Love in the Time of Corona

Social isolation. Puzzle time! Wife, son, daughter-in-law and I have been putting this together for a day.

 The media are under attack. What else is new?

On Fox News, Friday night, Sean Hannity was praising the president’s emergency declaration while decrying an unholy alliance between Democrats and the media that are trying to blame President Trump for the latest pandemic.

Well, Sean has a minor point. Trump didn’t cause the pandemic, and coverage of the disease in American media probably has focused too much on him and his failings.

Because the part of the story Mr. Hannity did not mention is this administration’s manifest incompetence in dealing with a national emergency. From downplaying the virus to spouting idiotic nonsense, the commander in chief has shown what leadership isn’t. And, as usual, he has sucked up the media oxygen, drawing attention to himself and making the story all about him.

Otherwise, a lot of the blame-the-media nonsense is nonsense. Just as Trump didn’t cause COVID19, neither did CNN. And if the media reports what health officials state about a virus, and people then rush to Wal-Mart to greedily stock up on toilet paper—I’m not sure you should shoot the messenger.

After all, many of those paper hoarders are not attentive consumers of news. They see what they see on social media.

Which, much more than traditional news media, has not always been a pinnacle of honesty and clear reporting. The oft noted problem with social media, compared to mass media, is that it creates information neighborhoods. What you see is driven by what you look at—in effect, you construct your media environment based on your clicks.

Thus, we get nonsense like those decrying the novel coronavirus as no big deal. True, most of us won’t die from it—but also true, it’s not a trivial threat. And as my oldest son observed the other day, if we manage to react appropriately and contain the pandemic, it will look like we over reacted.

The media are getting no love in the time of coronavirus. I get that. However, other than focusing too much on the politics of the virus—partly driven by a president who constantly makes it about politics—media aren’t our problem.

We have met the enemy. It’s a lack of information-seeking, knee-jerk-reacting, don’t want to hear it us.

I wish I new how long the national disruption will continue. I hope that the economy bounces back after the blip. And I hope, come November, that we'll all remember where we could turn for information and leadership and where we could not.