‘Face the Nation’ Correspondent Stuns Fellow Panelists Into Silence, With Truth About COVID Policies Harming Kids – Opinion

Most Sundays, the roundtable or panel section of any weekly Sunday political show is lively. It involves a discussion between moderator and panelists. But that wasn’t the case during one segment of CBS News’ “Face The Nation” this week.

As the show does once a year, it convened a panel made up entirely of the news division’s correspondents, ostensibly to review the big stories of 2021 and make some predictions about where those storylines will go in 2022 and beyond.

But at some point in the segment, the panel sat in stunned silence for over a minute-and-a-half, as one of their own spoke the truth about how damaging the lockdowns and other governmental measures have been to our nation’s children. And it’s implicit in her answer that the media is not off the hook for the blatant lack of reporting about it.

Margaret Brennan was the moderator and host. Jan Crawford, CBS News’ chief legal correspondent, took over.

I also want to read underreported stories. Jan?

Crawford spoke out. Listen and watch.

(Her words were worth reading in its entirety, and I have transcribed them below. Curiously, the answers to this question don’t appear in the official transcript provided by CBS News.)

“They will be paying for our generation’s decisions the rest of their lives”: @JanCBSShe shares her thoughts on why 2021 was so under-reported. pic.twitter.com/AUU1f6AFNi

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) December 26, 2021

For me…my kids hear me rant about this every day, so I might as well tell you guys.

It’s the crushing impact that our COVID policies have had on young kids and children. By far, the least serious risk for serious illness, but — I mean even teenagers, you know, a healthy teenager has a one in a million chance of getting and dying from COVID, which is way lower than dying in a car wreck on a road trip.

They have been the ones who suffered and gave their lives, particularly in communities that are underrepresented or at-risk. And now we have the surgeon general saying there’s a mental health crisis among our kids.

This year, the risk of girls trying to commit suicide has risen by 51 percent. Black children are nearly twice as likely to commit suicide than white ones.

Schools closing, lockdowns and cancellation of sports. You couldn’t even go on a playground in the D.C. area without cops scurrying, shooing the kids off.

Tremendous negative impact on kids, and it’s been an afterthought. It’s hurt their dreams, their future, learning loss, risk of abuse, their mental health.

And now, with our knowledge, our vaccines, if our policies don’t reflect a more measured and reasonable approach for our children, they will be paying for our generation’s decisions the rest of their lives.

This is my favorite under-reported story from the last year.

Notice in the video that Brennan was the only one to acknowledge any of what Crawford said, when the reporter mentioned the “mental health crisis among kids,” leading into her sharing that staggering statistic on suicide rates among girls.

RedState has reported on the ways schools have treated children, which verge on child abuse in how they’re implemented. Also, I have previously written about how cities closed skateparks and filled them with trucks of sand. And I doubt anyone will soon forget the images of what Crawford described — the playgrounds across the country closed and their gates secured with locks.

Yes, as CBS News’ tweet read, the reporter outlined “the devastating impact of COVID policies on children.” But the unspoken word in that sentence is “Democrat.” It’s been mostly Democrat governors and other officials — elected and unelected — who have imposed the harshest policies during the pandemic, including the ones devastating our young people. It’s not even close.