The Media doesn't want us to see President Trump's briefings
The same media that howled when the Trump Administration terminated daily briefings and said it restricting Freedom of the Press is now calling for terminating coverage of the President's daily briefings on the Coronavirus. The clamor for this is ironic, partisan, and also with precedent in history. Furthermore, there is a much better solution available that the media can implement by themselves.
The clamor is ironic because of the media's previous complaints when the Trump Administration cancelled the daily briefings. Furthermore, instead of the circus like nonsense that occurred during the Administration's previous daily briefings, which were more about the media members scoring points and trying to promote their careers, the current briefings actually are important to all Americans.
Instead, the media is trying to tell us there is nothing important coming out of these briefings. Oh really? The Trump Administration is providing information about what is going on in the fight against the Coronavirus - that's not important? For example, yesterday, in an act of incredible transparency, the Administration showed everyone the charts and data presented to the President that led him to decide to extend the Federal Guidelines to the end of April. Those were not exactly full of good news but they put it out there for all to see.
And to those in the media who complained about the time given to corporate execs and the mention of those companies - Yes I do want to know about how people and companies in America are rising to the challenge of beating this horrible virus. I do want to know there is hope that we can turn the corner on this.
What is it the media doesn't like? Well as Chuck Todd put it on MSNBC before the briefing on March 31, "...we know these briefings have a tendency to veer in a lot of directions, not all of them are informative or relevant in the midst of this crisis." Mr. Todd goes on to say "There are several questions that we have today that we are looking to get answered... On masks, are we going to be wearing them? What does our summer look like? What's the situation on testing and the medical equipment?... what is the data that you use to make these decisions?"
Those are all good questions to ask. My answer to Mr. Todd and anyone else is if you're not getting the answers to those questions whose fault is that? Perhaps it is the journalists aren't asking those questions. Perhaps the fault lies with people like Jim Acosta who asked question involving a string of cherry picked statements the President has made over the past three months that had nothing to do with topics like the ones Mr. Todd mentioned. Or consider the reporter who asked the President "what is an acceptable number of deaths." (To which President Trump correctly answered "None") Maybe if those reporters instead asked "Will we be wearing masks?" "What is the summer going to look like?" Or "what's the situation on testing and medical equipment" we'd have the answers Mr. Todd seeks and the briefing would not veer off.
The other problem expressed by the media is that the President is lying. Or as Seattle public radio station KUOW more politely said when announcing it would not air the briefings: "We will not be airing the briefings live due to a pattern of false or misleading information provided that cannot be fact checked in real time."
The highly partisan Democrat media (not liberal but Democrat - see my earlier blog on that topic) is aghast that people are hearing for themselves what the President is saying and liking what they hear. They are besides themselves that, as Andrea Mitchell said on MSNBC, "No matter what he says, people seem to be seeing him as a leader..." with even "the President's approval ratings among Democrats and independents skyrocketing to their highest levels yet."
What the media is saying is "Hey Mr. and Ms. American, you're too stupid to be trusted to listen to the President and make up your own mind because you're too stupid. You need to let us filter and edit what the President said and add our opinion, so that your beliefs conform to what we tell you." Re-read KUOW's statement and see if they really aren't saying exactly that.
If the media really cared about making sure the briefings only provided factual information there is a simple solution. First, stop asking irrelevant or uninformative questions of President Trump, like the ones cited earlier. And then, just stop asking President Trump any question at all. If the journalist starts their question by saying "I'd like to ask Dr. Birx" or "I have a question for Dr. Fauci" or substitute the name of any of the other key people from the Coronavirus team. When a reporter does that, President Trump typically steps aside and yields the microphone to the individual requested and lets that individual answer the question.
But the media won't do any of those things. They will continue to try to ask "gotcha" questions, and then come on after the briefing with commentators to spin and deny and insult. They will continue doing so, until they re-learn the lessons of the past.
In the 1980s, when we didn't have a bazillion channels on cable TV, President Ronald Reagan would request and be given air time on the major channels, ABC, NBC, CBS and PBS. The President would go on the air live and explain to the American people why he wanted Congress to vote a certain way tomorrow on a key piece of legislation. The networks would give Democrats equal time to disagree and then put on a panel of experts to further disagree. Then the American people would make up their minds, having heard both sides of the issue. And then The next day, the members of the US House or Senate would come into the office to a flood of phone calls and mailgrams (remember those?) in support of President Reagan and the issue he supported and that was the end of that. The issue in danger of not passing would be approved by a wide margin.
Finally, in the late days of Reagan's second term, he asked for air time to speak to the American people about support for Nicaraguan rebels fighting the Sandinista's. The Democrat media, realizing everything they had tried before to beat President had failed, turned to the last option they had. They declined to air the speech. And the issue failed.
It's only a matter of time before today's generation of Democrat media come to a similar conclusion and yield to those calling for blacking out the President's Daily Briefings, regardless of the obvious hypocrisy of cancelling coverage of briefings just a short while ago they were demanding. The difference is that today, people have alternative channels to watch. So when the day comes that MSNBC and CNN stop covering the President's Briefings, I will curious to see what happens to their ratings and whether the American people punish them for denying us the chance to make up our own minds.
