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You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / Emergency Journalism

Emergency Journalism

by Betty Cracker|  March 20, 20209:26 am| 109 Comments

This post is in: COVID-19, Media, Open Threads, Politics

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NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen is one of the sharpest media critics we have. He published a piece at PressThink yesterday that should be printed out and nailed to the door of every media outlet in the country, in my opinion. Here’s a link to the piece, which I urge you to read in its entirety.

It’s in the form of an editor’s note that every media outlet should publish and abide by in this emergency situation. The emergency Rosen addresses isn’t the pandemic. It’s the fact that the chief source of dangerous lies about the virus is the president of the United States.

Rosen argues that it is therefore not just irresponsible but deadly to the citizens journalists are supposed to inform to amplify Trump’s constant stream of self-serving lies. He’s right. Here’s an excerpt:

Even this far into his term, it is still a bit of a shock to be reminded that the single most potent force for misinforming the American public is the current president of the United States. For three years this has been a massive — and unsolved — problem for the country and its political leadership. 

But now it is life and death. On everything that involves the coronavirus crisis Donald Trump’s public statements have been unreliable. And that is why today we announce that we are shifting our coverage of the President to an emergency setting…

Refusing to go with live coverage. Suspending normal relations with his White House. Always asking: is this something we should amplify? A focus on what he’s doing, not on what he’s saying. The truth sandwich when we feel we have to highlight his false claims. This is what you can expect now that our coverage has been switched to an emergency setting. 

Media organizations almost certainly won’t take Rosen up on this proposal. Most have failed in critical ways to adjust their coverage to accommodate a pathological liar in the White House, and even the outlets I consider mostly good on the Trump beat fuck up on a maddeningly routine basis. But Rosen is absolutely correct: this is an emergency, and lives are at stake.

A hollow man with a howling void where his soul should be, Trump used to feed off the energy of his hate rallies, ginning up anger with lies and then sucking up the rage and adulation like a narcissistic vampire. That avenue is foreclosed to him now, and I think he’s found a substitute with these daily briefings.

He lies constantly at the briefings about really important shit like the availability of ventilators and protection equipment and the progress toward treatments and vaccines. The networks carry it live, and it may be working:

JUST IN: 55% of Americans approve of Pres. Trump’s management of the coronavirus crisis, compared to 43% who disapprove, according to new @ABC News/Ipsos poll. https://t.co/oNg6ZipDN2 pic.twitter.com/yVcGO0CpbD

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) March 20, 2020

I don’t think that number will hold up once the death toll rises and the enormity of the gap between what Trump says and what transpires becomes undeniable to all but the cultists, but it’s alarming. Trump has bungled this crisis, loudly and in public, over and over.

Mainstream media outlets are pointing out that Trump has changed his tune on the virus, and that’s a good thing. But they must stop letting him lie on live TV and amplifying the false statements in headlines, alerts and tweets — or more people will die. Like Rosen said, this is an emergency, and it requires new rules.

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Reader Interactions

109Comments

  1. 1.

    ChrisS

    March 20, 2020 at 9:28 am

    That approval rating makes me terribly sad.

  2. 2.

    Baud

    March 20, 2020 at 9:30 am

    I wouldn’t put too much stock in those poll numbers. It’s like when 90% of Americans supported Bush after 9/11. We only have one president, as awful as he is, and people’s lives depend on him being able to outperform his very low average.

  3. 3.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 20, 2020 at 9:34 am

    @Baud: David Frum had a tweet the other day that the Italian PM is at 71%. People rally to leaders in times of crisis. This is trump’s rally.

    Though I do agree that MSNBC and CNN– I think this is a TV phenomenon– can easily justify no longer carrying trump live. Any useful info from Fauci or other experts could be played with a one-minute delay, and trump’s lies and dangerous misinformation have more than justified such a policy.

  4. 4.

    Honus

    March 20, 2020 at 9:35 am

    @Baud: yeah, but his approval rating rose after this disastrous performance?  What is wrong with people?  He actually won support by being transparently mendacious and incompetent?

  5. 5.

    Baud

    March 20, 2020 at 9:38 am

    @Honus: It’s important to reward Trump’s ego to keep him interested in the disease. The only thing that matters now is voting for Biden and downticket Democrats overwhelmingly.

  6. 6.

    Starfish

    March 20, 2020 at 9:40 am

    Some Republican was sharing the nonsense from “The Nation” saying that the Republicans are running to the left of the Democrats. Why is a supposedly lefty publication promoting this nonsense when the Republicans are refusing to get any critical legislation passed without handouts to their friends?

  7. 7.

    dfh

    March 20, 2020 at 9:41 am

    Betty, this is some of your best descriptive writing.

    “A hollow man with a howling void where his soul should be, Trump used to feed off the energy of his hate rallies, ginning up anger with lies and then sucking up the rage and adulation like a narcissistic vampire. That avenue is foreclosed to him now, and I think he’s found a substitute with these daily briefings.”

    The lying, the constant lying.

  8. 8.

    Betty Cracker

    March 20, 2020 at 9:42 am

    @Baud: The less interested Trump is in the disease, the better off we are.

  9. 9.

    Baud

    March 20, 2020 at 9:43 am

    @Betty Cracker: That would be true if he delegated that task to someone who knew what they were doing.  If he’s not interested, however, then probably the federal government does even less than they have been doing.

  10. 10.

    Baud

    March 20, 2020 at 9:44 am

    @Starfish: It’s The Nation.  This is who they are.

  11. 11.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 20, 2020 at 9:44 am

    @Starfish: Because the folks at The Nation are convinced that, if Democrats are not actively fucking over the People, they are looking for the chance to do so.  (The Russian connection should not be discounted either.)

  12. 12.

