The burden of informing the public
Chris Cillizza is not one of the great journalists, but I like his take on Trump’s efforts to prevent panic over a new lethal contagious disease.
There is, without doubt, a worthy debate to be had as to whether Woodward, who technically works for the Post but in practical terms has been writing books for years now, should have immediately gone to the Post after Trump made his statements about downplaying the virus and demanded space on the website (and in the next day’s paper) to write a big contemporaneous piece about it.
But that conversation pales in comparison to this one: If the President of the United States knew that Covid-19 was worse than people thought — and worse than he was letting on by comparing it to the seasonal flu — why didn’t HE go tell the American public about it?
Wull…because he’s not a reporter. Woodward is the reporter. Trump is just some guy.
Trump said he was downplaying the virus to keep us from panicking. But…
He didn’t just downplay the virus. He openly mocked mask-wearing, one of the only proven tactics we have to mitigate the spread. He pushed hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the virus, even though the FDA revoked its emergency use authorization for the drug in mid-June. Heck, he even suggested that people might benefit from shining a bright light inside their bodies or ingesting disinfectant to combat the virus.
That’s MUCH more than just downplaying what he knew about coronavirus. That’s openly rejecting science in favor of personal opinion and political point-scoring.
But back to Woodward. The simple fact is that it is Trump, not Woodward, who is the President of the United States. Which means the burden of informing the public about uncomfortable truths regarding a virus that has killed more than 190,000 Americans this year to date — and putting in place policies to mitigate it — falls on the one who was elected to be the leader of the country. Not the guy who is writing a book about the guy who was elected to be the leader of the country.
And so, this defense — like so many of Trump’s excuses, rationalizations and blaming — crumbles on even the slightest inspection. And proves yet again that Trump simply does not understand the responsibilities that come with being president or the moral burden that running for and winning the job confer.
Well when you put it like that…
Yes, but…the job of a journalist is to inform the public when no one else does. I don’t think Woodward is as responsible as Trump; all he could have done is shout fire in a burning theatre, he couldn’t take action other than personal. But if he had put it out there before Trump had a chance to bully and bluster…I mean, it wasn’t until Trump started shouting that I heard of people saying that mask wearing was wrong and bad and so forth.
So, yes, and…but.
I think people looked to blame Woodward partly because he does have some responsibility, but also because blaming Trump has no real effect. Whether they are conscious of it or not, many people have become so used to Trump’s intentional criminality that they don’t bother looking to him for any responsibility.