Have the media fairly covered Joe Biden's 'you ain't black' blunder?
Media reporter for The Hill Joe Concha reacts.
The Hill's Joe Concha called out CNN on Tuesday, saying the network first ignored then "downplayed" former Vice President Joe Biden’s suggestion during an interview last week that African-Americans unsure about whether to support him or President Trump "ain't black."
“If President Trump or any Republican uttered anything like that, it would be dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria in the media,” Concha told “Fox & Friends” on Tuesday.
Biden expressed regret Friday during a call with black business leaders for the comment he made during an earlier interview.
“I shouldn't have been so cavalier,” Biden said in an afternoon phone call with the U.S. Black Chamber of Commerce.
Biden said he understands the comments sounded like he was taking the black vote "for granted" but insisted that wasn't the case.
"I shouldn't have been such a wise guy," Biden said. "No one should have to vote for any party, based on their race or religion or background."
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On Tuesday, host Steve Doocy pointed out that several media outlets, including NBC and ABC, reported that Biden’s comments reacting to the controversy amounted to an apology and asked Concha if that was the case.
“I didn't hear the word ‘Sorry.’ I didn't hear any word that resembled an apology,” Concha said in response.
He then pointed out that a lot of people were offended.
“This wasn't just a conservative's pounce offended sort of situation, there were plenty on the left as well, including the NAACP because, remember, Biden also said that the NAACP has always endorsed him,” said Concha, a media critic.
“NACCP had to put out a statement saying, ‘No we don't endorse anybody, that's not accurate,’ so, there definitely was not an apology here.”
Concha went on to say that overall he thought the coverage “was pretty good across cable news.”
“At least two-thirds of it, MSNBC, Fox News, obviously, covered this pretty extensively,” he noted.
He then went on to say that “one network, CNN, didn't touch it for nearly 12 hours.”
Concha added that “by the time they did speak about it, it was already Friday night of a summer holiday weekend when most people aren't watching TV, including me at that point, and that is simply an example of bias of omission 101 by that particular network.”
He went on to note that since that time, CNN has “downplayed the story.”
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Concha then pointed to a CNN headline on the topic: “What Biden said was outrageous. But, some say, so was the reaction.”
“So when they did even cover it, then it’s just, ‘You know what, let’s give him a pass here,’” he said.
Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser, Madeleine Rivera and Allie Raffa contributed to this report.
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