Way back in January, when Democrats only cared about removing President Donald Trump from office, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/while-democrats-pushed-impeachment-one-republican-senator-sounded-alarm-on-coronavirus">sounding the alarm</a> on the coronavirus, which at that time appeared contained to China.
Cotton kept asking questions about whether China was telling the truth about how the coronavirus outbreak originated.
“We don’t know where it originated, and we have to get to the bottom of that,” Cotton said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” back in mid-February “We also know that just a few miles away from that food market is China’s only biosafety level 4 super laboratory that researches human infectious diseases.”
Cotton went on to acknowledge that the U.S. needs more information about how the disease originated in China.
“Now, we don’t have evidence that this disease originated there, but because of China’s duplicity and dishonesty from the beginning, we need to at least ask the question to see what the evidence says,” Cotton said. “And China right now is not giving any evidence on that question at all.”
The Washington Post and other media outlets “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/media-claims-tom-cotton-coronavirus-claims-debunked-fail-to-debunk-what-he-actually-said">fact checked</a>” Cotton’s statements, except they fact checked something Cotton never said. The Post’s fact check consisted of talking to a chemical biology professor at Rutgers University who said, “There’s absolutely nothing in the genome sequence of this virus that indicates the virus was engineered.”
Another professor said it was “highly unlikely” the virus infected the general population due to an accident at China’s super lab, but then also said it was wrong to suggest China intentionally released the disease – again, something Cotton didn’t say.
Cotton responded to the “fact checkers” by saying he didn’t say the coronavirus was bioengineered. He then listed four hypotheses – not theories – about how the virus originated and again said China needed to provide more information. The four hypotheses were: 1) The virus came from natural causes, 2) it was accidentally released from the lab, 3) it was bio-engineered and accidentally released, and 4) it was bio-engineered and deliberately released. He said the third and fourth hypotheses were the least likely. He also listed these after so-called fact checkers claimed he suggested China deliberately released a bioweapon into the world.
Now, in early April, Post columnist David Ignatius <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/how-did-covid-19-begin-its-initial-origin-story-is-shaky/2020/04/02/1475d488-7521-11ea-87da-77a8136c1a6d_story.html">begrudgingly accepts</a> that maybe Cotton was right to suggest the coronavirus was accidentally released from the lab that studies the coronavirus. Of course, Ignatius couldn’t say Cotton was right, and instead downplayed Cotton’s early talk of an accidental release by claiming “Cotton’s earlier loose talk about bioweapons set off a furor, back when he first raised it in late January and called the outbreak ‘<a href="https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2020/jan/31/cotton-steps-away-from-trial-to-deal-wi/?news">worse than Chernobyl</a>.’”
Ignatius also worked in a dig at President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for referring to the coronavirus as the “Chinese virus” and “Wuhan virus,” even though major media outlets – <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/07/what-iowa-disaster-wuhan-virus-have-common/">including the Post</a> – were using those terms until the Chinese Communist Party said it was racist to use them.
Ignatius then said “China dished wild, irresponsible allegations of its own,” even though he provided no evidence the U.S. also dished “wild, irresponsible allegations.”
Still, Ignatius finally admitted that “the initial ‘origin story’ — that the virus was spread by people who ate contaminated animals at the <a href="https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/wuhans-huanan-seafood-market-may-not-be-ground-zero-of-the-covid19-pandemic/">Huanan Seafood Market</a> in Wuhan — is shaky.” He then spoke to the same Rutgers professor from the Post’s earlier fact check who now acknowledged that “the first human infection could have occurred as a natural accident.”
More from Ignatius:
<blockquote>Ebright described a December video from the Wuhan CDC that shows staffers “collecting bat coronaviruses with inadequate [personal protective equipment] and unsafe operational practices.” Separately, I reviewed two Chinese articles, from 2017 and 2019, describing the heroics of Wuhan CDC researcher Tian Junhua, who while capturing bats in a cave “forgot to take protective measures” so that “bat urine dripped from the top of his head like raindrops.”
And then there’s the Chinese study that was curiously withdrawn. In February, a site called ResearchGate published a brief article by Botao Xiao and Lei Xiao from Guangzhou’s South China University of Technology. “In addition to origins of natural recombination and intermediate host, the killer coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan. Safety level may need to be reinforced in high risk biohazardous laboratories,” the <a href="https://img-prod.tgcom24.mediaset.it/images/2020/02/16/114720192-5eb8307f-017c-4075-a697-348628da0204.pdf">article </a>concluded. Botao Xiao <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-epidemic-draws-scrutiny-to-labs-handling-deadly-pathogens-11583349777">told </a>the Wall Street Journal in February that he had withdrawn the paper because it “was not supported by direct proofs.”</blockquote>
Yet the Post refused to accept Cotton may have been right to suggest the virus came from that lab that was just down the street from the epicenter of the virus. Instead it used the opportunity to paint the Arkansas senator as a conspiracy theorist.

Tom Cotton

Washington Post Now Admits Maybe Tom Cotton Was Right To Suspect Coronavirus Outbreak Originated in Chinese Lab

Coronavirus

Media Bias

Washington Post

On March 25, Tara Reade, a former Senate staffer for Joe Biden, made a disturbing accusation about her old boss. She claimed in a podcast episode with Katie Halper of Rolling Stone that then-Sen. Biden sexually assaulted her in a secluded area of the Capitol in 1993, pushing her against a wall, trying to kiss her and penetrating her with his fingers.
Like many accusers, Reade cannot prove this happened. The Biden campaign quickly denied it. &#8220;Women have a right to tell their story, and reporters have an obligation to rigorously vet those claims,&#8221; deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said in a statement. &#8220;We encourage them to do so, because these accusations are false.&#8221;
But are those obligated reporters rigorously vetting these claims? Are reporters pounding the pavement and incessantly droning on their cellphones over this? There&#8217;s no sign of any of that.
The networks haven&#8217;t said a single word about them &#8230; even as Biden did an hourlong town hall on CNN, interviews on NBC and MSNBC and then more interviews on CNN and MSNBC. So in the week after the allegations emerged, Biden was asked 55 questions but not one about this accusation. But NBC&#8217;s Chuck Todd asked Biden whether President Donald Trump has &#8220;blood on his hands&#8221; for his response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The networks clearly believe there should be a presumption of innocence, and that the mere launch of these charges can unfairly sully an image. The fact that this accusation emerged from a sketchy source like Rolling Stone underlines that. Journalists appear to be very sensitive &#8230; when the target is a Democrat. How can they fail to see the double standard?
This was not the standard for Brett Kavanaugh during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings in 2018. The broadcast networks offered more than 300 minutes to several accusers who told wild stories of Kavanaugh&#8217;s sexual assaults during his teenage years that could not be proved in any way. Christine Blasey Ford couldn&#8217;t manage to offer a time or a place of her alleged assault — less information than Reade offered. But she instantly became a profile in courage, cemented as a &#8220;historic figure.&#8221;
During the hearings, the accusers were warmly embraced (metaphorically) by one Joe Biden. &#8220;For a woman to come forward in the glaring lights of focus, nationally, you&#8217;ve got to start off with the presumption that at least the essence of what she&#8217;s talking about is real,&#8221; he said.
There&#8217;s nothing on the Biden story on NPR — the proud purveyor of Anita Hill&#8217;s unproven accusations against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas — and nothing on The New York Times. Two years ago, The Times somehow found space for a story that claimed Kavanaugh threw ice cubes at a man in a bar scuffle while attending Yale.
There&#8217;s no evidence of investigative journalism from The Washington Post, which first published Ford&#8217;s incredibly vague accusations. As Kavanaugh was being aggressively prosecuted and accusations arose about the Post cooperating with a Democratic plot to derail Kavanaugh, executive editor Martin Baron protested saying, &#8220;The conspiracy theories are pure nonsense.&#8221; As the late Wes Pruden used to say, there wasn&#8217;t a conspiracy, just a consensus.
In 2016, The Post was first to jump on the 2005 &#8220;Access Hollywood&#8221; tape in which Donald Trump assaulted no one but bragged about how he could assault women because he was a TV star. The paper waited about five hours before publishing the story. It seemed like the entire political elite — Republican and Democratic — was demanding Trump drop out of the presidential race immediately.
Where are all these people now that Biden is in the dock? Absent. Apathetic. Callously indifferent. Out to lunch, never to return? #MeToo dies in darkness.
Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org. To find out more about Tim Graham, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Joe Biden

GRAHAM: The Kavanaugh Roasters Hide Biden’s Accuser

Brett Kavanaugh

Sexual Assault

President Donald Trump blasted partisan CBS News reporter Weijia Jiang during the White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefing on Friday for trying to ask a &#8220;gotcha question.&#8221;
“Yesterday, Jared Kushner said, ‘the notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile, it’s not supposed to be state’s stockpiles that they then use,’” Jiang said. “What did he mean by ‘our’ given the fact that taxpayers from every state pays for it?”
“Oh, why are you asking? What’s that, a gotcha, I gotcha, you used the word ‘our,’” Trump fired back. “You know what ‘our’ means? United States of America, that’s what it means. It means United States of America, and then we take that ‘our’ and we distribute it to the states.”
&#8220;He&#8217;s talking about the federal government,&#8221; Trump continued. &#8220;I mean, it&#8217;s such a basic, simple question, and you try to make it sound so bad. You ought to be ashamed of yourself, you know what, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. It&#8217;s such a simple question. He said, &#8216;our,&#8217; and &#8216;our&#8217; means for the country, and &#8216;our&#8217; means for the states because the states are a part of the country. Don&#8217;t make it sound bad.&#8221;
After Trump finished answering her question, Jiang continued to rudely interrupt the press conference as the president tried to call on another reporter.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
He handled this very well. <a href="https://t.co/85zA1dcYGB">pic.twitter.com/85zA1dcYGB</a>
&mdash; David Reaboi (@davereaboi) <a href="https://twitter.com/davereaboi/status/1246207116026789888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 3, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Last month, Jiang, who is a self-described “Chinese born West Virginian,” created drama when she tweeted, “This morning a White House official referred to #Coronavirus as the ‘Kung-Flu’ to my face. Makes me wonder what they’re calling it behind my back.”
Jiang provided no evidence to substantiate her claim and refused to name the person who allegedly said it to her.
Senior White House Adviser Kellyanne Conway pressed Jiang on the matter the following day on camera, and Jiang dodged answering Conway&#8217;s questions.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Kellyanne Conway on the rumor that a White House Official called Coronavirus, ‘Kung Flu’: “Tell us all who it is.” <a href="https://t.co/wJth3RAlZM">pic.twitter.com/wJth3RAlZM</a>
&mdash; ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) <a href="https://twitter.com/alx/status/1240366830193082370?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In mid-March, Jiang repeatedly acted hostile toward Trump over coronavirus testing during a separate White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefing, suggesting that Trump needed to quarantine himself.
Here&#8217;s the transcript of the interaction (video below):
<blockquote>Q    Mr. President, thank you.  I want to first follow up on Jeff’s question, because the person you were standing next to, whether you know who he is or not, tested positive for coronavirus.   Dr. Fauci said this morning, “If you stand next to somebody who tested positive, you should self-isolate and get a test.”  You say your White House doctor is telling you something different.  Who should Americans listen to?
And my second question is —
THE PRESIDENT: I think they have to listen to their doctors, and I think they shouldn’t be jumping to get the test unless it’s necessary. But I think they have to listen to their doctors. And I mean, I don’t know the — I haven’t seen the picture. Somebody said there’s a picture with somebody taking a picture with me, but I haven’t seen it. But I can tell you —
JIANG: Well, doctors have said you might have it even if you don’t have symptoms.
THE PRESIDENT: Well —
JIANG: Are you being selfish by not getting tested and potentially exposing —
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I didn’t say I wasn’t going to be tested.
JIANG: Are you going to be?
THE PRESIDENT: Most likely, yeah. Most likely.
JIANG: When do you think that will happen?
THE PRESIDENT: Not for that reason, but because I think I will do it any way. Fairly soon.
JIANG: Will you let us know the results?
THE PRESIDENT: We’re working on that. We’re working out a schedule.
JIANG: My second question, Mr. President —
THE PRESIDENT: You go ahead, please.</blockquote>
WATCH:
<iframe title="President Trump Holds a News Conference" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DeTYINvuWM4?start=3612&#038;feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&nbsp;

