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Trump Press Conferences a massive ratings hit

Trump Press Conferences a massive ratings hit

“Mr. Trump and his coronavirus updates have attracted an average audience of 8.5 million on cable news, roughly the viewership of the season finale of “The Bachelor.” And the numbers are continuing to rise….”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4tt5USmtU8

The other day I noted thatRachel Maddow and others call on networks not to broadcast Trump coronavirus press conferences.

I pointed out that the claim by Maddow and others is that Trump presents a false or misleading view of the health problem, but in fact it is Maddow and other liberal talking heads who present the misleading view of events:

Here’s Maddow using prime time to call for the media to censor Trump:

“I know we ought to be getting used to this kind of thing by now, but I’m not. President Trump today, again, just flat-out wrong in public about this malaria drug that has gotten stuck in his mind, quite some distance from the facts,” Maddow said on her show.

“If the president does end up saying anything true, you can run it as tape but if he keeps lying like this every day on stuff this important, all of us should stop broadcasting it. Honestly, it’s gonna cost lives,” she added on the program….

Notice Maddow is the one lying. The malaria drug can be used for coronavirus off-label, there is anecdotal evidence of its effectiveness, but the FDA requires more systematic testing before off-label use could become on-label use.

Anyone watching the press conference would understand all this context. Anyone watching Rachel Maddow would not….

I hope Trump does the briefings and takes questions 7 days a week. These are the most transparent sessions I’ve seen in any president in my lifetime.

I noted that the pressers were must-watch TV, and that likely was contributing to Trump’s surge in the polls. That presents a problems for the media and Democrats.

But I didn’t have any information on the ratings. Now we do, and they are a big hit.

NY Times reports:

Since reviving the daily White House briefing — a practice abandoned last year by an administration that bristles at outside scrutiny — Mr. Trump and his coronavirus updates have attracted an average audience of 8.5 million on cable news, roughly the viewership of the season finale of “The Bachelor.”

And the numbers are continuing to rise, driven by intense concern about the virus and the housebound status of millions of Americans who are practicing social distancing. On Monday, nearly 12.2 million people watched Mr. Trump’s briefing on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, according to Nielsen — “Monday Night Football” numbers.

Millions more are watching on ABC, CBS, NBC and online streaming sites. (Because of the way Nielsen ratings are measured, reliable numbers are available only for cable news.) And the audience is expanding….

Fox News has been a particularly popular venue for those who want to hear from the president. The network regularly accounts for roughly half the overall cable news audience for Mr. Trump’s briefings.

On Monday, Fox News alone attracted 6.2 million viewers for the president’s briefing — an astounding number for a 6 p.m. cable broadcast, more akin to the viewership for a popular prime-time sitcom. This past weekend, Fox News recorded its highest weekend viewership since its 2003 coverage of the gulf war.

Of course, the Times says this success is actually “a dangerous thing” because Trump “Mr. Trump has repeatedly delivered information that doctors and public health officials have called ill informed, misleading or downright wrong.”

That’s complete BS, Trump is challenged by reporters during the press conferences, and the overall mix of information provided by health and other officials is balanced and informative. The only thing these press conference endanger is Joe Biden’s campaign, and that is the real problem.

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Comments

notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital | March 25, 2020 at 4:10 pm

Time for Conservatives to show the Dems
what Good can be Done by
Never Letting a Crisis Going to Waste.

notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital | March 25, 2020 at 4:13 pm

Remember many watch online,
and many Americans CUT the Cable,
but can still watch FREE over the air TV.

    I cut Comcast TV because they jacked my bill up from about $50 to over $140 a month, and I lost utility to boot. Comcast is a real sleazebag company.

    About 5 years ago I pulled their plug more than five years ago, one of the best things I have done.

    I also have a Comcast business account, and they have been pulling shady stuff with that account. I have been testing an alternative service, and just have to make some changes to my network to finish switching over. Then it will be by-by Comcast.

      notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital in reply to JusticeDelivered. | March 25, 2020 at 7:26 pm

      Depending on where you are located you can get lots free over the air (OTA).

