It’s long been taken for granted that the national media helped politicize the pandemic in order to help Joe Biden get elected. But every now and again some liberal on cable news will say something so stunning in its partisan stupidity that it actually takes your breath away.
A perfect example is that ironically named Reality Check segment hosted by CNN’s John Avlon.
Avlon on Wednesday pushed the ridiculous notion that cases of coronavirus infections are spiking in the United States thanks to Republican governors who followed President Trump’s lead in pushing to reopen the economy.
“Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion,” began Avlon with a dramatic flair fit for a middle school play, “but not their own facts.” (Yes, Avlon is actually paid to blurt out stale lines like this.)
He went on to say that “cases are up across the country, but the governors who backed the Trump party line are the ones really reaping the whirlwind.” Avlon was also sure to note with grave sincerity that of the top 15 states with the highest rates of new infections, 13 are “deep in Donald Trump’s base.”
Avlon didn’t explain why the other two states, Wisconsin and Illinois, escape his indignation or what they did wrong. Perhaps the coronavirus wears a mask in those places so that it’s at least doing its part.
With a straight face, Avlon declared that “this is what happens when ideology elbows out science.”
Or, maybe it’s what happens when a highly contagious airborne virus continues its spread. By the way, the pandemic raged for 11 months before the numbers lined up for Avlon to figure out a plausible way to blame Republicans. Where was he when New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut were suffering the worst of it?
It’s convenient for Avlon to skip over the first 10 months of this when it was solidly blue states that held the distinct honor of having the highest COVID-19-related death rate.
Wait, let me double-check that. My mistake. That’s still the case today!
The top three states are New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts. Among the top 15, just to use Avlon’s own random number, only five went for Trump in the 2020 election. (This excludes Washington, D.C., a Democratic city, which, if it were counted as a state, would currently have the ninth highest death rate in the country.)
Why is the spread of the virus a matter of partisanship now and not then? Because Avlon has a political point to make.
Avlon’s corny Reality Check segment is what happens when ideology elbows out science.
