close down."
The decision to downgrade the shutdown was not relegated to one story. Here's what Fox's home page looked like around 1:30 Monday afternoon:
Despite the shutdown being the biggest political story of the day, National Review led its site Tuesday afternoon with an article on how Obama sought to "fundamentally" transform America. The home page included scant coverage of the shutdown, instead devoting copious space to the other, more GOP-friendly story of the day: The ObamaCare rollout. The site prominently featured an entire column of articles criticizing the law, with headlines like "Time to Halt the ACA," "Bad Test Results," "100 Unintended Consequences," "Failure to Launch," and so on.
The Weekly Standard led with a story urging Republicans to "stand pat" in the shutdown fight. Featured alongside it: An article lampooning Michelle Obama's new pro-water campaign.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Of the Daily Caller's three leading stories around the same time, two blasted Democrats for partying it up during the shutdown. The third, a four-paragraph brief, flatly reported an accusation made by a prominent GOP-favored doctor that the IRS targeted him because he criticized Obama.
The two shutdown-related articles were: "As government shuts down, Democrats party it up at Hillary Clinton's D.C. house," and "Democrats, unions host ObamaCare celebration EVEN DURING SHUTDOWN."
Both articles tried to convey Democratic jubilation about the shutdown. Yet the former article was about a completely unrelated fundraiser for Democratic Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe. The latter, meanwhile, noted that Democrats planned to celebrate the rollout of a program they are unapologetically proud of.
Elsewhere in the conservative blogosphere, The Blaze pretty much ignored the shutdown to focus on a different, hard-hitting story:
Hot Air shredded ObamaCare: "Life's a glitch: ObamaCare websites plagued by bugs on launch day; Update: Feds apologize; Video: MSNBC reporter tries, fails to enroll." The site's top story on the shutdown concerned veterans storming barricades blocking the World War II Memorial, not the broader shutdown crisis itself.
At least Breitbart made coverage of the shutdown its top story — by spinning it as an event the mainstream media desperately craved: "**LIVE UPDATES** MEDIA GETS GOV'T SHUTDOWN THEY WANTED."
Polls have shown the shutdown to be deeply unpopular. And a Washington Post/ABC News poll Monday found that only one-quarter of Americans approved of the way Republicans have handled the budget negotiations.
"It seems the editors of these websites have read the polls, too," wrote The New Republic's Ryan Kearney, "and would just as soon downplay, or outright ignore, that our government is grinding to a halt — lest the GOP be rightly blamed."
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Jon Terbush is an associate editor at TheWeek.com covering politics, sports, and other things he finds interesting. He has previously written for Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, and Business Insider.
-
Senegal's Bassirou Diomaye Faye: from prison to Africa's youngest elected leader
Why everyone's talking about The 44-year-old has resonated with young people by promising to shake up the establishment and enact economic reforms
By Richard Windsor, The Week UK Published
-
How social media is limiting political content
The Explainer Critics say Meta's 'extraordinary move' to have less politics in users' feeds could be 'actively muzzling civic action'
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
'Unthinkable tragedy'
Today's Newspapers A roundup of the headlines from the US front pages
By The Week Staff Published
-
The debate about Biden's age and mental fitness
In Depth Some critics argue Biden is too old to run again. Does the argument have merit?
By Grayson Quay Published
-
How would a second Trump presidency affect Britain?
Today's Big Question Re-election of Republican frontrunner could threaten UK security, warns former head of secret service
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
'Rwanda plan is less a deterrent and more a bluff'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By The Week UK Published
-
Henry Kissinger dies aged 100: a complicated legacy?
Talking Point Top US diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize winner remembered as both foreign policy genius and war criminal
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Last updated
-
Trump’s rhetoric: a shift to 'straight-up Nazi talk'
Why everyone's talking about Would-be president's sinister language is backed by an incendiary policy agenda, say commentators
By The Week UK Published
-
More covfefe: is the world ready for a second Donald Trump presidency?
Today's Big Question Republican's re-election would be a 'nightmare' scenario for Europe, Ukraine and the West
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Xi-Biden meeting: what's in it for both leaders?
Today's Big Question Two superpowers seek to stabilise relations amid global turmoil but core issues of security, trade and Taiwan remain
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Will North Korea take advantage of Israel-Hamas conflict?
Today's Big Question Pyongyang's ties with Russia are 'growing and dangerous' amid reports it sent weapons to Gaza
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published