We are now entering the second week of a partial government shutdown that cut off funding to the Department of Homeland Security, which includes FEMA, TSA, and the Coast Guard. But you might not know it by following the mainstream media, which seems to be mostly ignoring it. This is a far cry from the broader shutdown last fall, which garnered daily wall-to-wall coverage.
So what gives on the legacy media's indifference to this shutdown? Well, for starters both last fall's shutdown and this one were caused by Democrats, which goes against the traditional narrative surrounding government shutdowns. "Republicans are usually blamed for a shutdown, regardless of who's in power," says Curtis Houck, managing editor at the Media Research Center. "Why is that? It's because of the media narrative...and I think this is, for some, their way of doing their part to take pressure off Democrats to bear some of the burden."
Even during last fall's shutdown, the legacy media framed it as equally the fault of Republicans and Democrats...even though Democrats forced the shutdown, and voted against every effort to end it until Republicans finally got a handful to side with them.
This time, it is even harder to blame Republicans, so the media isn't even trying. "Obviously, the liberal press---the anti-ICE, anti-CBP press---are on the side of the Democrats in this shutdown, even though some of their coverage has pointed out that border enforcement remains funded and is not affected by the shutdown," says Houck.
Houck also notes much of the media is distracted by other stories, like the Olympics, the Nancy Guthrie case, and growing tensions with Iran. "So I think it is a confluence of reasons and circumstances why this DHS shutdown just hasn't driven a lot of interest from the national press," he says.