Eric Boehlert: Memo to media: Stop pretending Trump cares about the pandemic

[babylonsister]

Memo to media: Stop pretending Trump cares about the pandemic
Trump's war against America
Eric Boehlert
31 min


Embracing the false assumption that Trump cares about the raging Covid-19 pandemic and is trying to help the country heal, the press perpetuates a myth about the distressing state of our nation. On paper, the president ought to care. But this one does not, and that should be the dominant news story. Not claims that he's "still struggling to fully grasp the severity” of the crisis, as CNN recently reported. Or that the administration is merely "dysfunctional," as the Washington Post suggested last week.

"The lost days of summer: How Trump struggled to contain the virus," read the Washington Post headline, falsely implying that Trump has in fact "struggled" do anything in recent months to stop the virus. The reason tens of millions of American school children won't be back in classrooms this fall, why nearly 15 million have lost their jobs and remain out of work this year, why high-profile enterprises such as college football look less likely to happen in coming weeks is because Trump's done nothing to help fight the pandemic. (The Post headline was later changed to "Trump falls short in containing the virus," which still radically underplays the story.)

The clear evidence shows his actions have consistently made the crisis worse — that's the news story. In an excellent Slate piece that avoids the typically vague language used in so much of the pandemic coverage, William Saletan presented the unfiltered facts:

Trump knew we weren’t ready for a pandemic, but he didn’t prepare. He knew China was hiding the extent of the crisis, but he joined in the cover-up. He knew the virus was spreading in the United States, but he said it was vanishing. He knew we wouldn’t find it without more tests, but he said we didn’t need them. He delayed mitigation. He derided masks. He tried to silence anyone who told the truth. And in the face of multiple warnings, he pushed the country back open, reigniting the spread of the disease.

Against that backdrop, it's negligent for media outlets to suggest Trump has done anything to try to stop this crisis. "When will journalists drop all the old conventions and stop with the euphemisms and describe the world as it is, not as they pretend it is," asked commentator Mehdi Hasan. "Trump’s response to the pandemic has been totally insane, uniquely reckless, criminally negligent."

more...

https://pressrun.media/p/memo-to-media-stop-pretending-trump-961

[Zoonart]

1. Correction, Eric..

Trump knew we weren’t ready for a pandemic, but he didn’t prepare. He knew China was hiding the extent of the crisis, but he joined in the cover-up. He knew the virus was spreading in the United States, but he said it was vanishing. He knew we wouldn’t find it without more tests, but he said we didn’t need them. He delayed mitigation. He derided masks. He tried to silence anyone who told the truth. And in the face of multiple warnings, he pushed the country back open, reigniting the spread of the disease.

The tRump admin. took steps, almost immediately after taking power to dismantle the Obama pandemic response team and Pandemic Playbook.

[The Magistrate]

2. Home Truths, Ma'am

[Yavin4]

3. Trump only cares about the pandemic in so much as it affects his re-election chances.

If he didn't have to worry about re-election, he wouldn't even talk about the pandemic.

[tanyev]

4. Marking to read later.

[gratuitous]

5. For the tl;dr crowd: Trump's actions have consistently made the crisis worse

It's been apparent for months. If Trump had simply ignored the pandemic, we'd be in far better shape. Instead, practically everything he's done has made matters worse. The most obvious example is the weeks and months wasted in pointless bickering over the most basic, proven countermeasures.

[malaise]

6. Genocide

Lock him up!