Within a half-hour of President Trump concluding Saturday's coronavirus briefing, CNN brought on Brian Stelter so they could wail in agony about Trump starting the meeting by berating the press. As usual, CNN painted the liberal media as "really crucial" in this crisis, and the president as a "very dangerous" oaf.
ANA CABRERA: Right now the media has such an important, a really crucial role in informing the public, about safety guidelines, about what's happening right now with coronavirus. We carry much of the White House briefing here live on CNN each day. [??] Dr. Fauci participates in CNN town halls and yet the president is telling the public not to trust us!
BRIAN STELTER: That’s one of the reasons why this was a disturbing briefing today. Not really a briefing. These are very long. Long can be a good thing when the president and his experts provide a lot of important and useful information. But when there is misinformation and diversions and distractions, when he’s talking about his rivals for president, when he’s talking about Ukraine and other stories, it is disturbing to see him wasting time in the middle of a pandemic.
To your point, Ana, the media is so essential in this moment because the megaphone to get information to the public about this health crisis. Let’s take these masks, for example. Just in the last couple of days, Americans are being told to consider wearing masks when they go out around cities, around communities. I was out today in New York City today, reporting. And the masks have appeared almost overnight. People are listening very carefully to what public leaders and public officials are saying. So when the president says BS, or he says information that is not vetted, it is very dangerous.
What's "BS", Mr. B.S.? He complained about Trump pushing hydroxycloroquine, but he couldn’t quite say it -- “hydrochlorah – hydrachlora-ken.” Trump’s “urging people to consider taking it, saying try it if you like. This is so disturbing to hear him doing this.” CNN repeatedly criticizes Trump for suggesting this might work – and Stelter’s avoiding the fact that Trump said with your doctor’s consultation – for COVID patients. But he rambles on, so the haters can isolate the “try it if you like.”
Stelter said his wife Jamie has rheumatoid arthritis so takes this as a prescription, Plaquenil. People with RA or lupus are worried about the supply, since they need the pills daily. “So many Americans like her having to worry about not having access to the drug they need for their lives because the president is out there touting an unproven idea of a possible cure…the president continues to provide this unvetted and unconfirmed information to the public.”
Unvetted? Stelter's avoiding the fact that the Food and Drug Administration approved this drug for emergency use for coronavirus patients a week ago. Journalists outdid themselves mocking this idea.
Hydroxychloroquine offers hope that some coronavirus cases will avoid going down the dark road to long, scary hospital stays with end-stage trauma with ventilators. As Trump said in his "dangerous" talk, he wants to do whatever keeps patients off ventilators. Many Americans would prefer little suggestions of hope, or good news to come. It's obvious CNN just wants everyone perennially angry that Trump is president.
