March 17, 2020 (American Thinker) — The mainstream American media have abandoned journalism's formerly prized ethos of "who, what, where, why, when." There is no pretense anymore that they serve a purpose other than maligning Donald Trump in the hope of destroying his presidency. The latest example comes from The New York Times, a once respected institution that now would offend the birds whose cages it might line.
President Trump has recommended new, very stringent social distancing guidelines as part of slowing the coronavirus's spread in the United States. Speaking of slowing the virus, keep in mind that, thanks in part to President Trump's decision to close America's borders to China in January, the spread here has already been slow. Currently, despite the virus having been present but unidentified in America for some time, only 0.00002 percent of the population has died [i.e., 68 people].)
The New York Times began its report on the new guidelines in a straightforward fashion:
Trump's a bad man, right? Wrong. This is yet another example of the media's despicable ongoing attacks against Trump. In other words, it's fake news.
It turns out that the New York Times was engaged in a lie by omission — something that, at common law, is every bit as wrong as an affirmative fraud. Here's what Trump actually said (emphasis added):
Respirators, ventilators, all of the equipment — try getting it yourselves. We will be backing you, but try getting it yourselves. Point of sales, much better, much more direct if you can get it yourself.
Thus, Trump told the governors to get ventilators in the fastest, best way, rather than to be dependent on the slow-moving federal government. That's a good thing. It's not hypocritical, cruel, or incompetent.
The media are currently outraged that Republicans are less panicked by the coronavirus than Democrats are. Part of that may be because Democrats are ruled more by emotion than by reason. A lot of it, though, is because Republicans have no reason to trust the media.
If members of the media believe that saying something will hurt Trump, they'll say it — and that's true whether what they're saying is honest or not. If the media hysterically use coronavirus to attack Trump, Republicans instinctively assume (a) that coronavirus isn't that bad and (b) that Trump's doing an excellent job of handling it.
Published with permission from the American Thinker.