Kevin McCarthy's face over the Capitol building

Molly Butler / Media Matters

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Major news organizations aren’t holding House Republicans accountable for the upcoming government shutdown

Mainstream outlets are failing to provide crucial information to their audiences

Written by Zachary Pleat

Published

Many mainstream news organizations are coming up short in their coverage of the looming federal government shutdown, misleadingly portraying the impasse as a problem created by the House of Representatives or the Congress as a whole instead of informing readers that the latest shutdown crisis is entirely the result of infighting and disagreement within the House of Representatives' Republican majority.

Unless House Republicans, led by Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), can come to an agreement on appropriations bills to keep the federal government open past the September 30 funding deadline, the American people will witness a sixth consecutive government shutdown brought on by a Republican-led House. Unfortunately, some major news organizations are failing to explain in their headlines and social media posts that it is the GOP that Americans should hold solely accountable for any shutdown hardships they may endure. Although some outlets have demonstrated informative ways to cover this topic, many others are failing to do so.

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  • Media critics explain why news organizations must inform their audiences that Republicans deliberately engineered this shutdown

    • Former Crooked Media editor-in-chief Brian Beutler explained that vague headlines about an upcoming government shutdown fail to inform news audiences of who to hold accountable for it. In a video included in his new Off Message newsletter, Beutler demonstrated how a vague, passively constructed headline like “The government is about to shut down” leaves unanswered the question of “who’s shutting it down,” and “kind of makes it sound like the government will stop functioning all on its own.” He explained that a more specific headline like “Republicans are about to shut down the government” is more appropriate because it “provides news consumers with really important information. It makes clear for them who is responsible for the fact that the government is about to shut down, so that they can factor it into their civic actions.” [Off Message, 9/26/23]
    • Beutler: Media outlets are “muddying what is actually a clear picture: Republicans, and Republicans alone, are responsible for the looming government shutdown.” He explained: “House Republicans have collapsed into civil war. There’s a band of far-right Republicans who believe that the GOP’s toe-hold on power in one half of Congress entitles them to dictate the terms of how the government should be run, and how much we as a society should spend on which government functions. They have Donald Trump’s full support for shutting down the government, and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has ceded them a lot of power.” [Off Message, 9/26/23]
    • Talking Points Memo Washington Bureau chief and executive editor David Kurtz: “Much of the coverage of the looming government shutdown is just terrible because it doesn’t accurately capture the power dynamic at play” between McCarthy and the extremist House Freedom Caucus. In TPM’s Morning Memo, Kurtz wrote that “anything you read about the dynamic being Biden v. McCarthy or Senate v. House is simply wrong. … McCarthy is being extorted by the far-right and caving to the pressure by refusing to bring to the floor budget vehicles that would pass right now … today … in a heartbeat.” [Talking Points Memo, 9/28/23]

  • Many news organizations’ headlines and social media posts left out this crucial information

    • Reuters: “Shutdown looms as US Senate, House take dueling tacks on funding.” [Reuters, 9/26/23]
  • Reuters headline: "Shutdown looms as US Senate, House take dueling tacks on funding."
    • Reuters: “Partial US government shutdown just four days away as congressional standoff continues.” [Reuters, 9/28/23]
  • Reuters: "Partial US government shutdown just four days away as congressional standoff continues."
    • Reuters: “Shutdown odds grow as Senate, House advance separate spending plans.” [Reuters, 9/28/23]
  • Reuters: "Shutdown odds grow as Senate, House advance separate spending plans."
    • Reuters: “US Senate, House hold procedural votes as partial government shutdown looms.” [Twitter/X, 9/28/23]
  • Reuters: "US Senate, House hold procedural votes as partial government shutdown looms."
    • AP: “Congress says it wants to avoid a shutdown. But the House and Senate are moving even further apart.” [The Associated Press, 9/27/23]
  • AP: "Congress says it wants to avoid a shutdown. But the House and Senate are moving even further apart."
    • AP: “A government shutdown is nearing this weekend. What does it mean, who’s hit and what’s next?” [The Associated Press, 9/28/23]
  • AP: "A government shutdown is nearing this weekend. What does it mean, who’s hit and what’s next?"
    • NBC News: “Government shutdown inches closer with little progress on Capitol Hill.” [NBC News, 9/28/23]
  • NBC: "Government shutdown inches closer with little progress on Capitol Hill."
    • NBC News: “Congress races against the clock to avoid a government shutdown: Live updates.” This live update headline is being updated periodically. [NBC News, 9/28/23]
  • NBC: "Congress races against the clock to avoid a government shutdown: Live updates."
    • NBC News: “DEVELOPING: Government shutdown looms as Congress lacks a clear path forward.” [Twitter/X, 9/28/23]
  • NBC: "DEVELOPING: Government shutdown looms as Congress lacks a clear path forward."
    • NBC’s Today: “With only two days to go, Republicans and Democrats are not any closer to striking a deal to avert a government shutdown.” [Twitter/X, 9/28/23]
  • NBC: "With only two days to go, Republicans and Democrats are not any closer to striking a deal to avert a government shutdown."
    • WSJ: “Standoff in Congress brings government to brink of shutdown.” [The Wall Street Journal, 9/27/23]
  • WSJ: "Standoff in Congress brings government to brink of shutdown."
    • WSJ: “If Congress can’t pass spending legislation by the end of this week, how painful would a government shutdown be? To some extent, that is up to the White House.” [Twitter/X, 9/28/23]
  • "If Congress can’t pass spending legislation by the end of this week, how painful would a government shutdown be? To some extent, that is up to the White House."
    • CNN: “With only three days to go before government funding expires, Congress is barreling toward a shutdown with the House and Senate at an impasse over a path forward.” [Twitter/X, 9/28/23]
  • CNN: "With only three days to go before government funding expires, Congress is barreling toward a shutdown with the House and Senate at an impasse over a path forward."
    • USA Today: “The country is two days away from a federal government shutdown, a situation that has moved from possible to likely as Congress is stuck in gridlock.” [Twitter/X, 9/28/23]
  • USAT: "The country is two days away from a federal government shutdown, a situation that has moved from possible to likely as Congress is stuck in gridlock."

