This past weekend, CNN and MSNBC found themselves in the awkward position of having to defend Representative Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), who on Saturday afternoon pulled a House office building fire alarm during a vote. While some journalists on these networks have uncomfortably questioned Bowman’s excuse that he pulled the alarm by “accident,” the more partisan among them have been trying everything they can think of to spin the story.

On multiple occasions, talking heads on both liberal cable networks uncritically read Bowman’s official statement aloud. … CNN hosts were less uniformly defensive of Bowman. On Sunday’s State of The Union, host Jake Tapper sounded unconvinced by the Congressman’s excuse: “I’ll be honest, it doesn’t really make sense to me, his explanation.”