The New York Times kept up its feverishly partisan coronavirus reporting Monday with Jack Healy, Campbell Robertson, and Sabrina Tavernise’s “How Response to Virus Is Already Being Seen Through Partisan Lens.” The text box warned: “Could harsh rhetoric make an outbreak harder to fight?” But the paper only perceived partisanship by Republicans.
The reporters milked a single anecdote for all it was worth.
Rob Maness, a Republican commentator, recently wrote a column, outlining his concerns about how the coronavirus outbreak could disrupt supplies of medicine. He was not ready for the backlash -- from his fellow conservatives.
(Maness actually dropped out of the Republican Party over a political spat in Louisiana.)
“I got accused of being alarmist and trying to hurt the president,” said Mr. Maness, a staunch President Trump supporter, describing the response on social media. “I actually said the government’s doing a pretty good job.”
The reporters constantly put Trump and his supporters on the defensive, even as they demonstrated Democrats were constantly criticizing the president (The Times own reporting and opinion pieces have been deeply distorted against Trump.)
...But as Mr. Trump and his allies have defended his actions and accused Democrats and the news media of fanning fears to “bring down the president,” a growing public health crisis has turned into one more arena for bitter political battle, where facts are increasingly filtered through a partisan lens. Democrats accused Mr. Trump of failing to respond adequately to the health threat and then politicizing it instead.
They left open the lie that Trump called the coronavirus a hoax.
At a rally on Friday in South Carolina, Mr. Trump called Democrats’ concerns about coronavirus “their new hoax,” reprising a term he used to dismiss his impeachment and the special-counsel investigation into Russian election interference. He walked that back somewhat the next day, saying he wasn’t claiming the coronavirus was a hoax....Already, the partisanship has seeped into how many Americans, in particular Mr. Trump’s supporters, view the crisis.
....
There are few brakes on the rhetoric. When asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday if he defended remarks by Donald Trump Jr. that Democrats seemingly hope the virus comes to the United States and “kills millions of people” so they could bring down the president, Vice President Mike Pence declined to condemn them....
....
Conservative commentators have, as ever, rushed to Mr. Trump’s side, praising the administration’s response and dismissing fears as a media-hyped overreaction. They have labeled Democrats “The Pandemic Party.”
So liberals never “rushed to Mr. Obama’s side,” and apparently this pro-Democratic partisanship by the paper:
Other experts questioned whether Mr. Trump has the credibility to guide the country through a public-health crisis given his history of making false claims....
....
Darrell Scott, a Cleveland pastor who also serves as co-chair of Black Voices for Trump....believes Mr. Trump has handled the threat capably.
Of course, the true picture is more “nuanced.”
But Steve DeKoster, 65...who voted for Mr. Trump, saw a more nuanced picture....
