Former Vermont governor Howard Dean is the latest figure on the left to call for a news organization to stop airing President Donald Trump’s press briefings on coronavirus, but what good would that do the American people?
Dean sent a warning to MSNBC on Tuesday – stop airing the president’s daily briefings on the coronavirus or... they won’t get any interviews with him.
While Dean acknowledged the lack of his presence likely doesn’t mean much for the outlet, he called on other officials to do the same.
“I won’t make much difference if it’s just me but if 50 of you did it it would make a difference,” he tweeted.
He also urged his 150,000-plus followers to boycott MSNBC.
Trump’s press briefings have become the latest obsession of 'Never Trumpers,' as more and more call for boycotts due to the president’s handful of clashes with reporters.
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow have already spoken out against their network airing the briefings live.
While a daily dose of the president may not be sitting well with the left, Americans have been flocking to their devices to catch the briefings by the millions. Last month, they brought in an average of 8.5 million viewers, according to Nielson ratings — and that’s not including people watching on mobile devices.
There are good reasons for this. The briefings include not only Trump, but vital members from the Coronavirus Task Force, such as Dr Anthony Fauci, who provides important updates on the current pandemic, as well as up-to-date guidelines from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention about social distancing and other preventative measures people should be taking. For someone like Dean to simply assume others are as tired as him of the briefings shows how deep his Trump Derangement Syndrome truly runs.
Also on rt.com White House press secretary Grisham leaves post... without ever having held a briefingTrump has had plenty of spats with reporters at the briefings, but his contentious relationship with the press is nothing new and it appears to only shock extremists on the left who still can’t get over the fact that he’s president.
If Dean and others don’t like the briefings, there’s a simple solution: don’t watch. The solution isn’t starting a Spartacus-like boycott where you are literally trying to convince news organizations to deprive people of communication from the president during a pandemic. People can handle a few Trump outbursts if it means they also keep updated on a crisis that is affecting their daily lives.
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