It must be easy to be part of the left-wing media machine. Aside from writing or talking, all you have to do is cherry pick your information and then blast out a partisan narrative to your audience that exclusively aides Democrats. On Monday, MSNBC's Morning Joe exploited the coronavirus pandemic to do just that, desperately trying to pit blue states against red states for the left's political gain.
Since her husband Joe Scarborough was still out on vacation, co-host Mika Brzezinski decided to start off the show by getting right to her chosen narrative of the day, showing a montage of Republican Florida Governor DeSantis talking about the coronavirus and then ripping into him:
It’s worse than New York. Florida governor Ron DeSantis doing his best impression of Donald Trump in April and May, scolding the media. Over the weekend, Florida hit the highest single day total of known cases in any state since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. There's also new reporting this morning that testing delays across the country are hobbling efforts to contain the disease.
While it is true that Florida edges out other states for the most in the country, the death rate per 100k people pales in comparison to the media’s favorite state to praise for coronavirus handling, New York. Florida currently has 19.7 deaths per 100k, New York has 78.4 per 100k. But the media will never call out Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo like they do Governor DeSantis, since reporters are so deep in the tank for the Democratic Party. Mika eagerly brought on MSNBC's favorite leftist medical pundit, Dr. Vin Gupta, to back up her narrative. He proclaimed:
Floridians are going to die. We have six hospitals in Miami-Dade filled up, 40 ICU’s across the state. Walt Disney World has decided to open up. It's not hard to predict where this is headed, it's bad because they have no state level leadership. The only places schools could potentially reopen where testing is not available are in places we have the outbreak under control, a positive infection rate of 3% or less, not when it's 1 in 5, 1 in 3 in places like Miami, it makes no sense. It's criminal malpractice there.
The media and their medical analysts routinely trash Florida for its supposed lack of leadership, but completely ignore the failure of state leadership in New York, which saw people shoved into nursing homes to die en masse. Gupta particularly has no credibility, after he made his partisan politics clear last Thursday night to 11th Hour anchor Brian Williams by calling for DeSantis to be removed from office:
No, he's dead wrong. That's why he's proceeding over the worst outbreak in the country, one of the worst in the world. He needs to be removed from office, Brian. What he's saying and what he's doing in terms of inaction, what he's saying in terms of mixed messaging, misinformation, it's criminal. It's public health malpractice, and it needs to stop once and for all.
This attempt at focusing solely on red states and their coronavirus outbreaks is dishonest, yet completely indicative of how complicit the media are in spreading leftist talking points, even during a serious health crisis.
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Read the full transcript below to learn more.
MSNBC’s Morning Joe
7-13-20
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: It's worse than New York. Florida governor Ron DeSantis doing his best impression of Donald Trump in April and May, scolding the media. Over the weekend, Florida hit the highest single day total of known cases in any state since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. There's also new reporting this morning that testing delays across the country are hobbling efforts to contain the disease.
(...)
BRZEZINSKI: Joining us now Dr. Vin Gupta, a pulmonologist who has treated critically ill coronavirus patients in Washington state and also an NBC news medical contributor. I have a few rapid fire questions for you. First of all, today if school is reopening in Florida, do you think it would be a good idea for kids to go back to school?
VIN GUPTA: Absolutely not. Totally super spreader event, not safe, Mika
BREZINSKI: That would be a spreader event to send kids to school. Florida has made records over the weekend. Where is this headed? What does this tell us?
GUPTA: Floridans are going to die. We have six hospitals in Miami-Dade filled up, 40 ICU’s across the state. Walt Disney World has decided to open up. It's not hard to predict where this is headed, it's bad because they have no state level leadership. Here's the thing. This is a key part of the interview with the secretary. With rising infection rates we're seeing an infection rate in Florida approaching 20%. To say this quickly what's going to happen is, we have -- actually we have no idea what's going to happen but we think kids have the ability to transmit the disease to teachers, parents, amongst themselves. The infection in the community will be so high. The only places schools could potentially reopen where testing is not available are in places we have the outbreak under control, a positive infection rate of 3% or less, not when it's 1 in 5, 1 in 3 in places like Miami, it makes no sense. It's criminal malpractice there.
BRZEZINSKI: This is pathetic. I don't think it'll work. And ultimately, Jonathan Lemire, politically take me to Florida, we're breaking records right now in Florida. If we continue to break coronavirus records, worse than New York, Governor DeSantis, weeks ago you said, my gosh, people are saying we could be as bad as New York, we never would be, we're worse than New York in Florida Governor DeSantis with your open bars and opening schools and who cares about people's lives.
MSNBC’s The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
07/09/2020
11:44:14 PM
BRIAN WILIAMS: For more, we are joined once again by Dr. Vin Gupta. He is an E.R. Doc specializing in just these types of illnesses. Also an Affiliate Assistant Professor with the University of Washington's Department of Health Metrics Sciences. So, doc, does the governor have that about right? Stop into Home Depot for some conduit, some paint, some sheetrock. The risk there is approximate to sending your third grader to sit in a classroom all day or sending the teacher into that classroom of third graders?
DR. VIN GUPTA (MSNBC MEDICAL CONTRIBUTOR): No, he's dead wrong. That's why he's proceeding over the worst outbreak in the country, one of the worst in the world. He needs to be removed from office, Brian. What he's saying and what he's doing in terms of inaction, what he's saying in terms of mixed messaging, misinformation, it's criminal. It's public health malpractice, and it needs to stop once and for all. Here's the thing. When it comes to testing, when it comes to reopening schools, why aren't the two linked? We've spent all this time, month after month, Brian, you and I have had this conversation month after month. We need to test to reopen anything. If we want to reopen America, he with have to test. Suddenly now we're saying we don't have to test to reopen schools for 56 million children and adolescents and high school students? Does that make any sense to you, it makes no sense to me? There is no coherent strategy, and ultimately what we're going to do is put our children at risk for in-classroom transmission. We're going to put parents at risk, and most importantly we're going to put teachers also at risk. What teachers’ union is going to be in favor of a non-testing return to school strategy? I don't know one.
