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The Media Are Embarrassing Themselves Over Trump’s Use Of ‘Chinese Virus’
The Federalist ^ | March 19, 2020 | John Daniel Davidson

Posted on 03/19/2020 10:45:04 AM PDT by Kaslin

Img src=https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Ron-Burgundy-998x716.png>

the mainstream media’s ranks are populated by biased hacks who don’t care half as much about reporting accurately on the Wuhan coronavirus as they care about making Trump seem like a racist.


Yesterday, amid the ongoing economic and social disruptions caused by the coronavirus, rising numbers of infections and deaths globally, and widespread closures of schools and other extreme measures imposed across the country, the mainstream media decided we should have a national debate about whether it’s racist for President Trump to call it the “Chinese virus.”

In what can only be described as a moment of unconscious self-parody, the media pretended not to understand why Trump would refer to the virus in geographic terms—as if they’d never heard of the Spanish Flu, West Nile Virus, Ebola, Zika, Lyme Disease, or the many other diseases named for their places of origin. As if they haven’t been doing the same thing for months.

Why? Because the mainstream media’s ranks are populated by biased hacks who don’t care half as much about reporting accurately on the Wuhan coronavirus as they care about making Trump seem like a racist.

“Why do you keeping calling it the Chinese virus?” asked a seemingly indignant and bewildered Cecilia Vega of ABC News during Trump’s press briefing yesterday, citing “dozens of incidents of bias against Chinese Americans in this country.” Isn’t this racist? Trump’s answer was straightforward and bone-crushingly obvious: “Because it comes from China. It’s not racist at all, it comes from China. That’s why. It comes from China. I want it to be accurate.”

President Trump asked again why he uses the phrase “Chinese Virus”:

“It comes from China, I want to be accurate” pic.twitter.com/bOt1HJSfRa

— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) March 18, 2020

Trump has a point about accuracy. Indeed, “Chinese” is not a race but a nationality, like “American.” And of course in the phrase “Chinese virus,” the word “Chinese” is an adjective modifying the noun “virus.”

But set all that aside. Watching the exchange above, you have to wonder: Is there no one in the White House press corps who’s willing to pull Vega aside and implore her to not do this sort of thing on national television? Is there no one who will politely tell her she’s making a fool of herself, and in the process making the entire press corps look ridiculous?

Apparently not. If anything, Vega’s penchant for performative outrage and concern trolling is shared by many of her colleagues. Later in the same briefing, a reporter asked the president about some unnamed White House official reportedly using the term “Kung Flu,” which Trump had apparently never heard before and asked the reporter to repeat, which she did without missing a beat.

CLIP: President Trump is asked about the term 'Kung Flu'

Watch complete news conference here: https://t.co/GwQnJ0pwmo pic.twitter.com/ElDbKUvrgU

— CSPAN (@cspan) March 18, 2020

The fun was just beginning. After the briefing, reporters and pundits scurried back to their studios and newsrooms to compose serious monologues and straight-shooting explainers about the dangers of scapegoating and racism in times of crisis. Vox, as expected, churned out an article about how “Trump’s new fixation on using a racist name for the coronavirus is dangerous.”

Over at The Atlantic, which has been dutifully regurgitating Chinese Communist Party propaganda for weeks now, James Fallows tut-tutted over the phrase while Graeme Wood, seeing an opportunity to sneer at Trump voters, declared Trump’s use of “Chinese virus” meant that Trump was “retreating, like a child to his blanket, to the kind of degenerate culture-war squabble in which he feels most secure and his supporters most aggrieved.”

NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel outdid them all, earnestly reminding his viewers that scapegoating was a real problem “in the Middle Ages,” and that Trump, you see, is scapegoating Chinese people by calling this the Chinese virus. “This is a bat virus, not a China virus,” he said. “It doesn’t speak Chinese. It doesn’t target Chinese people.”

NBC News’ @RichardEngel:

“This is a virus that came from the territory of China but came from bats. This is a bat virus, not a China virus. It doesn't speak Chinese. It doesn't target Chinese people. It targets human beings…”
pic.twitter.com/e0CwqFSy0R

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) March 18, 2020

Great story, Richard. Compelling, and rich.

Do The Media Care About Reality?

Listening to these people, you realize they’re far more riled up about Trump saying the words “Chinese virus” than they are about the Chinese Communist Party covering up the disease for months, allowing millions of people from virus-affected areas to travel overseas, silencing doctors who tried to get the word out, spreading lies about how the virus originated in the United States, and expelling the American press from the country this week.

Those are all things the national press could be legitimately upset and outraged about. You might think they would be interested in reporting and commenting on such things. Instead, we’re treated to asinine lectures about xenophobia that the blue-check media don’t even believe themselves.

The disingenuousness lately has been appalling. Just a few days ago, David Frum, responding to a tweet about Trump’s use of “Chinese virus,” averred that no one even uses the phrase “Spanish Flu” anymore, when Frum himself used it in 2016

Or at least not since 2016, when @davidfrum called it the Spanish Flu. https://t.co/vSiwafzJ9w pic.twitter.com/bpobHu8xNp

— John Daniel Davidson (@johnddavidson) March 17, 2020

So please, media, enough of this. We all know what the president means when he says “Chinese virus,” and so do you.

If you’re going to get upset about something right now, while we’re in the middle of global pandemic that’s about to destroy the economy, pick something that actually matters and stop wasting everyone’s time trying to prove Trump is a racist for calling the coronavirus what we all know it is: a virus that came from China.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ccparty; chinesevirus; coronavirus; mainstreammedia; mediabias; outrageculture; pandemic; pc; wuhanvirus
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1 posted on 03/19/2020 10:45:05 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

The horse named “Embarrassed Media” left the barn four years ago


2 posted on 03/19/2020 10:46:46 AM PDT by blackdog (Making wine cave appearances upon request.)
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To: Kaslin

Actually the MS media seem to be the most “diseased” of all. Spreading their illness wherever they go.