    The Thin Black Duke

    March 20, 2020 at 9:45 am

    Let’s see how the numbers in that poll change once hospitals run out of ventilators, every bed is occupied, and the doctors start making those hard choices on who lives and dies. Let’s see what happens when C-19 isn’t an abstract inconvenience anymore.

  13. 13.

    Barbara

    March 20, 2020 at 9:46 am

    @Starfish: That makes me so furious because in seeing the “leftward” leaning of the stimulus it totally ignores the naked racism that is coming out of his piehole at every turn.

  14. 14.

    Betty Cracker

    March 20, 2020 at 9:47 am

    @Baud: He delegated it to Pence, and that was preferable, IMO. Pence is an idiotic theocrat whom I wouldn’t entrust with running a hospital gift shop, but I do think he was more inclined to let the experts (such as they are) do their work. Trump is actively making things worse now that he’s declared himself a “wartime president.”

  15. 15.

    Chyron HR

    March 20, 2020 at 9:47 am

    @Starfish:

    Why is a supposedly lefty publication promoting this nonsense when the Republicans are refusing to get any critical legislation passed without handouts to their friends?

    Because The Revolution has decided to go all-in on Trump now that voters have “stolen” the primary from Bernie again.

  16. 16.

    waspuppet

    March 20, 2020 at 9:47 am

    @Baud: Yeah but Bush won. It is absolutely possible that “Trump 2020: He led us out of the coronavirus crisis that hit us out of nowhere from another country and no one could possibly have seen coming” will work.

    As for our news media, literally no reporter at literally any news outlet — not even the New York Times — would treat literally any source the way they treat Trump. Five solid years of lies and they still think maybe THIS TIME is the time it’ll suddenly be revealed that he was a hard-working, truth-telling genius all along.

    And he’s a New Yorker! The Times has covered him for decades! They know what he is!

  17. 17.

    Mike in NC

    March 20, 2020 at 9:48 am

    Fat Bastard’s daily mugging in front of TV cameras while he makes shit up would never have been acceptable on The Gong Show. Make it stop.

  18. 18.

    waspuppet

    March 20, 2020 at 9:49 am

    @Betty Cracker: He delegated it to Pence, and even though he’s stupid and evil, people were like “Hey it’s kinda nice hearing from a non-senile adult who actually cares whether people die.” That’s why Trump started taking over.

    Fauci wasn’t there yesterday. Watch the number of actual professionals continue to dip. They’ll be full MAGA rallies by next week.

  19. 19.

    khead

    March 20, 2020 at 9:51 am

    It’s all fun and games on reality TV shows until people start dying.

  20. 20.

    Baud

    March 20, 2020 at 9:54 am

    @waspuppet: Anything under the sun might work to reelect Trump.  No point worrying about it.  Just do what you can do get our people elected.

  21. 21.

    Cheryl Rofer

    March 20, 2020 at 9:55 am

    I was watching the press conferences as part of what I think of as my professional responsibilities. I missed Wednesday’s by happenstance and felt my mental health improve.

    He raises hopes that will then be dashed, an abuser tactic. The press that attend are willing to be abused. They can’t give him up.

    I’m not going to watch any more. The good thing yesterday was that some of the press checked his claim of a treatment in real time and found it to be another lie.

  22. 22.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 20, 2020 at 9:56 am

    @Starfish: Who says The Nation is lefty? They are Russian apologists first and foremost, which may have made them “lefty” back in the Soviet era, but that was a long time ago.

  23. 23.

    A Ghost to Most

    March 20, 2020 at 9:57 am

    While everyone is rightly focused on the crisis, you can bet that a cadre of Rs are working on how to cancel the election. They always double down.

  24. 24.

    The Thin Black Duke

    March 20, 2020 at 9:58 am

    @khead: Exactly. The Trump administration’s con job is predicated on the absurd premise that people aren’t going to die. Even Tucker Carlson realized what a stupid strategy that is.

  25. 25.

    MattF

    March 20, 2020 at 9:59 am

    Rosen is right, but you can’t outshout Fox news– and, for a significant fraction of vulnerable people, Fox is their only source of news.

  26. 26.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 20, 2020 at 10:02 am

    Cat Rakowski @catrakowski· 2h
    Sen. @GaryPeters says Michigan is ready to begin the process of turning shuttered car factories into manufacturing centers for masks, other PPE, and hospital beds, but he needs the President to trigger the Defense Production Act to start that process. @Morning_Joe

    Claire McCaskill @clairecmc· 9h
    From my daughter in law who’s a RN in CO: Our hospital has actually set up SEWING stations throughout the building to make masks/gowns out of sterile wrap that’s used in the OR – it’s set up assembly line style with cutting stations & sewing machine stations.

  27. 27.

    FelonyGovt

    March 20, 2020 at 10:04 am

    I think after a period of isolation and quarantine, not to mention constantly increasing numbers of diagnoses and deaths, people are going to get VERY cranky. I know I am already! They will blame the incompetent fool in charge.

  28. 28.

    Mr Pigg

    March 20, 2020 at 10:04 am

    I think the swing in Trump’s numbers on this reflect “good improvement” with many respondents, since he went from downplaying it and seeming more concerned with the stock market than public health to at least giving lip-service to the seriousness of the problem and prioritizing lives over the stock market.  I expect the numbers to go down slowly as it becomes clear he doesn’t know what he’s talking about and can’t effectively help anybody, but there will be rallying around the flag and his base will credit him for everything.

    And I suspect part of the reason they will will be targeted aid the zooms in on Trump’s base.

    Lefty UBI becomes moderate Mitt’s one time $1000 to everybody becomes GOP Senate’s  $1000 means-tested to target the Trumpiest demographics by excluding the upper middle class (no biggie) and the poor (monstrous).  Expect gratitude from every Carhartt-clad diner dweller from Green Bay to the Ohio Valley. When asked about why poor people are excluded – diner dweller shrugs, “ya gotta pay into the system”.

