The American media is covering for China, and the consequences are real
As America ends yet another week of massive lockdown, questions continue about how this happened. The media is anxious to place blame somewhere - and often defaults to President Trump and his administration's slow response. And that is certainly not without merit. Yet what we're learning now is the China propaganda has been pervasive - and our media has largely been more than happy to propagate it. The Associated Press reports today that China waited six days before informing the world of the impending pandemic, keeping it secret and wasting key days to start preparations. And of course, there continue to be the reports of cases and deaths coming out of China, which get repeated and put on graphs without any giant asterisk. Yesterday China reported zero coronavirus related deaths. They have just 3,300 total. New York City added 3,700 coronavirus related deaths from people who didn't even test positive for coronavirus, and were just presumed to have it.
We know the information we're getting China is bad, and yet we have reports like this from CNN. | |
The story framing reads like it literally came from China's State TV. "A Chinese naval flotilla headed into the Pacific over the weekend, evidence that the People's Liberation Army Navy has done a much better job controlling coronavirus than the US Navy, according to a story posted on the PLA's English-language website," it said.
And I write "said," because while the story was published Monday, it received massive pushback and has since been significantly updated, with the headline now reading, "Chinese state media claims country's navy is not affected by coronavirus."
There are real consequences to feeding into the China propaganda. NPR's David Folkenflik has an excellent piece on the way Bloomberg's news organization went to great lengths to appease China and destroy its own journalistic credibility in the process. "Bloomberg News killed an investigation into the wealth of Communist Party elites in China, fearful of repercussions by the Chinese government," writes Folkenflik. "The company successfully silenced the reporters involved. And it sought to keep the spouse of one of the reporters quiet, too."
There's a reason why some in the media are apt to cover for China even more than usual right now. And to get to that reason, let's look at the story of how the coronavirus originated. Reporting this week from the Washington Post and Fox News both point to the Wuhan lab as being the most likely scenario - an accidental leak due to subpar safety conditions.
This will come as a major surprise to you if you've been following the story in any of the major newspapers or television networks. Two months ago today, Sen. Tom Cotton questioned on Fox News whether coronavirus may have come from the Wuhan lab. "Because of China's duplicity and dishonesty from the beginning, we need to at least ask the question," he said.
The media pounced. "Tom Cotton is playing a dangerous game with his coronavirus speculation," wrote CNN's Chris Cillizza, linking to a CNN fact-check that said Cotton was wrong about the suggestion. The New York Times called it a "fringe theory." Vox, in its typical smug pseudo-authority declared "How did the coronavirus outbreak start? It didn't come from a lab in Wuhan, China."
New York Times columnist and CBS News analyst Jamelle Bouie deemed Cotton "one of the most irresponsible and dangerous people in federal office." | | (By the way, if people actually watch the interview, you can see Cotton raise some questions that would have been a lot more beneficial if the media had focused on that - like asking "the extent to which it's contagious before one is symptomatic.")
You can see in Bouie's tweet what's really behind this. "Trump aside," it begins.
The idea that the virus leaked from a China lab somehow makes it seem like Trump is less culpable in the result. It's also not particularly "woke" to identify subpar superlab conditions in China as the cause of our current lockdown.
We'll know more soon. The media owes it to the public to quit the China propaganda and focus on the truth, wherever it leads. | | Stunning new hypocrisy in media coverage of Tara Reade's sexual assault allegations against Joe Biden
I wrote earlier this week about the various differences in coverage between the sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh and recent ones against Joe Biden. Two columns have continued that glaring hypocrisy.
Joan Walsh in The Nation writes a column titled "The Troublesome Tara Reade Story." Read it, and then contrast that with Walsh's column on the "heart-wrenching trauma of the Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh hearings."
But your jaw will truly drop reading Ruth Marcus' column today in the Washington Post. Marcus wrote an entire book on Kavanaugh and the sexual assault allegations against him, and while the column acknowledges the challenges she faces by not really wanting to believe Joe Biden is capable of what he's accused of, her conclusions are stunning. "I don't think what Reade claimed happened, yet the evidence is murky," she begins right off the bat. "#BelieveAllWomen was a dumb hashtag and a dumber approach to inevitably complex, fact-bound situations."
Wow. AOC acknowledges what these columnists don't, saying "if we again want to have integrity, you can't say both believe women, support all of this, until it inconveniences you, until it inconveniences us." Rose McGowan, who was one of the women who came forward with her story of being raped by Harvey Weinstein, tweeted, "How the journalists and press outlets treat assault victims with their slanted & misogynistic writing directly affects how we assault victims are treated in the world."
Biden appeared on both CNN and MSNBC today, and was not asked about the allegations. In fact, he's never been asked about it. While MSNBC has briefly covered the story, when you type in Tara Reade's name on CNN's website, you get this: | | What's clear is there is tremendous hypocrisy in how these stories have been covered, that show a clear slant that can only be described as political bias.
But what's less clear is whether the journalistic ethics is correct this time, or was last time. Every incident of sexual misconduct against a prominent public figure is different, and deserves its own scrutiny. But should media outlets be particularly cautious, knowing how reporting the existence of allegations will inevitably cause those allegations to lead to acceptance as fact, just by the nature of the report existing? Or should they welcome someone like Tara Reade to tell their story, like they did with Kavanaugh's accusers, and let the readers and viewers decide?
