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Get political reporters off the coronavirus story because they don't distinguish between right and w
https://presswatchers.org/2020/03/get-political-reporters-off-the-coronavirus-story-because-they-dont-distinguish-between-right-and-wrong/
By Dan Froomkin -March 5, 2020 3:57 pm EST
One of the many ways the public is ill-served by the White House chokehold on information about the coronavirus crisis is that it gives way too big a role to the White House press corps, which sees most everything through a political lens – and a warped political lens, at that.
To get at the truth about this public-health threat, news organizations need to route around the White House. It is flatly insane that someone as uninformed, intellectually incurious and science-intolerant as Mike Pence is playing point-man here.
But news organizations also need to take political reporters – and perhaps even more importantly, political editors – entirely out of the loop on this story. It’s too damned important to be covered as a two-sided battle over who’s winning the narrative.
The epic irresponsibility of letting the political staff anywhere near this story was on full display in the coverage – particularly by the New York Times – of Donald Trump’s wildly dishonest attempt on Wednesday to blame Barack Obama for his own administration’s continued failure to make widespread testing for the virus available to the public.
It took the Times a credulous headline, a credulous subhead and two long stenographic paragraphs before even giving readers a hint that Trump had no idea what he was talking about.
</snip>
By Dan Froomkin -March 5, 2020 3:57 pm EST
One of the many ways the public is ill-served by the White House chokehold on information about the coronavirus crisis is that it gives way too big a role to the White House press corps, which sees most everything through a political lens – and a warped political lens, at that.
To get at the truth about this public-health threat, news organizations need to route around the White House. It is flatly insane that someone as uninformed, intellectually incurious and science-intolerant as Mike Pence is playing point-man here.
But news organizations also need to take political reporters – and perhaps even more importantly, political editors – entirely out of the loop on this story. It’s too damned important to be covered as a two-sided battle over who’s winning the narrative.
The epic irresponsibility of letting the political staff anywhere near this story was on full display in the coverage – particularly by the New York Times – of Donald Trump’s wildly dishonest attempt on Wednesday to blame Barack Obama for his own administration’s continued failure to make widespread testing for the virus available to the public.
It took the Times a credulous headline, a credulous subhead and two long stenographic paragraphs before even giving readers a hint that Trump had no idea what he was talking about.
</snip>
4 replies
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