    When medical supplies and ventilators get tight, I fear considerations like this will play into federal aid, and we’ll see a push for moving resources to Trumpier or swingier areas and not necessarily to the hardest hit (and certainly away from the poorer and less white). It will be “geographic fairness” for some, and “local responsibility” for others.

    Of course, if everybody’s as swamped as worst case predictions, it won’t make a lick-spittle of difference.

  29. 29.

    kindness

    March 20, 2020 at 10:04 am

    We’d all like the Media to take some responsibility to their viewers rather than their accountants.  In today’s corporate structure, accountants almost always win.  I don’t know if there has ever been a benevolent media baron.  I do know the modern MSM runs a facade of caring about lies at the same time they continue to push them.

  30. 30.

    Betty Cracker

    March 20, 2020 at 10:07 am

    @Cheryl Rofer: I turned it off mid-Trump sentence the other day because it was just too poisonous to continue. I won’t be watching any more either. If he says anything newsworthy, we’ll see a clip, and hopefully some context around it.

  31. 31.

    Baud

    March 20, 2020 at 10:07 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

     

    Let’s try this again, @realdonaldtrump:

    Hospitals are already running out of ventilators and beds. Nurses are using bandanas as masks.

    If you’ve already ordered more with the Defense Production Act, tell us now.

    If you haven’t, you’re failing to lead and failing Americans.
    — Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 19, 2020

  32. 32.

    MattF

    March 20, 2020 at 10:08 am

    …and Thiessen is going full-bore into ‘blame China’ mode. I’m guessing he got pushback on the ‘Biden is senile’ bullshit.

  33. 33.

    JMG

    March 20, 2020 at 10:13 am

    One poll, with others taken at roughly the same time showing different results. Look, the same thing that keeps reporters so docile with Trump is probably the main influence with that poll. Fear. People don’t WANT to believe the evidence of their own eyes because the reality is too terrifying to be borne. Reporters don’t WANT to tell the public the President is demented, stupid and malevolent because it’s too terrifying a truth for their own minds. Also, they’d get fired immediately.

  34. 34.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 20, 2020 at 10:17 am

    Good perspective here.

    It’s the market’s job to absorb losses at a time like this. You’re an investor in stocks and bonds, you’re taking risks. And the risk of a pandemic is one of the risks you’re taking. You’re part of the world’s stock of loss-absorbing capital. That’s what it means to have wealth.
    — Felix Salmon (@felixsalmon) March 20, 2020

  35. 35.

    PenAndKey

    March 20, 2020 at 10:17 am

    @MattF: Not just that, but I’ve also seen people in my local community blaming Evers, or Democratic governor here in WI, for the economic harm they’re suffering due to the lock downs. My county has two confirmed cases and I just saw this morning that the state confirmed two deaths. And yet the local yahoos are still claiming that “the flu is worse”. They also, no surprise, tried to say all you need to do is “drink tonic water and you’ll be fine”. Gee, I wonder what moron told them that…

  36. 36.

    Mr Pigg

    March 20, 2020 at 10:23 am

    @PenAndKey: That’s a good point.  The Governors are out leading and provide a target for the Trumpers to direct their anger while Trump just talks.  It’s certainly the case that the Trumpier regions of my facebook feed (rural Michigan) are agitated over Gov. Whitmer’s “power grab”.  I’m curious how the Ohio Trumpers are directing their frustrations…

  37. 37.

    JPL

    March 20, 2020 at 10:23 am

    Be prepared for trump to brag about the poll at the briefing today.

  38. 38.

    Kathleen

    March 20, 2020 at 10:24 am

    @waspuppet: Jen Rubin called out Maga Haberman on one of her mendacious Twitter spins yesterday on this very topic. The HandMag did not take it well. Would post link but on phone.

  39. 39.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 20, 2020 at 10:24 am

    @PenAndKey: Gin will help with the bitter flavor of the tonic water.  Just me being helpful.

  40. 40.

    evodevo

    March 20, 2020 at 10:25 am

    @Starfish: One of several reasons I dropped my subscription…

  41. 41.

    different-church-lady

    March 20, 2020 at 10:27 am

    @Mr Pigg: I’m not gonna get my thousand bucks, am I?

  42. 42.

    gene108

    March 20, 2020 at 10:27 am

    Republican gaslighting about the Coronavirus seems to be working.

    So many people think it’s not a big deal, they will approve of even the smallest action to address, what they consider overblown to begin with.

    Plus racism. I assume a lot of inherent racism in this country, which approves of calling it the Wuhan or Chinese virus.

    These are the same folks, who thought “fight them there, instead of fighting them here”, was a logical reason to invade Iraq seventeen years ago.

  43. 43.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 20, 2020 at 10:29 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: Trying to steal my thunder?

  44. 44.

    The Thin Black Duke

    March 20, 2020 at 10:31 am

    @Gin & Tonic: Problem is, the wealthy think of everybody else not in “The Club” (as George Carlin observed), as crash test dummies. Regular folks are the collateral damage who suffer the consequences of their mistakes.

  45. 45.

    rikyrah

    March 20, 2020 at 10:34 am

    Look at the crosstabs of the poll ??

  46. 46.

    rikyrah

    March 20, 2020 at 10:35 am

    @Kathleen:

    Saw that. On point

  47. 47.

    MattF

    March 20, 2020 at 10:35 am

    OT. I’d like to put in a good word for Quanta magazine. It covers scientific and technical subjects at a remarkable level of accuracy and depth. I like it because of the math and physics, but there’s lots of other stuff as well.

  48. 48.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 20, 2020 at 10:37 am

    @MattF: From the NYT:

    NYT: Her Facebook Friends Asked If Anyone Was Actually Sick. She Had an Answer.

