Tuesday, April 7, 2020
By Gary Bauer
Watching the nightly press briefings as the president takes an hour of questions from hostile reporters leaves one with the impression that the media are more interested in fighting the administration than the coronavirus.
If anyone else were president right now, every media outlet and every commentator would be saying to any critics, "This is the time for unity in America. This president is trying to save lives and his critics are just making his job harder."
Sadly, there are no such calls for unity. In fact, the talking heads are increasingly unhinged in their criticism, as evidenced by Anderson Cooper's outrageous rant on CNN last night.
Cooper accused the president of "hijacking" the press briefing, and he blasted Trump's alleged "reprehensibly irresponsible response to this virus." He accused the president of using the press briefings "to lie, to deflect, to attack, to bully and cover-up" for his administration.
Exactly how is Trump doing that? By subjecting himself to a barrage of questions from reporters day after day after day?
Anderson Cooper should be fired for his editorializing.
Sometimes I wish the president would not subject himself to this "gotcha game." But I know in these unprecedented times that millions of Americans are glad our president speaks regularly to the public and makes himself available to the media in order to explain what is going on, unlike the previous president. (Politico once got excited when Obama allowed two unscripted questions!)
A free press is essential to our republic. But it would be nice if we also had a fair press for a change.
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