From the beginning of the Wuhan virus outbreak many in the media have been playing a dangerous game in which their objective has been to make President Trump look as bad as possible. What else is new? If something bad is happening, its Trump’s fault. Stub your toe? Forget your keys? Woman turned you down for a date? Look hard enough and you can find how Trump caused it. CNN’s Jim Acosta might even ask him about it.
Remember when Trump mentioning the promise of hydroxychloroquine as potential treatment was treated as him selling snake oil to the American people? Now the New York Times reports it helped victims in a study. Remember when a man died because he and his wife ate fish tank cleaner because Trump told them to? Now it turns out she’s a big donor to Democrats.
When the President and Vice President began holding daily briefings to inform the American people of what was going on, the media spent most of its energy focused on minor rhetorical differences in how Trump and Drs. Anthony Faucci and Deborah Birx described what was going on instead of the vital information the briefings provided.
When the American people saw through the pundits like a poorly made piece of two-way glass, the President’s approval numbers spiked. So what was the reaction of the heroes in much in the news media? To make fabulous and fabricated claims that Trump’s briefings were to dangerous to be shown live because the President of the United States cannot be trusted.
Oh, but you know who could be trusted? The communist Chinese government. We were regaled with stories about how China gave the world valuable time through it’s efforts to contain the virus. Later we were told that our own cases had surpassed that of China. But, then we learned yesterday from Dr. Brix, and today from US intelligence that China has been lying like a cheap toupee.
Every time the Chinese said anything the media treated it with the credulity of a not very bright cocker spaniel chasing a tennis ball that somebody pretended to throw. And why? Because the better the communists looked the worse Trump did. Now these same pundits who weren’t saying boo in January and February are revising history to pretend they did.
A big reason for this is that many in the news media now view themselves as victimized heroes protecting America from its elected president. Sure, health care workers and police officers and firefighters are doing pretty good work, but the media is sure to remind us of the important role they play standing up like David to Trump’s Goliath. For many, it has become their entire career.
Let me put this bluntly, the tact that the Trump-loathing scribes and bobbleheads have taken towards the president is dangerous and will cost American lives. When they urge us not to believe him and by extension the White House, they are urging people to doubt the very information meant to protect them. When they decide not to air the White House briefings, they are hiding important information from Americans in peril.
The job of the news media is not to be the ally of the president. But it is also most certainly not to be his sworn enemy. Casting irresponsible and unfounded doubt on the government of the United States while cheering China like a crazed crowd at a pingpong tournament is unbelievable malpractice. It leaves people confused and misinformed in the midst of a deadly pandemic.
The pundits are quick to point out that, unlike in China and other communist regimes, they are free to report and ask whatever tough questions they want. That is absolutely true, and part of what makes ours the greatest country in the world. But it also comes with responsibility. In a free society their duty to the people is to tell the truth, even when it doesn’t fit the narrative they have created to explain everything.
Recent polls show trust in the media entirely underwater. And still they can’t see the extent to which they have abused and lost the trust of the American people. The only good news is that in their constant hapless game of whack-a-mole their hammer consistently falls on an empty hole, only for Trump’s head to pop out of another one. I would say we should hope for better, but they have shown us who they are and there is no reason to believe they are capable of change.