    Heaven Frilot is normally a private person. But this is not a normal time. So she and her husband are now the face of the coronavirus for their conservative Louisiana community.

    The only thing that should have been different about the first Friday in March was the apple crisp. Heaven Frilot didn’t usually cook at the end of the workweek, instead letting her family snack on leftovers — a roast or pork chops she’d made earlier, maybe — or order pizza. But her 10-year-old son, Ethan, was having a friend over that night, and her husband, Mark, a lawyer, was coming off a crushing week of arbitration. She would bake an apple crisp.

    Then Mark Frilot — 45 years old, “never, ever sick” — came home with a fever.

    In the haze of days that followed, Ms. Frilot, a 43-year-old oil-and-gas analyst, occupied one world, the rest of her community in Kenner, La., another. She saw her friends making jokes on social media about the coronavirus — eye-roll emojis, Fox News talking points, Rush Limbaugh quotes writing off the threat. And then one person asked if anyone really had this thing.

    Ms. Frilot had an answer to that.

    “I have been seeing a lot of posts about people taking this virus lightly and joking about it,” she began in a Facebook post. “Mark has tested positive for the coronavirus.”

    …………………….

    Crises are political only until they are personal. As news of Mr. Frilot’s diagnosis spread, among his friends and on Nola.com, his story was no longer just that of a young, healthy person who caught a virus that young, healthy people had been told they were not supposed to catch. It was a revelation for the conservative suburbs of New Orleans, where many had written off the pandemic as liberal fear-mongering. Mr. Frilot, a registered Republican, and his family are generally apolitical, and were not thinking much about the virus — whether as a fiction or anything else — before he got sick. But many in their community had opinions on it from the start.

    The language they used was the language politicians and media figures were also using.

    FOX and Enemies airs every morning.

  49. 49.

    SFAW

    March 20, 2020 at 10:38 am

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Good perspective here.

    Screw that. He’s telling me that the 30 percent drop in my wife’s and my retirement accounts is no big deal. Now it means that we’ll have to work until we’re as old as YOU are, just to be able to afford *mumble mumble*.

    I’m kidding, of course. Salmon has been pretty reliable and smart over the years that I’ve read him. I just wish we weren’t in a situation where the truth hurts so much.

    On the other hand: my wife and I are fairly comfortable. I can only imagine how bad it is for those people who live paycheck-to-paycheck, and I’m well aware how fortunate we are, so I ain’t complaining, at least not seriously.

  50. 50.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 20, 2020 at 10:39 am

    @Gin & Tonic: Think of me as John the Baptist.

  51. 51.

    A Ghost to Most

    March 20, 2020 at 10:39 am

    @MattF: Also, too, phys.org. Google news kept serving me articles from there, and I turned into a reader.

  52. 52.

    rikyrah

    March 20, 2020 at 10:40 am

    THIS ???

    “A hospital ship that can’t yet sail, a drug that’s not approved for coronavirus, a windfall of masks that’s not due until next year. Donald Trump has repeatedly overstated his government’s accomplishments as he tries to calm Americans and fight the virus” https://t.co/7CJjSmj1kL— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) March 20, 2020

  53. 53.

    jeffreyw

    March 20, 2020 at 10:40 am

    @dfh:

    “A hollow man with a howling void where his soul should be, Trump used to feed off the energy of his hate rallies, ginning up anger with lies and then sucking up the rage and adulation like a narcissistic vampire. That avenue is foreclosed to him now, and I think he’s found a substitute with these daily briefings – here, in the Twilight Zone.”

  54. 54.

    Central Planning

    March 20, 2020 at 10:41 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    Trump is actively making things worse now that he’s declared himself a “wartime president.”

    That’s like me saying I’m a James Beard award-winning chef because I put pop-tarts in the toaster oven.

  55. 55.

    The Dangerman

    March 20, 2020 at 10:43 am

    I dunno; if I were Trump, I’d be concerned about that number (compare to Bush after 9/11). It isn’t going anyplace but down unless there is a Miracle. When we run out of ventilators, beds, and, maybe worst of all, toilet paper (yes, yes, I know, that will never happen, but roll with me here, um, so to speak), he’s going to look like a raging shit

    ETA: I’d guess approval in CA has cratered well below the crazification factor. Even some of the 27% have  decided he’s bugfuck crazy.

  56. 56.

    Suzy

    March 20, 2020 at 10:44 am

    Those approval numbers are what I’ve been worried about for a few days. Trump is looking “serious” , every day on prime time tv. His approval numbers are mounting a bit.

    As I’m writing this however, my husband is reminding me that in times of crisis, approval numbers of political leaders are normally much higher when those leaders are doing a decent job and are truthful with their constituents.

    As the situation goes south, and as Trump gets more impatient and nasty, things could change.

    One thing though, national pundits have to emulate Mr. Rosen and his group. And stop being a conduit for Trump’s misinformation.

    Journalists hit a breaking point with Bush during Katrina. I hope they’ll reach that breaking point with Trump. Soon.

    It’s not about being partisan. Trump isn’t responsible for the existence of the virus. And no president would be able to make things perfect because this pandemic is a hell of a challenge. Every sensible person can admit that. But Trump has been asleep at the wheel and there are numerous witnesses, numerous videos to prove it. Trump has lied and/or contradicted himself and there are videos to prove it. Trump and his administration have demonstrated incompetence and have made things exponentially worse. They have to be held accountable. Applaud the good moves, but don’t let them avoid blame.

  57. 57.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 20, 2020 at 10:47 am

    @SFAW: Of course there are a lot of people who will not weather this well, and even among the comfortable, there’s a big difference between having low six figures in a 401(k) – where even if you had Burr’s briefing, you would be limited in what you could do – and having seven or eight figures with somebody taking care of the activity whom you can call any time you want. I understand that.

