Eric Boehlert: Who cares if Biden wears a mask?

[babylonsister]

Who cares if Biden wears a mask?
A media non-story
Eric Boehlert
2 hr ago

snip//

It's slightly jarring that in the wake of the Trump presidency, when Americans were urged to inject bleach as a way to combat Covid-19, that Biden sometimes wearing a cloth facial covering is treated as a pressing news story by the Beltway media. And the recent emphasis isn't just on Biden. More journalists are setting their judgmental sights on those vaccinated liberals who remain cautious and continue to wear masks, dubbing them "pandemic addicts," "irrational" and "odd."

The focus is absurd. I live in what's considered to be a liberal community, and the idea that vaccinated residents here categorically refuse to part ways with their masks is preposterous. It's simply not a thing, yet journalists seem obsessed with the idea that it's a widespread phenomenon among stubborn progressives.

Also, wearing a mask while being fully vaccinated is a personal choice, and it's a choice that has no effective downside, so why is the press so focused on the topic?

As one Twitter follower of mine wrote after I raised concerns about the media's weird mask coverage, "So many of us lost love ones this past year or got really sick and they act like there is something nefarious to being cautious for a little while longer."

Make no mistake, the media mask fixation comes straight from Fox News, which pressed Biden on his mask wearing practices just hours after he was sworn into office. Tucker Carlson has since declared, “the only people who wear masks outside are zealots and neurotics.”

The ongoing mask coverage comes with an unmistakable whiff of Both Sides journalism, as journalists insist both liberals and conservatives “ignore the science” during the pandemic. But like most media Both Sides equations, this one is comically imbalanced — vaccinated liberals who keep wearing a mask cause no harm to anybody, whereas conservatives who refused to wear a mask during the pandemic helped spread a deadly virus that claimed more than 600,000 American lives.

more...

https://pressrun.media/p/who-cares-if-biden-wears-a-mask

[multigraincracker]

1. From now on, mask wearing is part of our culture.

I went a year without a cold or runny nose. I run out in the boondocks and always wear my mask when I run. No pollen going up my nose and in the cold it warms the air I breath.

[Claire Oh Nette]

2. They can't criticize Biden's policies, so....

Biden's agenda is popular with Americans.
Pandemic payments, vaccinations, rising wages as the economy reopens, PPK-14 Public Education. A move toward equitable taxation of the uber wealthy, and a generational investment in infrastructure modernization.

Ergo, "b-b-wh-sh-but Biden's wearing a mask. That means the vaccines don't work. Blather, biffle, bother about manliness, freedom, and the tyranny of socialism."

Next cold and flue season, I'll gladly mask up out of my house to avoid getting sick and to own the rubes.