September 10, 2019 (American Thinker) — It seems that anything President Trump says or does can trigger the media into a state of stupidity or psychosis, or both. The Trump-hating media has been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder since November 2016, relapsing into insanity after each Trump tweet.
One of the latest triggers was Trump's tweet about the potential course of Hurricane Dorian. On September 1, Trump sent this out to his Twitter followers.
In addition to Florida – South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, will most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated. Looking like one of the largest hurricanes ever. Already category 5. BE CAREFUL! GOD BLESS EVERYONE!
It's a typical Trump tweet with presidential well wishes ahead of a massive potential hurricane. It took only one word to send the media into a psychotic state. That word was “Alabama,” one of several states that could have been affected by the hurricane.
CNN, blissfully unconcerned that Joe Biden often doesn't know where he is or whom he was vice president for, was outraged that Trump is “spreading false information during an emergency situation.” This is even more of a national crisis to CNN than when the network's reporters learned that the president gets two scoops of ice cream.
The media were quick to point out that Trump was wrong about mentioning Alabama in his tweet, attributing it to “a fundamental misunderstanding of geography on the part of the President.” This was a polite way of telling the president that he is a dope. Trump should just ignore it, right? That's the wise counsel of the NeverTrump nitwits, but disconnected from Donald Trump's punching back when wronged.
Trump has endured almost three years of nonstop negative media coverage during his presidency. From Russian collusion to his every tweet or utterance, media reporting has been well over 90 percent negative. When once again accused by the media of being a rube or ignoramus, he hit back, calling the criticism of his hurricane tweet “phony.”
Not content to move on to the actual hurricane, CNN went into obsessive-compulsive mode, not letting go of the Alabama part of the story, believing it finally had the gotcha moment for invoking the 25th Amendment and sending Trump to the loony bin.
Was Trump right in his tweet? Did Alabama face a threat from the hurricane?
Here is the Dorian path map from August 30, clearly showing Alabama in the potential path of the hurricane. It wasn't ground zero, but certainly in the storm path and facing danger along with the other states in Trump's original tweet.
The map did not show the hurricane hitting North Carolina, which it did a week later. Trump also mentioned North Carolina in his tweet despite the above map showing otherwise. Why didn't the media jump all over that warning?
CNN conveniently forgot its video from August 28, where CNN itself told Alabama to “be on the lookout” for Hurricane Dorian. CNN went on to say:
There are many states that are under threat right now. At least 6. From the Carolinas right through Georgia coastline into Florida certainly, and then also even into the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi.
I guess CNN also has “a fundamental misunderstanding of geography.”
Hurricane maps are predictions based on computer models — educated guesses at best. Interestingly, the climate change doomsday scenarios constantly pushed by the Left are based on similar computer models.
Of what benefit is it to President Trump to mention Alabama in his tweet unless the information at the time showed that Alabama was one of the states in the hurricane's path? CNN makes it out to be some sinister plot on the part of the president. It was the best information available at the time, nothing more complicated than that. Yet the media couldn't give up, and the story is now in its second week.
Next were the accusations of “doctored” weather maps. Trump presented a NOAA map that apparently had an altered course, a magic marker line added showing Alabama within the storm's path. Pining for the days of Watergate, the media were quick to label this “Sharpie-gate,” and they were giddy, believing they finally had the evidence to declare Trump insane, getting him impeached and removed from office. I'm sure Jerry Nadler and Adam Schiff are ready to hold congressional hearings over the weather maps that may or may not have been altered.
YouTube screen grab.
CNN's Jim Acosta, in his never-ending quest for relevancy, asserted that Trump “Jumped the Sharpie.” How clever. Abilio “Jim” Acosta jumped the shark when he became CNN's White House correspondent.
On September 2, the day after Trump's tweet, the National Hurricane Center still included a small portion of Alabama in its wind map. And why was this even a lingering story? Trump tweeted well wishes to states potentially in the hurricane's path. The media accused him of being an idiot, and Trump punched back as, he is prone to do.
Now the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was dragged into the nonstory for defending Trump's statement that Hurricane Dorian threatened Alabama — which it did at one time based on early forecasts.
Why couldn't the media simply report on the hurricane, regardless of its eventual path? This is a fake news story created by the fake news media, looking to pick an unnecessary fight with the president. No wonder few Americans trust the media.
What was happening in Alabama during this time? Were Alabamans on the side of CNN or the president regarding the hurricane's path? Alabama was not reacting to the president's September 1 tweet. Instead, Alabamans saw the forecasts Trump saw two days earlier. On August 30, the Alabama National Guard tweeted the following.
#HurricaneDorian is projected to reach southern Alabama by the early part of the week. We are watching closely and #ready to act. Are you?
Were they part of “Sharpie-gate”? Is this a grand conspiracy between the Alabama National Guard and the unhinged orange man in the White House? Or were these prudent precautions a president and state governors took ahead of a Category 5 hurricane?
Trump knows history and how President George W. Bush was excoriated after Hurricane Katrina, accused of flying over the damage, not caring about the destruction, becoming an albatross on the remainder of his presidency.
It makes sense for any subsequent president to be involved and erring on the side of caution when commenting about an impending hurricane. And this was no ordinary hurricane, either. The Washington Post called it an “absolute monster.”
Nothing Trump did could satisfy the media monster. On the one hand, CNN criticized Trump for playing golf over Labor Day weekend ahead of the hurricane, ignoring the pending calamity; then, on the other hand, he was accused of creating unnecessary fear by mentioning Alabama possibly being in the path of the hurricane.
Welcome to Trump's world, where everything he says and does is by default wrong in the eyes of the media. No wonder he calls the fake news media “the enemy of the people” and pushes back against their buffoonery.
Brian C Joondeph, M.D. is a Denver-based physician, freelance writer, and occasional radio talk show host whose pieces have appeared in American Thinker, the Daily Caller, and other publications. Follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and QuodVerum.
Published with permission from the American Thinker.