The New York Times’s Science and Health reporter, Donald McNeil Jr. is under fire for a tirade against President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and others in an interview on CNN. The comments were so political that the paper itself issued a rebuke and told McNeil to stick with science in the future. McNeil’s statement that “we were in a headless-chicken phase” could as easily describe the status of journalistic ethics.
McNeil’s comments were made in an interview with CNN International’s Christiane Amanpour, who I previously criticized for a shocking call to silence Trump by declaring his speeches criminal “hate speech.”
In the interview, McNeil called for firings over how “we completely blew it” in responding to the virus:
“We were in a headless-chicken phase, and yes, it’s the president’s fault, it is not China’s fault. You know, the head of the Chinese CDC was on the phone to Robert Redfield on Jan. 1, again on Jan. 8, and the two agencies were talking on Jan. 19. The Chinese had a test on Jan. 13; the Germans had a test on Jan. 16. We fiddled around for two months, we had a test on March 5 and it didn’t work. We didn’t have 10,000 people tested until March 15.”
He went on to lambast the “incompetent leadership” at the CDC and called for its director Dr. Robert Redfield to “resign.” He also attacked President Trump as “the same guy who said inject yourself with disinfectant” and that his “grasp of the science” isn’t even “at a third-grade level.”
In a more serious charge, he claimed “suppression from the top- I mean, the real coverup was the person in this country who was saying, you know, ‘This is not an important virus, the flu is worse, it’s all going to go away, it’s nothing,. And that encouraged everybody around him to say, ‘It’s nothing, it’s nothing, it’s nothing.'”
The Times issued a statement that
“In an interview with Christiane Amanpour today, Donald McNeil, Jr. went too far in expressing his personal views. His editors have discussed the issue with him to reiterate that his job is to report the facts and not to offer his own opinions. We are confident that his reporting on science and medicine for The Times has been scrupulously fair and accurate.”
What is interesting is that Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple criticized McNeil’s comments as outside of the parameters for such interviews, saying “Such activism, after all, is extreme even for a veteran newsman exercising his analytical muscles in a freewheeling cable-news interview,”
However, Wemple then later added his own freewheeling dig at the Administration, attacking Trump’s “unfathomable pronouncements of incompetence, indifference and cluelessness from the president in public appearance after public appearance. What’s an experienced health reporter to say?” The later addendum certainly assuaged those who were upset with the Post for chastising a Trump critic. If this was a matter of journalistic ethics, why was it necessary to add an effective “well Trump had it coming” statement? If McNeil strayed outside of the ethical parameters, it does not matter how you view Trump. The issue is the judgment of the journalist, not the reputation of the President. Wemple’s “justified cause” addendum bulldozed the high ground by taking his own dig at the President. It is like saying that a police officer used excessive force but the suspect was a bad one so “what’s an experienced police officer to do?”
The controversy is reflects a frustration that I have expressed over legal analysis. I have been a columnist and legal analyst for decades. Generally, while there were unfortunate outliers, legal analysts tended to be closely tied to legal authority and less partisan. That tradition has been lost in the age of echo-journalism where the ability to appear on many media outlets depends on your willingness to declare Trump or his associates guilty of an ever expanding array of crimes. Legal analysts often feed an insatiable appetite for attacks disguised as analysis under the same relativistic view of “what is an experienced legal analyst to do?”
This Trump / Press hostility needs to end. Boundaries and respect should be restored. The press need to realize that Access to the Whitehouse and president Is a Privlege, Not a right. Trump should stop treating them as political enemies. To that end I propose that the White House press passes .be recinded and re issued via a lottery guaranteeing one press reprresentive from each state that request one. Let CNN , .The New York Post and others take that case to court.
I am confused by the “reasoning” of this “science” reporter. On one hand he blasts scientist Redfield and then lambasts Trump for not blindly obeying the scientists.
Another one driven crazy by hate.
I think the NYT problem here is that the reporter took a shot at Trump that passed through and wounded the CDC.
The yellow rag hates Trump but loves the left-leaning CDC
Friendly fire.
It’s difficult to imagine these creatures uttering any statement in good faith.
As is, puzzling out why this ailment has taken the course it has in various countries (and in different regions within countries) will take some time. It appears seminal events may be the most consequential factor, and these are chance occurrences. Acquired habits (and the associated supply chains) also appear important. See Japan, where the wearing of surgical masks is common and handshaking is unusual. The ailment appears to be inhibited in its spread by warm weather (see Latin America and the Arab world). Infection spreading in hospitals and nursing homes is a disaster. Right know, the world is kind of learning by doing.