      I’m in a rather small market and can get about 70 HDTV digital channels free over the airwaves (OTA).

inspectorudy | March 25, 2020 at 4:18 pm

As a counterpoint, Biden’s TV videos are getting worse and his manner on TV is almost as bad as watching daily activity in an Alzheimer’s home. In a scripted totally controlled world, he cannot function. This is why they have to get Trump off of TV. The contrast is mind-blowing! Joe needs someone to tell him the truth.

notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital | March 25, 2020 at 4:19 pm

Oh My!

I just got an urgent text from Andrew Cuomo!

He said:

”Guys don’t be fooled! I was told a mask and gloves is enough to go to the store, but when I got there people were also wearing pants and shirts”

    notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital in reply to notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital. | March 25, 2020 at 4:23 pm

    Andrew Cuomo’s malfeasance in not keeping NY state stocked with proper pandemic equipment….

    Trump Finds Skeleton In Cuomo’s Closet, Exposes It On Live TV: “He Rejected Buying 16k Ventilators in 2015, Shouldn’t Blame Us”

    https://newsthud.com/trump-finds-skeleton-in-cuomos-closet-exposes-it-on-live-tv-he-rejected-buying-16k-ventilators-in-2015-shouldnt-blame-us/

    Via Ace of Spades

      Sorry, that’s just not true. Cuomo did not “reject” buying 16K ventilators, nobody ever proposed doing so. There was no reason to.

      Of course the state could have bought them; the USA could have done so too, any time in the last three years, yet nobody would say Trump “rejected” doing so.

        CommoChief in reply to Milhouse. | March 25, 2020 at 6:06 pm

        Milhouse,

        There is a briefing paper style memo being widely touted which was supposedly created by a the N.Y. State health taskforce in 2015. This document addresses the purchase of additional ventilators for stockpile among other issues. The thrust of the decision not to purchase ventilators was cost and the perceived lack of trained personal to oversee the utilization of the ventilators even if stockpiled.

        That is what is contained in the document. I can’t attest to the validity of the document, but if true, it would seem to blunt some of Gov Cuomo criticism of the federal government being unable to ship his requested 20K ventilators.

        Can you provide more insight on the controversy? Those of us outside the N.Y. area are getting an overview with little depth or local, granular insights. Not ever having lived in N.Y. I don’t have a good grasp of the local political reality.

          Milhouse in reply to CommoChief. | March 25, 2020 at 11:33 pm

          This document addresses the purchase of additional ventilators for stockpile among other issues.

          No, it doesn’t. It takes for granted that they will not be, and therefore lays out guidelines for how to allocate the existing ones in an extreme event.

          The thrust of the decision not to purchase ventilators was cost and the perceived lack of trained personal to oversee the utilization of the ventilators even if stockpiled.

          Cost is not mentioned at all as a factor. It does say in passing that even if extra ventilators were to be purchased there wouldn’t be enough people to put them to use in such an emergency.

          CommoChief in reply to CommoChief. | March 26, 2020 at 12:39 pm

          Milhouse,

          Clearly the lack of sufficient excess ventilators is a nationwide problem. The incessant carping from GOV Cuomo for the federal government to immediately send 20K ventilators to N.Y.State comes across poorly.

          Mathematically if N.Y. wants an additional 20K ventilators that is about 1000 per million of population. That would mean that GOV Cuomo expected the federal government to have 320K excess ventilators on hand to ship in the same proportion. Alternatively his demand could be interpreted to mean N.Y. is more important than the rest of the U.S. so send N.Y. all you have and the other states can get their needs filled after N.Y.

          He probably doesn’t mean that, but that is how his statements demanding ventilators comes across to many. Especially those of us in the rest of the nation who are predisposed to view N.Y. political demands for Federal funds, equipment etc with a cynical eye.

        Katy L. Stamper in reply to Milhouse. | March 25, 2020 at 9:36 pm

        Milhouse, darling, is able to pretend that the Governor of New York in 2015, one Andrew Cuomo, was UNinvolved in his taskforce’s report or completely unaware of it.

        From the report on Page 1, FIRST paragraph (after the credit pages)(space inserted for ease of reading):

        Protecting the health and well-being of New Yorkers is a core objective of the Department of Health.

        During flu season, we are reminded that pandemic influenza is a foreseeable threat, one that we cannot ignore.

