Yale Dude Spanks The New York Times

In response to the article "Trump Suggests Lack of Testing is No Longer a Problem, Governors Disagree," this lecture by infectious disease expert Gregg Gonsalves of Yale University is a pitch-perfect summary of the failures of journalism in the time of Trump.

"This [story] is journalistic malpractice.

"If we don't have scale-up of testing, we will be in lockdown for months and months. There is no debate on this, why frame it like there is one? Next: Trump says earth flat, scientists say otherwise. I don't care how important you think you are, how important you think The New York Times is as a newspaper, but the political desk has been abysmal on this. I say this as someone who has worked on infectious diseases for 30-plus years.

"From Peter Baker's now-infamous hot take of Trump as he 'struggles to find the balance between public reassurance and Panglossian dismissiveness,' your collective reporting on the political aspects of this have been off-the-mark. Everything is a Punch & Judy Show, and the real story of the absolute and continuing failure of the response to the coronavirus gets obscured in your reporting as 'who's winning the day' in DC...

"This is an emergency, act like it. It matters that you're failing, and it's not about a lowly reader trying to score points, but the fact that The New York Times eliding, equivocating on the federal response has consequences for millions of people.

"So, get better. Tell us, why four months into this we STILL have an insufficient number of tests — what happened politically that led us to this point, keeps us still incapable of rising to the task. Tell us...how a culture of amateurism, denigration of expertise took hold in this Administration...

"Do your job. We are facing one of the greatest challenges in American history, largely due to political failures of the current Administration. Dig. Find out what is happening, the roots of the failures. Name names. You have the resources of one of biggest papers in the US. Stop the transcription of press conferences, calls as the news in and of itself. Go deeper. Explain how current American politics led to this epidemiological and economic calamity, and how our leaders are or are not rising to the challenge.

"You may lose your access to certain prized sources inside the White House, the invitations to the best parties in DC, but you'll gain the respect of your readers and rescue your reputations from the disdain of history."