Time reporter hails $3.5T spending bill, says media 'missing the bigger picture' when covering Dem infighting

close

Video

Biden accuses GOP of playing 'Russian Roullete with the US economy'

Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy joins 'Special Report' with the latest on the U.S. debt ceiling debate

Time magazine correspondent Charlotte Alter became a big cheerleader for the Democrats' $3.5 trillion spending bill being debated on Capitol Hill. 

There has been lots of media attention in recent weeks on the infighting among Democrats, particularly between the more moderate wing including Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema and the progressives in the House. 

During a panel discussion on Sunday's "Reliable Sources," Alter attempted to debunk the "narrative" over the dividing Democrats. 

MSNBC, POLITICO JOURNOS MOCKED FOR UNDERSTATING OPPOSITION TO DEM SPENDING BILLS WHILE HITTING SINEMA, MANCHIN

"There's this narrative that it's Democrats dividing over this. I think this is just Democrats deciding how they're going to actually get this done," Alter told CNN's Brian Stelter. 

The reporter then complained about how the media's has been focusing more on the clashing of Democratic lawmakers and not on what the bill would provide if passed. 

"Frankly, I also think that everybody seems to be missing the bigger picture of what $3.5 trillion over ten years actually could mean to American families," Alter said. "Even if the number's smaller than that, we're still looking at the potential for a massive investment in the social safety net that would be the largest investment in child care, in climate change, in paid family leave in a generation. And I sort of worry that everyone's kind of missing the big picture about what the potential outcome could be here."

When asked by Stelter if the media is "missing the legislative forest from the individual trees," Huffington Post correspondent Jonathan Cohn was in full agreement with Alter. 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

"It is amazing how little attention over the past few months has been given to these potentially really transformative pieces of legislation," Cohn told Stelter. "This could be transformative to hundreds of thousands and millions of people who are elderly or disabled and they can't get home care and end up in nursing homes. And that's not even to mention the profound change in policy of climate change, which is really, you know, an existential crisis for the planet!"

"So there is a lot in this bill and we probably should be talking a lot more about it," Cohn added.