The number one admonishment of the news media is that we should listen to the doctors. Over these last few months, the left-wing media has elevated Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx to the pinnacle of knowledgeable and trustworthy experts.
To keep Fauci and Birx as the leading spokespersons on all matters relating to Covid-19 – and to maintain the left-wing news narratives against President Trump – the #NeverTrump press had to juxtapose the two doctors with Trump – even though he is the person who named them to the White House Covid-19 Task Force and given them a virtually daily platform to address the public and respond to questions from a Trump-adversarial White House news corps.
While both Fauci and Birx have repeatedly said that they have a good working relationship with Trump – and that he takes and implements their advice, the press uses the weapon of journalistic spin to suggest otherwise. Most notably, you will not see the doctors’ defense of Trump on CNN and MSNBC.
Fauci is much easier to spin because he seems to want to avoid saying anything that gets in the middle between Trump and the reporters who hate him. In doing so, he gives those same reporters grist for their spin mill by selective editing and intentionally inaccurate interpretations. Ergo, Fauci becomes the more useful to the Trump critics.
Birx, on the other hand, tends to be more factual – and avoids answering questions dealing with the quality of reporting. She was among the more forceful in assurances that the Task Force and Trump are working very well together.
On several occasions, Birx referenced the cooperation and praised Trump’s actions. The reaction of the anti-Trump news media was to pity Birx for having to say such things under pressure from the President. What other reason could there be for providing a perspective that was not consistent with the media’s preconceived narratives?
A number of panelists on CNN and MSNBC shake their talking-heads when Birx suggested that the death count from Covid-19 my not be as high as publicized. She pointed to thousands of cases in which the patient was ASSUMED to have died from Covid-19 when there was no confirmation that they even had it. If a patient had lung congestion and died of a sudden heart attack, it was ASSUMED that the lung congestion was due to Covid-19. But it was never determined if they even had Coviod-19.
Birx’ questioning of the data seems reasonable and appropriate, but that is not how the news media played it. They wondered why such a well-respected and knowledgeable authority would say such a thing. And that is when the media seemed to be putting a wrecking ball to the pedestal upon which they initially placed Birx.
Even when Birx did appear on CNN or MSNBC, she was never directly asked about her relationship with Trump – or her opinion about his work in combating Covid-19. Of course not, they did not want their viewers to hear an answer contrary to what they have been force-feeding their audiences.
Jesse Watters, of FOX News, did, however. In response to his question about the role of the President, Birx painted a far different picture than the haters on the other networks. She said that Trump was very involved (so ended the false narrative that he only comes out to make pronouncements). She said that he was very involved in the data and details (ending the “he never reads” false narrative). She said he is very good at understanding the complexities of the data (ending the narrative that he is stupid). And she said that Trump has always followed the data and implemented the advice of the medical authorities (ending the narrative he does not take professional advice).
The east coast left-wing media does not want to hear those things – and they will redefine anyone who disagrees with their narratives as a toady of the President. The folks at CNN and MSNBC have already begun questioning Birx credibility – based on nothing more than she will not misrepresent or lie simply to curry favor by supporting their biases and mendacious narrative.
The fact that Birx is not seen as much on CNN and MSNBC these days is all the evidence you need to understand about the networks’ politics and journalistic integrity. Birx is telling truth to power – and power does not like it.
So, there ‘tis.