US-HEALTH-VIRUS-BRIEFING

Trump Shreds Partisan CBS Reporter Weijia Jiang: ‘You Ought To Be Ashamed Of Yourself’

COVID-19

Donald Trump

ABC “Nightline” host Byron Pitts, a devout Christian, used his final question Wednesday evening to ask Vice President Mike Pence if he talks to God about the Americans who have died or will died “because of steps the federal government did not take soon enough.”
“Mr. Vice President I have a final question for you. I &#8212; and I ask this not in a political way, but for you, sir, like so many of us in our nation, are you a person of deep faith. No one doubts that. When you talk to God in your moments alone, do you find yourself worrying at all that people you represent and care deeply about have died and will die who did not need to because of steps the federal government did not take soon enough?” Pitts asked, according to <a href="https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/curtis-houck/2020/04/02/abcs-pitts-pence-do-you-talk-god-about-those-who-died-because-you">a transcript</a> from Newsbusters.
Pence ignored the implication and instead focused on coming together and fighting the virus.
“Well, thank you for mentioning that we are talking about one American at a time and I promise you, that&#8217;s the way President Trump thinks of this, it&#8217;s the way I think of it. We wanted the American people to see the numbers so that we understand the challenging days that lie ahead, but I want people to know that our future is in your hands, that if every one of us will do and put into practice the Guidelines for America that we can bring those numbers down. I &#8212; I really do believe we&#8217;ll get through this and we&#8217;ll come out stronger than ever before,” Pence responded.
Pitts also asked Pence why the Trump administration wouldn’t give a national stay-at-home order, even though the vast majority of the country is currently under one at the state level. In another question, Pitts asked Pence why he keeps hearing from doctors and nurses that they are low on supplies when President Donald Trump says every day that resources are being sent to the states.
“Vice President Pence, bridge this gap for me if you would. You and the President have insisted that resources are available by the thousands for states who need them. But yet, governors, Republicans and Democrats, say they don&#8217;t have what they need. On our air every single night, sir, we have doctors, nurses, foot soldiers on the ground who, with tears in their eyes, say they don&#8217;t have what they need. How do you explain that discrepancy?” Pitts asked.
In the same interview, Pence told Pitts that Americans should limit church services to no more than 10 people and that he and his wife Karen Pence were “enjoying worship services online.”
“We’re so grateful to churches and synagogues and places of worship around America that have heeded the president’s coronavirus guidelines for America,” Pence said, <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/04/01/mike-pence-tells-americans-to-avoid-large-church-gatherings-amid-coronavirus/">according to</a> the New York Post.
“We really believe this is a time when people should avoid gatherings of more than 10 people,” he added, “and so we continue to urge churches around America to heed to that.”
Pence suggested that if everyone comes together and follows social distancing guidelines, we will hopefully be through the worst of the coronavirus by Memorial Day.

Mike Pence

Nightline Hosts Asks Pence If He Talks To God About People Who Died From Alleged Government Inaction On Coronavirus

The following is satirical.
It’s not that the American news media is a flaming dumpster filled with unintelligent incompetents so primed by their second-rate educations with anti-American hatred and a love of socialism which forces them to ignore the very facts they’re supposed to gather and instead to wallow in their own ugly disdain for the high ideas and ordinary people who have made this country great that it seems like every time journalists open their mouths they are spewing a sort of green bile made of some unholy mixture of ignorance and hostility until the bile grows so thick and deep around them they begin to sink into it up to their noses whereupon they are actually both vomiting the filthy stuff and breathing it in at the same time like a sort of perpetual motion machine of absolute awfulness&#8230;
Or wait, maybe it is that.
But the point is, journalists are not happy that the president’s daily press briefings are 1) getting better ratings than all of CNN’s good days since 1983 added together, and 2) increasing Trump’s popularity when he represents the very values journalists despise, namely freedom, patriotism, common decency and love of God.
So various news outlets are planning measures to ensure that no one will be able to watch the briefings without simultaneously absorbing a gigantic loogie of seething animosity or, as it’s sometimes called, Chuck Todd.
For instance, CNN — which is currently that lonely voice you hear echoing through empty airports — simply won’t cover the briefings because they feel what the president and his medical staff have to say during a pandemic isn’t really news compared to Don Lemon staring soulfully into a camera like a stuffed moose only stupid.
The New York Times, a former newspaper, will continue to cover the briefings but will only report those portions that increase fear and make the president look bad.
And of course, NBC has rehired Matt Lauer to cover the briefings because sometimes there are girls there so, who knows, he might get lucky.
More satire from Andrew Klavan: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/officials-vow-to-battle-chi-com-flu-with-completely-useless-but-oppressive-measures-satire">Officials Vow To Battle Chi-Com Flu With Completely Useless But Oppressive Measures</a>
&nbsp;

White House Coronavirus Task Force Holds Daily Briefing

News Media Skip Useless Presidential Briefings To Make Time For Urgent Anti-American Hatred [Satire]

Satire

On Monday, President Trump lauded various executives who have changed their companies’ agenda to help produce items in the battle against the coronavirus ravaging the United States. One of those executives was Mike Lindell of My Pillow, who has pledged to use his factories to make 50,000 N95 masks a day for healthcare professions to use.
But to the leftist media, the occasion of Trump giving honor to a man repurposing his factories to help in a time of crisis was an opportunity for them to continue their sniping at the president.
Some examples included Vox&#8217;s Aaron Rupar, who tweeted, &#8220;The My Pillow guy Mike Lindell says this: &#8216;God gave us grace on November 8, 2016, to change the course we were on. God had been taken out of our schools &amp; lives, a nation had turned its back on God. I encourage you to use this time at home to get back in the word. Read our Bible.'&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The My Pillow guy Mike Lindell says this: &quot;God gave us grace on November 8, 2016, to change the course we were on. God had been taken out of our schools &amp; lives, a nation had turned its back on God. I encourage you to use this time at home to get back in the word. Read our Bible&quot; <a href="https://t.co/tRdlubE08u">pic.twitter.com/tRdlubE08u</a>
&mdash; Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) <a href="https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1244739955731107840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2020</a></blockquote>
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CNN executive editor Ram Ramgopal was offended by the idea that Lindell spoke of the Bible; Ramgopal acted as though that was all Lindell was doing, snapping, “In case you were wondering what My Pillow is doing in a time of coronavirus.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
In case you were wondering what My Pillow is doing in a time of coronavirus. <a href="https://t.co/W3ocMJe7Ym">https://t.co/W3ocMJe7Ym</a>
&mdash; Ram Ramgopal (@RamCNN) <a href="https://twitter.com/RamCNN/status/1244741961078185984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Ali Velshi of MSNBC: “Trump just called the ‘My Pillow’ guy up to the podium in the Rose Garden. You cannot make this stuff up.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Trump just called the “My Pillow” guy up to the podium in the Rose Garden. You cannot make this stuff up.
&mdash; Ali Velshi (@AliVelshi) <a href="https://twitter.com/AliVelshi/status/1244739464414613505?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Newsweek columnist Seth Abramson: “Dear Trumpists, *this* is why media doesn&#8217;t want to cover your God-Emperor&#8217;s coronavirus rallies: because the g*ddamned My Pillow CEO was holding forth from the lectern on a day that 500+ Americans died and 20,000+ got sick from the virus the briefing was *intended* to focus on.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Dear Trumpists, *this* is why media doesn&#39;t want to cover your God-Emperor&#39;s coronavirus rallies: because the g*ddamned My Pillow CEO was holding forth from the lectern on a day that 500+ Americans died and 20,000+ got sick from the virus the briefing was *intended* to focus on. <a href="https://t.co/z7FSMxLwUi">https://t.co/z7FSMxLwUi</a>
&mdash; Seth Abramson (@🏠) (@SethAbramson) <a href="https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1244771912925970438?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Scott Dworkin, Deputy Director for the 2009 Presidential Inaugural Committee and the 2012 Democratic National Convention: : “Now Trump is having the My Pillow guy speak. This is absurd. #StopAiring Trump.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Now Trump is having the My Pillow guy speak. This is absurd. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/StopAiringTrump?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#StopAiringTrump</a>
&mdash; Scott Dworkin (@funder) <a href="https://twitter.com/funder/status/1244739404226330630?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2020</a></blockquote>
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MSNBC’s Joy Reid: “Not a prank. Ok perfect. Everything is fine.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Not a prank. Ok perfect. Everything is fine. <a href="https://t.co/mgjZNkDNxs">https://t.co/mgjZNkDNxs</a> <a href="https://t.co/K4YsBTdGXR">https://t.co/K4YsBTdGXR</a>
&mdash; Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoyAnnReid/status/1244745156437442561?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Sam Stein of the Daily Beast and MSNBC: “I’m a proponent of TV carrying Trump’s presser. But allowing corporations to use them as advertising platforms seems like the exact opposite of news.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I’m a proponent of TV carrying Trump’s presser. But allowing corporations to use them as advertising platforms seems like the exact opposite of news.
&mdash; Sam Stein (@samstein) <a href="https://twitter.com/samstein/status/1244740663981289480?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Victoria Brownworth, an author who has also blogged for Huffington Post: “The #my Pillow guy is virulently anti-#LGBTQ and trump just gave him a platform and millions of free advertising from the rose garden at a briefing on the #CoronavirusPandemic. At least @CNN cut away as soon as he took the podium.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MyPillow?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MyPillow</a> guy is virulently anti-<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LGBTQ?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#LGBTQ</a> and Trump just gave him a platform and millions in free advertising from the Rose Garden at a briefing on the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CoronavirusPandemic?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CoronavirusPandemic</a>. At least <a href="https://twitter.com/CNN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CNN</a> cut away as soon as he took the podium.
&mdash; Victoria Brownworth ☣ #FlattenTheCurve #StayHome (@VABVOX) <a href="https://twitter.com/VABVOX/status/1244741865804648449?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Historian Kevin Kruse: “And now the My Pillow guy is urging us all to return to God and read our Bibles at home, as we realize how amazing Trump&#8217;s glorious leadership has been, and no, I am absolutely not kidding, and my God, we are all going to die.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
And now the My Pillow guy is urging us all to return to God and read our Bibles at home, as we realize how amazing Trump&#39;s glorious leadership has been, and no, I am absolutely not kidding, and my God, we are all going to die.
&mdash; Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) <a href="https://twitter.com/KevinMKruse/status/1244739374559965190?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The critics were promptly bombarded online:
Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro: “If you’re angry at the guy shifting over his factory to produce 50,000 facemasks a day for medical professionals, you’re doing being human wrong. #MyPillow.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
If you&#39;re angry at the guy shifting over his factory to produce 50,000 facemasks a day for medical professionals, you&#39;re doing being human wrong. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MyPillow?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MyPillow</a>
&mdash; Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) <a href="https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/1244761363940958208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Co-founder of the Federalist Sean Davis: “Media: WHY WON&#8217;T TRUMP GIVE MASKS AND VENTILATORS TO DOCTORS AND NURSES!? Trump: This company is now making masks and ventilators. CEO: Here&#8217;s what we&#8217;re doing to make more masks and ventilators. MEDIA: OMG WHY ARE TRUMP AND THESE EVIL CEOS TALKING ABOUT MASKS AND VENTILATORS!?”
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Media: WHY WON&#39;T TRUMP GIVE MASKS AND VENTILATORS TO DOCTORS AND NURSES!? Trump: This company is now making masks and ventilators. CEO: Here&#39;s what we&#39;re doing to make more masks and ventilators. MEDIA: OMG WHY ARE TRUMP AND THESE EVIL CEOS TALKING ABOUT MASKS AND VENTILATORS!?
&mdash; Sean Davis (@seanmdav) <a href="https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1244744238958546944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Pundit and author Erick Erickson: “An American small businessman gets invited to the White House to talk about how his company is stepping up to help the crisis and the blue check mark brigade savages him online.”
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An American small businessman gets invited to the White House to talk about how his company is stepping up to help the crisis and the blue check mark brigade savages him online.
&mdash; Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) <a href="https://twitter.com/EWErickson/status/1244752425493450753?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Erickson added, “Having an Executive Editor of CNN belittling a small businessman whose company is shifting gears to make masks for nurses and doing the belittling by retweeting a partisan hack from Vox is everything wrong with the media right now.”
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Having an Executive Editor of CNN belittling a small businessman whose company is shifting gears to make masks for nurses and doing the belittling by retweeting a partisan hack from Vox is everything wrong with the media right now. <a href="https://t.co/koTlJoI5u2">https://t.co/koTlJoI5u2</a>
&mdash; Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) <a href="https://twitter.com/EWErickson/status/1244763909216784391?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Author and commentator Dana Loesch: “Right here. Proving these people do not care about those on the front lines of this. This is the point where my patience is gone.” She added, “The same press that bashes American citizens when they dare criticize overtly biased reporting turn to bashing American companies for having the audacity to shift production and make supplies desperately needed by doctors and nurses. WTH with the hate?”
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Right here. Proving these people do not care about those on the front lines of this. 
This is the point where my patience is gone. <a href="https://t.co/yTff791E2b">https://t.co/yTff791E2b</a>
&mdash; Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) <a href="https://twitter.com/DLoesch/status/1244745094076514314?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2020</a></blockquote>
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The same press that bashes American citizens when they dare criticize overtly biased reporting turn to bashing American companies for having the audacity to shift production and make supplies desperately needed by doctors and nurses. WTH with the hate?
&mdash; Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) <a href="https://twitter.com/DLoesch/status/1244747061783924736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2020</a></blockquote>
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The Hudson Institute’s Rebeccah Heinrichs: “50,000 masks per day for healthcare workers. 75% of his company’s production has been repurposed to help the country.”
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50,000 masks per day for healthcare workers. 75% of his company’s production has been repurposed to help the country. <a href="https://t.co/4IQlfG77FT">https://t.co/4IQlfG77FT</a>
&mdash; Rebeccah Heinrichs (@RLHeinrichs) <a href="https://twitter.com/RLHeinrichs/status/1244740876632576016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2020</a></blockquote>
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politics

