THE WUHAN VIRUS, VIETNAM, and our Garbage Media. “The fact that publications all over the corporate media world wrote essentially the same story within a couple of hours of each other suggests one of two things: (1) That many different oh-so-‘brave’ journalists have been waiting for this moment for days now because it provides a handy opportunity, if nonsensical, to connect the Trump administration to one of the great disasters of American policy and to associate Trump’s policy failures to the last century’s most anti-American moment, or (2) this is actually a Democratic Party talking point emailed around to editors a few days ago. We suspect both are true, at least to some extent. Both purposes are shameful in the current moment.”

Plus: “There was a day when the press did not actively try to make people feel worse during a period of national crisis. If, during the Great Depression, the media had run endless irrelevant stories about policy failure (‘More Americans have died from hunger than died during the Spanish flu pandemic!’), our parents and grandparents and great-grandparents would have viewed the publishers as ignoble and unpatriotic. Does anybody doubt that? So let’s not hear anything more about the nobility of today’s press. They are trying to make you feel worse, which is the last thing you need.”

Message to the press: If you don’t want people to think of you as garbage, stop being garbage.