Messaging Divide During A Pandemic Can Cost Lives; DHS Promises To Investigate Surveillance Of U.S. Journalists
STELTER: Two-front war on the truth these days -- politics and the pandemic. And hydroxychloroquine connects the two fronts. As you know, the malaria drug known as HCQ is still being touted by right-wing media as a miracle cure for COVID-19. They're doing that through things like this video. There was this press conference held in Washington with these doctors. Doctors who are not representative of opinion or of medical fact of scientific fact, but because they were out there promoting this drug, Fox, Breitbart, latched onto this and precious days were spent debunking this nonsense. Don't fall for this video, Kaiser Health news wrote. Study after study has shown that HCQ is not effective in dealing with COVID-19. That's what Dr. Anthony Fauci said. At least he's being allowed to go on television and say it these days. But Trump's media outlets, his allies, continue to tear down Fauci and claim that Fauci is part of this elaborate crazy plot to keep the country locked down to help the Democrats. And 5 million viewers watch that stuff and they hear it every day. Trump keeps getting fed terrible information from people he believes, like the man who runs "One America News," that Fox News wannabe channel. He was hyping HCQ in a phone call with Trump earlier in the week. Fox is plugging this kind of fringe or exception to the rule studies that argue that somehow this drug is effective in treating patients. Again, the government's own experts say it is not. But, of course, the GOP's Louie Gohmert said, when he diagnosed positive for COVID, that he was going to take the anti-malaria drug. Anyway, that's what he told Hannity as soon as he went out there and said he was testing positive. Every day there is some new BS narrative that is supposed to make Trump feel good and is supposed to deflect blame from the rising death toll. When the U.S. surpassed 150,000 known deaths from COVID-19, and remember, the real number is higher due to testing failures and people dying at home, but at the 150,000 mark, news outlets pointed out that America is in far worse shape than other countries. And ever since then, ever since Trump read those stories or heard those stories, he has been talking about rising case counts in Europe and other parts of the world. Distract, deflect, every bit of this disinformation is a waste of time. It is a waste of breath. Things we cannot afford to waste right now. But this alternative universe, it is strong. We've got to know what's happening in it because it does affect the president and his political choices. Now, let me bring back Susan Glasser. She was here earlier in the hour, "New Yorker" staff writer and CNN global affairs analyst. And, Susan, I just think to come back to this key about the pandemic and what the president chooses to do with his time, just feels to me like the media, we had to go ahead and look into these doctors and find out about the doctor who believes in alien DNA and explain how she was such an aberration from what's the norm in the medical universe. But we have to do it because the president is spending his time on it.</s>GLASSER: Well, Brian, I think this is an excellent point. What's different? There's always been conspiracy theories, there's always been, you know, the world of promoting alternative facts, especially in a public health crisis, in a pandemic. What's different is that the president of the United States is the one personally spreading the misinformation. I was looking at Robert Draper's new book about the starting of the Iraq war by George W. Bush. And, you know, propaganda and misinformation existed at that time. In fact, there was a moment in time when a majority of the American public believed incorrectly that Saddam Hussein was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. The difference is that George W. Bush had people surround him who were saying things that were untrue. They were walking the line. He himself never directly said this untruth about Saddam Hussein and 9/11. But created an atmosphere in which people believed it. Now you have Donald Trump even getting rid of that and going directly to spreading the untruth and the propaganda himself. And so, I think that's the line that has been breached very definitively in the Trump presidency, especially with this pandemic, with people's lives on the line. You will never hear the president offer genuine condolences more than 150,000 dead. I mean, you know, we've almost lost our capacity to be shocked. What I would say to people is, you don't have to be surprised to maintain your sense of shock. And I do agree with you, it's very important to cover this universe of misinformation and lies that is being hoisted on the American people and the accountability for Trump and his advisers for spreading it is something that is really different in our politics right now. It's astonish --</s>STELTER: Yes, we all wanted hydroxychloroquine to work. The studies have proven --</s>GLASSER: Yes.</s>STELTER: -- it doesn't. We need to move on, unless there are more studies that suggest that it is effective after all. But the science is pretty clear. By the way, Draper's book is titled "To Start a War." It is brand-new. It is excellent. Let me get your reaction to another troubling story. This is from "The Washington Post" which obtained Department of Homeland Security intel reports that were about two journalists -- quote -- "noting they had published leaked, unclassified documents about DHS operations in Portland," during the protest. So, of course, the DHS, the department is embarrassed now. They are reassigning one of the people that was involved. But what's the significance of this?</s>GLASSER: Look, if you tell the American public and your own employees for years that journalists are the enemies of the people, and specifically target them and call them out, eventually bureaucrats will</s>STELTER: Yes, I have the same feeling. What else we don't know yet. It's mind-boggling. Susan, thank you very much. Coming up here on the program, what a moment of unity actually reveal about the media divide.