Trump Honors My Pillow Exec For Shifting Production To Facemasks. Media Whine That He Praises Trump, God.

Retired Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) passed away on Saturday following a years-long battle with cancer.
Coburn was, as the Associated Press described him in their obituary, a “Conservative Political Maverick.” As a senator, Coburn published the famous yearly “wastebook,” showing ridiculous expenditures from the federal government, including a 2014 payment of $171,000 to <a href="http://www.coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2014/10/wastebook-2014-what-washington-doesn-t-want-you-to-read">study how monkeys gamble</a>.
Though Coburn was a steadfast steward of taxpayer dollars and a conservative hero to many, The New York Times’ obituary for him made sure to paint him in a negative light. The headline for the Times’ obituary reads: “Tom Coburn, the ‘Dr. No’ of Congress, Is Dead at 72.”
Coburn received the nickname because he voted against so many spending bills, but “Dr. No” is also the name of one of James Bond’s most notorious villains, and the way the Times framed its headline, the impression one walks away with is that Coburn is the Bond villain.
Further, the Times’ obituary begins: “<a href="https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/thomas_coburn/400576">Tom Coburn</a>, an ultraconservative Oklahoma Republican and family physician who in 16 years in Congress crusaded for limited government, using a rule-book technicality to block so many bills that frustrated legislators called him “Dr. No,” died on Saturday in Tulsa. He was 72.”
Conversely, the Times described Cuban dictator Fidel Castro at the time of his death as a “fiery apostle of revolution who brought the Cold War to the Western Hemisphere in 1959 and then defied the United States for nearly half a century as Cuba’s maximum leader, bedeviling 11 American presidents and briefly pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war, died on Friday.”
Notice the use of more positive descriptive words like “bedeviling” and “defied” rather than “frustrated.”
The headline the Times used for Castro’s obituary read: “Fidel Castro, Cuban Revolutionary Who Defied U.S., Dies at 90.”
The Times on Twitter was no different. After Coburn died, the Times tweeted the opening paragraph of his obituary about the “rule-book technicality.” For Castro, the Times used its same spin, including a tweet that said: “Success in baseball and boxing helped give Fidel Castro grounds to taunt and defy the U.S.”
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Here are the <a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@nytimes</a> wrote about two dead men. One massacred people; the other delivered thousands of babies free of charge.
Guess which is which. <a href="https://t.co/BSE0VXn5wQ">pic.twitter.com/BSE0VXn5wQ</a>
— F. Bill McMorris (@FBillMcMorris) <a href="https://twitter.com/FBillMcMorris/status/1244089851550588936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 29, 2020</a></blockquote>
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The NYT, everybody. <a href="https://t.co/yL5ITkoea9">pic.twitter.com/yL5ITkoea9</a>
— James Hasson (@JamesHasson20) <a href="https://twitter.com/JamesHasson20/status/1244084587673923584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 29, 2020</a></blockquote>
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The Times even posted a lengthy <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/11/29/insider/fidel-castros-obituary.html">article</a> about how sixteen of its journalists worked on Castro’s obituary. In an article published months before Castro’s death, the Times talked about the fashion trends he inspired in the U.S., in an article titled, “Chanting Crowds and Camo Chic.” The article gushed that Castro “mesmerized” crowds.
The different takes from the Times is reminiscent of just last week when the outlet <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-york-times-changes-headline-about-democrats-blocking-coronavirus-stimulus">changed a headline</a> to protect Democrats from criticism after they blocked a coronavirus relief bill – a courtesy the Times has never shown Republicans.
The Times is not the only outlet to go easy on mass murderers. In October, The Washington Post called terrorist leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi an “austere religious scholar,” before changing it to say he was the “extremist leader of Islamic State.” Quite a difference.
The body of these articles are no different. While Coburn’s legacy is repeatedly described in negative terms, dictators and terrorist leaders get glowing praise while their misdeeds are buried or downplayed.

Fidel Castro

NYT AT IT AGAIN: Gives Republican Worse Obituary Than Fidel Castro

New York Times

Tom Coburn

If there is one thing we know for certain about the American press corps&#8217; interaction with President Donald Trump, it is that they presuppose him an unserious and very vain dolt. If anyone grabs too much of the spotlight or utters anything disloyal, the President throws them out the door.
That is what so much of the press believes. In fact, I suspect some of you readers believe it, too. Certainly, some in the White House believe it. They have tried to exploit it by circulating rumors about various people riding too high in the saddle. The press has tried to drum up divisions between the President and Vice President in this way.
How many stories have we read about the Vice President overshadowing the President, operating as a shadow President, etc.? These were not true, but they were circulated like a soap opera to try to spark division in Washington.
The press fundamentally believes the President will fire people who are more likable than him, overshadow him or make him look bad by outperforming him. So, I have to wonder if a portion of the press corps is trying to get a lot of Americans killed right now.
Dr. Anthony Fauci has loyally served Presidents of the United States going back to Ronald Reagan. In 2008, due to his loyal service to the nation, President George W. Bush awarded Fauci the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Fauci is the most prominent voice in the administration now and its foremost presence on national television. But in the past several days, various media outlets have started pushing stories about Fauci undermining the President. Various reporters on Twitter have grabbed screenshots of Fauci at White House press briefings where he appears to be rolling his eyes or shaking his head when the President speaks. The full film shows he was not doing either.
There have been stories where the media plays up what appears to be Fauci disagreeing with the President or being critical of the President, but these have been taken out of context, too.
Given the media&#8217;s presuppositions about the President, it is reasonable to conclude some journalists are trying to get Fauci fired. Why would they do that? Is this not a crisis where they want the best men and women in charge?
The reason is that the media is addicted to drama. They feed off the storm of clashing personalities for ratings. In the past two weeks there has been no drama, and the President&#8217;s approval ratings for handling the crisis have gone up. Both Gallup and ABC News have polling showing as much. The drama of the virus should be enough, but the media now is addicted to the soap opera narrative.
When not trying to break up the marriage of George and Kellyanne Conway, the Washington press corps seems to be picking other targets and trying to get the president firing in that direction. Right now, it is Fauci the press is after, and they are after him selfishly. As long as Trump is relying on Fauci, the President looks presidential. That is too much for the media. Fauci must go, but so, too, must the presidential press briefings on the virus.
These briefings have been going on for two weeks. The President has not changed. He uses copious adjectives and adverbs to sell his plan and what others are doing. He battles the media. He answers questions. Others answer questions as well, including the relevant medical experts advising the President.
In two weeks, the only thing that has changed is the President&#8217;s approval rating. ABC, CBS and Gallup all have his approval rating for handling the virus at over 50%. The American public has tuned in to the press conferences. Naturally and predictably, the press corps has decided this is too much. Fauci is too good, and the press conferences are too helpful. They have given calm and reduced drama. That must end.
To find out more about Erick Erickson and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Newspapers