I’m hoping we ramp up the production of protective equipment and keep certain social distancing norms in place, but we cannot keep the stay-at-home orders in place for much longer. The stadiums and theatres have to remain closed and churches need to make adjustments: plein air under tents, no hymn singing, and masks and distancing indoors. What would be great is if we could contrive a mix of indemnities, distancing, take-out, and custom restrictions to maintain the bar and restaurant sector.
It’s really people over 60 who should be at home, and those over 50 with a high BMI. The object of the rest of the population should be to avoid infecting their older relatives.
In and among this experimentation, they may find some things that help. By some indications, the malaria medication is helpful as a prophylactic than a treatment. There are other indications that ventilators may be injurious and that what you need to do is ramp up the oxygen. And so forth.
Absurd, one should note that it is now believed that children could be transmitting the virus without necessarily being sick. So the range of vulnerable Americans isn’t limited to older adults.
No, it is. In Italy, about 95% of the deaths occurred among people over 60. In New York, about 85% among people over 65. The young are not in danger of much other than an exceedingly disagreeable chest cold (which puts some of them in the hospital). The ailment can be lethal for the old.
It is the TDS virus, more dangerous than covid-19.
Impeach that trouble-making egomaniac Pelosi and her minions and leave our good President alone!!!
Oh yeah, he’s a paragon of virtue and a model for our children.
What is wrong with these people?
Why should our children look to a politician for a ‘model of virtuous’ behavior? That’s for the parents to “model.”
The above poster referred to “or good President”.
Is it to much to ask voters to not nominate a certifiable compulsive and promiscuous liar who brags non-stop and thinks only about his own fragile ego? Voters rejected him in the general, so not too blame for this toxic creep.
BB– “What is wrong with these people?”
Many wonder that about you Bug Boy.
I’m guessing about 90% of the people employed as reporters and editors (outside of local Patch sites and the like) have no value as civic actors. If we stripped them of their citizenship and deported them, we’d be better off as a country.
Yes the press are scum
Thank you. There is a job opening for you at the CCP.
She, you can run but you can’t hide.
Peculiar that everyone takes notice and suspects a seismic shift when the NYT is caught NOT wanting to back a rabid, anti-Trump reporter’s over-the-top commentary. Such a bizarre departure from their usual behavior.
The Times is just making a story of their own bad behavior and then selling it to us. They would sell their own grandmother for an additional subscription. Sleaze bags.
That sounds right. Ad revenue is swirling down the drain. They hate capitalism but are desperate for dollars.
Haven’t heard a sound criticism of the Swedish model yet. They’re certainly not following Fauci in keeping schools closed until there is a vaccine.
“Sweden’s coronavirus death rate per million citizens is higher than that of the United States, and its coronavirus death toll is considerably higher than its Nordic neighbors, which all enforced measures that were stricter than what Sweden imposed….”
Among noted differences compared to the US are Swedes’ trust in their government which means they mind guidelines and also have universal health care and a more robust safety net, both of which provide make individuals less vulnerable.
Yesterday’s WaPo
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/05/12/swedens-coronavirus-strategy-is-not-what-it-seems/
“Sweden’s coronavirus death rate per million citizens is higher than that of the United States, and its coronavirus death toll is considerably higher than its Nordic neighbors, which all enforced measures that were stricter than what Sweden imposed….”
In other words, they are proceeding more efficiently than practically anybody else at achieving herd immunity without remotely overstressing their hospital system.
While their neighbors can now expect 2nd, 3rd, and 4th waves that will drag out the misery for them. They gain nothing, and incur cost due to needless delay.
As if there is any value in a cite from the WaPo, just as bad as a cite from CNN or MSNBC, total partisan editorializing with only facts that support a predetermined agenda. Why waste our time citing editorial flotsam.
bythebook and Heckish will spend the afternoon re-reading this article while participating in a Zoom circle jerk.
You’ll have to clue me in this phenomenon, Mofo. Sounds like you know.
OT: Of great importance to anyone considering how the nation should be reopened. Florida was supposed to be hit very badly especially because of the high elderly population and the large number of nursing homes. Florida was even criticized by the left for their handling of the situation.
5% of NH in NY died from Covid
0.6% of NH in Fl died from Covid.
The difference: “New Gov. Andrew Cuomo panicked about COVID-19, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis did not.” Cuomo finally reversed the order so NH wouldn’t have to take Covid patients.