    But at this point, I look at the vanished gains since January of 2017 as a sugar high. It was nice to look at that, but chances are reasonably good that if you felt half-way comfortable at the end of the Obama presidency, you’re back in the same position.

  58. 58.

    rikyrah

    March 20, 2020 at 10:50 am

    We now know why???

    Reminder: In 2012, the Senate passed the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (STOCK Act) by a 93-2 vote. One of the two who voted against it was Richard Burr. https://t.co/gqIaYHeevA— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) March 19, 2020

  59. 59.

    MattF

    March 20, 2020 at 10:50 am

    The point that has to be made, over and over, is that Trump lied deliberately in order to keep the daily ‘numbers’ looking good. And ordered agencies to keep the numbers low. Sorta similar to what the Chinese government did at the start, tbh.

  60. 60.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 20, 2020 at 10:52 am

    OT: They’re turning on each other….

    Doug Collins@CollinsforGA · 1h
    People are losing their jobs, their businesses, their retirements, and even their lives and Kelly Loeffler is profiting off their pain? I’m sickened just thinking about it.

  61. 61.

    jonas

    March 20, 2020 at 10:54 am

    @Mr Pigg: I’m curious how the Ohio Trumpers are directing their frustrations…

    Probably some combination of emails, Burisma, Biden’s senility, and AOC.

  62. 62.

    p.a.

    March 20, 2020 at 10:54 am

    55% for the “rally ’round the flag” effect is terrible.  Shrub was 90+.  Give it time.  Tick tock drumpf…

    (trying to suppress unemp figures now.  fatality figures later on)

  63. 63.

    Peale

    March 20, 2020 at 10:55 am

    @Honus: because they hear the big promises and think that they are real and don’t read the walk backs. Like there will be 1.5 million tests available in three days. Or navy hospital ships are on the way. And free testing Tuesday coming to a Walmart parking lot near you. All of those things would be good things, btw. It’s just hasn’t sunk in yet that he’s barking random orders that no one can or will comply with.

  64. 64.

    jonas

    March 20, 2020 at 10:57 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Collins removed his head from up Trump’s ass just long enough to snipe at Loeffler? Lol. That’s pretty rich.

  65. 65.

    J R in WV

    March 20, 2020 at 10:57 am

    @rikyrah:

    Donald Trump has repeatedly overstated his government’s accomplishments as he tries to calm Americans and fight the virus” https://t.co/7CJjSmj1kL— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire)

    M. Lemire seems very forgiving of Trump’s lies and his attempt to keep “his numbers” good. But Betty C is correct, Trump is just trying to protect himself and doesn’t give a shit about anyone else, except perhaps his daughter, whom he perceives as a wonderful sex object… what a perv~!!~

    And Glenn Greenwald is projecting when he accuses liberals of wishing death and catastrophe, I for one, and all my liberal friends, are appalled at the prospect we see looming in the future!

    Thanks to Balloon Juice we have been able to stock up, even with a stockpile of kibble for the puppies and cats. But that is small and cold comfort in times of the Trump Plague. Very small, very cold!

  66. 66.

    satby

    March 20, 2020 at 10:59 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: too bad the assholes at NYT still have a paywall up regarding Covid-19 stories while the other news orgs have mostly dropped theirs. CREAM before NEWS.

  67. 67.

    JMG

    March 20, 2020 at 10:59 am

    The cognitive dissonance between the popular and very bipartisan fantasy of the President as Benevolent and All-Seeing Daddy and the reality of Trump in office is too much for people’s brains. It is quite possible they will stick with the fantasy at the cost of their own economic lives or actual lives. It is also possible they won’t.

  68. 68.

    Kelly

    March 20, 2020 at 11:02 am

    My wingnut anecdotes are mixed. I live in very wingnutty rural Oregon timber country. Yesterday at the Post Office the Postmaster and another local were in the midst of a this virus thing is overblown really nothing to worry about conversation. Italy is having so much trouble because they don’t have as many hospitals and their hospitals aren’t as good as ours. On the other hand my very Trumpy high school dropout dump truck driving brother in law is very pissed off at Trump as he saw a couple weeks ago Trump was botching pandemic control.

  69. 69.

    AliceBlue

    March 20, 2020 at 11:02 am

    @Peale:   Last night a local news anchor was repeating the lie about the hospital ships.  Not a word about both of them being out of commission for maintenance.  I had to leave the room.

  70. 70.

    SFAW

    March 20, 2020 at 11:03 am

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Understood. That sugar high felt pretty good four weeks ago, and potentially gave me/us some flexibility a/k/a “play money” for at least one nice, high-dollar item. Yeah, I know it’s a Zeroth World problem, so I’m rueful but not despondent. And, so far, I am still healthy. [Knocks on head for luck]

  71. 71.

    Benw

    March 20, 2020 at 11:04 am

    It seems to me that what prof. Rosen is describing is a normal, healthy media response to an autocratic, dishonest presidency. It should have started across all media 2 years ago. It’s been an ongoing emergency that the press has continued to normalize Trump as a regular, non-insane president for 3 years.

  72. 72.

    trnc

    March 20, 2020 at 11:04 am

    @Betty Cracker: The less interested Trump is in the disease, the better off we are.

    He won’t lose interest because the polls, rightly or wrongly, show support. Also, the press conferences are his campaign rallies now. He’s playing to his base with the “Chinese virus” crap. I assume that the infection rates will start to decline soon thanks to the crowd bans, social distancing, extra hand washing, etc. I hope most people would recognize it for what it is, but I also hope Biden will have a lot of coronavirus timeline ads, as well as other dems with ads about McConnell, Ron J, Burr, etc.

  73. 73.

    Fleeting Ex-istence

    March 20, 2020 at 11:05 am

    Did anyone see NBC’s Jimmy Fallon’s show last night from his house?  It was brave and innovative and apt.

