The only Trump statements that should have been quoted from this briefing are, “What do I know? I’m not a doctor” and that he does these briefings not to inform but for the “free airtime and good ratings.” Instead, we get the familiar “feud” framing. /1 nytimes.com/2020/04/05/us/…
That he tells aides they he does the briefings for “free airtime and good ratings” is one of the most manifestly true and obvious yet relevatory things he has ever said, but it appears in paragraph 19 of this story. /2
That Trump acknowledges he is knowingly playing the media (and the public) like a fiddle should be the primary way these simulacra of press conferences are covered. /3
Rather than a lede with the language of heroic agency—Trump is “ “doubling down”—and treading lightly on the dangerousness of his actions—he is going beyond what “scant evidence” would allow—how about something more accurate that doesn’t subtly fluff him or pull its punches?/4
How about this instead? “Ignoring expert advice, Trump, who has acknowledged to his staff that he uses these briefings for the free airtime & good ratings, dangerously misled, and quite possibly endangered, the public by endorsing an unproven therapy for COVID-19 treatment.” /5
This @JenSeniorNY column is excellent on Trump's efforts to shape his press briefings as exercises in narcissistic melodrama. What is left unsaid is that media coverage too often replicates and reinforces Trump's script rather than refusing it. /6
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