NJ also forced Covid patients into Nursing Homes.
“10% of New Jersey’s nursing home residents have died of the disease, representing 53% of the state’s total COVID-19 deaths.”
Take note 53% of NJ death rate is from the NH population that mostly stays at “home”. It isn’t responsible young and healthy people that are working that are killing people in NJ it is the Democrat leadership that doesn’t know what it is doing.
“Joe Biden joined the attack, blasting DeSantis for not taking “strong, urgent, and sweeping action.””
DeSantis is a Republican who was faced with a catastrophe and was heavily criticized in the MSM for his management of the Covid crisis. Joe Biden attacked DeSantis as well. Joe Biden is a Democrat.
What is the difference in management? DeSantis attacked the problem and protected those that were vulnerable. The Democrat governors panicked and used one shoe size fits for all which is common to the Democrat Party.
That is why 5,200 New Yorkers died in NY NH’s compared with 423 in Florida.
“Also of interest, the six states with the most nursing home deaths are all liberal or run by Democrats — New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Illinois. Had these states managed to keep their nursing home death rates at Florida’s 0.6%, there would have been 15,000 fewer COVID-19 deaths.”
(To the Anonymous folks out there and a few others this is known as evidence. It is also a knowledgeable contribution to the blog something Anonymous the Stupid in particular never does.)
https://www.senatenj.com/uploads/HospitalDischarges_andAdmissions_toPost-AcuteCareSettings.pdf
NJ nursing home order.
https://issuesinsights.com/2020/05/13/cuomos-covid-19-panic-condemned-thousands-of-vulnerable-seniors-to-death/
This article is excellent and contains a graph regarding nursing home deaths.
I have posted all of this not for the Stupid but for the others on the list that are interested in actually understanding where the deaths came from. A lot of deaths were created by leftist thinking folk who also wish to kill the economy. Smart thinking goes a long way in managing the Covid crisis. BS doesn’t.
AS an aside I think 66% of the deaths in NY were people that remained in their homes. The smart will likely understand why while the Stupid will never get it.
Allan– Thanks for laying it out. It is very interesting to see the detail laid out like that. Also very revealing.
The facts laid out in this post should be like a bucket of cold water in the faces of “journalists” who distort reality in order to continue their relentless attacks on President Trump and anyone who might dare support him. You did not have to sneak around stealing confidential information to write what you did– it is available to anyone who cares enough to look. The sad truth is that facts do not matter to a very large segment of the population because their minds long ago were taken over by a seething hatred that has left no room for reasoned discourse. Thank you for this post.
Thank you for your kind reply.
It is devastating to me to see NYC, a place where I have close ties, in such turmoil. I know lock-ins that can live alone but can’t carry packages and the like yet their groceries and other essentials are brought to the lobby and they have to carry it themselves. I know many that one day will require some type of adult living facility where they can enjoy their final years. Now they know that their own government is willing to kill them just so that bureaucracy can carry on normally. Will people return to the subways now that they know how much infection there is in the subway and bus systems. How will people get around if they are afraid to use them? (I think it has been revealed that an astoundingly high number of subway employees got the virus and died.) It took until recently for Democrat controlled NYC to realize it had to shut down the subways and disinfect them at night.
It’s not clear that these other countries used their testing regimen for sound strategy. There needs to be frank discussion as to whether testing is supposed to slow the spread while waiting for a vaccine, or to be used to give us better indicators for bed space in hospitals.
One needs to start facing realities about vaccines, or lack thereof, in discussing how we proceed as efficiently as possible to achieving herd immunity. One could make the argument that we should allow the virus to spread faster, provided we do not overwhelm hospitals.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/05/11/coronavirus-expert-michael-osterholm-warns-virus-spread-far-from-over/3108333001/
SteveJ, that makes no sense unless you have proper controls to know what is happening and where. Testing and contact tracing is our best means to accomplish that, as well as a needed tool to restore the public confidence to reopen the economy ASAP. People are not staying home mostly because they are forced to, but because they are scared to not stay home.
“Testing and contact tracing is our best means to accomplish that”
To accomplish what? These other countries are using the testing regimen to slow the spread beyond what is required of their hospital systems.
Your fixation on hospital capacity is short sighted for the reasons I already stated. We should have a higher goal than staying at under max capacity and opening the economy most quickly without pushing those limits is it.
Your fixation on hospital capacity is short sighted for the reasons I already stated. I’ve never seen you give other reasons. What are they?