    I think I know what’s going to happen to me in this time and there’s a lot of “final wishes” that have to be reworked.  If I stay safe at home for say, six weeks and then get sick, by then area hospitals will be overrun and unsafer than they are now.  My daughter lives 1800 miles away and will already have been exposed in her public-facing job and well-peopled life, and my son is working from home with 3 dependents and all are somewhat medically compromised already.

    I will die at home quietly and there’s no one to come to my aid.  I already stocked up with a huge bag of dry cat food,  so I hope I can leave enough out for her that she won’t start eating my earlobes.

    There, that’s where isolation will send one’s imagination these days.  That said,  I wonder if a bandanna mask lined with panty liners or sanitary napkins is of any efficacy.

  74. 74.

    OGLiberal

    March 20, 2020 at 11:09 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: He is running against her so makes sense.

  75. 75.

    Mandalay

    March 20, 2020 at 11:09 am

    Coronavirus journalism at its worst:

    This morning a White House official referred to #Coronavirus as the “Kung-Flu” to my face. Makes me wonder what they’re calling it behind my back.

    It was posted by Weijia Jiang, who is the White House correspondent for CBSNews.

    You don’t get to publicly whine about what some “White House official” allegedly said when you refuse to name the person. Sure the comment is in bad taste, but if you don’t have the guts to name the person who said it then you’re just a mediocre hack, and there is no story.

    For the first time ever, I find myself in complete agreement with Kellyanne Conway:

    Kellyanne then asked Jiang to name the White House staffer that uttered “kung flu.” Jiang refused.

    “You understand how these conversations go,” said Jiang, implying she had to keep her sources confidential.

    To which Kellyanne replied, “I don’t know how these conversations go, and that’s highly offensive. So, you should tell us who it is, I’d like to know who it is. I’m not going to engage in hypotheticals,

     

    Like those spending time and energy focusing on “China virus”, Jiang is playing right into Republican hands with her secret gossip and cowardice.

  76. 76.

    trnc

    March 20, 2020 at 11:09 am

    @Benw:

    It seems to me that what prof. Rosen is describing is a normal, healthy media response to an autocratic, dishonest presidency.

    It’s better than what we’ve seen the past few years, but I think a healthy response would be to stop broadcasting him live and playing back only verified facts. That may or may not still give him 5 seconds in between some the non-lickspittle information from Birx, et al

  77. 77.

    DropKicker1

    March 20, 2020 at 11:09 am

    The most terrifying words in the English language are:  I’m Donald Trump, and I’m here to help.

  78. 78.

    trnc

    March 20, 2020 at 11:12 am

    @Mandalay: If Conway does find out who said Kung Flu, I assume they would be offered a raise or a bonus by the administration.

  79. 79.

    WereBear

    March 20, 2020 at 11:14 am

    @gene108:

    Republican gaslighting about the Coronavirus seems to be working.

     
    Do you think it would work in New Rochelle, NY? Will it work when we look like Italy?

    Some states have a chance to not go completely Zombie Apocalypse. Others, especially the states who petulantly refused to expand their health care… how is that going to go?

  80. 80.

    bemused

    March 20, 2020 at 11:14 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    My loathing and disgust for trump, wh and republicans is massive.

  81. 81.

    L85NJGT

    March 20, 2020 at 11:14 am

    @SFAW:

    It’s a working class liquidity squeeze. Low interest rates made savings accounts and Treasury products earn nothing, so if you had say $30K in life savings, a 401K or IRA was the only way to see any kind of savings growth.

    Now, due to current circumstances they are liquidating their positions, and 1500 bucks ain’t gonna make up the difference.

    True progressives underestimate how many Americans (and Democratic primary voters) have money in the market.

  82. 82.

    scav

    March 20, 2020 at 11:19 am

    @satby: FYTNYT indeed, but I’m reading that they dropped the paywall for that. Try. here? I’m using my mother’s acct to get there.

  83. 83.

    scav

    March 20, 2020 at 11:21 am

    Also, it’s going to interesting (other words are avaailable) to see the dawning recognition to some that they’re the ones in the Superdome,

  84. 84.

    Benw

    March 20, 2020 at 11:26 am

    @trnc: this, along with describing what the admin is doing rather than saying, is exactly what is proposed. The crazy thing to me is that they didn’t start doing this years ago!

  85. 85.

    SandyZ

    March 20, 2020 at 11:29 am

    @AliceBlue: And, all the networks and local news started with the false story that trump was fast tracking new treatments and vaccines. Mission accomplished.

  86. 86.

    lumpkin

    March 20, 2020 at 11:32 am

    George Bush did nothing to prevent 911 in spite of repeated warnings. He was a miserable failure but the national press turned him into a hero. He proceeded to fuck up everything he touched and still got reelected to fuck up even more.

    They’re going to do the same thing again. When trump says they are the enemy of the people he’s right but for the wrong reasons.

  87. 87.

    Mandalay

    March 20, 2020 at 11:33 am

    O/T, but in happier news  I think this vile and opportunistic grifter has fucked up very badly:

    Nikki Haley has resigned from Boeing’s board of directors over the company’s pursuit of federal assistance in response to the coronavirus pandemic…
    …”I cannot support a move to lean on the federal government for a stimulus or bailout that prioritizes our company over others and relies on taxpayers to guarantee our financial position,” Haley wrote in a resignation letter included in the filing.

    Boeing must now hate Haley with the heat of a thousand suns, but they are going to get a government bailout (along with a lot of other companies). Trump has stated it very publicly, and both Haley and Trump know that without a bailout Boeing is gone.

    I have no idea what she’s playing at, but Trump won’t touch her with a ten foot pole now, and big business knows with certainty that she can’t be trusted. She’s fucked her future.

  88. 88.

