This is EVERYTHING that is wrong w media reporting on @realDonaldTrump magnified, made all more dire because it is happening in a pandemic. What are you people smoking? How he "conducts himself in weeks ahead," "there are signs that he does not fully understand the stakes." 1/ https://twitter.com/brianstelter/status/1244938182254362626

The point is that he has failed consistently, abjectly since December to address #coronavirus. The "signs" of this are as big as the HOLLYWOOD sign in Los Angeles. Hundreds of thousands of people will die. And @brianstelter is retweeting this garbage? 2/

Seriously folks in the media, are you still waiting for the moment when @realDonaldTrump "finally becomes presidential?" This is a world-historical failure unprecedented in modern American history and you can't see what's before your very eyes. 3/

This is some weird shit, some strange version of Stockholm syndrome, where reporters now identify with their captor, I mean, President. I mean, really, we've had a total meltdown in the response to #COVID19 and for @CNN the jury is still out? 4/

To be fair, this isn't just @CNN, it's the @NYTimes political reporting as well. We could be in a burning building with a fire started by @realDonaldTrump with these people and they'd be equivocating as the flames licked up their thighs and their clothing caught on fire. 5/

This isn't journalism anymore, I don't even know what to call it, Donald-fan-fiction where he gets to be someone who he never was or will be? Or just lazy, reflexive reporting, which is on autopilot for too many reporters? 6/

Back to #joandidion again: the deferential spirit will get us all killed. end/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1996/09/19/the-deferential-spirit/