Monday evening, Anderson Cooper greeted his ever-dwindling CNN audience with a stark and damning condemnation of the president of the United States and his daily Coronavirus Task Force briefings.
“What you mostly heard was the president. And what you saw was a hijacking. A hijacking of the task force press conference by a president determined to rewrite the history of his early and reprehensibly irresponsible response to this virus,” said Cooper. “What the president showed us today is what the nation’s top scientists have to deal with every day- a president who now uses these briefings as a reelection platform, an opportunity to lie, to deflect, to attack, to bully, and cover-up his own deadly dismissals of the virus for crucial weeks.”
Of course, Cooper’s own network has refused to carry these press briefings for its audience, so Cooper is using his platform to explain to CNN’s uninformed viewers his interpretation of the briefing rather than allowing them to watch the content themselves, without editorial interruption, and decide for themselves.
Later in the program, Cooper contended that the White House has not provided key details in its plan to deliver key resources to states that are fighting on the front lines of the COVID-19 battle. Sadly, those details had been revealed during the past several briefings, but Cooper apparently only watches CNN so he was, like his viewers, woefully uninformed.
Cooper’s original point that these press briefings are being “hijacked” by the president is a bit off the mark, of course, but deserves analysis.
The briefings are certainly being hijacked, but not by the president. The president can’t hijack his own briefing. It’s his briefing. But Cooper’s assertion tells you everything you need to know about the real problem here.
Cooper and his peers think these briefings are theirs. They think the briefing room is for them. They think they get to make the rules and if the president or his staff don’t adhere to them, they are out of line.
Anyone outside of Washington, D.C. and anyone who didn’t waste tens of thousands of theirs or their parents’ money on a journalism degree know that the truth is the exact opposite.
These are presidential briefings and the reporters are there to record the information delivered at them to the American people.
The briefing room and the functions that happen within it are managed and controlled by the executive branch of the American government. The president runs that branch of government.
The rules within that room are not set by the reporters or the embarrassing White House Correspondents’ Association, they are set by the administration.
If anyone is hijacking these briefings, it’s the reporters, not the president.
Watching the briefings on a daily basis, the American people have been able to see the president and his able team deliver information to the American people about this unprecedented situation. They’ve seen a mix of doctors, scientists, cabinet members, military personnel, members of Congress and business leaders step up and discuss how the American government is mobilizing to confront these challenges.
They aren’t always right and they sometimes contradict each other, but the information is delivered directly to us in a way that we can understand and digest.
Then, the president opens up the briefings to questions from reporters. That’s when the hijacking takes place.
The reporters tasked with covering the White House are specifically trained with one skill set: political reporting. As a journalist, it’s an important tool to have in your arsenal on most days when you’re covering any White House, but these days, we need more than that. We need reporters who understand public policies that connect needs in a health crisis with the tragic results of a forced economic shut down like the one we are experiencing now. We aren’t getting that.
We’re getting questions that are designed to drive a political wedge between Trump and the doctors on his task force. They’re designed to deliver a contentious exchange between the president and a reporter that will then provide 40-second video fodder for the prime time news cycle. They’re designed to provide b-roll footage that Joe Biden’s fledgling campaign can stitch into a deceptively edited television ad.
The reporters at these briefings are doing what they’re paid to do. They are political reporters and they are focused on these briefings from a partisan, political perspective. Fine. But most Americans aren’t really interested in that right now. So, these political reporters should stop hijacking these briefings. Right, Anderson?
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Larry O’Connor hosts two separate radio programs on WMAL in Washington DC and on KABC in Los Angeles. He has a daily, 30-minute podcast covering U.S. Politics and featuring interviews with newsmakers and pundits on the biggest stories of the day. Subscribe here.
CNN is fake news & everything they put on the air is false & disagreeing with the President.
These reporters hate Trump and anything that may make him look good. So, they would rather have a
100,000 Americans dead due to this pandemic and the economy tank. Leftism is a mental illness.
Hey Dandy Andy, you’re getting more boring with each passing day. Would you please get your head out of your butt and see what damage your biased reporting is doing to America. All real Americans should be supporting our President, not spewing biased garbage.
The disrespect of the POTUS is sickening. I love watching POTUS turn it on those idiots.
Remove chairs, if POTUS can stand 2hrs so can the heckling chickens.
Block usage of cell phones and IPAD’S so they don’t get fed questions from outside.
A. Cooper and CNN don’t have the guts to let their viewers watch the briefings, because they would not be able to spew their lies and vitriol. They are nothing more than third world dictatorship one sided propaganda. I feel sorry for their mindless viewers who swallow their crap blindly.
Uhhh, CNN DOES air the briefings. What are you talking about?