There are no easy answers. But media outlets should pick a journalistic standard, and stick with it. | | Revisiting the Chris Cuomo Easter incident Chris Cuomo remains hosting his CNN show from his basement, but has stayed active in the tabloids for several reasons. First, an Easter incident which he recounted on his radio show, when he was yelled at by another man, who has emerged as a 65-year-old named David Whelan, while Cuomo was on a property where a new house was being built. The cyclist filed a "police complaint" (notably, not a police report, and no charges were pursued) related to the verbal confrontation. A few things on this - Cuomo has been in quarantine for more than 14 days, so emerging out of his house is not a story. He was also on his own property, and not out in "public." I'm hearing Whelan also has charges pending related to another recent altercation. There's more to this story than has been reported. But what's more interesting here is how Cuomo relayed the story initially, and since. The big pull-quote from his radio segment was "I don't like what I do professionally...I don't think it's worth my time." The Daily Beast had fun with their headline: "Chris Cuomo: My CNN Job Is Pointless And I Can't Stand It." Cuomo clarified his position the next day. "I love where I am, I love the position that I've been given, and I love who I'm doing it with. Those are all matters of fact for me," he said. I think what Cuomo verbalized in that initial frustrated moment is something many TV hosts feel - likely many TV hosts at CNN. The back and forth of political punditry, the endless cycle (and yes, the existential fight with Trump)... it's draining, and is it really important? It's not to say they are unhappy with their job - but they wrestle with the push and pull of, essentially, fame. A fame that's driven by the news cycle, and that comes with it your bevy of digital trolls, and the occasional IRL troll too. Cuomo revealed last night his wife now has been diagnosed with coronavirus too. I wish them all good health - and hopefully some calm days and weeks ahead. | | | 🚨DROP EVERYTHING🚨: Kanye West in GQ
I'm starting a new section called DROP EVERYTHING - for the times when there's a piece of media that must be consumed immediately. I'm a big fan of the long-form magazine feature, so those will often be the focus. Here, we have a fantastic magazine feature paired with the cultural figure I'm most interested in: GQ's cover story on Kanye West.
I've written before that I believe Kanye West is the most interesting - and perhaps most important - celebrity figure in our culture today. The GQ piece dives into the world of Kanye, through multiple interviews, in multiple countries, on multiple very divergent topics.
Don't just read the headlines from the West haters who aggregate and over-simplify, like this on a very minor section where Kanye hints he's voting for Trump again in 2020 - the headline makes it seem like he's doing it because of "real estate." Instead, the main quote is: "Both my parents were freedom fighters, and they used to drink from fountains they were told they couldn't drink from, and they used to sit in restaurants where they were told they couldn't eat from. They didn't fight for me to be told by white people which white person I can vote on."
On faith, on fashion, on fame, on which of his songs were actually not that great, on the housing domes he's building...
Drop everything... and go read this now. | | QUICK HITS
- Sharon Waxman, founder and editor of TheWrap (and the next "BCC Interview" guest), has a must-read piece on the "bloodbath" at The Hollywood Reporter.
- The NBC Nightly News launched a "Kids Edition" with Lester Holt wearing a hoodie - really!
- Vanity Fair's Peter Hamby has a great interview with Dr. Fauci, which makes news, includes a Tinder shout-out and...doesn't mention Trump once. It's possible! | | WATCH IT... Want a preview of the Trump vs. Biden debates to come? Joe Rogan and Chris D'Elia had... quite the conversation, brutally ripping each of them.
HEAR IT... As I've written about, Chris Hayes' best platform is his podcast. This week's episode with Carl Bergstrom on the coronavirus - and "going viral" - is fascinating.
READ IT... My friend and former colleague Glynnis MacNicol has a must-read piece about New York City in the age of coronavirus in GEN Magazine: "New York in this moment may be saying goodbye to us, but we refuse to say good-bye to New York." | |
⏪REWIND // FAST FORWARD ⏩
⏪ My wife and I are devoted "Better Call Saul" fans, and anticipating the season finale on Monday. Ahead of that, see how much Vince Gilligan had plans in place for where things would end up five years ago before the show even started.
⏩ Fox Business has a must-watch virtual town hall coming up on April 23 - with billionaire Mark Cuban (who was just named to President Trump's "sports advisory panel"). | | | MORE TK Sunday's newsletter will be back with a new "BCC Interview" - an email exchange with a prominent media figure, then published in full. This time it's with Amy Chozick, of the New York Times (and now Netflix!). To give you a taste of what's to come, here's Chozick on the current state of coronavirus media coverage: "The briefing ends and then there is the wave of Twitter outrage from both sides. Hailing whatever journalist who sparred with Trump that day as a national hero. Trump firing back usually with more lies or smears. And then (my favorite) there are the journalists who basically live-tweet the White House briefing in order to prove a point that cable channels should ignore the White House briefing. It's like a parody of political coverage." | | | GREAT MOMENTS IN JOURNALISM | | | An absurd headline, yes, but the article comes to the correct conclusion - keep going to the briefings and asking tough questions. | | Thanks for reading. Stay safe, back Sunday morning...
- Steve Krakauer
@SteveKrak | | | |
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