ERICKSON: The Press Corps’ Sturm Und Drang

Anthony Fauci

Media

On Thursday, White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx praised President Donald Trump&#8217;s attentiveness and ability to analyze and integrate data, linking his capacity to do so with his business background.
Asked her perspective on Trump&#8217;s performance both with the public and &#8220;behind the scenes&#8221; by a host at Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), Dr. Birx responded: &#8220;He&#8217;s been so attentive to the scientific literature and the details and the data. And I think his ability to analyze and integrate data, that comes out of his long history in business, [has] really been a real benefit during these discussions about medical issues. Because, in the end, data is data, and he understands the importance of the granularity.&#8221;
&#8220;I think he&#8217;s been really excited about finding the level of detail that we&#8217;ve been able to now bring over the last few weeks to really understand who&#8217;s at the greatest risk for severe illness, who will have mild and less asymptomatic disease, and really calling on every American to do that social distancing,&#8221; the doctor continued, &#8220;because some people may not know they are actually infected and be unknowingly spreading the virus.&#8221;
&#8220;And that all comes from the president seeing the data and then really directing these policies and the guidelines that go out to the American people,&#8221; Dr. Birx concluded.
The coordinator&#8217;s compliment to the president, as one might suspect, did not go over well with some folks on the Left. Former chair of the Democratic National Committee, Howard Dean, for example, went as far as to declare Dr. Birx&#8217;s long distinguished career &#8220;killed.&#8221;
&#8220;In this Christian Broadcasting Network interview, is Birx flattering the president’s &#8216;ability to analyze and integrate data&#8217; as a way to persuade him not to ignore data next week?&#8221; criticized CNN White House correspondent John Harwood.
Dean piled-on: &#8220;She has killed what was once her respectable career in Goveenmwnt [sic] service.&#8221;
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She has killed what was once her respectable career in Goveenmwnt service. <a href="https://t.co/0YSTPjdtxA">https://t.co/0YSTPjdtxA</a>
&mdash; Howard Dean (@GovHowardDean) <a href="https://twitter.com/GovHowardDean/status/1243611521625833477?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 27, 2020</a></blockquote>
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The compliment <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/3/27/21197074/deborah-birx-praised-trump-scientific-literature-coronavirus">triggered</a> Vox to question the doctor&#8217;s credibility.
&#8220;Dr. Deborah Birx&#8216;s outrageously effusive Trump praise raises questions about her credibility,&#8221; said Vox&#8217;s Aaron Rupar, captioning a piece he wrote for the outlet, titled: &#8220;Deborah Birx praised Trump as attentive to scientific literature and details. Nope.&#8221;
&#8220;Birx is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/12/coronavirus-dr-deborah-birx-hiv-aids">a legend in the fight against HIV</a> and has worked for both Republican and Democratic presidents,&#8221; admitted Rupar. &#8220;When it was announced in late February that she’d be coordinating the White House’s coronavirus task force, she was widely seen as bringing a modicum of public health expertise to an administration desperately in need of it.&#8221;
But her complimentary comments about Trump have now apparently nulled those credentials:
&#8220;But it has become clear that Birx wants to stay in Trump’s good graces. She <a href="https://twitter.com/brianbeutler/status/1234653858409984005">praised Trump</a> early on for implementing travel restrictions on China that did nothing to stop the spread of the coronavirus that was already happening within America’s borders in a largely undetected manner because of lack of testing,&#8221; he wrote, noting that Birx &#8220;raised a lot of eyebrows on Thursday with her effusive praise of President Donald Trump as &#8216;attentive to the scientific literature and the details&#8217; during an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network.&#8221;
WATCH:
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White House coronavirus coordinator DEBORAH BIRX touts Trump’s response in Q&amp;A yesterday on Christian Broadcasting Network.
CBN HOST: How would you describe the job President Trump is doing?
BIRX: He’s been so attentive to the scientific literature and the details and the data. <a href="https://t.co/ytvfSzJwzZ">pic.twitter.com/ytvfSzJwzZ</a>
&mdash; Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) <a href="https://twitter.com/ddiamond/status/1243297890539364352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 26, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Dr. Deborah Birx, President Donald Trump

WATCH: Dr. Birx Praises Trump’s Intelligence. Leftists Want Her Canceled.

Dr. Deborah Birx

The extra-large pack of journalists who equate liberalism and professionalism in their work cannot stand that Fox News exists. They believe everything elected Republicans do should be &#8220;fact-checked&#8221; and routinely punished. For Democrats, the elite media offer damage control; for Republicans, only damage.
The onset of the novel coronavirus is simply another occasion for the usual routine. The liberal media are prosecuting Fox for supposedly shoving Americans off a coronavirus cliff with misinformation. They&#8217;re also equating misinformation with the argument that the pandemic gave them a new rationale to cripple President Donald Trump politically.
The latter is not misinformation. It&#8217;s rock-solid, bank-on-it information.
Yes, the president and the conservative media were suspicious of all the worst-case scenarios and expressed skepticism about the threat. Many of us were initially reluctant to be dragged into a massive government intervention. Then Italy happened.
Ben Smith, the brand-new media columnist for The New York Times, is openly prosecuting Fox for deaths caused by the coronavirus. Smith asked Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Public Health Institute, whether he &#8220;believes people will die because of Fox&#8217;s coverage.&#8221; Jha said yes. &#8220;Some commentators in the right-wing media spread a very specific type of misinformation that I think has been very harmful,&#8221; he said.
Then Smith noted that Fox has been compared to a virus, quoting Bill Kristol, who was on Fox until 2012. &#8220;People act like Fox is a virus — beyond our control,&#8221; said Kristol. &#8220;There are people who run it, who have responsibility for it, and they could be held accountable.&#8221;
Kristol is a gentleman compared to Eric Boehlert, a leftist regular on the badly named program &#8220;AM Joy.&#8221; He shamelessly claimed: &#8220;Fox News has been getting people killed for years. I mean just look at their crusade against affordable health care, their crusade against expanding Medicaid. This is not unusual for them. &#8230; (T)hey are a cancer on this country.&#8221; No one is &#8220;fact-checking&#8221; that statement.
So where do we go from here? Trump suggested that perhaps the country could ease up on the social distancing restrictions by Easter Sunday. That caused another wave of rage aimed at Trump and his Fox &#8220;feedback loop.&#8221;
But the media recognize, even at The New York Times, the reality that federal and state governments have to balance the nation&#8217;s overall health with the nation&#8217;s economy. They don&#8217;t trust Trump. They trust Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose coronavirus briefings are hailed by The Times as &#8220;communal therapy sessions.&#8221; Whenever Cuomo thinks we can relax, the media will declare relaxation is the responsible, nonpartisan solution.
Cuomo has said: &#8220;I take total responsibility for shutting off the economy in terms of essential workers. But, we also have to start to plan the pivot back to economic functionality, right? You can&#8217;t stop the economy forever. So we have to start to think about, &#8216;Does everyone stay out of work?'&#8221;
On The Times podcast, &#8220;The Daily,&#8221; reporter Maggie Haberman discussed at length how Fox News is warping Trump&#8217;s response to the coronavirus. She admitted, &#8220;in fairness to him, Gov. Cuomo has openly voiced the same moral dilemma that he is wrestling with.&#8221; But Haberman implied that Cuomo&#8217;s moral stand is superior: &#8220;It&#8217;s just that Gov. Cuomo came down on the other side of it, which was that there is no cost that can be put on human life.&#8221;
Liberal scribes love the noble-sounding ideological extreme &#8220;no cost can be put on human life.&#8221; It&#8217;s like they&#8217;ve never observed the way a socialist health care system mercilessly rations care and decides some lives aren&#8217;t worth extending. But they&#8217;ll just keep lamenting that the country&#8217;s well of information is poisoned by the news channel they pretend is the only ideologically polarized one.
Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org. To find out more about Tim Graham, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Fox News

GRAHAM: Railing Against The Fox Virus?

Andrew Cuomo

President Donald Trump went on an early morning tirade against the media on Saturday, calling out White House reporters for &#8220;fake news&#8221; and blasting the endless use of nameless sources supposedly revealing inside information.
&#8220;So much of the Lamestream Media is writing and broadcasting stories with facts that are made up and knowingly wrong. They are doing it by quoting unnamed sources that simply do not exist. These are very dangerous &amp; corrupt people, who will do anything to win. NAME YOUR SOURCES!&#8221; Trump wrote on Twitter.
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So much of the Lamestream Media is writing and broadcasting stories with facts that are made up and knowingly wrong. They are doing it by quoting unnamed sources that simply do not exist. These are very dangerous &amp; corrupt people, who will do anything to win. NAME YOUR SOURCES!
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1243873875047448576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2020</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;One of the reasons that Fake News has become so prevalent &amp; far reaching is the fact that corrupt &#8216;journalists&#8217; base their stories on SOURCES that they make up in order to totally distort a narrative or story. When you see, &#8216;five sources say,&#8217; don’t believe the story, it is&#8230;.
&#8220;&#8230;. very often FAKE NEWS. Lamestream Media should be forced to reveal sources, very much as they did in the long ago past. If they did that, the media would be trusted again, and Fake News would largely be a thing of the past!&#8221; Trump wrote.
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One of the reasons that Fake News has become so prevalent &amp; far reaching is the fact that corrupt “journalists” base their stories on SOURCES that they make up in order to totally distort a narrative or story. When you see, “five sources say”, don’t believe the story, it is&#8230;.
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1243878874922041345?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2020</a></blockquote>
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&#8230;.very often FAKE NEWS. Lamestream Media should be forced to reveal sources, very much as they did in the long ago past. If they did that, the media would be trusted again, and Fake News would largely be a thing of the past!
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1243904684257091585?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Trump&#8217;s tirade came after a slew of stories citing unnamed sources, including one in which Trump supposedly called former New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez to seek advice on how to tackle the coronavirus crisis, citing &#8220;multiple sources.&#8221;
&#8220;During marathon day of meetings earlier this week, President Trump continued outreach across the country regarding coronavirus &amp; phoned former Yankees baseball player Alex Rodriguez. Multiple sources tell ABC, the president spoke to ARod from the Oval Office via me &amp; @KFaulders,&#8221; wrote John Santucci, senior editorial producer at ABC News.
&#8220;More Fake News!&#8221; Trump wrote.
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More Fake News! <a href="https://t.co/URewvfAUDl">https://t.co/URewvfAUDl</a>
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1243759793103306754?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Trump also ripped journalists for using only parts of his remarks and omitting others. For instance, there was this <a href="https://www.twincities.com/2020/03/28/trump-boosts-coronavirus-aid-warns-governors-to-be-appreciative/">Associated Press</a> story that said: “&#8217;I want them to be appreciative,&#8217; Trump said Friday after the White House announced that he would be using the powers granted to him under the Korean War-era Defense Production Act to try to compel auto giant General Motors to produce ventilators.&#8221;
The president blasted other liberal outlets for editing his remarks.
&#8220;Such Fake reporting by the @nytimes, @washingtonpost, @CNN &amp; others. They use a small portion of a sentence out of a full paragraph in order to demean. They really are corrupt and disgusting. No wonder the media is, according to polls, record setting low &amp; untrusted. #MAGA,&#8221; he tweeted.
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Such Fake reporting by the <a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@nytimes</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/washingtonpost?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@washingtonpost</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/CNN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CNN</a> &amp; others. They use a small portion of a sentence out of a full paragraph in order to demean. They really are corrupt and disgusting. No wonder the media is, according to polls, record setting low &amp; untrusted. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MAGA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MAGA</a>
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1243755076214231040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Trump singled out a New York Times reporter for tweeting, &#8220;&#8216;I want them to be appreciative,&#8217; the president says of governors who are criticizing the federal response.&#8221;
He retweeted a post in which Greg Price of the Daily Caller wrote: &#8220;Why don&#8217;t you use the full quote you hack: &#8216;I want them to be appreciative. We&#8217;ve done a great job. And I&#8217;m not talking about me. I&#8217;m talking about Mike Pence, the task force, I&#8217;m talking about FEMA, the Army Corps of Engineers.'&#8221;
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Why don&#39;t you use the full quote you hack:
&quot;I want them to be appreciative. We&#39;ve done a great job. And I&#39;m not talking about me. I&#39;m talking about Mike Pence, the task force, I&#39;m talking about FEMA, the Army Corps of Engineers.” <a href="https://t.co/9LfYwYB7Av">https://t.co/9LfYwYB7Av</a>
&mdash; Greg Price (@greg_price11) <a href="https://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1243677737761615872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 27, 2020</a></blockquote>
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A few theories emerged on Twitter as to why so many are bashing Trump, whose approval rating has reach record highs, according to Gallup.
&#8220;Trump-haters clearly frustrated that the American people-many of whom did not vote for him-approve of the epic job @realDonaldTrump is doing to mitigate the #coronavirus catastrophe. He’s flamboyant &amp; unrestrained, but he’s like General Patton, the right warrior for the fight,&#8221; wrote Fox contributor Gerald Rivera.
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Trump-haters clearly frustrated that the American people-many of whom did not vote for him-approve of the epic job <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> is doing to mitigate the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/coronavirus?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#coronavirus</a> catastrophe. He’s flamboyant &amp; unrestrained, but he’s like General Patton, the right warrior for the fight.
&mdash; Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) <a href="https://twitter.com/GeraldoRivera/status/1243692160807055361?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2020</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;They’re not happy because ⁦@realDonaldTrump⁩ is speaking directly to American people during a crisis and getting strong approval ratings for his handling of this,&#8221; wrote Fox host Laura Ingraham.
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They’re not happy because ⁦<a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a>⁩ is speaking directly to American people during a crisis and getting strong approval ratings for his handling of this. <a href="https://t.co/92xmMrPPXr">pic.twitter.com/92xmMrPPXr</a>
&mdash; Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) <a href="https://twitter.com/IngrahamAngle/status/1243679884490178560?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 27, 2020</a></blockquote>
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TOPSHOT-US-VOTE-DEBATE

