NBC and CBS Tout Prank Call on Gov. Walker as ‘Evidence’ He Wants to ‘Crush Unions’

On Wednesday's NBC Nightly News, correspondent Michael Isikoff claimed a prank phone call on Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker “provided his critics with evidence that his real motivation is what they've been saying all along, to crush public unions.” On Thursday's CBS Early Show, co-host Erica Hill declared the “embarrassing” call revealed Walker's “plan for putting pressure on the big unions.” Isikoff suggested that Walker's private phone conversation with Ian Murphy of the left-wing Buffalo Beast website (who was pretending to be billionaire donor David Koch) ran counter to the Wisconsin Governor's public statements on his budget-cutting proposal: “Publicly, Governor Scott Walker has insisted the standoff over union rights in Wisconsin is all about saving money.” On the Early Show, correspondent Dean Reynolds proclaimed: “Walker is heard discussing strategy to force Democratic senators to return to Wisconsin and vote. In another exchange, he tells of plans to punish state workers with layoffs.” ABC News refrained from reporting on the prank phone call. It was not mentioned on Wednesday's World News or Thursday's Good Morning America. Isikoff warned of Walker's plan: “[It] would force government workers to contribute more for pension and health benefits, severely limit their rights to collective bargaining, and make it more difficult to collect union dues. If he succeeds, it could dry up a major source of campaign cash for Democrats.” Reynolds fretted: “The Governor's plan would end the right of the unions to bargain collectively over benefits and working conditions.” Near the end of his report, an amazed Reynolds remarked: “Though Wednesday's prank call lasted 20 minutes, the Governor never caught on.” Reynolds then noted how “At a press conference later, Walker suggested the call was hardly newsworthy.” A clip was played of Walker explaining, “The bottom line is the things I said are things I've said publicly all along.” Reynolds couldn't help but play a sound bite of one of Walker's critics, “a Democratic opponent [who] took the mike and trashed him” moments after the press conference ended. A clip was played of Wisconsin State Representative Brett Hulsey ranting: “He [Walker] is acting like a dictator, not a leader. The guy's a megalomaniac.” Here is a full transcript of Isikoff's February 23 Nightly News report: 7:00PM ET TEASE: BRIAN WILLIAMS: The domino effect from the showdown in Wisconsin, and the prank call that fooled the Governor and is now all over the web.

Posted by on February 24, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry