It’s Not Incompetence. It’s Cruelty.

Press coverage of the administration’s inaction in this crisis speaks volumes about their interpretation of intent and miscalculation of harm. It’s not semantics. It’s life and death.

Lu Hanessian, MSc

Photo by davide ragusa on Unsplash

As this national disaster unfolds, the media continues to explain the threat and the stakes to a country in need of hard truths.

Ninety seven percent of the country got the message to stay home, and heeded it. Self-isolation and national lockdown, formerly Twilight Zone notions, became our new surreal safety zone.

But, we’re at a dangerous moment in the trajectory of the virus — and our country.

Just as Americans enter a second month of quarantine, more than 30 states plan their ‘re-opening’ — against the advice of medical and public health experts. And, according to an NPR/Mariast poll, against 65% of people who oppose returning to work without testing.

The way the press reports in a crisis is critical to public health. Now more than ever, the way the press reports about the president in this crisis has become a high-stakes matter of life and death.