‘DANGEROUS AND CORRUPT PEOPLE’: Trump Explodes On ‘Lamestream Media’ In Twitter Tirade

Fake News

About five years ago, I wrote a column about the Ring of Gyges, which may have been the inspiration for the ring of invisibility that sucked the soul out of Gollum in Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings.”
Plato’s brother Glaucon tells the story in the “Republic” of how Gyges, a shepherd, found the ring and, having become invisible, discovered he could commit any crime without being caught.
Glaucon said, “No man would keep his hands off what was not his own when he could safely take what he liked out of the market, or go into houses and lie with any one at his pleasure, or kill or release from prison whom he would&#8230;”
I noted back then that the media had had a similar effect on the Democrats. Hiding the corruption and abuses of the Obama administration, the press made them invisible and so the abuses grew worse. Obama went from unleashing the IRS on his political opponents, to selling his soul to the terrorist regime in Iran, and finally to spying on the opposition presidential candidate. Shielded by the ring of media invisibility, Obama became President Gollum.
Since then, though, the power of social media and of right-wing rebel media has grown, and the power of the media ring of invisibility is wearing off.
We see you, Democrats.
Nancy Pelosi must have thought the media ring would protect her when she sought to turn an emergency relief bill into a leftist wish list. Government-enforced board room diversity for businesses. Government-enforced emission postings for airlines. New voting rules to make fraud easier.
“Everything we are suggesting just relates to COVID-19,” Pelosi lied boldly. She must have thought she was still invisible.
But we see you, Nancy.
The New York Times worked hard to make the Democrats’ unforgivable behavior unseeable as well. At first they told the truth: “Democrats Block Action on $1.8 Trillion Stimulus.” Then they softened the truth: “Democrats Block Action on Stimulus Plan, Seeking Worker Protections.” Then they disappeared it: “Partisan Divide Threatens Deal on Rescue Bill.” Then they lied: “The Coronavirus Bailout Stalled, and it’s Mitch McConnell’s Fault.”
In the old days, they could have gotten away with it, but screenshots captured the crime against journalism, and social media spread them around.
We see you, New York Times.
President Trump’s daily press briefings have caused his popularity to rise while the media’s falls. So CNN and NBC have simply stopped full coverage of the briefings. When Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said the media is overplaying worst case scenarios and inflated numbers – which they are – CNN actually cut away.
But it won’t work. We see Trump doing his job well in a crisis. And we see you, media. You’re not invisible anymore, and you can’t make the Democrats invisible either.
Speaking of which: Joe Biden. His attempts at a response to the crisis have been pitiful. His “shadow briefing” was filled with blather and technical glitches. His interviews have been rambling and incomprehensible. And his action plans have been full of refried Pelosi don’t-let-a-crisis-go-to-waste gimmes: the Green New Deal, Student Loan forgiveness. Yeah, that oughta help.
In what has to be the funniest piece of the crisis not written by me, Showtime’s “The Circus” co-host Alex Wagner begged Biden just to “stay alive,” saying, “Democrats need little from the front-runner beyond his corporeal presence.”
She wrote, “Biden was never really convincing anyone on the stump – his political power at this point is an idea, held collectively, about how to defeat Trump. The work now is to keep that idea convincing enough, for long enough, among as many people as possible, for the corporeal man to actually win.”
In other words, the actual Biden has to be rendered invisible. So when writer Tara Reade said Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993, forcing her against a wall and shoving his fingers into her before she could break free, the press simply ignored it.
When the attempt to destroy Brett Kavanaugh was underway in 2018, Biden said that when a woman makes such an accusation, you have to “start off with the presumption that at least the essence of what she’s talking about is real.” Now he says Reade’s charges are untrue. And the media has done everything it knows how to bury Reade’s story and the story of the seven other women who’ve made similar accusations.
But the media ring of invisibility does not work anymore. The Daily Wire is here now and Fox News and The Bongino Report and every honest citizen who knows how to use screenshot and social media.
We see you, Joe. We see you, media. We see you, Democrats.
We see every damn one of you.

Biden and Pelosi

KLAVAN: We See You, Democrats

2020 Election

A new Gallup study gauging the American public&#8217;s view of the handling of the coronavirus crisis by various entities and figures found one particular group earning particularly bad marks: the news media, which was the only one on the list of nine that did not have majority approval.
&#8220;Americans are generally positive in their evaluations of how each of nine leaders and institutions has handled the response to the coronavirus situation,&#8221; <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/300680/coronavirus-response-hospitals-rated-best-news-media-worst.aspx">Gallup</a> explains. &#8220;Eight of the nine receive majority positive ratings — led by U.S. hospitals, at 88% approval. Only the news media gets a more negative than positive review.&#8221;
The news media was rated far worse than the CDC, Vice President Mike Pence, President Donald Trump, and even Congress, all of which had strong majority approval.
Asked, &#8220;Do you approve or disapprove of the way each of the following is handling the response to the coronavirus in the U.S.?&#8221; Americans gave by far the worse assessment of the news media. Here is the breakdown from best to worst:
<ol>
<li>U.S. hospitals: 88% approve, 10% disapprove</li>
<li>Your child&#8217;s school or daycare:  83 &#8211; 9</li>
<li>Your state government: 82 -17</li>
<li>Your employer: 82 &#8211; 14</li>
<li>Government health agencies such as the CDC and NIH: 80 -17</li>
<li>Vice President Mike Pence: 61-32</li>
<li>President Donald Trump: 60 &#8211; 38</li>
<li>Congress: 59 &#8211; 37</li>
<li>The news media: 44 &#8211; 55</li>
</ol>
Gallup explains that the data was collected from March 13-22 Gallup poll, &#8220;with the field period starting on the same day President Donald Trump declared a national emergency over the coronavirus outbreak, and spanning sharp increases in the number of documented cases in the U.S., as well as the number of deaths.&#8221;
Trump&#8217;s 60% approval, Gallup notes, is higher than his overall job approval, which is 49%, which climbed 5 points from a few weeks ago, when it was 44%.
A large part of the negative response to the news media comes from Republicans, only 25% of whom said they approve of how it&#8217;s covering the crisis, while 61% of Democrats approved.
According to Gallup&#8217;s survey, President Trump is winning this particular round of his years-long battle with the news media, which he hammered once again this week. In a tweet Wednesday, Trump accused the media of attempting to &#8220;keep our Country closed as long as possible&#8221; for political purposes.
“The LameStream Media is the dominant force in trying to get me to keep our Country closed as long as possible in the hope that it will be detrimental to my election success,” he <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-we-all-know-what-medias-push-to-keep-america-closed-as-long-as-possible-is-really-about">tweeted</a> Wednesday. “The real people want to get back to work ASAP. We will be stronger than ever before!”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The LameStream Media is the dominant force in trying to get me to keep our Country closed as long as possible in the hope that it will be detrimental to my election success. The real people want to get back to work ASAP. We will be stronger than ever before!
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1242905328209080331?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 25, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Trump&#8217;s tweet came the same day as Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House Coronavirus Response coordinator, called out exaggerated reporting on the coronavirus pandemic.
“I think the numbers that have been put out there are actually very frightening to people,” Dr. Birx <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dr-deborah-birx-media-has-frightened-the-american-people-with-salacious-coronavirus-numbers">said</a> during a press conference on Wednesday. “But I can tell you if you go back and look at Wuhan and Hubei and all of these provinces, when they talk about 60,000 people being infected, even if you said, alright, well there’s asymptomatics and all of that, so you get to 600,000 people out of 80 million. That is nowhere close to the numbers that you see people putting out there. I think it has frightened the American people.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dr-deborah-birx-shreds-media-for-salacious-claims-we-dont-have-evidence-of-that">Dr. Deborah Birx Shreds Media For Salacious Claims: ‘We Don’t Have Evidence Of That’</a>