        In light of this possibility, the Department is taking steps to prepare for a pandemic and to limit the loss of life and other negative consequences.

        An influenza pandemic would affect all New Yorkers, and we have a responsibility to plan now.

        Part of the planning process is to develop guidance on how to ethically allocate limited resources (i.e., ventilators) during a severe influenza pandemic while saving the most lives.

        Later in the Document on Page ONE:

        II. Development of the Ventilator Allocation Guidelines

        In 2007, the New York State Task Force on Life and the Law (the Task Force) and the New York State Department of Health (the Department of Health) released draft ventilator allocation guidelines for adults.

        New York’s innovative guidelines were among the first of their kind to be released in the United States and have been widely cited and followed by other states.

        Since then, the Department of Health and the Task Force have made extensive public education and outreach efforts and have solicited comments from various stakeholders.

        Following the release of the draft guidelines, the Task Force: (1) reexamined and revised the adult guidelines within the context of the public comments and feedback received (see Chapter 1), (2) developed guidelines for triaging pediatric and neonatal patients (see Chapters 2 and 3), and (3) expanded its analysis of the various legal issues that may arise when implementing the clinical protocols for ventilator allocation (see Chapter 4).
        ———
        So, to Milhouse, OTHER states were using these guidelines to make decisions on policy of life and death, but the Governor of New York, where they ORIGINATED, couldn’t be bothered to be aware it provided for ranking patients in his state and denying ventilators to chunks of them. By his own Howard A. Zucker, M.D., J.D., LL.M., New York State Commissioner of Health, whom he appointed in May 2015.

        The report came out in November 2015.

        So NOW Gov. Cuomo shows up on television and caterwauls about having Trump decide which 20,000 people won’t get them. But this outcome was PREORDAINED by the man he appointed New York STATE Commissioner of Health.

        You believe Gov. Cuomo was too busy to notice that if there’s an emergency, that his government had already decided on who gets treated and who dies? That’s usually a pretty big bone of discussion when medical care is discussed.

        He only had to read the first page of 270 to find out it was about a shortfall of ventilators if the Spanish Flu equivalent hit again, even if he otherwise was not paying attention to his health dept.

        I would expect the head of the health department might clue the governor in on plans for emergencies. Maybe give him a copy, or maybe tell him the highlights. Perhaps Dr. Zucker should be fired.

        Bur regardless, a sentient man should be able to read that there will be insufficient ventilators, and then consider if more should be obtained. But perhaps New Yorkers intended to put a placeholder in the office of Governor?

          Milhouse, darling, is able to pretend that the Governor of New York in 2015, one Andrew Cuomo, was UNinvolved in his taskforce’s report or completely unaware of it.

          I’m quite certain he was uninvolved in this publication, and quite likely was unaware of it. He certainly doesn’t read each of the thousands of publications the various departments publish, and all of their various planning documents.

          The point is that at no point was there any recommendation or proposal to buy thousands of extra ventilators and stockpile them in case some extreme emergency were to come along. The team that prepared this document did not contemplate that any such purchase would be made.

          You cannot seriously suggest that Cuomo ought first to have read this document, and then ought to have decided, completely sua sponte, that the experts who prepared it weren’t thinking sufficiently out of the box and that he would go out and buy enough ventilators to make the plan unnecessary.

          You know what, why didn’t Trump, among all the things on his mind for the last three years, take the time to inquire about the federal stockpile of ventilators, and order that another 100,000 be purchased? Or 200,000, or a million? Why don’t you blame him for not having had the foresight to do so? Of course that would be ridiculous. The same applies to Cuomo; he was in the same situation. He’s at fault for a lot of things, but not this one.

          SuddenlyHappyToBeHere in reply to Katy L. Stamper. | March 26, 2020 at 9:38 am

          @Milhouse: “Darling”, I have followed your posts on this topic of the “report” in NY at several Insurrection articles. You seem to have a good grasp of it. Among the blame games going on the left pillories Trump, and adores Cuomo, the right bitches at the media and Cuomo. A lot of unhelpful knee jerking. Both sides. I think your last paragraph in response to Stamper summed it up nearly completely. Nearly, but missed a key point.

