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Two things can be true at the same time. The mainstream media has absolutely failed to provide honest reporting during this pandemic because they loathe President Trump. President Trump rage-tweeting at the media doesn’t help anyone.
The media’s failures in this period of time has been well-documented. Between complaining about the travel ban from China as “xenophobic” to whining about the lack of “diversity” on the coronavirus task force, to dissuading people from wearing face masks while privately making sure they had some of their own, to asking inanely stupid questions because they loathe the daily pressers, the media has just sucked. Now, President Trump has dealt fairly well with the media when he stands in front of them, often dressing them down on camera. And oh my, some of them absolutely deserve having their noses rubbed in their own crap.
Right now, the country is at a crossroads. It’s fair to say that the American public is beginning to chafe under a myriad of issues, including governors who think they are petty dictators, trying to work within social distancing guidelines and STILL being targeted for it, the loss of jobs, and the loss of lives – and there is no set of guidelines or benchmarks that the average American can measure with their own eyes to actually see any light at the end of the tunnel. The model projections, to a public that is used to instant “CSI” science solving everything within less than 60 minutes, is being shown the raw reality of science. These models only work with the data that they are given (and they MUST be transparent when the data they are using changes). Definitive answers about medications like hydroxychloroquine and others, or how quickly a vaccine would be ready, are part of long and boring clinical studies that consist of a LOT of trial and error. Obviously, some of that has been speeded up due to the gravity of the moment, but the medical community is focused on one thing only – the one thing they are always focused on – saving lives. The problem is that people aren’t going to live their lives isolated in their own homes. The real question is, has the “curve” been “flattened” enough so that hospitals will not be overwhelmed? According to the IHME model that has been such a large part of the federal government’s response, the “peak date” for hospital resource use has now passed in certain areas of the United States. We need to know hard facts, so that the American people can have a goal to look toward.
The media, who despises President Trump, is more than happy to prop up Joe Biden and his “plan” to reopen the economy (while they gloss over the sexual assault allegations at the same time). Spoiler alert: the Biden “plan” offers no hard guidelines either. Biden’s plan is centered around more testing and more social distancing while waiting for the numbers to drop (to where, he can’t say), while beating his favorite drum of the Defense Production Act to make all the things… that are already being made, and even sent around from state to state. So no, there is no “Biden plan” that has hard numbers. President Trump now wants to create a new task force to figure out a plan. But as of this moment, we have no end goal that would signal the end to the government shutdown of the economy to aim for.
The media knows that Trump is frustrated with the state of the economy, and is anxious to see the country restarted. And here’s where the president is busy committing own-goals. His Twitter feed is one of the only unfiltered ways that he reaches out to the public. But it is unfiltered. And when Trump has had enough, he goes on a Tweeting rampage – which makes the media absolutely salivate. Hours after retweeting an interview that Dr. Fauci gave to Fox News…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 12, 2020
… the president, in the middle of yelling at the media on Twitter, retweeted this. That hashtag in the original tweet was a red flag.
Sorry Fake News, it’s all on tape. I banned China long before people spoke up. Thank you @OANN https://t.co/d40JQkUZg5
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 12, 2020
And the media pounced. They could not WAIT to run with this one!
NEW: Trump spends Easter asking pals what they think of Fauci https://t.co/LTbowgQ4DA
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) April 13, 2020
Now, the media isn’t particularly fond of Dr. Fauci because they don’t truly like anyone who they know is smarter than themselves, and he refuses to be openly critical of President Trump. They would love to see a wedge driven between Trump and Fauci, because then they could yell about how “Trump doesn’t believe the scientists!” which fits neatly into their narrative. It’s not a coordinated goal of the media to provoke Trump into doing this kind of stuff; it’s a result of their sterotypical groupthink. Trump pushes their buttons by dressing them down to their faces, and they push his buttons in return by promoting their “Orange Man Bad” narrative.
And in the meantime, the American people sit in their homes, hoping someday they can leave.
