Aren’t reporters actually supposed to report the news? Or do they have permission to filter it these days?
Both CNN and MSNBC cut away from President Trump’s daily coronavirus briefing, claiming that it was turning into propaganda.
Rather than reporting the news and allowing their viewers to decide for themselves, CNN and MSNBC decided to censor the president’s briefing.
The country is in the middle of a pandemic, yet instead of asking questions about potential new therapies or updates on the spread of the virus, reporters have been criticizing the president’s handling of the crisis.
Trump struck back with a video showing the timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The video was intended to show how the reporters have inaccurately covered Trump’s response.
Instead of acknowledging the facts in the video, CNN and MSNBC opted to cut away and call it propaganda.
See the astonishing media malpractice for yourself below:
Ironically, this so called "propaganda video" wasn't about Trump or his words.
Instead, the video simply took quotes from the press to showcase their statements and compare it to reality.
A commentator on MSNBC even called it "disinformation," yet the clips came unedited and straight from the news networks.
The Hill has more details on CNN and MSNBC's decision to cut away from the daily presser during a national crisis:
CNN stopped its live coverage of the daily White House coronavirus task force briefing Monday when President Trump began playing a compilation of news clips portraying his handling of the pandemic in a positive light.
"To play a propaganda video at taxpayer expense in the White House briefing room is a new — you can insert your favorite word here in this administration," CNN anchor John King said when the network cut away.
CNN also aired a chyron saying, "Angry Trump turns briefing into propaganda session."
MSNBC also stopped its live broadcast of the briefing when Trump began airing the campaign-style video that Trump said was put together by White House staff, including social media director Dan Scavino.
"We are cutting into what was not a White House coronavirus briefing," MSNBC host Ari Melber informed viewers.
An MSNBC spokesperson referred The Hill to Melber's remarks during live coverage when asked for comment.
CNN, which The Hill also reached out to for comment, and MSNBC have often cut in and out of the daily briefings, while cable news rival Fox News has carried them from start to finish.
Fox News has decided to carry the briefings from start to finish.
Observers acknowledge that this makes sense, since a press briefing from the president during a national crisis is the very definition of newsworthy.
After the briefing, Fox's commentators then evaluate the briefing, but they allow the president and the task force to update the nation.
Throughout the entire COVID-19 pandemic, Trump's statements have been spun out of context.
Perhaps the greatest example is when Trump said the Democratic response to the novel coronavirus was their "new hoax."
Trump was clearly referring to the politicization of COVID-19, but the media spun it to make it sound like he was calling the virus a hoax.
Deadline has more on the apparent reason why Trump decided to show the video during the briefing:
The video appeared to have been motivated by a New York Times report over the weekend — He Could Have Seen What Was Coming: Behind Trump’s Failure On the Virus. Trump sent out multiple tweets throughout Sunday bashing the Times for the report. Trump has defended his response, pointing to his decision in late January to impose restrictions on travel from China, where the outbreak started. But critics say that the response required much more aggressive steps, like a ramp-up of testing.
The video featured clips that tried to highlight where Trump took decisive action during the crisis, as well as quotes of praise for his response coming from political figures such as New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and California Governor Gavin Newsom. But the clips were cherry picked. They did not include moments in January and February where the president downplayed the threat of the virus. The video also attacked media reporting on the virus, pointing to instances where outlets also played down its potential fallout. That has been a main talking point of some of Trump’s staunchest media defenders on the right. According to Media Matters for America, a progressive watchdog group, clips in the video mirrored those that Fox News’ Sean Hannity showed on March 26.After CNN cut away from the briefing, John King ran through a list of dates where Trump minimized the impact of the virus, including a CNBC interview on Jan. 22 when he said that it would not become a pandemic, and on Feb. 26, when he said, “This is the flu. This is like the flu.”
“I could go on and on … with other things the president has said,” King said. “Again, he has every right to defend himself. He has every right to push back. He has every right to challenge things that are factually not true.” But he said that “there are ways to do things,” but what the White House showed was “just plain propaganda."
The reality is that Trump did not create a propaganda video.
The video has the media's own words against them.
If they're upset, then perhaps they should be upset with themselves and their record, because that's exactly what the video shows.
President Trump has been ahead of the Democratic establishment every step of the way during this crisis.
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