The Trump press conferences are a problem for
the anti-Trump media, because they give Trump direct access to viewers with
minimal filtering by the networks.
Donald Trump’s daily press conferences, attended by
numerous senior health and other officials, are a must-watch. Enormous
information is provided by officials, and Trump signals where he thinks the
crisis is going. Trump spends an hour or more taking reporter questions, some
of which are hostile.
The press conferences almost certainly have large audiences,
and have contributed to polling that shows strong support among the public for
Trump’s handling of the crisis.
This is a problem for Democrats, as I
reported in Biden
has all but disappeared during Wuhan coronavirus crisis, as #WhereIsJoe?
trends. Biden’s disappearance has been noticed by Democrats,
particularly Bernie supporters. Peter Daou, a longtime
Hillary supporter, tweeted his frustration:
Hillary supporter, tweeted his frustration:
People,
I mean this sincerely: #whereisjoe?
Trump
is in front of the cameras every day, reassuring people, putting on the appearance
of “leadership.”
Where
is #Biden? Why isn’t he dominating the airwaves???* * *
And:
Two new polls show Trump with majority approval on his handling of the
#pandemic.
If
Dem leaders think this crisis will definitely damage him, they are greatly
mistaken.
If
they cede the appearance of leadership to him, it’s a major problem.
Joe Biden doesn’t have the mental acuity or
stamina to handle such daily press conferences, and that reality is sinking in
with Democrats.
The Trump press conferences also are a problem for the
anti-Trump media, because they gives Trump direct access to viewers with
minimal filtering by the networks. Sure, the networks can (and do) spin
against Trump, but people get to watch and hear it themselves. In this
way, the press conferences act in much the same way as Trump’s Twitter account.
So numerous high profile media types have a solution: The
networks should stop broadcasting the press conferences because Trump is
misleading the public.
This argument, of course, ignores that there
are dozens of reporters from hostile news outlets in the room throwing
questions at Trump and challenging him, and that hours of MSNBC, CNN and other
network airtime are devoted to attacking what Trump said at the press
conferences.
Margaret Sullivan, the former NY Times public editor and
now Washington Post columnist, The
media must stop live-broadcasting Trump’s dangerous, destructive coronavirus
briefings:
More
and more each day, President Trump is using his daily briefings as a substitute
for the campaign rallies that have been forced into extinction by the spread of
the coronavirus.
These
White House sessions — ostensibly meant to give the public critical and
truthful information about this frightening crisis — are in fact working
against that end.
Rather,
they have become a daily stage for Trump to play his greatest hits to a captive
audience….
Trump
is doing harm and spreading misinformation while working for his own partisan
political benefit — a naked attempt to portray himself as a wartime president
bravely leading the nation through a tumultuous time, the FDR of the 21st
Century.
The press — if it defines its purpose as getting truthful, useful, non-harmful information to the public, as opposed to merely juicing its own ratings and profits — must recognize what is happening and adjust accordingly. (And that, granted, is a very big “if”)
That’s pretty rich coming from someone who
worked for the two newspapers that pushed the Russia-collusion hoax for three
years, almost alwasy based on anonymous source that didn’t pan out.
This
is a now theme in the mainstream media, that they should be the gatekeepers
to information despite several years of lying and conspiracy theories. No
thank you, we can watch and we can understand and we can make our own
decisions. You are not as smart as you think you are.
But calls to shut down the live press
conference broadcasts are even richer coming from the queen of Russia-collusion
conspiracy theorists, Rachel Maddow.
Maddow, you will recall, is an Alex-Jones-level
conspiracy pusher, the difference being that Jones has been deplatformed while
Maddow has a prime time show on MSNBC that feeds off Resistance paranoia and
venom. I covered Maddow’s history in Again
We Ask: Why Isn’t Rachel Maddow Treated Like Other Crazy Conspiracy Theorists?
Here’s Maddow using prime time to call for the media to censor
Trump:
“I
know we ought to be getting used to this kind of thing by now, but I’m
not. President Trump today, again, just flat-out wrong in public about this
malaria drug that has gotten stuck in his mind, quite some distance from the
facts,” Maddow said on her show.
“If
the president does end up saying anything true, you can run it as tape but if
he keeps lying like this every day on stuff this important, all of us should
stop broadcasting it. Honestly, it’s gonna cost lives,” she added on the
program.
Notice Maddow is the one lying. The malaria drug can be
used for coronavirus off-label, there is anecdotal evidence of its
effectiveness, but the FDA requires more systematic testing before off-label
use could become on-label use.
Anyone watching the press conference would understand all
this context. Anyone watching Rachel Maddow would not.
Of course, resident MSNBC loon Lawrence O’Donnell, who
substitutes angry faces and nastiness for intelligence, is all
on board with not broadcasting the press conferences, referring to a clip
of Maddow:
The
most important thing said on TV yesterday.
Eric Boehlert, a former Media Matter writer and prominent
liberal media observer, also is on board:
There is a chorus of liberal journalists and activists
calling for the networks to stop the broadcasts, under the #StopTheBriefings Twitter hashtag.
I hope Trump does the briefings and takes questions 7
days a week. These are the most transparent sessions I’ve seen in any president
in my lifetime.
The media can criticize Trump all it wants, but the call
to censor the press conferences simply confirms that they are not journalists, but
as Prof. Glenn Reynolds says, Democrats With Bylines.
