The Press, Deplorables, And Hurricanes

When the president of the United States trolls his angry crowds by telling them that the press, the people who hold government officials accountable and who often put their lives in danger to report the news, are the “enemies of the American people,” someone must stick up for them.

While there were a few unfortunate incidents on live television, the press has done an outstanding job covering the hurricanes. I saw a few posts on social media where horrible people were attempting to downplay the job the press has done, like accusing them of using green screens, or saying the environment the reporters were in was “just a slight breeze.” Does it look like CNN’s Sara Sidner is standing in a slight breeze? It wasn’t fake debris that struck this reporter.

People who hate the press and deride it as “fake news” usually exhibit their qualifications to grade the media by sharing links to Breitbart, Daily Caller, and InfoWars. I bet these same people, especially if they were in Florida, relied on the press’s tracking of the storm.

News coverage actually saves lives during this sort of disasters. In addition to tracking the storm, they report where the shelters are and their capacity, evacuations and the routes, which road are closed and open, in addition to other vital information. They have helped people find missing family members. In some cases, they’ve jumped into the story to save a life.

When people watch reporters stand outside during a category five hurricane, they often ask “isn’t this stupid?” That’s a very fair question. Yes. Yes, it is stupid. As CNN’s Chris Cuomo stated, “There is a strong argument to be made that standing in a storm is not a smart thing to do.”

Reporters are telling viewers to evacuate, don’t play in the water, run from the hurricane, it’s dangerous out there, all while they’re standing in the middle of it dodging flying debris.

The defense of this is; reporters are doing this so you don’t have to. If nothing else, you can believe what they’re saying. One can obviously tell how dangerous the storm is by the way a flying hubcap nailed that reporter in the gonads. Stay inside! Do people actually need visual proof of just how bad a hurricane actually is? Have you met Republicans?

Reporters also jump into war zones. A lot of times they don’t come back. A report compiled by the International News Safety Institute says 115 journalists died in 2016. Our president will tell you they’re the bad guys. I don’t have a number of how many journalists died from his favorite publication last year, The National Enquirer, but I’m betting it was pretty low. Though to be fair, those guys are in constant danger of getting bitch-slapped by Leonardo DiCaprio….or even more humiliating, hit in the gonads by Justin Bieber.

Earlier this week, a Facebook troll had the gall to accuse me of being a defender of the press and the people who report the news. How dare he. Remind me later to get upset.

I trust the media. When they report something that’s inaccurate, they correct it. When the current head of our government tells us a lie, he makes up for it by telling us an even bigger lie. The press and government both have low approval ratings, but I trust one way more than the other.

While journalists will risk their lives to give you the information you should know, Donald Trump and his deplorables will castigate them for it.

Creators note: It’s kind of a cliche to draw people watching TV. But, it’s hard to avoid that imagery when the subject is people on TV. However, I think I’ve used this concept enough for the year, so I’m going to try to make this my last one for a while. My problem might be that I’m always watching TV. My TV is on the news constantly. I know basically every commercial by heart. I constantly have the “My Pillow” jingle in my head. Please kill me.

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