  • Other news organizations clearly demonstrated how to show that Republicans are to blame for a shutdown

    • Washington Post: “The small group of House Republicans who might force a government shutdown.” The Post’s sub-headline included further useful details, stating that “roughly 10 lawmakers have at various times thwarted Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s proposals for both short- and long-term funding.” [The Washington Post, 9/28/23]
    • New York Times: “The Republicans driving Congress toward a shutdown.” [The New York Times, 9/27/23]
    • PBS NewsHour: “WATCH LIVE: Senate convenes as House Republicans continue budget battle and shutdown deadline nears.” [Twitter/X, 9/28/23]
    • PBS NewsHour: “The federal government is heading toward a shutdown that will disrupt many services, squeeze workers and roil politics as Republicans in the House, fueled by hard-right demands for deep cuts, force a confrontation over federal spending.” [Twitter/X, 9/28/23]
    • ABC’s Good Morning America: “Speaker McCarthy rejects bipartisan plan from Senate as shutdown deadline looms.” [Twitter/X, 9/28/23]
    • ABC’s World News Tonight: “With just three days until a government shutdown, House Speaker McCarthy said the House will not take up a bipartisan Senate proposal that would continue funding the government.” [Twitter/X, 9/27/23]

  • Even some conservative media are openly blaming Republicans for a shutdown

    • Fox News contributor Karl Rove: Republicans get blamed for government shutdowns “generally because Republicans are responsible for the shutdown. They seem to eagerly want it.” Rove continued to criticize Republican lawmakers: “So yeah, there's a reason why they get blamed. And look, the American people demand that their government try and run itself in an appropriate fashion. And the fact that the biggest financial and business enterprise in the world, the U.S. government, cannot pass a budget in time and then ends up shutting itself down over things that are on the margin. … The Republicans are going to be — shoot themselves in the foot in the run-up to the 2024 election if they continue to think that shutdowns are a great way to put themselves in front of the American people.” [Fox Broadcasting Co., Fox News Sunday, 9/17/23]
    • Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade grilled Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) about his pro-shutdown stance: “Congressman, you just know if the government gets shut down, Republicans get the blame.” After a testy exchange between Kilmeade and Rosendale over the latter’s refusal to support a short-term proposal to avoid a government shutdown, Kilmeade replied: “Congressman, you just know if the government gets shut down, Republicans get the blame because they are not even providing even a CR [continuing resolution], a pathway to a CR. You're saying I'm not going to go for 30 days, so the government shuts down. That means your investigations stop, that means the border funding doesn't happen, and that's OK?” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 9/19/23]
    • On Hannity, Fox contributor and former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich singled out “all the people in the Freedom Caucus who are cheerfully screwing things up.” Gingrich argued that Freedom Caucus shenanigans might endanger GOP House seats in 2024. “Sometimes I think we have some members who can’t not only play chess or checkers, they can't play tic-tac-toe,” Gingrich said. “You have to start from success and work back.” Coincidentally, Gingrich engineered two government shutdowns during his time as House speaker, in part over a petty personal grudge. [Fox News, Hannity, 9/22/23; Media Matters, 8/31/10]
    • Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt wrote in his Washington Post column that “the GOP’s Knucklehead Caucus” is courting a shutdown. Hewitt further wrote in his column that the upcoming shutdown was “instigated by an obstinate subset of the House GOP’s Freedom Caucus. I call them the Knucklehead Caucus.” [The Washington Post, 9/28/23]