Gallup Finds Biggest Loser In COVID-19 Response Is The Media

Congress

Gallup

The same day that Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House Coronavirus Response coordinator, slammed exaggerated reporting on the potential fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, President Trump took aim at the left-leaning mainstream media, describing them as &#8220;the dominant force&#8221; behind keeping America &#8220;closed as long as possible.&#8221; The media&#8217;s driving motive, Trump suggested, is about politics, not protecting people.
&#8220;I think the numbers that have been put out there are actually very frightening to people,&#8221; Dr. Birx <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dr-deborah-birx-media-has-frightened-the-american-people-with-salacious-coronavirus-numbers">said</a> during a press conference on Wednesday. &#8220;But I can tell you if you go back and look at Wuhan and Hubei and all of these provinces, when they talk about 60,000 people being infected, even if you said, alright, well there’s asymptomatics and all of that, so you get to 600,000 people out of 80 million. That is nowhere close to the numbers that you see people putting out there. I think it has frightened the American people.&#8221;
In a social media post Wednesday, Trump, who has been increasingly signaling that he wants to begin to reopen the economy sooner rather than later, attributed political motivations to the media&#8217;s &#8220;frightening&#8221; tactics.
&#8220;The LameStream Media is the dominant force in trying to get me to keep our Country closed as long as possible in the hope that it will be detrimental to my election success,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;The real people want to get back to work ASAP. We will be stronger than ever before!&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The LameStream Media is the dominant force in trying to get me to keep our Country closed as long as possible in the hope that it will be detrimental to my election success. The real people want to get back to work ASAP. We will be stronger than ever before!
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1242905328209080331?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 25, 2020</a></blockquote>
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While Birx didn&#8217;t particularly call out the mainstream media in her comments Wednesday, she did make a point of generally debunking alarming claims circulating online and on television, which have included such claims as MSNBC’s Chris Hayes <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/msnbc-deletes-tweet-coronavirus-could-kill-50-percent-americans">warning</a> that the coronavirus could kill 1% of the U.S. population, or some 3.3 million people.
&#8220;When you got to those projections that said like in Germany and others that implied that 60% or 50% of the population would get infected, I want to be very clear, the only way that happens, is that this virus remains continuously moving through populations in this cycle, in the fall cycle and another cycle. That’s through three cycles with nothing being done,&#8221; said Birx. &#8220;We are dealing with cycle ‘A’ right now, not one that could come in the Fall of 2020 and that we’re getting prepared for by the innovations that are being worked on, and not 2021 [cycle]. We’re really dealing with the here and now while we are planning for the future. And I think the numbers that have been put out there are actually very frightening to people.&#8221;
&#8220;I think on a model you just run full out, you can get to those numbers if you have 0 controls and you do nothing,&#8221; Dr. Birx said later. &#8220;And we know that every American is doing something and so I think what our job right now is, is to carefully detail on a hospital by hospital, state by state, county by county to outline what the infrastructure needs are and ensure that we are meeting them, both from the stockpile and from the generosity and movement of the American people.&#8221;
While Trump has certainly worked in attacks on his critics and political opponents in recent days, he&#8217;s spent far more time pushing out a message of hope and progress. Ahead of his &#8220;LameStream Media&#8221; post, he reported on the encouraging developments in testing in the U.S.
&#8220;Just reported that the United States has done far more &#8216;testing&#8217; than any other nation, by far!&#8221; he <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1242824631230308353">wrote</a>. &#8220;In fact, over an eight day span, the United States now does more testing than what South Korea (which has been a very successful tester) does over an eight week span. Great job!&#8221;
&#8220;The four hospitals that we (FEMA) are building in NYC at the Javits Convention Center are moving along very well, ahead of schedule. Many additional ventilators also delivered. Good conversation with Governor Cuomo!&#8221; he <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1242826052310794240">wrote</a> in another post.
Trump&#8217;s biggest focus over the last week has been getting the massive $2.2 trillion stimulus bill passed by Congress so that struggling Americans will have some economic relief amid widespread lockdowns. After Democrats blocked it Sunday evening,  the U.S. Senate finally passed the bill Wednesday night by unanimous vote. Trump quickly took to Twitter to celebrate the win for Americans. &#8220;96-0 in the United States Senate. Congratulations AMERICA!&#8221; he <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1243037202793316354">wrote</a>.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/senate-passes-2-trillion-relief-bill-pelosi-has-message-for-disappointed-house-democrats">Senate Passes $2 Trillion Relief Bill; Pelosi Has Message For ‘Disappointed’ House Democrats</a>

Trump: We All Know What Media’s Push To Keep America Closed As Long As Possible Is Really About

Economy

President Trump&#8217;s poll numbers are on the rise as a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gallup-trump-approval-spikes-majority-of-americans-approve-of-his-handling-of-crisis">strong majority</a> of Americans now approve of his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Amid the crisis, Trump has increasingly shifted away from his trademark opponent-attacking mode to taking on the role as the nation&#8217;s &#8220;encourager-in-chief,&#8221; likely part of the reason public opinion of his handling of the job has improved.
Right on cue, the editorial board of The Washington Post published an editorial Wednesday warning the paper&#8217;s readers that some of the hope Trump has been offering the nation is actually &#8220;false&#8221; and doing great &#8220;damage.&#8221;
&#8220;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/trump-is-spreading-false-hope-for-a-virus-cure--and-thats-not-the-only-damage/2020/03/25/587b26d8-6ec3-11ea-b148-e4ce3fbd85b5_story.html?utm_campaign=wp_opinions&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter">Trump is spreading false hope for a virus cure — and that’s not the only damage</a>,&#8221; declared the headline of the Post&#8217;s editorial published Wednesday. That &#8220;false hope,&#8221; the Post says, is Trump&#8217;s comments about a potential treatment for COVID-19 involving the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine.
The Post offers some background on why many (including Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo) have looked to hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for coronavirus:
<div class="teaser-content">
<section>
<div>
<blockquote>
During the first two weeks of March, 20 patients suffering from the new <a class="contextual_link" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/02/28/what-you-need-know-about-coronavirus/?tid=lk_inline_manual_1&amp;itid=lk_inline_manual_1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">coronavirus</a> at a hospital in Marseille, France, participated in a preliminary <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0924857920300996?via%3Dihub">study </a>to see if the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine had any effect on the disease, in some cases combined with an antibiotic, <a href="https://www.drugs.com/azithromycin.html">azithromycin</a>. Sixteen people who didn’t get the drugs were enlisted as controls. After six days, the study found that 57.1 percent of patients who got hydroxychloroquine were cured, and 100 percent of those who got both drugs were cleared of the virus — compared to only 12.5 percent of the control group. Soon after it was published, this result was <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1241367239900778501">advertised</a> by President Trump as “a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine.”
</blockquote>
</div>
</section>
</div>
<div class="remainder-content">
<section>
&#8220;Not so fast,&#8221; writes the Post&#8217;s snarky editorial board. &#8220;Such success does not usually occur overnight. Widespread testing for drug safety and efficacy is essential. The French result does not mean this <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/03/25/chloroquine-coronavirus-toxic-malaria/?tid=lk_inline_manual_2&amp;itid=lk_inline_manual_2">drug </a>is ready for use against the coronavirus, nor should a world ridden with anxiety about pandemic illness and death rest its hopes on this <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-25/hydroxychloroquine-no-better-than-regular-covid-19-care-in-study">unproven possibility</a>. There may be a &#8216;wonder&#8217; drug at the end of the rainbow, but we are not there yet.&#8221;
To fully know if the drug combination is an effective treatment, the Post explains, &#8220;controlled <a href="https://www.drugwatch.com/fda/clinical-trials/">clinical trials</a> would be required before a drug is approved by the Food and Drug Administration: Phase 1 to determine overall safety and dosage; Phase 2 (about 100 people) to see if effective and safe compared with other compounds; Phase 3 (a large group) to test efficacy and side effects.&#8221;
But hasn&#8217;t hydroxychloroquine already been approved for treatment of malaria? Yes, the Post notes, but it hasn&#8217;t been approved for use on coronavirus. &#8220;Scientists are still <a href="https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2020/03/20/chloroquine-past-and-present">arguing </a>over how the drug attacks the malaria parasite. No one is sure how it might work against viruses,&#8221; the editorial board notes. &#8220;Besides, there are potentially serious <a href="https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2017/006002s044lbl.pdf">side effects</a>: irreversible retinal damage and cardiac failure in some patients.&#8221;
But just because the treatment hasn&#8217;t been adequately tested and officially approved, is it necessarily a &#8220;false hope&#8221; that is doing &#8220;damage&#8221;? The Post insists it is, blaming Trump&#8217;s &#8220;overhyping&#8221; of the potential treatment for &#8220;hoarding of hydroxychloroquine and diverted supplies from people with other maladies who need it.&#8221; The only true cure, the Post says, is going to be a vaccine.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gallup-trump-approval-spikes-majority-of-americans-approve-of-his-handling-of-crisis">Trump Approval Spikes, Strong Majority Of Americans Approve Of His Handling Of Crisis</a>
</section>
</div>

The Washington Post

WaPo Editors Lash Out At Trump: His ‘False Hope’ About Curing Virus Causing ‘Damage’

As I wrote <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-york-times-changes-headline-about-democrats-blocking-coronavirus-stimulus">yesterday</a>, Democrats have it good. They blocked a coronavirus relief bill that had been constructed with bipartisan support, knowing that the media would provide them cover. That cover has come especially from The New York Times.
On Monday, in addition to changing its headline to protect Democrats in a way the outlet would never do for Republicans, the Times’ editorial board published its <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/opinion/coronavirus-bailout-mcconnell-congress.html">editorial</a> blaming House Majority Leader Mitch McConnell – a Republican – for Democrats blocking the $1.8 trillion relief bill. In an editorial titled, “The Coronavirus Bailout Stalled. And It’s Mitch McConnell’s Fault,” the Times claims “Senate Republicans are blocking passage of an economic bailout plan that protects jobs and wages.”
Yes, the Times actually claimed that Republicans blocked the bill.
They list several provisions in the bill that the editorial board – and, coincidentally, Democrats – don’t like, such as providing “a lot of help for corporate executives and shareholders.”
“It would let the Treasury Department hand out hundreds of billions of dollars to corporations — potentially including businesses owned by President Trump — without requiring a binding commitment to preserve jobs and wages. And the bailouts could remain secret for six months,” the Times editorial board wrote.
“Senate Democrats, refusing to play along, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/22/us/politics/coronavirus-economic-rescue-plan.html">blocked the bill</a> in a procedural vote on Sunday night and again on Monday afternoon. But responsibility for the deadlock rests squarely on Mr. McConnell’s shoulders,” board continued.
The Times then laid out the good measures in the bill that help small businesses and American families, but claims “the urgency of the moment does not justify the egregious misuse of public resources.”
As a reminder, the Times’ editorial board was all in on President Barack Obama’s trillion-dollar stimulus back in 2009, even though it provided funds to the president’s donors, friends, and pet projects while failing to help working Americans. We all remember the claim about “shovel-ready jobs” that Obama now flippantly jokes about at speaking engagements.
The Times notes some reasonable objections to the coronavirus relief bill, including a lack of restrictions on big businesses that would receive money from the federal government.
But Democrats blocked a procedural vote on the bill, even though, as McConnell <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mcconnell-explodes-on-pelosi-for-ruining-stimulus-bill-that-protected-economy-families">said on the Senate floor Monday</a>, had Democrats voted to advance the bill, it would have been opened to at least 30 hours of debate and edits.
“This obstruction achieves nothing. Nothing whatsoever other than prevent us from getting into a position where there are literally 30 more hours that they could use to continue to dicker,” McConnell said. “So at a time when the country is crying out for bipartisanship and cooperation — and we saw that over the last 48 hours when regular members of Senate, not in the leadership office, not in the speaker’s office for goodness sakes, she’s the Speaker of the House, not the speaker of the Senate. We don’t have one. We were doing just fine until that intervention.”
Also on Monday, the Times changed its headline accurately stating that “Democrats Block Action on $1.8 Trillion Stimulus” to say “Democrats Block Action on Stimulus Plan, Seeking Worker Protections.” The Times further watered down the headline by changing it to read, “Partisan Divide Threatens Deal on Rescue Bill,” before yet another change to “Emergency Economic Rescue Plan in Limbo as Democrats Block Action.”
The editorial board, however, appears to be all in on blaming Republicans for Democrat obstructionism.
So far, the editorial board has not published a similar editorial calling out House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for loading up her <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/senator-highlights-pelosis-absurd-coronavirus-bill-that-is-unrelated-to-the-crisis">own version of a coronavirus relief bill</a> with unrelated Democrat policies, such as requiring early voting and offsetting airline emissions.

