President Trump spent a month downplaying the coronavirus, and the federal bureaucracy failed at securing testing in the meantime. Now, the nation is on lockdown and the economy is shot.
Yet somehow, the media cannot stop making themselves the story.
In the past week, Trump has started to take the coronavirus much more seriously, allowing health experts to speak at near-daily briefings and now collaborating with Congress to get cash to consumers immediately. But he still hasn’t stopped making clearly untrue statements about the pandemic.
Trump has repeatedly spread disinformation about hydroxychloroquine, the malaria drug that may prove a valuable coronavirus treatment. During Friday’s press conference, Trump contradicted Dr. Anthony Fauci at the podium, calling it a “game changer” even as the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director claimed that it hasn’t been proven yet.
But rather than focus on Trump continuing to lie about our safety, the media does what it always will and takes the bait Trump gives them, turning manufactured controversies into the news of the day. For example, Trump’s inability to convey accurate information has taken a back seat to whether it’s racist to call the coronavirus the “Chinese coronavirus” or the “Wuhan coronavirus.”
Today, during a press conference primarily about the Trump administration’s testing and treatment incapacity, Trump lashed out at NBC reporter Peter Alexander. The rest of the reporters took the bait, and now the story is once again not about our health and financial security at stake, but Trump’s treatment of journalists.
People are literally dying, in part because the federal government wasted a month that could have been used for pandemic preparations. And yet the news cycle will stay stuck on Trump yelling at reporters. Please stop taking his bait, or he’ll continue to provoke the press.