    Ruckus

    March 20, 2020 at 11:36 am

    For the 2004 election I’d hoped that we could get rid of junior. But my expectations were very low. A standing president in war time election has to be critically bad to be replaced, and junior had an attack on the motherland to bolster his crap performance, too many thought that the war was justified. This really isn’t a lot different type of perception, just the participants and location of the war are different. And as Jay Rosen writes this is a situation that is different because the current president is a MASSIVE lying sack of shit moron. Junior was just a deluded schmuck with a massive war monger as his vice president. And presidents in war time have to be horrible to be replaced. Think about the 40% of people who support the current president. How and why is that? It is or should be obvious to anyone not dead or with their heads up their ass that trump is a lying, moronic sack of shit. But 40% don’t see that at all. Or don’t care, their bigotry is that strong and reenforced on a regular basis by faux news.

  89. 89.

    satby

    March 20, 2020 at 11:40 am

    @scav: thanks, appreciate you! I guess the article Ozark linked to isn’t considered part of the news they dropped the paywall for. No matter. Not like I can’t read many similar stories elsewhere.

  90. 90.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 20, 2020 at 11:40 am

    @Mandalay: She’s playing for leadership in a post-Trump, post debacle GOP.

  91. 91.

    J R in WV

    March 20, 2020 at 11:40 am

    @Mandalay:

    Perhaps Ms Haley has suffered an unexpected outbreak of morality? That must really set her back, being so unaccustomed to such a feeling!!!

  92. 92.

    James E Powell

    March 20, 2020 at 11:41 am

    Check out the ad in this tweet. Somebody who had a lot of money to waste on a vanity campaign for president should put this thing on the air all over the world.

    https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1240716869729783808?s=20

  93. 93.

    James E Powell

    March 20, 2020 at 11:47 am

    @Ruckus:

    For the 2004 election I’d hoped that we could get rid of junior. But my expectations were very low. A standing president in war time election has to be critically bad to be replaced, and junior had an attack on the motherland to bolster his crap performance, too many thought that the war was justified.

    The thing is, we came pretty close to beating Bush/Cheney, closer than I ever dreamed when that campaign began. Trump doesn’t have three important things Bush did have: 9/11, war, and a whole lot of Democrats singing his praises on TV.

  94. 94.

    Ruckus

    March 20, 2020 at 11:53 am

    @lumpkin:

    There is a subtle difference. gwb did nothing to dissuade the public from war and sent troops around the world to war. For all intents the opening salvo was directed specifically at the American people.

    This is not a war that humans are shooting at us, or bombing us, or flying airplanes into cities. This is an invisible war, not with bullets/jets, explosions-fire-falling buildings but with a virus. It’s not symbolic in any way, it’s personal health. Yes the president is a lying, moronic sack of shit, but this is far more personal than 9/11 actually was. gwb could make that attack into more than it was, he could make it about attacking the entire US and our way of life. Most of us have seen that trump is a lying sack of shit long before the virus hit. No one is shooting at us, it’s not a ideological war, it’s not a state trying to kill us – which is why trump is calling it a Chinese virus, trying to redirect the all the blame to anyone, everyone who isn’t a moronic piece of shit like he is. This war is here, everyone is a participant, everyone is both a victim and culpable and the only guilty party is the president who doesn’t take responsibility for anything.

  95. 95.

    SFAW

    March 20, 2020 at 11:59 am

    @L85NJGT:

    I’m not experiencing that squeeze yet, but I probably will be within the next six months. [Lost job, current replacement job is ~75 percent drop in income.] But my wife and I still have it better than a lot of people, so I’m not whining.

    I think most progressives realize that, with the near-disappearance of pensions, 401k (and similar) is about the only game in town for most people.

  96. 96.

    SFAW

    March 20, 2020 at 12:01 pm

    @James E Powell:

    The thing is, we came pretty close to beating Bush/Cheney, closer than I ever dreamed when that campaign began.

    And had Ken Blackwell not fucked around with voting machines (e.g., not sending nearly enough to heavily-Dem districts, so lines were ridiculous, probably caused some voters to punt), Kerry probably would have won.

  97. 97.

    M31

    March 20, 2020 at 12:03 pm

    @Central Planning: That’s like me saying I’m a James Beard award-winning chef because I put pop-tarts in the toaster oven.

    and the toaster oven factory isn’t built yet and the pop-tarts are on backorder at Amazon and also you forgot to buy them

  98. 98.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 20, 2020 at 12:12 pm

    I don’t think that number will hold up once the death toll rises and the enormity of the gap between what Trump says and what transpires becomes undeniable to all but the cultists,

    The cynical side of me says “right, it’ll go up.”

    Maybe not, though. Scary crises with an international component tend to make people rally around the President in the short term, but the support goes away if it isn’t resolved well. Even Jimmy Carter initially gained from the Iran hostage crisis. And this one is going to hit home hard.

  99. 99.

    trnc

    March 20, 2020 at 1:04 pm

    @Mandalay: We’re missing some context because the content of the letter isn’t included in the story (that I can get to, anyway). If Boeing has millions or billions in cash on hand, they don’t need a bailout. If they can show in the future that they’re barely hanging on, I’d be willing to reconsider at that time.

    The 2009 bailouts had to be repaid. I have no faith in republicans to require that.

  100. 100.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 20, 2020 at 1:37 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    Trump is actively making things worse now that he’s declared himself a “wartime president.” 

    When do morons start hoarding champagne and French’s mustard just to destroy them?

  101. 101.

    J R in WV

    March 20, 2020 at 1:58 pm

    @mrmoshpotato:

    …hoarding champagne…

    We did that, a little bit, in order to drink it. I’m saving a couple of particularly good bottles in case we need to celebrate something. I leave what events would cause such a celebration to your imagination!!