New York Times Blames Mitch McConnell For Democrats Blocking Coronavirus Relief Bill

On Tuesday morning, the nation’s leading infectious diseases expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, was interviewed on the radio, and slammed the media for trying to create a rift between him and President Trump, asserting, “I would wish that that would stop because we have a much bigger problem here than trying to point out differences … When I have made recommendations he’s taken them; he’s never countered or overridden me; the idea of pitting one against the other is just not helpful. I wish that would stop and we’d look ahead at the challenge we have to pull together to get over this thing.”
The interview on WMAL’s “Mornings on the Mall” began with host Mary Walter asking Fauci about the 15-day timeline that President Trump had suggested before reassessing the situation of getting America back to work. Fauci answered:
<blockquote>This is something that’s under very intense discussion. What the president is trying to do is to balance the public health issues with the fact this is having an enormous impact on the economy of the country which may actually, indirectly even, cause an incredible amount of harm and difficulty, even health-wise. So it’s a delicate balancing act which the president is trying to get right. We’re under very intense discussions right now about what the most appropriate timeline is and if we do modify it, how to modify it.</blockquote>
Fauci then answered the question of whether his advice to the president was exclusively based on American’s health or whether consideration of the economic impact was part of his advice. He replied:
<blockquote>No, I don&#8217;t consider the balancing act; that is a very good question. The president has the awesome responsibility of considering every aspect of this. I just give public health advice completely clean, unconnected with anything else. He has to factor in other things. And that’s the way he operates; he takes in advice from a number of people from a number of different vantage points and then he makes his decision.</blockquote>
Fauci lauded President Trump for the speed with which he implemented a travel ban from China and then Europe, an action which many on the Left criticized. The very day that Trump issued his travel ban on people coming from China, former Vice President Joe Biden attacked Trump at a campaign rally, saying, ““In moments like this, this is where the credibility of a president is most needed, as he explains what we should and should not do. This is no time for Donald Trump’s record of hysteria and xenophobia, hysterical xenophobia, to uh, and fear mongering,”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Joe Biden opposed the China travel restrictions wisely put in place by President Trump in January – restrictions that health experts credit with slowing the spread of coronavirus &amp; saving lives.
If Biden had been in charge, more Americans would have contracted the virus faster. <a href="https://t.co/yDXRYl6lOk">pic.twitter.com/yDXRYl6lOk</a>
&mdash; Trump War Room &#8211; Text TRUMP to 88022 (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1238144416147288066?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 12, 2020</a></blockquote>
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After Trump implemented the travel ban from Europe, Biden <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2020/03/19/neither-biden-nor-sanders-would-have-saved-american-lives-with-travel-bans-like-trump-did/">tweeted</a>, “A wall will not stop the coronavirus. Banning all travel from Europe — or any other part of the world — will not stop it.”
Fauci lauded Trump for his swiftness in implementing the travel bans:
<blockquote>It is extremely important to look at and take into very serious consideration what goes on in other countries. Every country is a bit different in some way, but we learn a lot. We learn a lot from China and we’re learning a lot from Italy. Italy has a very good health care system; Italy has a lot of very good people who are on this and they’re going through a very difficult time, so that’s one of the things that’s very concerning.
I believe Italy got into this much trouble for a number of reasons which hopefully we have avoided, namely the influx of cases from China were not shut off immediately in Italy and one of the important things that we did was the president’s decision to very early on, stop the influx, first from China, and now from Europe, particularly the countries Italy, France and others, the entire European Union. Because one of the things that feeds the country is when you have influx of cases from outside. Once they’re here, then it’s up to us to mitigate the spread throughout the country.</blockquote>
Host Vince Coglianese asked, “Doctor Fauci, I want to ask you about something I’ve seen transpire in the last couple of days, especially as it relates to you. It seems that increasingly, a bunch of the questions from the media are designed to create a rift between you and the president of the United states, or at least to sort of emphasize differences of opinion in a way that creates distance between you and the president. Are you sensing that as the media continually asks you questions about the differences you have with him?”
Fauci answered, “That is really unfortunate. I would wish that that would stop because we have a much bigger problem here than trying to point out differences. There really, fundamentally at the core, when you look at things, there are not differences. The president has listened to what I have said and what the other people on the task force have said. When I have made recommendations he’s taken them; he’s never countered or overridden me; the idea of pitting one against the other is just not helpful. I wish that would stop and we’d look ahead at the challenge we have to pull together to get over this thing.”
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DR. FAUCI: &quot;No, I don&#39;t consider the balancing act&#8230; the president has the awesome responsibility of considering every aspect of this. I just give public health advice completely clean, unconnected with anything else. He has to factor in other things.&quot;<a href="https://t.co/BbbG170J3p">https://t.co/BbbG170J3p</a>
&mdash; Vince Coglianese (@VinceCoglianese) <a href="https://twitter.com/VinceCoglianese/status/1242405833809563648?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 24, 2020</a></blockquote>
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&nbsp;

President Trump And Members Of The Coronavirus Task Force Hold Press Briefing

LISTEN: Fauci Blasts Media For Trying To Divide Him And Trump, Lauds Trump For Travel Ban

Democrats have it good. They know that they can do things that if done by Republicans would cause media outlets to lose their minds. Democrats know that the media will run cover for them in the same situations.
The latest example comes from The New York Times, which keeps changing its headline regarding Democrats in the Senate voting against a stimulus package that would provide checks to Americans to help mitigate the effects of the coronavirus quarantine, which has shut down businesses and cost people their paychecks.
The original headline for the article read: “Democrats Block Action on $1.8 Trillion Stimulus.” Right-leaning people would notice that this is how the Times would have titled the article had Republicans blocked a Democrat bill, though it probably would have gone further to describe the bill as helping families during the coronavirus.
The Times, however, changed the headline to read, “Democrats Block Action on Stimulus Plan, Seeking Worker Protections,” which adds a vague qualifier meant to make it look like Democrats were not simply acting with partisan bitterness – a qualifier Republicans rarely get from left-leaning media outlets.
For example, just one week ago, media outlets in their headlines blamed Republicans for blocking a coronavirus relief bill. NBC News, for example, ran with the headline, “<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/rep-louie-gohmert-delays-house-coronavirus-relief-bill-moving-senate-n1160681">House sends coronavirus relief bill to Senate after delay by Rep. Gohmert</a>.” Why did Gohmert delay the bill? Because he wanted to read the technical corrections made to the bill over the weekend. Yet the wording from the media made it sound like this was a bad thing.
Back in May 2019, a Washington Post headline read, “House Republicans block $19.1 billion nationwide disaster aid bill for third time.” The reason Republicans held up the bill is that they wanted to debate it rather than passing it by voice vote. The bill would have provided billions of dollars in disaster relief to areas hit by hurricanes, flooding, and wildfires. Republicans wanted to make sure the relief was being spent correctly, but you wouldn’t know that from the headlines.
The Times appears to have changed the headline regarding the coronavirus stimulus bill a second time to read: “Partisan Divide Threatens Deal on Rescue Bill,” a headline that does not note that it is Democrats who are creating the divide. The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/22/us/politics/coronavirus-economic-rescue-plan.html">headline</a> at the time of this writing reads, “Emergency Economic Rescue Plan in Limbo as Democrats Block Action.” The dek of the article explains that Democrats blocked the relief bill because they were “seeking stronger protections for workers and stricter rules for bailed-out businesses.”
The Times has a coronavirus outbreak vertical that collects their reporting on the virus, and a headline regarding the relief bill on that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/22/world/coronavirus-updates-world-usa.html#link-661a3d00">page</a> still reads, “Senate Democrats block action on a trillion-dollar stimulus plan.”
Left-leaning media outlets have been caught changing headlines in the past in ways that irritate conservatives. For example, in October 2019, The Washington Post infamously changed its headline regarding a terrorist leader’s death from “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Islamic State’s ‘terrorist-in-chief,’ dies at 48,” to “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, austere religious scholar at helm of Islamic State, dies at 48.”
After a backlash, the Post again changed the headline to read: “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, extremist leader of Islamic State, dies at 48.”

