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It’s a day that ends in “y”, so it’s another day where a “journalist” has made up things that President Trump did not say and “reported” them as though factual.
After Globo News reporter Raquel Krähenbühl reported this morning that members of the press corps were called thirty minutes later than normal to get their “routine” COVID tests done because a “couple” of people had tested positive, speculation ran wild in media circles about a possible Wuhan virus outbreak at the White House:
The White House called the journalists from the pool 30 minutes late to get our routine covid test. I was told they were late because “It was a very busy morning. We had a couple of positives today”
— Raquel Krähenbühl (@Rkrahenbuhl) September 16, 2020
White House Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was asked about Krähenbühl’s report at today’s press briefing. While she didn’t deny it, she declined to comment on the specifics, stating the last time she talked about someone who was infected at the White House that “unfortunately that individual’s name was leaked to the media”:
.@johnrobertsFox: “Have any members of White House staff recently tested positive for coronavirus?”
.@PressSec Kayleigh McEnany: “I don’t share people’s personal medical information.”
Full video here: https://t.co/ImrhfydMim pic.twitter.com/ZLkTVtBMXx
— CSPAN (@cspan) September 16, 2020
President Trump was also asked about reports of White House coronavirus infections during the briefing he did with reporters later in the day Wednesday. He stated there were a “small number of infections” but then deferred to McEnany for specifics:
“I heard about it this morning. At a very small level. … Last night I heard about it for the first time. And it’s a small number of cases. Maybe it’s not even cases,” Trump told reporters when asked about reports of a positive case among the White House staff.
He then asked White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who said, “It did not affect the event, and press was not around the individual.” She added that it was “one person,” to which Trump responded, “It’s not anybody that was near me. … It was one person. Not a person that I was associated with.”
Here’s Trump answering the question below. You’ll note that he appears to only have a passing knowledge of the one case McEnany acknowledged:
President Trump confirms “one person” in the White House tested positive for Covid19 – after saying he was informed about a “small number of cases”. He said that was not a person he was associated with. pic.twitter.com/BH79HgIHsm
— Raquel Krähenbühl (@Rkrahenbuhl) September 16, 2020
Though Trump didn’t give much in the way of specifics about the confirmed case, Wall Street Journal national security reporter Gordon Lubold somehow pulled from his answer that Trump had “confirmed” that “some people got Covid from yesterday’s UAE-Israel-Bahrain event”:
Trump confirms what Kayleigh would not which is some people got Covid from yesterday’s UAE-Israel-Bahrain event
— Gordon Lubold (@glubold) September 16, 2020
Say what? Where on earth did he get that Trump said people were infected with the coronavirus at yesterday’s peace agreement signing? Because POTUS didn’t say anything of the sort during the briefing.
Not only that but if someone was confirmed positive just this morning for the virus, the contact tracing is only just getting started, meaning it will likely take days or even weeks to possibly know where the person caught the virus. I say “possibly” because not every case can be traced back to a specific event.
I speak from experience here. My mom, dad, and I caught the virus a month ago, and we’ve all been contacted by local contact tracers here, but we can only speculate as to where we got it because we don’t know for sure. My dad thinks he got it at a medical facility he has to visit three times a week every week, and that we got it from him, but we simply don’t know.
Beyond that, is Lubold not aware that people who become infected with the virus usually don’t test positive until several days after they catch it, meaning the probability that the person who was confirmed positive today got it yesterday during the signing ceremony is extremely low?
Since when did the incubation period for #COVID19 shrink to 12 hours? pic.twitter.com/EkQSUsPl0S
— Obnoxious Boston Fan (@realOBF) September 16, 2020
You do know how long the incubation period is, right? Guess not. https://t.co/mvDMOrCaql
— Jordan Parker (@jordanparker_) September 16, 2020
breaking news on the science front— incubation is down to less than a day. this is huge.
— Matt (@msw141) September 16, 2020
There are some who may be willing to excuse Lubold for his faulty “reporting” on Trump’s comments, but I’m not one of them. Because not only does the video make clear Trump never said what Lubold claimed he did, but also because reporters have been blaming Trump without evidence anytime someone within the White House or who is otherwise close to him (like the late Herman Cain) tests positive.
Also, the media did everything they could yesterday to throw cold water on the historic peace agreement, suggesting it was no big deal in the scheme of things. It’s almost as if Lubold is insinuating here that if there was no signing ceremony then no one would have been infected.
Whatever the case may be, I am beyond sick of the media making up Trump quotes and running with them. It’s gotten out of hand, and quite frankly I’m almost at the point of suggesting that any news organization caught doing this in the future gets their White House press pass revoked for a month. This is beyond tiresome and irresponsible.
Other Examples:
— Fake News: Media Rush to Decry Trump Quote on George Floyd During Jobs Report Presser – Except He Didn’t Say It
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— #Journalism: NY Times Reporters Maggie Haberman and Peter Baker Get Caught Altering Trump Quote
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— How Fake News Spreads: Multiple NYT Journos Share Altered Trump Quote From Conference Call With Governors
