This little blurb at CNN on March 16th caught my eye. CNN was scouring America for "Citizen-Journalists." That seemed noble.
Well, until you realize that CNN was NOT looking for Chinese Citizen-Journalists......
Over at Slate a few days later, independent journalists continued to beat the drum that Trump may be doing a bad job here, but you absolutely, positively can't say Trump did a bad job here, then turn around and say Xi Jinping did a good job in China.
Xi Jinping lied, then citizen-journalists died. It is really that simple.
The problem is that there aren't a lot of independent journalists in America. Since the 20th, both the left and the right have been digging in their heels to reiterate their own pre-coronavirus positions. CNN trots out stories like Trump Sucks, Trump Sucks, Trump Sucks, oh, and abortion is a human right.
While the right inexplicably continues to defend Trump. All those videos of Trump saying the wrong things? Apparently those were all tactics of some vast left-wing conspiracy. Websites like the Blaze defend Trump by saying, "hey, the virus started in China."
March 29, 2020
So this morning I started the day at CNN:
Trump Sucks
Trump Sucks
Trump Sucks
Yes, I know. Let's check out the Daily Mail (UK) to see if anything new is over there.
Whoa. That is huge. Going back to CNN, do they have any similar stories? Of course not. The Daily Mail Story was not approved by Chinese Filters. Apparently, according to the Daily Mail, citizens in the Hubei Provence started counting the urns handed our to families at hospitals and over 40,000 urns were handed out. Locals questioned why families needed 40,000 urns for 3,200 dead locals. Hmmmm, maybe the Chineses government lied?
But why does that matter today? Great question. Let's return to the calculator. Xi Jinping claimed that only 3,000 or so citizens died in Wuhan, population of 11 million. Xi could turn to the west and say "nothing to see here, .02% death rate corresponds with a bad flu season."
But 40,000 divided by 11,000,000 is a .3% death rate in a city on a full lockdown. That is the definition of a pandemic level event.
Another bit of anecdotal evidence that the citizens of Wuhan were none too pleased with the way they were treated in lockdown. As soon as the restrictions were lifted?
One day earlier at the Daily Mail, not CNN....
Chinese citizens rioting? That's not good for those poor citizens. But let's use the 40,000 dead in Wuhan. If China disclosed that number, (and don't forget that number could be even higher because how accurate is urn counting?) efforts in Japan, South Korea, and the United States could have been helped.
Wait, what? The Japanese and South Korea didn't trust the Chinese? They knew Xi Jinping was lying and were able to get ahead of the curve?
Donald Trump either believed Xi Jinping (which is his fault) or didn't care what was going on in China (also his fault). The reason the virus got a foothold in the United States lays at the feet of Donald Trump. Once he finally got up to speed (for him), many governors had already stepped up to the plate. Now don't get me wrong, Trump does suck, but even if he did everything right, there is the possibility that the pandemic still would have wormed itself around the United States.
How do I figure? Because it has been 100 years since we've seen anything like this. Once that virus left China, you can't shove that genie back in the bottle. Even if Trump was pro-active (which he wasn't), the virus could have attacked America in a different fashion. That's why every time CNN asks for citizen-journalists in America, it comes off as disingenuous. CNN takes the citizen-journalists that say that Trump Sucks and publishes those stories and ignores the rest. My Facebook feed is literally 50/50 between Trump Sucks and God Bless Trump. According to the Drudge Report, 49% of Americans approve of the job the president is doing. Talking to friends and family on the phone also reflect about a 50/50 mix.
My neighbor said "what did you (Fred Hunt) expect Donald Trump to do? Stand at the border and spray people coming back from China with Lysol? You can't stop a plague. No president can."
Do I agree with my neighbor? Not really, but I'm publishing what he said on my site. CNN dropped the ball by not reporting what was really happening in China in December, ON GROUND LEVEL.
Xi Jinping lied and people died.
CNN didn't report the truth in China and people died.
Donald Trump didn't care what the hell was going on in China until it affected him.
And people died...
And my neighbor just yelled over that all those people were going to die anyways. "YOU CAN'T STOP THE PLAGUE."