Throughout the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic, the mainstream media has shown an astounding level of duplicity and double standards when reporting on the wisdom of groups of people gathering in an outdoor setting.
For example, in late April and early May, media outlets like CNN were quick to accuse “Reopen” protesters of being threats to public health because they had the audacity to want to get back to work to feed their families and/or to keep from having to permanently close their small businesses.
In addition to the media bashing Reopen marchers, Republican governors have been frequent targets of these same news outlets. Govs. Ron DeSantis (FL), Greg Abbott (TX), and Brian Kemp (GA) have been subjected to much mockery throughout the crisis for not using Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s model for combating the virus in his state. Keep in mind that these criticisms have been lodged at Republican governors as even normally reliably left-wing news outlets like the New York Times have documented how disastrous Cuomo’s response has actually been.
Naturally, all the media outrage over people marching in the streets evaporated in the aftermath of the May 25th death of George Floyd. They’ve encouraged and praised the protesters for gathering on crowded streets in the name of social justice in the middle of a pandemic, while “medical experts” who once sternly warned of the deadly consequences that could result from the Reopen protests also suddenly changed their tunes when the protest message (“Defund the police!”) was more to their liking.
One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is the ridiculing of Republican governors. As case numbers have risen in Texas, Florida, and Georgia, the media’s criticisms of Abbott, DeSantis, and Kemp have gotten worse. But when it comes to the rising numbers out of the Gov. Gavin Newsom-run state of California, the media’s criticisms have been practically non-existent for some reason (hmm – wonder what that could be?).
The same situation holds true with the developing situations in both Oregon and Washington state. Wuhan Coronavirus case numbers have been rising in Democrat-run cities like Portland and Seattle, which have been hotbeds of social unrest, protests, and Antifa-style anarchy for weeks now. Yet media critics of Republican governors have not seen fit to mention – much less criticize – the rising case numbers coming from those areas.
I created a Twitter thread earlier today which included graphics from the New York Times’s Oregon and Washington state tracking pages for reference:
Media reports about how rising case numbers in Democrat-run protest cities and states allegedly didn’t have anything to do with the marches were considered highly questionable because some states, like New York, told contact tracers not to ask people who tested positive if they had recently attended a protest.
Health officials in both Washington state and Oregon have not said protests contributed to the rising case numbers. Instead, they’re claiming they are the result of “social gatherings,” which sounds like “protests” in my book.
The reasons why national media critics are treating Democrat governors differently on this issue than they are Republican governors should be obvious to anyone reading this.
This is yet another example of how the mainstream press sometimes tells us who they are not by what they do report, but by what they don’t.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY