Even during a pandemic, it’s supremely difficult to take the national media seriously as they niggle over something so small as how administration officials (doctors and health experts) perform for them during press briefings.
Liberal New York Times columnist Charles Blow wrote Sunday to complain that “Trump’s news conferences on the virus have turned into orgies of self-congratulatory backslapping and butt kissing.” Demonstrating his prowess as a wordsmith, he added, “It’s gross.”
The problem, it seems, is that while keeping the public abreast of the latest coronavirus developments, officials are sure first to credit President Trump for his leadership, given the circumstances.
Admittedly, the administration’s response to the health scare has been, at best, bumbling. But part of the president’s job is reassuring the public that there is an effort underway to deal with the matter. That would require hearing from the people in charge that they’re confident in each other’s decisions and leadership.
But as petty and small as Trump’s tweets can be, the news media can always find a way to go smaller.
Fossil Charles Pierce wrote at Esquire that “the sad part” about the briefings is “watching all of these accomplished, brilliant people, the people who have dedicated their lives to solving epidemic diseases at the highest level, standing there behind a vulgar talking yam, praising him for his brilliant work thus far.”
That’s the sad part for journalists.
It’s such a weird form of virtue signaling, which is infinitely worse than any overt compliment that an administration official might give to the president.
At least explicit praise is done in the open without any pretense as to its meaning or purpose.
Journalists virtue signaling, on the other hand, is insidious and nothing more than a way for each of them to channel passive-aggressively to one another (and, presumably, their audiences) that they have an intense personal disgust for the president, shrouded in criticism for the people who work for him.
People really are dying from this thing, and all the media can do is stew in their undying hatred for Trump.
