Reporting on Trumps hand sanitizer for the soul is akin to reporting on political drool and this a very good example of a good print story about nothing. It is not the first story about nothing but it covers all the bases. There is a very long chain if cable news drool, about nothing, amounting to exactly nothing,and building unlikely capital to re-election. Trump manages to consume all of the oxygen in this election year. The drool is raised to a high art of communication where lips move and nothing comes out and the result is the media attacks on the president for exactly nothing and it is killing journalism's credibility.
Adding,the fact not in the presidential dust up ,is that the Bill and Melinda gates Foundation is donating $250million of funding to promising ideas in seven factories dedicated to creating a vaccine and cure of COVID 19.The United States,China and Britain have their own projects to do the same thing. If a cure or vaccine can be found ,it will likely not be in production for at least 18 months by Gates estimate due to clinical testing.
The latest Trump controversy revolves around the presidents comments on disinfectants being injected into the human body. An AP story headlined,Trump's disinfectant dangerous,Winnipeg Free Press April 25 2020. It goes on to say , “raising of far-fetched ideas for fighting COVID 19-including his latest musings about injecting disinfectants into people ...It highlights his unconventional approach to the special responsibility that comes with speaking from the presidential pulpit.” Story by Deb Riechman and Aamer Madhani.
The idea in Trumps head comes from the use of disinfectants and UV light on hard indoor and outdoor surfaces to kill the Corona Virus. Why not inject disinfectant inside the lungs? Seems logical, if sunlight and disinfectant kills COVID 19,a thought is verbalized, not an actual thing. It is definitely fringe thinking. It is just as likely a cure can come from fringe thinking for a novel virus where everyone in the world is involved.
My first thought was how inhalators are used for asthma sufferers. Antiseptic throat sprays are effective for the earliest stages killing common cold or flu germs while they are in the throat. Infections mostly start in the throat before going up into a head cold or down as a chest cold. Athletes use hyperbaric oxygen chambers to speed healing.These product originated from forward thinking not just existing thinking. When there is no cure and people are dying ideas get spit balled. They are possibilities and imaginative solutions. The malaria drug was a circulating rumor that got tested and eliminated as a high doses cure to COVID 19. There is still some research continuing with at least one company. Maybe a combination therapy like the cocktail treatment of AIDS? In the human world anything is possible ,when money is no object and the human spirit is afraid and willing. They say New Yorker's walk the streets looking at the tall building and learn to believe anything is possible.
I watched the news conference live, when he said it, I didn't take it that seriously,(couldn't help seeing it, his addresses seems to be always on TV just before the early Global National news 5:30 Central Time) and I cannot imagine the public taking it seriously either. These print journalists treat this pretty fairly, there is a quote that relates to Trumps “musings” that set context, as the ramblings of family members around the kitchen table. The news conference was a daily update on the virus. The effect is to“promote optimism.”The word “musing” the kitchen table analogy and “promoting optimism,” are exactly true and the way I heard and felt it. This is lacking in so may newsers from our leaders. He was looking off camera at the time he said it,presumably talking to his science/medical experts. He was not talking to the camera directly nor to the public. It was an aside comment or “off handed comment.”
This story in my local newspaper began to examine the pros and mostly cons from every expert and special interest group. Some people took the comments seriously (100 calls to a hot line). “Many Americans were taking Trumps comments as more than sarcastic.” He was not sarcastic when he said them, he was just thinking out loud. A person cannot be more genuine.You have to think confused people or people who want clarification will get correct information when they call any agency.
There was a movie years ago that inspired kids to lie on the center line of highways. Some were killed.
I am not a Trump supporter ( but not a typical mushy middle Canadian either) but since he got elected I have become very interested in just how he communicates. He speaks in headlines. It is fascinating, how he gets away with it. Reporting his “musings” is a trap that may result in Trump getting re-elected on negative news coverage alone. The public sees the old formula of media to pick up on “musings,” as the lede. It looks like unfair cherry picking and piling on by media. Trumps gives as good as he gets. This is kitchen table talk around the world. It is pointless theater, unless it isn't. If reformers can delete their personal dislike for Trump the man, the easier it is to objectively analyze and the more interesting his presidency becomes regarding goals. Looking back at Nixon is a good equivalent.
