After CNN’s John King described a video played at President Donald Trump’s coronavirus briefing last week as propaganda, the response was predictable. So why is CNN airing it?
The moment intensified a debate over how much unfiltered airtime the president should get virtually every day during a pandemic.
The coverage is a moving target, with CNN and MSNBC taking a more critical approach lately. Yet despite on-air talent like Rachel Maddow, Don Lemon, Chris Hayes and Joe Scarborough suggesting they’d pull the plug if it were up to them, their bosses have given no indication that they will.
Each day, the decisions are also being played out in newsrooms across the country.
“Journalists have long taken pride in their gatekeeping role, selecting from each day’s many developments those that are most deserving of the public’s attention and presenting them in a way that helps citizens understand what’s at issue,” said Thomas Patterson, professor of government and the press at Harvard University.
“Indiscriminate coverage of the president’s press conferences sullies this tradition,” he said. “One is left to wonder why. Is it ratings? Is it fear of Trump’s wrath? It certainly is not journalism.”
It’s not so simple for the news executives making the call.
When Trump began the briefings, they were undeniably news. Yet the events evolved beyond health updates to give some journalists the sense they’re being used. Three markers stand out: the March 30 parade of corporate executives, including a pillow manufacturer praising the president; the April 1 discussion of drug smuggling by law enforcement officials; and Monday’s video, a seeming response to newspaper investigations that were critical of Trump’s early actions during the crisis.
The White House generally gives no guidance before each day’s briefings on what Trump plans to address, although the president offered a day’s notice about Thursday’s announcement of a back-to-work plan.
A network can choose not to cover Trump live. But what if he strides to the podium and instantly makes news — declares a day the country should reopen, for instance — and your rivals are showing it while you aren’t?
“The instinct to go live to important people in the middle of important stories is pretty deeply embedded,” said Mark Lukasiewicz, a former NBC News executive now dean of Hofstra University’s School of Communication.
The risk that misinformation will be spread in the middle of a health emergency now is so great that the networks should curb those natural inclinations, he said.