Throughout the presidency, Mike Pence has been the voice of reason while Donald Trump comes into rooms and turns over tables.
Well, Pence just took a page out of Trump’s playbook by telling CNN that it can no longer have coronavirus task force members on its network unless they air the task force on its network.
Cutting Away
For days now, CNN has been cutting away from the daily press briefing to go after President Trump.
Knowing he tends to make some rather fantastical statements, CNN then leaves the briefing after Trump speaks to fact check everything he says.
For instance, when Trump says nobody has ever seen anything like this before, CNN comes back to say, well, we saw something even more devastating during the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic.
Technically, they are correct, but it is rather petty because everyone understands the meaning of what Trump is trying to say.
When Trump says he likes what he is seeing from hydroxychloroquine, the network accuses him of acting like a doctor.
Now, as entertaining as the Trump portion of the press conference usually is, the real informative portion is when the coronavirus task force gives its update, yet this is the portion of the press conference that CNN usually cuts away from when it is live.
Then, the network likes to bring these individuals on its network to offer the appearance CNN is providing information the administration is not.
It’s quite clever, really, but Pence caught on to their game.
Since last week, members of the task force have not been approved to appear on CNN, with a spokesperson for Pence telling the network, “When you guys cover the briefings with the health officials then you can expect them back on your air.”
Reversing Course
After CNN published a story about the ban from the VP, Pence seemed to reverse course on his restrictions.
Since the story on CNN went live, CDC Director Robert Redfield and Dr. Fauci have both been booked by the network.
This, actually, at least in my opinion, was a good policy that Pence should have kept in place.
Early on, the media was slamming the administration for not communicating enough, now it says they are communicating too much.
And, while I realize these press conferences can be long, there is a lot of important information going out throughout the course of the press conference that Americans need to hear live, from the source, rather than an edited tape that suits CNN’s purposes.
While administration officials and task force members have appeared on both CNN and MSNBC, President Trump has refused to appear on either, choosing to give Fox News what appears to be exclusive access to the commander-in-chief.
Personally, I would love to see Trump on CNN against Anderson Cooper or Chris Cuomo. It would be great TV to see him go directly up against what are probably his two harshest critics throughout this crisis.
Sources: Yahoo! News & CNN Business
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