Friday on HBO’s Real Time, host Bill Maher criticized media coverage of the coronavirus, saying “nonstop gloom and doom … gives Trump the chance to play the optimist, and optimists tend to win American elections.”
“Now that we’re starting to see some hope in all this, don’t hope-shame me,” Maher said. “The problem with nonstop gloom and doom is it gives Trump the chance to play the optimist, and optimists tend to win American elections. FDR said, ‘The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.’ You know, as full of shit as he is, I could see Trump riding that into a second term.”
“Everyone knows Corona is no walk in the park,” Maher added. “Because you literally can’t walk in the park. But at some point, the daily drumbeat of depression and terror veers into panic porn.” And “you don’t have to put hot sauce on a jalapeno. We need the news to calm down and treat us like adults. Trump calls you fake news, don’t make him be right.”
But the Trump-deranged media can’t help themselves, and Americans know Trump is right.