On Monday, actress Jane Lynch pleaded for news organization to refuse to air White House press briefings from President Donald Trump as we fight the China-originated novel coronavirus, or COVID-19.
During the president’s briefings, vital information about COVID-19 is communicated to the public from Trump, yes, but also from medical health professionals like Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx.
“Please stop covering Trump’s briefing/rallies,” pleaded Lynch. “Please. Please.”
Please stop covering Trump’s briefing/rallies. Please. Please.
— Jane Lynch (@janemarielynch) March 30, 2020
Some news originations are apparently on the same page as the Emmy winner. For example, CNN cut away during a Trump presser on Monday when the president announced “My Pillow” CEO Mike Lindell will be producing 50,000 N95 masks a day, starting Friday.
The New York Times has floated the idea of networks refusing to air the vital Trump briefings, too, citing “misinformation.”
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said earlier this month, “I would stop putting those briefings on live TV — not out of spite, but because it’s misinformation.”
As noted by the Times, anchor Ted Koppel suggested Trump and seemingly the medical professionals alongside him need to be fact-checked live.
“Training a camera on a live event, and just letting it play out, is technology, not journalism; journalism requires editing and context,” Koppel said in an email to the Times. “I recognize that presidential utterances occupy a unique category. Within that category, however, President Trump has created a special compartment all his own.”
“The question, clearly, is whether his status as president of the United States obliges us to broadcast his every briefing live,” he added. “No. No more so than you at The Times should be obliged to provide your readers with a daily, verbatim account.”
Moreover, as noted by The Daily Wire last week, Seattle radio station KUOW, which is a part National Public Radio (NPR), said they would not air White House briefings concerning COVID-19 because they exhibited a “pattern of false or misleading information.”
“KUOW is monitoring White House briefings for the latest news on the coronavirus — and we will continue to share all news relevant to Washington State with our listeners,” the station posted via Twitter, last Tuesday. “However, we will not be airing the briefings live due to a pattern of false or misleading information provided that cannot be fact checked in real time.”
However, we will not be airing the briefings live due to a pattern of false or misleading information provided that cannot be fact checked in real time. (2)
— KUOW Public Radio (@KUOW) March 24, 2020
Responding to the tweet, White House spokesperson Judd Deere told The Hill: “It’s not surprising, but also a failure of their duty to the American people, that some media outlets would choose to block their audiences from receiving accurate, up-to-date information on President Trump’s whole-of-government approach to slowing the spread of COVID-19 … no other Administration has been as transparent and as accessible as this one, and we will continue to make sure this nation hears from its leaders and top health experts during this global pandemic.”
Lynch has long been critical of President Trump. In 2016, the actress called Trump a “bully.”
“That whole ‘I can do this and I can do that. And we’re gonna destroy this and we’re gonna destroy that.’ And then he gets all of these people going ‘Yeah! Yeah,'” she said, adding that Americans want to “hang out with the bully.”
“They see the bully on the playground who’s saying ‘I’m gonna make sure nobody kicks your (expletive),'” Lynch added.
Related: Seattle National Public Radio Station Refuses To Cover White House Briefings On Coronavirus