          You write: “You know what, why didn’t Trump, among all the things on his mind for the last three years, take the time to inquire about the federal stockpile of ventilators, and order that another 100,000 be purchased? Or 200,000, or a million? Why don’t you blame him for not having had the foresight to do so? Of course that would be ridiculous. The same applies to Cuomo; he was in the same situation. He’s at fault for a lot of things, but not this one.”

          The point that you seem to have missed (or I missed if you made it) is that Cuomo implicitly blames the feds/Trump for the shortfall in ventilators and for not making new ones now. But as you point out there was a “failure of imagination” at all levels of government on this. Cuomo nevertheless seems to think the solution is entirely in the hands of the feds. He has demanded “nationalization” of whatever entities he imagines can make things he wants. But there is no lawful way to nationalize a thing in this country. There is the DPA, but it only permits the feds to direct the production of things, but not “own” those entities making things. Something utterly lost in this discussion about using DPA or what have you is that DPA is not a magic wand that you wave and poof, things start tolling off the production line. No one in the federal or state governments knows how to make a ventilator and probably not an N-95 mask either, it takes the private operators of those plants to learn how to do it, and then operate, whether the end product or the products that feed the supply chain. Arguably that is what the fed team is doing in their partnership with private entities. There is no evidence, just shrieking, that it is not happening as fast as the laws of physics permit.

          I have never been a of Cuomo, thinking him a rather gaping ahole. But I found his demeanor in his pressers good and he seemed rational. Over the last few days he seems to have transformed into that being I never liked. He is finger pointing at the feds/Trump. Yet it is quite likely that the failure of one or more NY officials that has made NYC the hot spot. Case in point, Bill (Wilhelm) de Blasio who refused to take urgently needed steps to get NYC into compliance with stay at home and social distancing. Even to the extent that Cuomo actually bitch-slapped him in last Sunday’s presser. That is on NY, not the feds.

          I’d just like to see Cuomo get off his high horse about “poor, poor New York” which is such a wonderful place because it “welcomes” people from all over the world and is dense living as though that is why it is the hot spot.. That is “gee, aren’t we just fabulous, the greatest city in the world, which is why we are the hot spot”. That pisses a lot of folks off around the country. Admit that NYC did a lot of things wrong and they are paying the price for it. Stop blaming others for NY’s shortcomings.

          Trump is not prize at public speaking, but Cuomo is falling into selfish and accusatory ways.

          Milhouse in reply to Katy L. Stamper. | March 27, 2020 at 1:22 am

          Suddenly, I have no time whatsoever for Cuomo. The only way to make him look good is to compare him to De Blasio. I am not defending him because I like him but only because I care about the truth, and this one accusation against him happens not to be true. There are plenty of true things to blame him for; let’s not make things up.

      I don’t understand cuomo’s whining. He signed an abortion bill to murder the child right up to birth.
      So what’s a few thousand or so extremely late term abortions to him? It’s not like the dead are going to vote republican.

Fuck the Democratic media.

The school system I serve has just been shut down for another month.

However, I’m reaching the point where I’m wondering if it won’t soon be a race between the researchers trying to find a usable medicine and our own immune/antibody systems making the needed adjustments.

    dmi60ex in reply to Kepha H. | March 25, 2020 at 7:23 pm

    Governor Northrum shutdown Va schools thru the end of the school year.
    The disease is covid 19
    The epidemic is TDS
    The epidemic will not end until Trump is out of office.

theduchessofkitty | March 25, 2020 at 4:44 pm

I go to the White House YouTube feed. Get your info straight from the horse’s mouth.

The dinosaur media, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democrat party, is like all Leftists. They lust for power, control is their end game. Her comes the President, he reaches more citizens, and with every dumb s#%t question shows the true quality of the press. They are jealous,to the point of blind obsession.

In yesterday’s press conference for Cuomo, he complained about the number of ventilators being shipped to the state as well as the need to ASAP makes more.

Today, someone got to him and he explained the issues with getting a auto company to get the design established, figure out the supply chain, retool equipment, train workers, and so on. I think I learned that stuff in my first year of B-School. He also noted that the “surplus” is really not available, perhaps since the machines have been committed to NY as well as for the Navy ships and field hospitals.

Oh, and he also admitted that when he gets the 4000 machines, he will be putting them in his own stash, to be doled out to the hospitals WHEN they need them. Wait, wasn’t that what the feds were doing – waiting until the need is immediate before delivery.