The president needs to put down his phone and focus on figuring out the benchmarks to open the economy back up – with actual numbers, not just “when the curve is flat enough.” And the media, if it can’t pull its act together and do some honest reporting, deserves every single negative poll number they get.
Featured image via Pixabay, cropped, Pixabay license
GWB says: According to the IHME model
You mean the one that has us all dead, already? One big thing out of this experience should be the demise of the “experts”. They don’t know nearly as much as they like to have us think. And they’re not really any smarter than anyone who can apply logic and critical thinking to a topic.
has now passed in certain areas
And in the areas where the model says it has not passed, they’re seeing reductions in cases. So, again, I don’t trust those models.
we have no end goal
There’s never been an “end goal” with this. It’s part of the Zero Risk mindset of bureaucrat doctors. Expect those with this mindset to insist on continuing mitigation strategies even after there’s NO active cases – because there might be some WTF under a rock somewhere and we’d better just wait two more weeks. Just to be on the safe side, you know.
Now, the media isn’t particularly fond of Dr. Fauci
I am not particularly fond of Dr Fauci, either. Because he is absolutely one of those Zero Risk mindset bureaucrats. I also get the impression he’s trying to play both sides at this point.
“Trump doesn’t believe the scientists!”
Well, lots of us don’t believe “the scientists” anymore, since so many of them (the ones that are in public policy, anyway) seem to be more about politics than actual science. They certainly don’t operate with the humility real scientists normally have.
hoping someday they can leave
Which is NOT up to Trump. It’s the governors’ job to open things back up. Almost all of them are going to insist Trump give them the OK so they can blame him if anything bad happens. If you want to leave your house, call your governor’s office. And get your neighbors to call him, too. Let him know that you, the people – his/her bosses – want this thing ended.
A. Human says: Whether or not a model can be wrong or right doesn’t only depend on the correctness of the data entered. The model itself can make incorrect assumptions i.e. be an incorrect model such as the ones predicting climate disaster. Also a model can generate different data using the same input values i.e. the second time around starting from scratch, entering the exact same data, a model can ultimately churn out results that are substantially different from the original.
This is why I do not believe in modeling. There are literally infinite data points that “should” be entered and since they cannot enter infinite data points, they only enter the “major” ones however the minor and even infinitesimal ones can have as much affect on the outcome as the major ones.
CaptDMO says: Perhaps I can help clarify….
“The mainstream media has absolutely failed to provide honest reporting during this pandemic because they have been instructed, and paid, to loathe President Trump.
Pertinax says: Unfortunately for this nation, Fauci is already distancing himself from the President and bailing out by having interviews with CNN and of all people, Al Sharpton at MSNBC. The basic import of his message is that he told the president something must be done sooner to save lives (i.e., mitigation and social distancing) in mid to late January 2020. Of course, the little weasel stated at the end of February that there was nothing to be concerned about. At the same time, Adam Schiff and the democrat controlled House are gearing up for another impeachment inquiry on the handling of the Wuhan virus crisis. What Fauci has done is now given the democrats a reason to plunge ahead with the inquiry, a move that was not just coincidental. One wonders, if Fauci was so critical to the conduct of this war, why is he all over the networks and mooning about Brad Pitt playing him in a future movie? The original intent of social distancing was not to prevent deaths as the end goal or to have the so called pandemic curve completely flatten out. It was to give our medical system across the nation enough time to gear up and be able to handle the number of patients instead of being overwhelmed like northern Italy. That has already happened! His stance on the malaria drug is telling as well. In short, Fauci wants to prolong this crisis. He did not bat much of an eye during the Obama administration’s handling of the H1N1 pandemic which killed 17,000 plus (to include children and young adults), had hundreds of thousands hospitalized and infected nearly a fifth of the population. His handling of HIV, use of models which constantly change, and his recent actions this weekend backstabbing Trump with the media reveal him to be the treacherous virus viper that he is!
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