President Trump’s stated desire to try to quickly restart the American economy by winding down coronavirus-mitigation measures in time for Easter has been universally condemned by health professionals—but the broader reaction to his Tuesday pronouncement varies widely depending on your media diet.
The nation’s leading tabloid newspapers—the New York Post and the Daily News—are rather revealing barometers in times of crisis, because their front pages tend to boil down the prevailing spin with almost meme-like efficiency.
Today’s Tribune Publishing-owned Daily News delivers a blunt headline, “EASTER BASKET CASE,” and a subhed, “Hare-brained Trump wants churches full for holiday—even as he calls NYC ‘very hot spot’,” that works with its mocking photo-illustration.
The News Corp-owned New York Post, meanwhile, takes an entirely noncritical, deferential approach, serving up a straightforward photo of the president along with the headline “PRAYING FOR EASTER MIRACLE” and the subhead “Trump: I want U.S. open by holiday.”
The Post, it’s worth noting, is a corporate cousin of Fox News, which has been widely slammed for downplaying the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic for weeks, in lockstep with Trump, though the network changed its tune recently. Now, though, it appears that the network is changing its position once again; see “The Fox News whipsaw on coronavirus: In another swerve, hosts push Trump to abandon shutdown.”