And I do not believe Cuomo that he would authorize the release of the machines to other states when they reach peak moments. He’ll find a way to keep all of them.

    notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital in reply to Liz. | March 25, 2020 at 5:25 pm

    Bet he’s got several warehouses of toilet paper TOO!

    LOL

      I bet there is a lot of stuff warehoused somewhere since he also admitted that the state is fine for now, but based on models, he’ll need so much more!

      He’s not even happy with the amount of money for phase 3 bill.

      OK – the daily C19 press conference is about to start….

        notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital in reply to Liz. | March 25, 2020 at 7:29 pm

        Surprised I’ve not seen anyone comment about this on any of the web sites.

        Back in the first Oil Shock (Oil Crisis) of 1973-74,
        the MSM was hyping shortages!

        Guess what they hyped the most on that about shortages?

        TOILET PAPER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

        See a pattern?

        I smell, price scalping rats…..

        Milhouse in reply to Liz. | March 25, 2020 at 11:52 pm

        The memo everyone’s talking about above says the state has a small stockpile of about 1000 ventilators, which should be enough for any normal pandemic, but won’t be enough in case of a mega one like 1918. So it’s not like there were none set aside.

notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital | March 25, 2020 at 7:18 pm

Oh my!

Who was (as some on other sites phrase it) that “presstitute” in green trying do a HIT in the conference today?

CAN. YOU. IMAGINE. THE. ENERGY. AT. THE. NEXT. TRUMP. RALLY.

Impeding Trump rallies could very well be the reason for the democrat media’s creation of the panic going on.

AG Barr will be getting right on it.

MsNBC talking head Chris Hayes showed us this week how to properly watch MsNBC …
WITH THE SOUND OFF

Apparently, the Governor of Nevada Sisolak signed an emergency order earlier Tuesday barring the use of anti-malaria drugs for someone who has the coronavirus. The order restricting chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine came after President Donald Trump touted the medication as a treatment and falsely stated that the Food and Drug Administration had just approved the use of chloroquine to treat patients infected with coronavirus.

I assume the Governor watches MsNBC and/or CNN.

I’m looking forward the tort claims of the survivors.

    Milhouse in reply to Neo. | March 25, 2020 at 11:54 pm

    Unfortunately they would have no claim. I’m astonished that governors have the power to do this, but assuming they do I can’t think of a cause of action against him. Governors don’t have a duty of care to any individual, not to harm them by the exercise of their lawful duties.

      SuddenlyHappyToBeHere in reply to Milhouse. | March 26, 2020 at 9:47 am

      I believe the NV Gov restricted to hospital settings because dome docs were getting them into their own hands for their families or to use outside the needed protocols for analysis of efficacy. That is likely a smart move even though it seems like he was acting against use of the drugs.

        No, it’s not a smart move. This isn’t a study, it’s doctors using their judgment to try to help their patients. Once a drug is approved by the FDA for one use, doctors are free to prescribe it for anything else they think it might be good for. They don’t need approval. I’m surprised that a governor can override that, but if they can they shouldn’t.

Trump should agree with some of the dems and declare martial law. Then arrest pelosi, schiff and schumer and put them in solitary or solitary and the worst killer to be found in the prison.
Once that’s out of the way, take over the communications both over the air and internet. Next would be to take most departments out of DC and put them in Guam and Alaska.

    Katy L. Stamper in reply to 4fun. | March 25, 2020 at 9:42 pm

    Alaska! That’s the ticket!

    Milhouse in reply to 4fun. | March 25, 2020 at 11:55 pm

    If he did that they’d suddenly discover the constitution.

      CommoChief in reply to Milhouse. | March 26, 2020 at 7:32 pm

      Very true. Our self perceived media betters would absolutely dust off their shelves and ransack their desks trying to find a copy of the constitution left over from undergraduate study. Of course, it would be returned to it’s former placement once they had scribbled down the appropriate passage. They certainly couldn’t be expected to have a copy to hand much less the more important parts committed to memory.

The New New Left: The sky will be falling in perpetuity; life itself will be an infinite apocalypse starting next week unless we raise taxes still more and more and. . .