Americans are not seeing the same coronavirus news

by jellybaby00

Trying to look at this objectively so we can recognize how desperately we need an unbiased, facts-based common ground during this difficult time. Here’s two different articles covering Trump’s funding cuts to WHO.

1. FOX NEWS

Tone: Critical of WHO’s fumbling and implicitly supportive of Trump’s decision, suggesting coverups and manipulation by China, pointing out past failures in media coverage on WHO—while allowing airing of some criticisms from Dems/world health figures.

Sample quotes:

Trump declared that the United States would undertake a 60-to-90 day investigation into why the “China-centric” WHO had caused “so much death” by “severely mismanaging and covering up” the coronavirus’ spread, including by making the “disastrous” decision to oppose travel restrictions on China.

The money saved will go to areas that “most need it,” Trump asserted….

The White House has made accountability for international organizations a cornerstone of its policymaking. Earlier in his presidency, Trump successfully pushed other nations to contribute more to NATO, saying that international alliance was costing the United States an unreasonably large amount of money….

Several media organizations [in the past] had also uncritically cited WHO’s assurances about the coronavirus. The Washington Post even ran a story quoting a Chinese official asking for “empathy” and slamming the White House for acting “in disregard of the WHO recommendation against travel restrictions.”…

We are primarily funded by readers. Please subscribe and donate to support us!

2. CNN

Tone: Openly and blisteringly critical of Trump, casting his decision as dangerous and nationalistic, while allowing some explanation by Trump and quotes from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Sample quotes:

Trump’s announcement comes in the middle of the worst global pandemic in decades and as he angrily defends his own handling of the outbreak in the United States. Amid swirling questions about whether he downplayed the crisis or ignored warnings from members of his administration about its potential severity, Trump has sought to assign blame elsewhere, including at the WHO and in the news media…

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said earlier Tuesday that while the WHO and China “made mistakes,” Trump is also looking to deflect blame from his own administration. “Right now, there is a very coordinated effort amongst the White House and their allies to try to find scapegoats for the fatal mistakes that the President made during the early stages of this virus,” he said…

Tuesday’s announcement about the halting of funding came days after a major US ally — the United Kingdom — announced an additional £65 million contribution to the WHO.

BOTH ARTICLES include versions of this quote from Antonio Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations (WHO’s parent org), with Fox News not naming him:

Now is not the time to reduce the resources for the operations of the World Health Organization or any other humanitarian organization in the fight against the virus. …. Once we have finally turned the page on this epidemic, there must be a time to look back fully to understand how such a disease emerged and spread its devastation so quickly across the globe, and how all those involved reacted to the crisis.

 

Views:

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.