3 posted on 03/19/2020 10:47:55 AM PDT by conservativepoet
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To: Kaslin

Many of the media are not capable of being embarrassed.


4 posted on 03/19/2020 10:48:46 AM PDT by CMailBag
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To: Kaslin

These people are seriously deranged, I turned on my TV and watched some Local OTA channels which I haven’t done in 30 years. Now I know why everyone is scared!, I flipped through the channels and ALL OF THEM were Happily and Excitedly, almost Giddy while they were Selling their Hype and Hysteria to the Public over the FRIKKIN FLU!!!!@!!

GOD HELP US!


5 posted on 03/19/2020 10:51:23 AM PDT by eyeamok
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To: Kaslin; All

If we die, we deserve to know who killed us

When the CCP not only poisons the planet but starts a disinformation campaign that our military started it......we deserve and expect our President to RESPOND


6 posted on 03/19/2020 10:53:05 AM PDT by silverleaf (Remember kids: You can vote your way into communism, but you have to shoot your way out!)
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To: Kaslin

I guess it would be racist if he called it “Oriental Flu” and even then it would be accurate but the media would still criticize him.


7 posted on 03/19/2020 10:53:21 AM PDT by immadashell (Save Innocent Lives - ban gun free zones)
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To: Kaslin

Administration officials should say, “I don’t believe you. Your employer spent three years posting stories from unnamed sources which turned out to be false. None of your sources is reliable.”


8 posted on 03/19/2020 10:54:07 AM PDT by Sgt_Schultze (When your business model depends on slave labor, you're always going to need more slaves)
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To: CMailBag

The most beautiful thing in today’s world is that the media cannot get away with their lies anymore !!!

everybody has an iPhone

everybody has the ability to record anything or post anything and get plenty of eyeballs

and all of the medias disingenuousness and lies from day to day to be put right back in their face !!!

it’s it incredible thing to watch and I cannot wait for the commercials this fall when the presidential election heats up and there’s a whole new playing field


9 posted on 03/19/2020 10:54:08 AM PDT by Truthoverpower (The guv mint you get is the Trump winning express !)
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To: Kaslin

During today’s press conference, a female reporter from OAN brought this up, how the press is trying equate this as “racist.” I can’t remember her name, but she also brought up the media’s ties to China. It was a great question, a productive question, to use a little Trump lingo.


10 posted on 03/19/2020 10:57:40 AM PDT by gattaca ("Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives." Ronald Reagan)
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To: Kaslin

Years ago the folks doing this from the media would have been taken out behind the barn and taught a lesson and only returned until they could act honestly. There are no barriers to deter their bias and stupidity these days.


11 posted on 03/19/2020 10:58:33 AM PDT by vetvetdoug
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To: Kaslin

They are disgusting and he handled it well. I would have said: “Listen, you fake news bastards, start doing something responsible for a change. Your concern over the name of a disease is not helpful and it’s obvious you don’t care about the health of the country. You care only about destroying me. You are the enemy of the people.”


12 posted on 03/19/2020 10:58:40 AM PDT by I want the USA back (The US media is the most destructive, mendacious irresponsible institution that there is.)
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To: Kaslin

He doubled down today. Hilarious!


13 posted on 03/19/2020 11:03:14 AM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear ("Progressives" (elitist Communists) "Love you to death".)
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To: Kaslin

Brilliant actually.

He’s keeping them all wee-weed up about that while he goes about his business solving the crisis.


14 posted on 03/19/2020 11:03:53 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer)
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To: gattaca

Her name is Chanel Rion.


15 posted on 03/19/2020 11:04:07 AM PDT by gattaca ("Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives." Ronald Reagan)
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To: Kaslin

Something being ignored by the China-sympathetic press is that China is making a major effort to somehow blame America for this virus. Something about “American troops spreading it.” Since we don’t have any troops in China, that would be a little odd...but the thing is that their propaganda machine is working 24/7 to somehow blame us for this.

But the media is too stupid and poorly informed to know or understand any of this. And that’s one of the big reasons Trump is calling it the Chinese virus, because he wants no doubt about its origin.


16 posted on 03/19/2020 11:07:59 AM PDT by livius
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To: Kaslin
Memo to Establishment Media: the virus was first detected in Wuhan, China, a major crossroads of ground transportation in the that country. As such, it really is a "Chinese virus." 🙄
17 posted on 03/19/2020 11:12:32 AM PDT by RayChuang88 (FairTax: America's Economic Cure)
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To: CMailBag
"Many of the media are not capable of being embarrassed."

In the absence of any other subjects of discussion they'd be seeking attention and or gratification through public exposure of their genitals.
18 posted on 03/19/2020 11:13:35 AM PDT by clearcarbon
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To: gattaca
Her name is Chanel Rion.

She's the one who interviewed Giuliani's 3-part piece on Ukraine corruption for OAN.

Watch her, She's on her way up.

Other fake "journalists" will hate her and try to destroy her. But I bet Trump protects her and helps her.

19 posted on 03/19/2020 11:17:11 AM PDT by FroggyTheGremlim (I'll be good, I will. I will.)
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To: Kaslin

Red China accused the USA of releasing the virus as a bioweapon.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/state-department-summons-chinese-ambassador-coronavirus

Every time the so-called “news” media brings up the phrase “China Virus” they are reinforcing that the virus did in fact, originate in China.

Which exactly what the President wants.


20 posted on 03/19/2020 11:18:03 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire. Or both.)
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