The clamor is ironic because of the media's previous complaints when the Trump Administration cancelled the daily briefings. Furthermore, instead of the circus like nonsense that occurred during the Administration's previous daily briefings, which were more about the media members scoring points and trying to promote their careers, the current briefings actually are important to all Americans.
Instead, the media is trying to tell us there is nothing important coming out of these briefings. Oh really? The Trump Administration is providing information about what is going on in the fight against the Coronavirus - that's not important? For example, yesterday, in an act of incredible transparency, the Administration showed everyone the charts and data presented to the President that led him to decide to extend the Federal Guidelines to the end of April. Those were not exactly full of good news but they put it out there for all to see.
And to those in the media who complained about the time given to corporate execs and the mention of those companies - Yes I do want to know about how people and companies in America are rising to the challenge of beating this horrible virus. I do want to know there is hope that we can turn the corner on this.
What is it the media doesn't like? Well as Chuck Todd put it on MSNBC before the briefing on March 31, "...we know these briefings have a tendency to veer in a lot of directions, not all of them are informative or relevant in the midst of this crisis." Mr. Todd goes on to say "There are several questions that we have today that we are looking to get answered... On masks, are we going to be wearing them? What does our summer look like? What's the situation on testing and the medical equipment?... what is the data that you use to make these decisions?"
Those are all good questions to ask. My answer to Mr. Todd and anyone else is if you're not getting the answers to those questions whose fault is that? Perhaps it is the journalists aren't asking those questions. Perhaps the fault lies with people like Jim Acosta who asked question involving a string of cherry picked statements the President has made over the past three months that had nothing to do with topics like the ones Mr. Todd mentioned. Or consider the reporter who asked the President "what is an acceptable number of deaths." (To which President Trump correctly answered "None") Maybe if those reporters instead asked "Will we be wearing masks?" "What is the summer going to look like?" Or "what's the situation on testing and medical equipment" we'd have the answers Mr. Todd seeks and the briefing would not veer off.
The other problem expressed by the media is that the President is lying. Or as Seattle public radio station KUOW more politely said when announcing it would not air the briefings: "We will not be airing the briefings live due to a pattern of false or misleading information provided that cannot be fact checked in real time."
The highly partisan Democrat media (not liberal but Democrat - see my earlier blog on that topic) is aghast that people are hearing for themselves what the President is saying and liking what they hear. They are besides themselves that, as Andrea Mitchell said on MSNBC, "No matter what he says, people seem to be seeing him as a leader..." with even "the President's approval ratings among Democrats and independents skyrocketing to their highest levels yet."
What the media is saying is "Hey Mr. and Ms. American, you're too stupid to be trusted to listen to the President and make up your own mind because you're too stupid. You need to let us filter and edit what the President said and add our opinion, so that your beliefs conform to what we tell you." Re-read KUOW's statement and see if they really aren't saying exactly that.
If the media really cared about making sure the briefings only provided factual information there is a simple solution. First, stop asking irrelevant or uninformative questions of President Trump, like the ones cited earlier. And then, just stop asking President Trump any question at all. If the journalist starts their question by saying "I'd like to ask Dr. Birx" or "I have a question for Dr. Fauci" or substitute the name of any of the other key people from the Coronavirus team. When a reporter does that, President Trump typically steps aside and yields the microphone to the individual requested and lets that individual answer the question.
But the media won't do any of those things. They will continue to try to ask "gotcha" questions, and then come on after the briefing with commentators to spin and deny and insult. They will continue doing so, until they re-learn the lessons of the past.
In the 1980s, when we didn't have a bazillion channels on cable TV, President Ronald Reagan would request and be given air time on the major channels, ABC, NBC, CBS and PBS. The President would go on the air live and explain to the American people why he wanted Congress to vote a certain way tomorrow on a key piece of legislation. The networks would give Democrats equal time to disagree and then put on a panel of experts to further disagree. Then the American people would make up their minds, having heard both sides of the issue. And then The next day, the members of the US House or Senate would come into the office to a flood of phone calls and mailgrams (remember those?) in support of President Reagan and the issue he supported and that was the end of that. The issue in danger of not passing would be approved by a wide margin.
Finally, in the late days of Reagan's second term, he asked for air time to speak to the American people about support for Nicaraguan rebels fighting the Sandinista's. The Democrat media, realizing everything they had tried before to beat President had failed, turned to the last option they had. They declined to air the speech. And the issue failed.
It's only a matter of time before today's generation of Democrat media come to a similar conclusion and yield to those calling for blacking out the President's Daily Briefings, regardless of the obvious hypocrisy of cancelling coverage of briefings just a short while ago they were demanding. The difference is that today, people have alternative channels to watch. So when the day comes that MSNBC and CNN stop covering the President's Briefings, I will curious to see what happens to their ratings and whether the American people punish them for denying us the chance to make up our own minds.
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