After 9/11 there was a brief moment when even the liberal media put aside their petty grievances with Republicans and conservatives as everyone joined together to heal and rally the nation. Sadly, we are not seeing that during this current coronavirus crisis.
Instead, lefty journalists have used this moment to play election year politics as they’ve labeled the pandemic Trump’s “Chernobyl” and “Katrina” and even charged that Republicans were fine with a “million seniors” dying. They also tarred Trump and conservatives as racist for noting the country of origin of the virus.
All the while they’ve used this crisis to advocate for their favored socialist policies and politicians -- like Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
The following are the worst examples of the media exploiting the pandemic over the last few weeks:
More People Are Dead “Because Donald Trump Is President”
“More people are sick in American tonight, because Donald Trump is President. More people are dead and dying in America tonight because Donald Trump is President.”
— Host Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, March 12.
Trump and Conservatives Want to “Euthanize” “A Million Seniors”
“After about a week of that economic dislocation, as we continue to climb up the exponential curve of cases and deaths, the President is now listening to voices on the right that say, ‘Really, what’s a million seniors when you’re thinking about the whole economy?’ That’s slightly caricatured, but only slightly.”
— Host Chris Hayes on MSNBC’s All In, March 23.
“These conservatives are making Democrats who are pro-choice actually look more pro-life because they’re only worried about the unborn. It is the born, it is the weakest among us, it is senior citizens who they’re ready to euthanize because they want Boeing’s corporate earnings to not dip too low.”
— Host Joe Scarborough on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, March 26.
Censor Trump Briefings, Before They “Cost Lives”
“If it were up to me and it’s not, I would stop putting those briefings on live TV. Not out of spite but because ‘misinformation, if the President does end up saying anything true, you can run it as tape, but if he keeps lying like he has been every day on stuff this important, we should --- all of us should stop broadcasting it. Honestly, it's going to cost lives.”
— Host Rachel Maddow on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, March 20.
Exploiting a Crisis to Advocate for Socialism
“We all know - even the privileged among us, like me - that capitalism is broken. It doesn't mean we have to throw it out, but it does mean we have to fix it....So why not do it right? Why not be the first generation that fixes wealth disparity and income inequality and universal health care and poverty and homelessness and racial economic inequality and crushing college debt and underfunded public schools and unpaid teachers and the nurses who may save your life in the coming weeks. And, by the way, how about the climate?”
— Host Ali Velshi on MSNBC’s Velshi, March 21.
Watching Fox News Will Get You Killed
“The sudden switch to taking the pandemic seriously at Fox proves that Fox was lying about it deliberately for weeks and weeks when they were lying in the way they believed Donald Trump wanted them to lie. And when they were doing that every single day they were doing that, they were endangering millions of people's lives and endangering your life because we are all in this together.”
— Host Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC’s The Last Word, March 18.
Get Your Grubby Hand Off that Microphone Mr. President!
“Why are they all crowded on to a small dais together? Why are they not practicing social distancing in their messaging to the American public, to show them – not just tell them – but show them that it is important? Why is the President still shaking hands and touching a microphone and then touching his face? It just seems like, how do you sell this as important when you are not practicing it yourself?”
— Host Katy Tur on MSNBC Live, March 16.
Trump Is Emulating the “Sycophancy” and “Incompetence” of North Korea
“He dismisses opposing views and insists that even the senior most members of his administration repeatedly praise him and his leadership at all times. Watching the heads of America's leading science agencies prefacing their statements with ritual praise for the dear leader has been deeply depressing. Come to think of it, the Trump administration has been copying the wrong Korea. Instead of the intelligence and expertise of South Korea, it is emulating the sycophancy, incompetence and propaganda of North Korea.”
— Host Fareed Zakaria on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS, March 15.
Trump’s “Chernobyl”
Host Stephanie Ruhle: “Let’s start with the president’s remarks last night. You’ve called this his Chernobyl. Can you explain?”...
Washington Post columnist Brian Klaas: “Since the beginning of this crisis, the important thing for Donald Trump has been protecting myths around his alternative reality which is to say that he has this completely under control. And in Chernobyl, what you had was a moment in which protecting the Soviet state’s myths were the most important thing and that caused people to die.”
— MSNBC Live with Stephanie Ruhle, March 12.
“Trump’s Katrina” Could “Take Down” His “Presidency”
“This [coronavirus] may be Donald Trump’s Katrina….If there was any moment that would shake that 40 percent, the folks who would allow him to shoot someone and right down [on] Fifth [Avenue] – if there is any a moment, it’s this one. Because it’s babies, it’s friends, it’s loved ones....It’s grandparents. It’s your Nana....This is an event that could take down a presidency.”
— MSNBC contributor/Princeton Professor Eddie Glaude on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House, March 6.
This Is What Happens When You Elect a “Sociopath”
“I feel a deep sense of anger that our government has responded so badly….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.”
— New York Times columnist David Brooks on PBS’s NewsHour, March 13.
Gushing Over the Governor
“His [New York Governor Andrew Cuomo] briefings — articulate, consistent and often tinged with empathy — have become must-see television. On Tuesday, his address was carried live on all four networks in New York and a raft of cable news stations, including CNN, MSNBC and even Fox News. In a sign of the way Mr. Cuomo has become the face of the Democratic Party in this moment, his address even pre-empted an appearance by former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on ABC’s The View in New York. Mr. Biden called Mr. Cuomo’s briefings a ‘lesson in leadership,’ and others have described them as communal therapy sessions.”
