Did CNN Downplay the COVID Risk of Pro-Biden Celebrations?

The term ‘superspreader’ was not used but coverage noted the lack of social distancing.

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A viral article published by Fox News claims that “CNN doesn’t sound alarm of COVID ‘superspreaders’ as thousands celebrate Biden win in the streets.” The article specifically calls out CNN anchors Wolf Blitzer and Jake Tapper for their “apparent double standard” in coverage of the pro-Biden celebrations on Saturday compared with their coverage of Trump rallies, noting the absence of the term “superspreader” in CNN’s coverage of Biden celebrations and saying that “the network’s concerns about the possible spread of the virus were virtually non-existent Saturday.”

However, as noted in other Fox articles and by CNN itself, that isn’t entirely the case. While Blitzer’s criticism of the gatherings was limited to a comment about a lack of social distancing, and the words “superspreader event” were not used, Tapper repeatedly criticized celebrators for not socially distancing. 

While saying it was encouraging that many appeared to be wearing masks, Tapper stated in one segment: “They are not socially distancing. I hate to be a scold here. But we just had the highest day of infections in the United States, I believe, yesterday was 125,000 Americans with new coronavirus infections. That was the third straight day of more than 100,000. It’s good to see people wearing masks, although for some of them they’re slipping off their face. People also need to socially distance themselves.”

Later in the segment, Tapper added: “there are a lot of public health officials watching this right now and feeling agita, feeling concern.”

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  1. Joe1776

    So Tapper was at noon and he was the only one? Were the other commentators told not to talk about the lack of social distancing? Did they forget about the rules? Why did they suddenly stop mentioning it?

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  2. Joe1776

    Norte dame hasn’t been scolding everyone for months about the virus but when they won in double overtime and then the students rushed the field they got negative press.

    https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/notre-dame-president-disappointed-as-fans-rush-field-during-a-pandemic-after-upset-of-no-1-clemson/

    I don’t think any of the articles about their lack of social distancing even mention all the Biden crowds these kids would have seen on the news all day before the win.

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  3. Joe1776

    That was it the whole day? So then the answer is yes they downplayed it.

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  4. Mcwaala

    A fact check about what Fox News said about how CNN covered something...how is this worth the Dispatch's time?

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    1. Avatar photo
      Tom B.

      Because this horse crap will be peddled endlessly on the Right, and will eventually become canon. "Everyone knows the media is full of it on COVID, and just used it against the Republican party. They didn't say anything about those Biden celebrations, did they?"

      Anything that reduces the likelihood that a specifically polarizing fantasy infects a good chunk of the American populace is worthwhile in my book.

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      1. Joe1776

        After tapper screwed up and talked about the violation of social distancing all the other commentators somehow didn’t mention it at all. Maybe they just forgot about the pandemic.

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        1. Silence

          Yes, I'm sure you were glued to CNN all day. You're wrong- they mentioned it repeatedly.

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      2. Joe1776

        As shown by the extremely sparse mention of social distancing by msm despite the massive violations of social distancing, what the right is saying is obviously not horse crap.

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          Rajeev

          Doubt you watched the coverage. They noted it significantly more than Fox or any network the day Biden won the presidency as well as noting how Biden's official speech was set up at a socially distanced event. There was no sparse mention as you say. That is why fact checks are needed for these type of claims.

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    Jason

    I've heard the virus spreads less actively among those who gathered spontaneously versus those who intended to gather 48-72 hours before an event.

    Sorry Daniel, I'm being a bit pedantic today. I know the point you were making was about the blame, though I don't think anyone was blaming Biden for it - just pointing out the obvious and incontrovertible double standard in media coverage. We spend too much time pointing it out though, as if we expect there to be some shared sense of fairness left to appeal to.

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      Rajeev

      The Trump rallies were intentionally sparse on masking. Some of them were inside maximizing rates of transmission. The contact tracers have traced many clusters specifically to these rallies. The celebrations may have spread Covid but were significantly more safe due to the much higher percentage of masking. This is not some small caveat it is a big deal. The actual superspreader events which resulted in people like Herman Cain, Chris Christie, Mike Lee, etc. getting the coronavirus were indoors without masks and set up by the White House.

      If there are a bunch of packed indoor maskless celebrations of Biden on his election victory then I will admit I'm wrong. But so far there have been no reports of packed indoor events celebrating Biden which is consistent with his public message. So no double standard here at all just clearly different scenarios that people are trying to falsely equate to push the narrative.

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    2. Joe1776

      I blame Biden for also not condemning it. We heard how leadership was lacking with trump but his own followers do this and he said nothing all day. He and the msm clearly have a double standard for democrat rallies and Republican rallies.

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    Jason

    agita ...great word!

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  7. Daniel Rabiner

    There's a bit of a difference between spontaneous groupings of people who aren't practicing social distancing due to the election results and a premeditated grouping of people who aren't practicing social distancing to watch a political leader speak. I'm not saying that the celebrations were a good idea, but it isn't Biden's campaign organized them to occur.

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    1. Joe1776

      They cover democrat spontaneous political events like this and BLM very differently than they do say Republican demonstrations against lockdowns. Compare the rhetoric and you will see why it is obvious they are part of the democratic parties propaganda wing.

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        Rajeev

        The Trump rallies were mostly maskless. The protests and celebrations were almost entirely masked. Similarly, the Republican demonstrations against lockdowns have been stupid because they were purposely maskless and avoided social distancing (Ohio, Michigan, Colorado, etc.) thereby spreading the virus worse slowing down reopening of businesses. Big difference.

        Also, I watched some of this coverage and like Alec notes CNN constantly noted the lack of social distancing like they did with the protests. Whatever people think about CNN, they have been consistently on message about the pandemic since the beginning of February long before it officially reached our shores. Some may think it is overboard but they have constantly called out lack of social distancing and masking.

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