When the briefings are over, they talk about what was said, albeit with their slant, but they air it nevertheless. This shouldn’t be difficult to verify.
What a disgraceful website.
These are not reporters they are a bunch of rabid rats that are on strings that are controlled bye the brainless democrat crybaby losers
This man is horrible
From what I am seeing Fox News is the only real news network that reports what is real and bipartisan reporting. Thanks FOX. The CNN network among others and newspapers are all twofaced, back stabbing, lying, anti american, greedy, scumbbags. They are not real reporters just wannabes. Parents were probably the same.
The President needs to boot all of the offending media out of the briefing room until they realize what the briefing room is for and how to act like adults while they are in it.
You say the reporters are ambushing the president’s briefing and continue to drive a wedge between the medical experts and the I know more than anyone about anything. Well the polls are in and 73% of the America thinks that he need to let the task force give the briefing with Vice President Pence answering the questions for the White house. The VP will push the same Bull as the president, but he don’t put his foot in mouth and have to tell lies and insults to promote himself with the base. Also If he was still able to draw a large rally all over the country, tell me he be there rather than raising election donation and feeding the base.
Thank you, thank you for this article. I watch the press conferences and it appalls me what these FAKE REPORTERS are doing. I was so upset with Today’s news that I couldn’t even put words together for a reply. Then I saw this article in my email. Thank you for bringing me back down semi-calm. I forwarded your article with my feelings on the subject to my Facebook page. I hope many others will share it as well.
The fact the Scum Fake News refuse to show the Press Conference on their slime networks they shouldn’t even be allowed to attend the White House Briefings because of their disgusting attacks on our President that is giving Americans updates for guidance and Fake News is to evil and non professional to show not only the President and his team respect but also shows no respect to the American People! Kick their sorry butts out of the briefing!
Cooper you should not be aloud at White House briefings . You at CNN are not good reporters, you don’t tell the truth, You change words , twist words to fit your twisted news. Many of you at CNN are Anti-American , you don’t care about the American people . You at CNN do a poor job of reporting the Real, truthful news .
Not surprising
I want to thank Larry O’Connor for his constructive article concerning President Trump with his daily briefings on COVID-19. It really bothers me that so many news anchors, comedians, and reporters are so fast to down grade the President and his handling of this situation. At this time in our country we ALL need to listen and pray that the President, the scientists, doctors, and educators are guiding us and are hopefully capable to bring us through this pandemic. Please, if you can, tell those that condemn the President to STOP, STOP, STOP unless they have the ALL knowing knowledge to do better. We are ALL in this together.
Thank you,
Linda
There is, at minimum, one thing that is seriously wrong with these press briefings and that is the presence of Donald Trump at the microphone. Being sequestered in my home with little else to do but play Scrabble and watch TV I have tuned-in to all but two of these fiascos and here is what I’ve observed: Trump, Trump, Trump, and more Trump using these briefings to replace his currently cancelled campaign rallys where previously he’s had success in rallying his troops, his supporters, and our country’s lunatic fringe. The display he put on yeterday ( Tuesday) was astounding, mind boggling really, by any measure. During his 2 hour rant in front of the camera with a live microphone broadcasting every word, often incomplete sentences, including many that were at least partially incoherent to begin with; mispronounced and or ill chosen words, statements both untrue and vindictive, incredible instances of self promotion, of bragging and of chest thumping. Much of what was said was largely incoherent as well as vicious, libilous, insulting, and in my view pretty digusting especially coming out of the mouth of our President. For the most part I found it quite hard to watch and listen to, much less to understand and comprehend. If Trump had a handler, which he does not, but clearly should have, they would have distracted him with some sort of a ruse, like ” excuse me Mr. President there’s a phone call from President Putin you really need to take” and then bring Dr. Fouci to the podium to complete the briefing. The entire thing was an embarassment to the country and to the office of our presidency just as were each of the previous briefings as well as any that I might watch in the future…… masochist that I am. One more thing: these televised briefings were seemingly intended as a way to keep the country informed and up to the minute on matters concerning the Corona Virus; what we heard though, or instead, was Trump incessently taking credit for any and all positive news and laying blame wherever he could where the news was bad of even not too good. All of this then smoothed over with lies, fibs, half truths, and serious amount of pure bullshit.
Reporter’s want the truth not a campaign rally full of B. S
Keeps the so-called reporters out of the briefings because they are not there to report the truth; they are there to badger our President. Let selected American tax-payers and small business owners who are hanging on our President’s every word because our lives and our working futures are at stake and we need to hear what he has to say and find out everything we can do to assist in this fight to save our economy and save as many lives as possible. The press is just wasting everyone’s time when we do not have time to waste.
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