— From New York Times’s daily log of coronavirus coverage, March 24.
“How Cuomo, Once on Sidelines, Became the Politician of the Moment, With his coronavirus briefings, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has emerged as an authoritative voice in the crisis.”
— Headline to front page New York Times March 24 story.
Stop Being Racist to the Virus!
“Why do you keep calling this the Chinese virus? There are reports of dozens of incidents of bias against Chinese Americans in this country. Your own aide, Secretary Azar, says he does not use this term because ethnicity does not cause the virus. Why do you keep using this?...A lot of people say it’s racist.”
— ABC News correspondent Cecilia Vega questions to Donald Trump at press conference, March 18.
“The President says, ‘No, this is not racist at all,’ when, of course, it's nakedly racist and obviously racist and blatantly racist. I ask you: Is this not the most predictable thing in the world, that, for Donald Trump, it wouldn't be enough to go to war against a virus, it would be all but better if the war could be waged a non -- if the virus could be pinned on a nonwhite population and a population of a country that is one of our economic adversaries that plays straight down the middle of his sort of xenophobic, populist foreign policy?”
— Substitute host John Heilemann on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House, March 18.
“This is a virus that came from the territory of China but came from bats. This is a bat virus, not a China virus. It doesn't speak Chinese. It doesn’t target Chinese people. It targets human beings who happen to touch their eyes, nose, or mouth.”
— NBC News correspondent Richard Engel on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports, March 18.
“At one point during the address the President referred to the coronavirus as a quote, ‘foreign virus.’ That I think was interesting....Why the President would go as far as to describe it as a foreign virus?.... It should be pointed out that Stephen Miller, who is an immigration hardliner who advises the President....was a driving force in writing this speech....It’s going to come across to a lot of Americans as smacking of xenophobia to use that kind of term in this speech.”
— White House correspondent Jim Acosta on CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time, March 11.
“Just astoundingly gross to call it the Wuhan virus.”
— March 8 tweet by MSNBC host Chris Hayes.
“‘Chinese’??? Are you kidding me?...I’m putting down the phone bc for the next few hours, I will be screaming.”
— March 9 tweets by CNN senior national correspondent Kyung Lah, in response to GOP House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy tweet where he uses the phrase “Chinese coronavirus.”
Finding the “Silver Lining” of Coronavirus
“Let’s talk to you about Italy. Obviously that country, its people have been devastated by the coronavirus. But there is a little bit of a silver lining in some of its historic cities. This is Venice...You can never see the waters because they’re so murky from all the boats. This time, now you can see the crystal-clear waters of the Venice canals. You can see fish swimming around in the canals....This is a map, a satellite map showing you the level of pollution that has gone away the past three months because of the reduction of emissions across northern Italy. So, there is a bit of a silver lining even though our hearts go out to our world citizens going through this world pandemic in Italy.”
— Correspondent Vladimir Duthiers on CBS This Morning, March 19.
“So if there is a silver lining to this crisis, it’s visible in the skies above China. The dramatic slowdown in manufacturing and driving has caused a reduction in carbon emissions.”
— Host Christiane Amanpour on PBS’s Amanpour and Company, March 9.
Hyping “Healer” “Mr. Empathy” Biden
CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger: “I thought Biden was really strong. If people were watching for somebody they could trust in a time of crisis, somebody who understands their families, Biden is Mr. Empathy.”...
CNN political commentator Van Jones: “Look, in the middle of a pandemic, the healer has real appeal. And I think Biden came across as that healer.”
— Post CNN Democratic Debate coverage, March 15.
Xenophobic “Forrest Gump” Trump
“There’s a lot of people are saying this is his Katrina. This is his Katrina....Tom Hanks has coronavirus and we have Forrest Gump in the White House!...Isn’t it a fact and obvious that Trump’s party does not care about people?”
— Co-host Joy Behar on ABC’s The View, March 12.
Trump Willing to Let People Die to Line “His Own Pockets”
“For him to just sort of flout that [stay-at-home] advice tells me that there is something in it for him, and it tells me that there’s something economic in it for him. When you look at Trump’s personal businesses, you know that he is losing almost $500,000 a day because 6 out of his 7 hotels are losing money. They are shuttered every day, and that is why our Founding Fathers put the emoluments clause into the Constitution, because our president should be more concerned about the lives of Americans rather than lining his own pockets and I think that’s what this is really about!”
— Co-host Sunny Hostin on ABC’s The View, March 24.
Sunny Wants to Censor Trump
“It seems to me that networks should not even be at this point broadcasting his 90 minutes of misinformation. I understand when Cuomo’s on, that’s one thing, but I just don’t -- I almost think it’s a disservice to the country at this point!”
— Co-host Sunny Hostin on ABC’s The View, March 23.
“You said that Trump has neglected, minimized and lied about the virus. I completely agree with that. And now you are doing daily briefings on the virus from your home in Delaware. I thank you for that. Is this to counter the misinformation that Trump is putting out that you’ve referenced before?”
— Co-host Sunny Hostin to former Vice President Joe Biden on ABC’s The View, March 24.
