47 Comments

Your sentence says it best: "It ought to be obvious for the media that the pressing pandemic story today is not about Americans who choose to still wear a mask, it's about Trump loyalists who refuse to get vaccinated." I can't get past the image of trump on the White House balcony (Mussolini-like) defiantly ripping off his mask, after getting life-saving Covid treatment unavailable to the proletariat. Biden wearing a mask sends a message. Leaders lead. Real leaders lead effectively.

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Trump mocked mask wearing and shamed his staff into going maskless until the White House became a Covid hot spot. Trump needed (and got) the best treatment in the world to survive his dose of CV-19, and again refused to wear a mask. Finally, he was one of the first to get vaccinated, but did it without fanfare. His hypocrisy was both astounding and dangerous. HE's the person who made mask wearing a political statement, aided and abetted by stooges named Hannity and Carlson, but it is "liberal" media guys like Tapper who can't quit the nonsense.

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Eric, they don't have anything else to talk about. After five years of outrageous stuff, it's obvious that they are 'hooked' on the outrageous stuff. Does MSM not understand at all, the whole idea of MODELLING appropriate behavior??? No, they do not.

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The Corporate Controlled Conservative Press is hell bent on kneecapping Joe and there is no limit to the asinine lengths they will go to try that. Problem with the CCCP is that Joe continually outwits them...

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founding

So Tapper assumes that people watching know that all the journalists there have been vaccinated? How does he know they are? Did they have to show proof? Are the Fox News guys vaccinated? And then there are all the people watching who don’t know who everyone is in the room or if they are vaccinated. It’s called setting an example.

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Tapper and others in the media can't talk about all the things the Biden administration is doing that is highly popular with the majority of American people. Tapper must make an issue about something. But really, what do we expect from a media owned by billionaires who side with the right? Do we expect them to talk about how taxing the richest corporations who currently pay zero dollars in Federal taxes so that the US might have a 21st century infrastructure? Do we expect them to continue to tout what the Biden Administration has done in terms of turning around the pandemic? Even following the most destructive presidency in American history, the media, most notably the beltway press has not learned their lesson. The craziness that Trump wrought on an hourly bases gave the media an insatiable appetite for news of the absurd. What they should be hammering on a daily basis is Mitch McConnell saying he wants Biden to fail at all costs. Liz Cheney being voted out of Rep leadership by Trump sycophants. 47 states voting to pass bills to increase voter suppression, the constant fear mongering from Republicans of higher taxes on the rich, the promotion of socialism. But somehow Biden wearing a mask to protect others around him is huge story. We are definitely living in Bizarro World.

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They would be all over him if Biden didn't wear a mask.

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Our Failed Political Press ™ presents the Pandemic in a binary manner: either you die or you don’t. You wear a mask or you don’t. But that’s missing a big story.

Our FPP would rather talk about anything than that survivors of Covid who will live with permanent heart damage, permanent lung damage, suffer from strokes, permanent neurological damage which leads to coordination problems and loss of cognitive function. People are still becoming infected, the new variants are still spreading (and we don’t know enough about them). If the people around them when they were healthy had worn masks, they wouldn’t be condemned to this medical fate.

So sure, let’s focus on 'mask wearing as a culture war cause du jour' rather than that there’s still a large population of willfully unvaccinated people and we need to be wearing a mask for THEM. Wearing a mask isn’t virtue signaling, it is a real-world pragmatic benefit to the unvaccinated, Our Failed Political Press ™ would rather focus on the equivalent of former President Obama’s tan suit.

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I don't know about other people, but I have noticed that masks have helped my health. I've had no colds or flu this year. And although the pollen was thick no sinus infections. I'll be wearing a mask as long as I can get away with it.

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This is one of my latest media peeves. From Morning Joe to the Atlantic to David Leonhardt in of course the NYT yesterday, this whole idea that the pandemic is over and we shouldn’t be wearing masks is nuts. Less than 50 percent of Americans are fully vaxxed and we have variant strains in every state, yet according to the media, the pandemic is over. In PA I wasn’t eligible to even try to get an appt until mid April and won’t get my second dose for another two weeks. Unlike many in the media who were vaxxed several months ago, surrounded by people who have been vaxxed, and are now bored with this, most of us live in the real world With Trumpkins who refuse to get the vaccine. The media blow off long term covid effects, callously dismiss the fact that several thousand vaxxed people have gotten it and died, and whine for it all to end. They are selfish and spoiled. Not only did they learn nothing from their coverage of the past four years, they have gotten worse. It’s maddening.

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I have terrible news for Tucker Carlson: I haven't had so much as a cold in 14 months. I'm keeping a mask with me, and putting it on whenever I feel it would be a good idea, such as on a plane or in a crowd in winter, for life.

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I care if Biden wears a mask. Doing so reinforces the message, and it shows that he cares (unlike the former guy). No harm is done to President Biden or anyone around him, and as you mention there is the issue of the emerging variants. There are reported 'break-through' infections occurring in the vaccinated population. No harm in wearing the mask. I plan to continue to do so as well.

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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I have been driven to distraction every time reporters ask the prez about why he is/isn’t wearing a mask. Is that the best they can do? Really? Ugh. So disappointing....again.

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June 1, WaPo gets a new editor. Perhaps she can exert an influence felt wider than just the one paper. Eric, thank you for staying on this beat. This stupid binary mask coverage is but one among many sour notes. Glad I signed up to hear more of your sound opinions.

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I continue to say that most of the so called press are not journalist sad excuses for the term journalist. Mr. Tupper I believe you looked there are more important things to speak about other than the president and people who still wear a mask. Get a life and some morals and go make to reporting NEWS not BS.

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Reading articles like this is why I am happy with my subscription!

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