New York Times Changes Headline About Democrats Blocking Coronavirus Stimulus

A talking head in HBO’s documentary tackling Fake News says the quiet part out loud.
“The worst part of 2016 is what we did to ourselves,” Georgetown University “disinformation expert” Molly McKew says about the subject in hand, revealing, well, everything.
We’ve seen the mainstream media, along with Hollywood and the Democrats, throw a three-plus year long tantrum over Donald Trump’s electoral victory.
Three-plus years!
And, given the very existence of “After Truth: Disinformation and the Cost of Fake News,” it’s not over yet.
The documentary debuts at 9 p.m. EST March 19 on the premium channel – check the <a href="https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/after-truth">official HBO site</a> for the full list of release dates/times.
At first glance, “After Truth” is a timely effort showing why our already low opinion of journalism cratered following Trump’s election. Instead, the film avoids that reality while punching so far down it might reach China before the end credits roll.
Did you know Infowars anchor Alex Jones was a fraud? That he makes stuff up while peddling nutritional supplements? What about how people use Facebook to share obviously false stories that, sadly, some take as the Gospel truth?
Thank you, “After Truth.”
Not only does the documentary state the obvious. It does so over and again. Anything is better, apparently, than diagnosing the rot infesting journalism today.
The term “Fake News” came of age because the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/nov/10/facebook-fake-news-election-conspiracy-theories">media tried to blame fraudulent news stories</a> for Hillary Clinton’s loss. (Clinton herself later used it, along with a<a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/hillary-clinton-expands-list-of-election-loss-excuses-to-include-dnc-assumption-she-would-win"> dozen other excuses</a>, to explain her shocking defeat).
President Trump turned the <a href="https://psmag.com/social-justice/how-trump-weaponized-fake-news-for-his-own-political-ends">phrase on its head</a>, and the mainstream media followed right along. How? By generating more Fake News than any time in modern journalism history.
Peruse any right-of-center news site and you’ll find endless examples of Fake News, all of it aimed at either Trump or the GOP. Here’s the <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2019/04/22/top-51-fake-news-bombshells-media-spread-russiagate/">mother of all such lists</a> from John Nolte of Breitbart News. His essential checklist is a year old, though, and was by no means complete.
His list might double today if he gave it a thorough update.
Nolte’s article doesn’t rely on obscure blogs, mind you. Think NBC News. BuzzFeed. The New York Times. ABC News. CNN.
Want another Fake News compendium, but this time from a<a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/01/20/beyond-buzzfeed-the-10-worst-most-embarrassing-u-s-media-failures-on-the-trumprussia-story/"> liberal source</a>? Try Glenn Greenwald’s scathing takedown.
Or, you can log onto Twitter pretty much any day ending in “Y.” This tweet is two days old.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Why does <a href="https://twitter.com/TwitterSupport?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@twittersupport</a> allow verified accounts to deliberately spread misinformation.
This is dangerous and deliberate, ment to incite panic and violence. <a href="https://t.co/f8Sj7ikoGa">https://t.co/f8Sj7ikoGa</a>
— Greta Ocasio-Nolte (@NolteNC) <a href="https://twitter.com/NolteNC/status/1239892346604527616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 17, 2020</a></blockquote>
NOTE: Baker is the Chief White House Correspondent for The New York Times, according to his Twitter bio.
None of that, and we mean not one fake story on those lists, gets a close up in HBO’s “After Truth” documentary. Instead, we spend endless time revisiting the Pizzagate scandal, something tied to one news source – the oh, so credible Infowars.
Oh, and some tweets, too. The film uses tweets as hard Fake News proof. A lot.
The poor pizza shop owner who lived through the conspiracy deserves all of our sympathy, no doubt. Still, which Fake News scandal did a greater disservice to the country – a false meme which threatened an entrepreneur and his eatery, or serial lies designed to overturn the will of the American people?
The film, executive produced by <a href="https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/aiden-jackson/2019/10/22/brian-stelter-were-just-stating-truth">Captain Media Bias himself, CNN’s Brian Stelter,</a> blurs the line between misinformation spread on social media and “legitimate” news outlets.
That’s likely on purpose. It’s also why the film’s split personality can’t be reconciled.
We certainly could use a documentary about how digital misinformation (Facebook, Twitter and more) creates real world chaos, especially one savaging liars on both sides of the aisle.
<ul>
<li>How does it spread?</li>
<li>Why are we so susceptible to stories that don’t pass the smell test?</li>
<li>What are credible steps to battle it that don’t morph into censorship?</li>
<li>Why did we start tuning out mainstream news outlets in the first place?</li>
</ul>
That last one matters most.
“After Truth” flirts with some of those questions, but in a mostly insincere fashion. Hearing journalists rage against a hoaxster trying to pin a sex crime on Robert Mueller is, sadly, amusing. Remember how the same journalists dubbed the craziest sex accusations against Brett Kavanaugh “<a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/book-reveals-allegations-brett-kavanaugh-fbis-handling-probe/story?id=65625607">credible</a>?”
Or, consider a documentary about how Fake News caught fire in the Age of Trump. You’ll never see that because journalists are incapable of shame and/or self-reflection.
So we’re left with this Frankenstein’s monster of a documentary. And boy, do the stitches show.
The mission is equally clear:
<ul>
<li>Explain away Trump’s 2016 election win (again)</li>
<li>Attack the GOP (we see a T-shirt of Trump urinating on the CNN logo)</li>
<li>Lay the ground work for questioning the 2020 elections should Trump win</li>
<li>Russia, Russia, Russia!</li>
</ul>
The film obsesses over Russian “interference” in the 2016 election as if the Mueller Report never hit Amazon.
Still. Yes, after Mike Bloomberg sent $500 million down a hole to upend the Democratic race, we’re to believe Russian bots swung a presidential election for Trump.
This <a href="https://pjmedia.com/trending/first-no-collusion-now-no-actual-russians-in-muellers-disastrous-russian-collusion-illusion/">recent bit of Russian collusion news</a> is equally inconvenient for the film, directed by Andrew Rossi.
“After Truth” comes closer to paydirt by <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/08/08/749392506/conspiracyland-debunks-theories-about-murder-of-dnc-staffer-seth-rich">re-examining the death of DNC staffer Seth Rich</a>. Remember how Fox News’ pundit Sean Hannity pounced on that wafer thin conspiracy for all it was worth, while Rich’s surviving family members cried foul … and <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/3/23/17129414/seth-rich-fox-news-lawsuit-conspiracy-theories">lawyered up?</a>
The channel’s news side put up a story on the Rich scandal, too, but later retracted it in no uncertain terms. But where’s the apology, the movie asks, ignoring how many news sites pushed bigger lies without an ounce of regret, let alone any mea culpas.
The film does have its upsides. The production values are top notch, and few dull moments emerge. Watching hucksters like <a href="https://www.washingtonian.com/2017/11/29/jack-burkman-press-conference-m-reese-everson-went-nowhere/">Jacob Wohl and lobbyist Jack Burkman</a> reveal their true selves, and their hunger for social media affirmation, is a virtue in any setting.
“Are we trending on Twitter?” Wohl asks at one point. Gross.
A team of veteran journalists dismantle the duo’s pathetic scheme to <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/26/robert-mueller-hoax-how-jacob-wohl-created-sexual-harassment-plot/2993799002/">smear Robert Mueller</a> during “After Truth.” Still, why give the takedown so much attention since it didn’t leave a scratch on Mueller’s good name? The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/media-response-muellers-testimony-brutal-james-barrett">special counsel’s congressional testimony</a> last July, though, is another matter.
Still, here’s betting the next time either Wohl or Burkman stage a press conference, more than a few scribes show up. It’s another aspect of the film left unexamined. Why do they draw a crowd in the first place?
The film’s wobbliest attempt at balance, and there aren’t many, involves a fake Facebook campaign meant to hurt Republican Roy Moore’s Alabama senate race. We meet, at length, the Democratic operative behind the deceptive effort.
See, Democrats game the Fake News system, too!
The segment ultimately savages the GOP, though, while the provocateur paints himself as a patriot for illuminating the system’s flaws. Hey, somebody has to be the hero, right?
“After Truth” inexplicably runs out of Fake News long before the end credits. Go back and look at all the examples listed above and consider how that’s even possible.
Instead, it revisits the PizzaGate scandal, Facebook’s culpability in Fake News, and Jones’ one-man clown act. The latter allows the assembled journalists to Speak Truth to Power one more time.
Embarrassing. It’s like Kramer staring down a squad of children in his kara-TAY class.
Facebook critic Kara Swisher gets endless screen time savaging the social media platform. And speaking of platforms, the documentary cheers Jones’ getting de-platformed while ignoring the bigger problem afoot. What about other right-of-center souls getting deplatformed or harassed for simply sharing conservative views?
Think <a href="https://www.prageru.com/press-release/prageru-takes-legal-action-against-google-and-youtube-for-discrimination/">Prager U</a>, for starters.
Where do we, as a culture, draw the line?
Again, it’s an important argument completely ignored here. And it gets a bit scary when Swisher says some of Jones’ rants aren’t “free speech.”
Oh, yes they are, as ugly as they might be.
Why lavish so much attention on Jones in the first place, though? Your neighbor’s toddler can tell he’s a scam artist from a simple glance.
Well, because he’s vaguely right of center, and movies like “After Truth” can use him as a cudgel against the conservative movement.
Otherwise, the best approach to Jones’ vile shtick is simple. Ignore him. Or, in the case of the Sandy Hook parents aghast at his suggestion their children’s deaths were fake, sue him into oblivion.
HBO’s own press release describes “After Truth” this way:
<blockquote>…features exclusive access to the victims and perpetrators of false news stories as well as a variety of experts and journalists who contextualize its impact and reinforce the importance of quality journalism.</blockquote>
The term Fake News means shoddy, biased journalism, the very antithesis of what reporters should produce. “After Truth” twists that meaning so far, so aggressively, that it amounts to a denial of extreme magnitude.
Anyone following journalism in 2020, though, won’t be surprised by that at all. That includes Nolte.
Just this week the Breitbart News editor at large amassed a new collection of Fake News from the mainstream media. This time, the lies <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2020/03/17/nolte-all-the-establishment-medias-dangerous-coronavirus-lies/">connected to the Coronavirus</a>, the pandemic killing thousands worldwide and forcing American life to grind to halt.
Coronavirus is not a D.C. food fight. Like the CNN Race Riots of 2014, it affects everyday people: we have shut down our economy. The stock market is going insane. People are scared, worried, stressed, and have reason to be. Even if you remove the fear of the virus, no one can escape the fear of the panic, and the media’s blatant lies are only adding to this uncertainty and fear – and are doing so by design.
Someone ought to make a documentary about that, no?
A version of this article appears on <a href="http://Hollywoodintoto.com">HollywoodInToto.com</a>.

TOTO: HBO’s ‘After Truth’ Perfectly Captures Why Journalism Is Dying

Journalism

Every once in a while, the liberal journalists at PolitiFact grant President Donald Trump a rare rating of &#8220;Mostly True.&#8221; Most recently, they verified a Trump tweet about Joe Biden: &#8220;During the 2009 swine flu outbreak, Biden made reckless comments unsupported by science &amp; the experts. The Obama Admin had to clean up his mess &amp; apologize for his ineptitude.&#8221;
They explained that on April 30, 2009, Biden was interviewed by then-NBC host Matt Lauer on the &#8220;Today&#8221; show. Lauer asked, &#8220;If a member of your family came to you and said, &#8216;Look, I want to go on a commercial airliner to Mexico and back,&#8217; within the next week, would you think it&#8217;s a good idea?&#8221;
&#8220;It&#8217;s not that it&#8217;s going to Mexico. It&#8217;s you&#8217;re in a confined aircraft,&#8221; Biden said. &#8220;When one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft.&#8221; He added that he wouldn&#8217;t advise taking the subway, either: &#8220;If you&#8217;re out in the middle of a field and someone sneezes, that&#8217;s one thing; if you&#8217;re in a closed aircraft or closed container or closed car or closed classroom, it&#8217;s a different thing.&#8221;
One reason PolitiFact wrote this up is that it rated Biden&#8217;s claim &#8220;Pants on Fire&#8221; back in 2009. In an airplane, the experts said, a sneeze might travel a row or two but not throughout the whole plane.
The @TrumpWarRoom Twitter account found a 2009 video of then-White House press secretary Robert Gibbs trying to spin what Biden &#8220;meant to say&#8221; — that if you&#8217;re feeling ill, don&#8217;t get on a plane. Next you hear Jake Tapper, then with ABC, shooting back saying, &#8220;With all due respect,&#8221; Gibbs&#8217; statement wasn&#8217;t &#8220;even remotely close&#8221; to what Biden said.
Here&#8217;s the important part: The networks energetically circled the &#8220;news&#8221; wagons to protect Biden. They helped &#8220;clean up his mess,&#8221; as Trump said.
Then-CBS anchor Katie Couric brought a doctor on &#8220;CBS Evening News&#8221; and said, &#8220;the vice president created a bit of a brouhaha &#8230; but that&#8217;s not terrible advice in certain situations, is it?&#8221; In 2008, Brent Baker at NewsBusters noted how Couric had earlier been so protective of Biden that she didn&#8217;t correct him during an interview when he said Franklin Roosevelt &#8220;got on television&#8221; when the stock market crashed.
On ABC&#8217;s evening newscast, then-anchor Charles Gibson ran the &#8220;Today&#8221; show clip of Biden and asked then-ABC medical editor Dr. Tim Johnson, &#8220;Is he overreacting?&#8221; Johnson admitted Biden was off-base, but then spun it into a positive: &#8220;In an ironic way, the reaction — the information that has come out in reaction — has been very informative.&#8221;
Fox&#8217;s Chris Wallace wasn&#8217;t so sanguine in a New York talk radio interview with Steve Malzberg. &#8220;This just is very reckless, and, and, it just makes you wonder, &#8216;What&#8217;s the matter with this guy?'&#8221; he said. &#8220;I&#8217;m able to get on and off the air without saying — I hope, most times — without saying something stupid. He doesn&#8217;t seem to be able to do that.&#8221;
It&#8217;s worth remembering that the media&#8217;s coverage of infectious diseases resembles their coverage of every other potentially controversial topic. Verifiable facts are often secondary, and political spin dominates. Liberal media outlets find it boring to merely organize and recite facts. It&#8217;s in their nature to nurture and protect the people they locate on &#8220;the right side of history.&#8221;
L. Brent Bozell III is the president of the Media Research Center. Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org. To find out more about Brent Bozell III and Tim Graham, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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