Read my 2 posts above. I don’t know how I can be any more clear.
I think Allen might be right about you. List your reasons for slowing the spread of the virus. Just list them, and I’ll consider them.
Since I don’t waste time reading Allen and wonder about anyone who does, I wouldn’t know.
Learn English. I respectfully and substantively replied to your posts and my reasoning is as clear as I can make it. If you have a specific question I’ll do my best to answer it, but typing s-l-o-w-e-r is not an option.
Well if and when you list some reasons, I’ll consider them.
I did that and you failed to respond substantively or on point.
Buh-bye
Steve, I might be wrong but now is generally the time that Anon runs away from the question. He used to do that alot with Karen and myself. He did it when he was Jan F., Anon, the present version and many other made up aliases.
Don’t worry, if you want another crack he will be back spouting the same nonesense over and over again or he will return with still another alias. No one can prove at this time that some of the new more stupid voices aren’t Anon, but it is likely he is posting under another alias. Sometimes he even posts a compliment to himself or he talks to himself.
He’s a wierd guy.
Anon says one thing but does another. He is totally unable to go past one or two soundbites. He can read and pronounce the words but has difficulty integrating them together so he fully understands what he is reading and what he is writing.
Once he finishes his soundbites and more evidence is provided in the past he has run away only to repeat the same things at a later date.
Steve what you are saying I believe makes sense though there are many opinions that may make sense as well. Anon is saying next to nothing so he can judge you method saying “makes no sense…” while being unable to add the rest. He is just throwing sh1t out hoping some catches.
“One could make the argument that we should allow the virus to spread faster, provided we do not overwhelm hospitals.”
Well, you could, except that allowing the virus to spread faster will overwhelm the hospitals. It’s literally what the strategy of mitigation is designed to avoid.
If that’s the strategy, to use testing to fine tune the ratio for infection spread to hospital bed space, so be it. It doesn’t look like that is what they are doing. They are, for example criticizing the Swedish model. On what basis do they criticize it? Sweden has never remotely approached overflow of their hospital system.
“Sweden has never remotely approached overflow of their hospital system.”
Steve, no problem with your underlying point. Just be careful in the comparisons. What caused hospital overloads? Part of it was in the hard hit area of NY a lot of people remained on ventilators for a long time. Were similar people even placed on ventilators in Sweden?
What caused potential overload of hospitals in NJ where 53% came from nursing homes. At least part of the cause was improper management of those that were quarantined yet the Democrat state permitted Covid patients into the nursing home and didn’t focus where it should have focused. Compare NY’s 10% nursing home death to Florida’s 0.6% death rate and take note of the difference between the Democratic leadership and Florida’s Republican leadership, approaching a 20X death rate where Democrat leadership prevailed.
New York did. So it’s an apples and oranges comparison. Sweden isn’t New York. New York isn’t Sweden. Mitigation and testing go hand in hand in the way intelligence and efficient military tactics go hand in hand. Pretty simple equation.
I stopped listening to NPR when Click and Clack stopped ragging on Jaguars and started ragging on Trump.
CNN, KGB… B eye Vickie eye bye oh bee..
Vickie eye Vicki oh bee bee.
Thank God for President Trump. Among his many accomplishments is forcing the frauds who have posed as journalists out of the closet.
“That tradition has been lost in the age of echo-journalism where the ability to appear on many media outlets depends on your willingness to declare Trump or his associates guilty of an ever expanding array of crimes. ”
Which, is why I hardly ever feed them. I would love to subscribe to the NYT, but I will not help keep them in business. Same with JC Penneys, Campbell Soup, Target, and pretty much the CW network. I have stopped watching The Rookie because of the constant queer-norming and over the top inter-racial relationship stuff.
I don’t even subscribe to my local paper anymore because of their idiotic anti-Trump crap, and all the celebration of all things gay and tranny. I have stopped watching football because of the silly knee-taking over dead drug dealers.
And you know what? I am happier. I have more time to read, and play guitar and play with my cats. And I feel healthier, mentally and physically. I think being exposed to propaganda and filth takes a toll on you that you don’t see until you quit the stuff.
Plus, there are plenty of great movies on The Criterion Channel!
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
What kind of music do you play?
Squeeky:
Good points.
Many of us are tuning the perverts out (perverts loosely defined as rabid never Trumpets and rolling coup supporters).
