Share
Commentary

Liberal Media Wants To Pull Trump Briefings from Air After Bashing Him for Not Holding Them

Share

Multiple media personalities are calling on networks not to cover the Trump administration’s daily coronavirus briefings live, arguing President Donald Trump spreads misinformation and too often injects politics into them.

This is the same liberal media that said the Trump administration was denying Americans the information they deserve by ending the practice of the daily news briefing prior to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Last year, ABC News, Newsweek, The New York Times and others all highlighted the demise of daily White House press secretary briefings under Trump.

“In previous administrations, regular press briefings have been a centerpiece of the White House communications operation by which the White House both advances their public messaging and engages in a a regular exchange of information with the media on the pressing issues of the day,” ABC News reported.

Under the Trump administration, they had become a chance for reporters like CNN’s Jim Acosta to make a spectacle.

Trending:
Federal Judge Has Bad News for Hunter Biden, Says There's Zero Evidence His Charges Are Politically Motivated

Methinks the real reason the media don’t want to put the president and his administration officials on the air now is the fear that 2016 will repeat itself.

The then-New York businessman and reality television star was able to dominate the media coverage, and enough Americans liked what the heard to carry him to a rather comfortable victory.

Gallup reported this week that Trump matched the highest approval rating of his presidency at 49 percent, up 5 percentage points from earlier in the month.

Meanwhile, 60 percent approve of his handling of the COVID-19 crisis, and no doubt those daily briefings are helping that approval number.

The liberal media clearly do not want to be a party to Trump’s upward trajectory.

The Washington Post’s Margaret Sullivan wrote in a piece headlined, “The media must stop live-broadcasting Trump’s dangerous, destructive coronavirus briefings,” arguing that the president is using the briefings as a “substitute for [his] campaign rallies.”

Really?

Most American adults have likely seen at least part of one of these briefings at this point.

Related:
Watch: CNN Panel Mocks Trump for Selling Bibles with Lee Greenwood
Do you think Trump's daily coronavirus briefings are informative?

They follow a typical pattern: Trump gives introductory remarks, followed by other administration officials, including Vice President Mike Pence (point man for the coronavirus task force), as well as experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Dr. Deborah Birx, the task force’s coordinator.

They are not a substitute for Trump’s campaign rallies; however, the briefings do convey the most up-to-date information on the federal response to the pandemic outbreak.

One of the issues Sullivan and others in the media have taken issue with is the president trumpeting the promising results physicians are seeing in patients treated with the anti-malaria drug chloroquine.

The columnist put that in the category of Trump exaggerating or spreading lies.

“It hasn’t been approved for this use, and there is not yet enough evidence to demonstrate its effectiveness in fighting the virus,” Sullivan wrote.

Tell that to the doctors and patients who have been testifying on television and social media everyday about its effectiveness in saving lives:


MSNBC’s finest — Rachel Maddow and Joe Scarborough — have also called for Trump’s briefings not be aired live.

“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 it’s misinformation,” Maddow said on her program Friday night.

“If the president does end up saying anything true, you can run it as tape,” she added.

“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.”

In a Tuesday tweet, Maddow shared another Washington Post column also bemoaning Trump’s positive talk about the “unproven drug” chloroquine.

Of course, Scarborough had to get in on the Trump bashing.

“There is no public benefit to this briefing. The networks should all cut away,” he tweeted Monday.

I noticed on Thursday that CNN did in fact cutaway during the briefing, while Fox News and MSNBC carried it in full.

While Pence was speaking, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and the network’s medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, prattled on about how early on in the crisis in mid-February, when there were 15 confirmed cases in the U.S., Trump said he wanted to get that down to zero.

If Barack Obama had said exactly the same thing as president, would CNN be covering it as a failure in leadership or as chief executive’s aspirational goal as he came to grips with the crisis at hand?

Trump’s COVID briefings are informative.

The president takes time to field several questions from media during these daily briefings, so if reporters truly feel he has said something wrong, or overly optimistic, they can and have raised the issue.

The American people deserve to hear directly from the nation’s leader without the filter of the liberal media during this time of crisis.

The media should keep the best interest of the country in mind, and keep running the briefings in full.

Truth and Accuracy

Submit a Correction →



We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

Tags:
, , , , , , , ,
Share
Randy DeSoto has written more than 2,000 articles for The Western Journal since he joined the company in 2015. He is a graduate of West Point and Regent University School of Law. He is the author of the book "We Hold These Truths" and screenwriter of the political documentary "I Want Your Money."
Randy DeSoto is the senior staff writer for The Western Journal. He wrote and was the assistant producer of the documentary film "I Want Your Money" about the perils of Big Government, comparing the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama. Randy is the author of the book "We Hold These Truths," which addresses how leaders have appealed to beliefs found in the Declaration of Independence at defining moments in our nation's history. He has been published in several political sites and newspapers.

Randy graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point with a BS in political science and Regent University School of Law with a juris doctorate.
Birthplace
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Nationality
American
Honors/Awards
Graduated dean's list from West Point
Education
United States Military Academy at West Point, Regent University School of Law
Books Written
We Hold These Truths
Professional Memberships
Virginia and Pennsylvania state bars
Location
Phoenix, Arizona
Languages Spoken
English
Topics of Expertise
Politics, Entertainment, Faith




Conversation