The media are completely incapable of approaching the coronavirus fight as apolitical or nonpartisan. They just stay in Hate Trump mode, incessantly trashing the president, and then they attack him as a narcissist -- or even a sociopath -- for thinking this is about him. Well, they certainly imply it's all about him, and how he'll be the death of us.
That was the tone of Friday night's PBS NewsHour, where New York Times columnist David Brooks played psychiatrist and angrily diagnosed the president as a "sociopath."
DAVID BROOKS: I found it an enraging week. We sat here many years ago, when we saw images of Katrina and bodies floating in New Orleans. And I think both Mark and I felt a deep sense of anger. And I feel a deep sense of anger that our government has responded so badly.
And, frankly, it's — this is what happens when you elect a sociopath as president, who doesn't care, who has treated this whole thing for the past month as if it's about him, how do people like me, minimizing the risks, does the stock market reflect well on me, and he hasn't done the things a normal human being would do, which was to, let's take precautions. Let's do the backup things we need to do. Any president would sit down with his team and say, people will suffer here. Let's get ready. [Like the White House isn't doing anything?]
And he's incapable of that. And he's even created an information distortion field around him. Even today, the press conference today was all his propaganda. It wasn't honest with people.
He offered his support to the PBS White House reporter/MSNBC liberal analyst Yamiche Alcindor lecturing the president about his performance getting an F:
And then with Yamiche's perfectly good question about an agency, maybe he didn't know when that part of the National Security Council was shut down, but he should know about it by now.And so the fact that he wasn't even aware of this is a sign that nobody is willing to tell him bad news. And we have got a dysfunctional process at the heart of the administration at a time of great national crisis.
Self-appointed Doctor Brooks diagnosed a personality disorder, and Judy Woodruff didn't interrupt or find anything harsh in it. "With all that going on, Mark, how does that affect Americans' ability to get through this?" Shields underlined "I don't disagree with what David said."
Shields lectured "America First fails. If there's ever a time for international cooperation, collegiality at a personal and national level, professional level, this is it."
PBS isn't exactly the picture of collegiality in a crisis right now! It's been underlining all this has "a lot of upside for Democrats."
Shields underlined this will be the undoing of Trump, now that he's going to get people killed: "I think it's a seminal moment in the Trump presidency, when we realize, in spite of my 401(k) having been terrific, now all of a sudden it's at jeopardy, and he really puts the nation at jeopardy and the health of my family and my friends at jeopardy."
And we have to pay for this with our tax dollars.