On “echo-journalism”, if you’ve watched as many cable TV news programs as I have, you know these talking heads say whatever they need to say to get on, stay on, and get invited back on these programs. Some of these talking heads have letters after their names, but it doesn’t matter. We all fall prey to the very human desire to be on TV. To do that, we know we need to impress “the star” of the show. To continue to be on such shows, the talking head feels compelled to say something more obnoxious and audacious than the last guy. It’s on the host to apply the brakes, “I know those words come from a passionate place, but we know that’s not true … Not to the extent that you’re saying.” They don’t say this, of course, because it makes for good TV, they like being on TV too, and we’re all part of the same machine.
The guy is a bit over the edge. But. Once off the edge one falls down the cliff onto the land, rocks or just water below. If its deep water and one can swim then one can survive.
If he shows up on CNN again today he may be wet.
What exactly did McNeil say that was wrong???
Nothing, but JT isn’t in the “free speEch community” and doesn’t gaf.
As I have found out. Repeatedly.
Duh!
Giving Turley his due (although he seems to go out of his way to rebuke liberals and hold his fire vs. Trump), here Turley was merely pointing out that “reporters” are supposed to “report” facts and omit their personal opinions.
One wonders what is the NY Times policy on their reporters going on talking head shows. Is their policy clear that their reporters should always stick to the facts?
Segueing on to our intrepid Squeeky Fromm, self-styled “reporter” — this Squeeky is nothing but vapid opinions in this space. And she still fails to reveal why she adopted the name of the crazed Manson-cult attempted murderer. I suppose that our Squeeky finds psychos adorable.
Nothing at all. He has lived up to all of our expectations of what CNN is: a cesspool
What’s your next question?
By “all of our expectations” you’re refering to all your personalities?
I think the NYTimes has recognized that their reputation has fallen below street level so they figure they can gain credibility by dumping on someone who wasn’t saying anything much different than the NYTimes places on its front page.
Gee thanks for this non-event coverage. Nothing else going on and all Americans prospering and safe, so your carrying Trump water is the best use of your time and something we can’t get elsewhere if we live out side of Fox and Right wing radio range.
PS Maybe you can tell us what was incorrect about the reporter’s “opinion” which you report as:
“We were in a headless-chicken phase, and yes, it’s the president’s fault, it is not China’s fault. You know, the head of the Chinese CDC was on the phone to Robert Redfield on Jan. 1, again on Jan. 8, and the two agencies were talking on Jan. 19. The Chinese had a test on Jan. 13; the Germans had a test on Jan. 16. We fiddled around for two months, we had a test on March 5 and it didn’t work. We didn’t have 10,000 people tested until March 15.”
He went on to lambast the “incompetent leadership” at the CDC and called for its dirhead ector Dr. Robert Redfield to “resign.” He also attacked President Trump as “the same guy who said inject yourself with disinfectant” and that his “grasp of the science” isn’t even “at a third-grade level.”
What a stooge.
Dear Libtard: He never TOLD anyone to inject themselves with ANYTHING!
Gee Scott, you are technically correct on that, though he did say:
“”I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning? As you see, it gets in the lungs, it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that.”
Any other nits to pick?
You had me at; “it would be interesting to check that.” Don’t let blind Hatred to allow you to make factually incorrect statements.
I posted the quote Scott and nothing I have said is “factually incorrect”. You must be thinking of your leader.
Enjoy:
Short intro to video than 6 minutes of your leader:
https://twitter.com/funder/status/1258742453441617920
I stand corrected! You “quoted” Factually Incorrect Statements.
Not interested in the video. Already been through the IRS targeting conservatives, “Blame it on a video”, Benghazi. “If you like your health plan and doctor you can keep them, Fast and Furious, Spying on the Associated Press, VA Scandal, Trading 5 terrorists for traitor Bo Bergdahl while lying about him being a hero, lying about Iran ransom payments in the middle of the night, stoking racial fearslabout Ferguson and many others before knowing all the Facts. I can live with Trump being too overly optimistic at Times.
The New York Times expressed “concern.” For a fake news newspaper to express concern is ludicrous. Their medical reporter, was only doing what he felt was acceptable by his bosses. Going on CNN, this reporter knew what they wanted to hear, and his bosses knew what CNN wanted as well.
Why did the NYT express concern? Even they knew how far afield this reporter went with his political and not medical opinions. But, rather than give this reporter his walking papers, all they could muster was “concern?” This concern is just as phony as the NYT reporting on everything Trump. For Russia-gate,” right up to this pandemic.
America is now the sh!Thole of the world thanks to CNN and their comrades in the lame stream media