I would say he is more like an turn -around CEO ,NHL or NFL coach who was hired to change the culture from formerly a championship winner, but not has not won in recent memory back to championship form. He reminds me of guys with names like “Punch”, or “Iron” Mike,or just Bill, These are short term conditioning door kickers, others are 3 year builders with draft choices, guys who upset everyone,trading away the best players and making everyone afraid. Everyone who is or was a fan, the ones who knew the past glory of the franchise, gets it. With top players now traded or now ridiculed,they are the ones cheering the change. The press is horrified and dismayed after losing their long time best quotes. This is a tabloid formula. The public sees Trump passing every media accusation and test from FBI inquiries to impeachment even passing a relationship with a porn star. The joke is on media and they fall for it every time. His musing should be in the last paragraphs of every story, but that won't get ratings. It is not helping newspapers to be a day late after the fact with a fair story.
Trump stands with the generation of guys like Don Cherry, that don't back up and don't back down and never apologize,they just go forward.This is the hockey code, a generals code in war time,it is the male code.
This story on Trump is a pretty good and fair newspaper treatment, newspapers have to worry about being sued. It is a good hand brake.
Television went crazy with it as usual, there are few new angles to this story and social distancing, hand washing and sneezing into sleeves is getting repetitive.
Trump does fairly relate to the kitchen table uncle,not unlike myself. I am sure many Americans see themselves in that role. Lively conversation makes people think, like what's is happening in a heavily taxed Sweden.
People like innovators who think differently especially when the prevailing thinking seems to be narrow, potentially damaging in the long term and abundantly cautious. The Swedes are doing just fine, as of the same day's paper, a story headline Sweden's Numbers Leveling Despite Loose Restrictions a story by Niclas Rolander (Bloomberg).”Schools, gyms, cafes,bars, and restaurants remained open throughout the spread...” The country had a higher death toll that the rest of Scandinavia but also less than Italy without the economic disruption. Their recovery is in a good position. North America, Canada for sure DEPRESSION and a big tax bill that will take decades to repay.
Sweden has a very good health care system that was not over taxed and there was no shortage of PPE. Nursing homes deaths were still a problem just like everywhere with deaths. It turns out about 50% of Sweden's homes are single person occupied, so self distancing was easier. Swedes were very compliant regarding social distancing,something that was very foreign eight weeks ago in North America. Instead of the most expensive abundance of caution their government went with cheaper form of ,just caution. In fact it was very daring and going against the science but it relied of the ingenuity of the public in taking informed responsibility for their own health. It could never happen here. Maybe next time.
Protests in the US and Canada against the shutdown began this last week. People are hurting. Trump talks to people on Twitter like FDR spoke to Americans during his fireside chats. He is building the navy like Teddy Roosevelt, his family is working in the White House like JFK , a China reset like Nixon, scandal like Bill Clinton and his troubled Camelot with his model wife and young son are all things the American public have seen before. They are familiar with. This is a Quentin Tarantino presidency.
So Trump is having a “fireside chat,” in a way. The purpose is to give the public something the media is not, imagination and hope that no stone is left upturned. The television and online media provides hope to the healthy through social distancing and song , the NFL Draft a big lift for football fans. Well done if you are not sick and dying. American ingenuity. The very sick need an imaginative cure. A cure even if it is four years ahead of the best cure. Most people on ventilators do not survive. What do sick people have to lose ,Trump says. He has a point.
Interesting science.
The product name WD-40 was derived from the 40th attempt at success to make a degreasing spray. There were 39 failures. The vaccine for Polio had an early and a late solution. The first was a quickly formulated with a controversial injection by Jonas Salk 1954 using dead virus, a better one was made 4 years later by DR. Albert Sabin using a live virus oral vaccine. In 2000 there was yet another.
Penicillin was invented totally by mistake and Nitrous oxide (1772) was used as a party trick until someone thought it would make a good anesthetic. NASA'S famous mission statement has an extra line “failure is not an option. It is a requirement.” by the Helen Snodgrass essay on How to Fail Intelligently. Mr Trump should read as should media. Opinion by Ken Gigliotti 2020-04-25
Topic: Trumps Hand Sanitizer For The Soul & A Good Print Story (Read 975 times)