  102. 102.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 20, 2020 at 2:03 pm

    @J R in WV: Don’t make me side-eye you.

  103. 103.

    emjayay

    March 20, 2020 at 2:45 pm

    @Fleeting Ex-istence: Seriously? You can’t breathe through those things. The main thing a face mask does is keep your hand which has touched some virus containing surface from touching your mouth or nose, or possibly but not necessarily keeping airborne droplets away if some infected person sneezes near you. The only masks that really screen out viruses are the special ones with a quarter sized plastic thingy on them.

  104. 104.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    March 20, 2020 at 2:49 pm

    NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen is one of the sharpest media critics we have. He published a piece at PressThink yesterday that should be printed out and nailed to the door of every media outlet in the country, in my opinion. Here’s a link to the piece, which I urge you to read in its entirety.

    I’ve read the piece, and part of me is wondering, why are these rules special? Why are they emergency measures?

    Frankly, they read to me like journalism  101. The power of the press is real, and potent, and not to be abused; journos aren’t in the business of providing free political advertisement, and politicians *need* the press to get their messages out to voters – but only by providing news, not lies and propaganda.

    So,  when covering a known liar and bad faith actor, the rules they’ve suggested are precisely what (I thought!) journalism 101 would cover. That the person in question is the President means that the notion of being fair *to your readers*  should be that much more important. Better to treat the President with a tiny bit of unfairness, than to cheat your readers, who need, and deserve, to know the truth.

    The only real defense Trump should have is… well. Hm.

    I used to teach math as a grad student. The easiest way to make sure you’d get the benefit of every doubt from me is, to piss me off. If I’m pissed off, at a math student, and I’m trying to decide if 384 points (B-) should be given one lousy stinking extra point to get to 385 (B), and I think they’re bright, and interested, and doing better on things that were weaknesses at first, sure, they get the extra point. If I can’t be sure, but I’m pissed off at someone, my own sense of ethics requires me to assume my feelings toward them could easily influence my decision – so if I’d give some folks the benefit of the doubt, I have to give these folks the benefit of the doubt, too.

    That should be Trump’s only defense against the press. Journalists should feel that, if they were blatantly unfair about Trump, because they hate lying fools who think power equates to virtue, and other journalists noticed it, then the other journalists would laugh in secret, and throw spitballs at them in homeroom. “Look at them, so unskilled, and lacking in self-awareness, that they can’t even write a fair story  about someone they dislike!”

    That we need to think of this as an emergency declaration makes me think the Covid-19 virus isn’t the only sickness that’s spread in this nation.

  105. 105.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    March 20, 2020 at 3:11 pm

    @Fleeting Ex-istence: A surgical mask – just cloth. no special filters – will protect others if you are sick.

    As someone else mentioned, it won’t protect *you* too much. So why do health care workers use them? Well – *you* should make sure you’re not going to get sneezed on, by maintaining distance, because you’re not a medical provider. Medical providers have to get, literally, in people’s faces, at times.

    If something happens, where you might breathe in the virus for Covid-19, you’re probably exposed through your eyes; but if you maintain even mild social distancing, that’s very unlikely  to happen. You’re more likely to touch a mucous membrane (before you wash your hands) after having your hands get touched by the virus.

  106. 106.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    March 20, 2020 at 3:18 pm

    @Ruckus: George W Bush was precisely the training that journalists should have needed to handle Trump. You couldn’t trust a word he said. Remember, he said “the UK thinks Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger”  without saying “of course, we know better, that never happened”, and he was  judged *truthful* – for one of the most obvious, and egregious, lies of omission in history.

    The idea that Trump deserves *more* scrutiny than a person who told a deliberate lie, about an extraordinary critical fact, is flat out senseless. Trump is so goddamned stupid he doesn’t know how not to lie, and you know damn well where you stand with him – trust nothing; if it makes no sense, it’s probably because he’s stupid; if it makes any sort of sense, it’s probably a lie.

    With Bush, you needed to *look* for the lies, because he knew what he was doing, and knew how to lie. Bush deserved *more* scrutiny (but slightly better handling) than Trump. Trump deserved to be treated as an incompetent reality show host who thought he could dance his way through the Presidency, with the twinned tap shoes of “deceit” and “hate”.

  107. 107.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    March 20, 2020 at 3:26 pm

    @gene108: The reason more people don’t see “chinese virus” as racist is, they honestly think racism is low level, and consists of people “hating the (n/c/s/w/etc. words),” and don’t realize there are a lot of people who think “political correctness” means “you’re not allowed to talk about the inferiority of other racial and ethnic groups” (i.e.: political correctness, to them, means “being called a bigot, just because you’re acting like one”. In that sense, “correctness” is, at least, shall we say, correct.).

    There’s a reason it’s called a dog whistle – a lot of ordinary folks seriously won’t hear it, and won’t understand why it’s a big deal.  Amanda Marcotte, in Slate, pointed out that it’s a cunning ploy, too: as soon as people stand up and complain about racism, they’ve changed the topic, from “Trump is an incompetent boob” to “Trump is a bigot”/”why, just for mentioning the virus originated in China? Is it bigoted to discuss ‘Chinese food’?”

    See, they swap the argument from the plainly true “Trump is an incompetent” to the far more friendly argument “is Trump really a *bigot* for this?”

  108. 108.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    March 20, 2020 at 3:37 pm

    Do keep in mind these are early days and the worst hit areas at the Blue states, and not that bad.

    Fun fact, California had the first virus case Jan 1st and had 20 deaths from it. Italy first case was the 21st and they have had 4,032 death so far, 627 of them in the last 24 hours. So local conditions make a big difference.

    That this is only starting in the red states,

  109. 109.

    Arclite

    March 20, 2020 at 5:55 pm

    Jesus fuck, people have short memories.  Trump totally fucked this up, now he’s getting credit for too little, too late?

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