CBS News Goes Full Fake but Accurate With Correction on Viral Crying Nurse Video
FILE – In this Oct. 4, 2018 file photo, a Trump supporter holds up a T-shirt reading “You Are Fake News” before a rally by President Donald Trump in Rochester, Minn. Local members of the media says they’ve noticed more hostility from the public since Trump began his attacks on ‘fake news.’ Trade groups are spreading safety tips because of the incidents. (AP Photo/Jim Mone, File)
You knew this was coming.
Several days ago, CBS News tweeted out a now-viral video of a nurse crying over not being able to wear a mask. The description made it sound as if her hospital had run out of or outright denied her use of protective equipment. The indication was clear. This was Trump’s fault because doctors and nurses aren’t getting the supplies they need.
Here’s the original video.
In a word, the description of the video and the situation have now been exposed as nonsense. The background of the woman who made the video has also come under serious, relevant scrutiny. My colleague Jennifer Van Laar wrote on some revelations last night.
For example, she claims to be bi-polar and had not worked as a nurse for a year prior to this episode.
In short, this is a woman who admits she has serious mental issues having a breakdown over procedures she didn’t understand. Her social media is rife with oddities, including a three-week-old video in which she mocks the current pandemic.
That didn’t stop CBS News from pushing this without even attempting to vet it. Now, they have issued a “correction” and it’s channeling Dan Rather’s “fake but accurate” claim.
Oh, you don’t say?
What actually happened here is that the hospital leadership did not want the virus spreading by allowing possibly compromised masks to be worn outside rooms. The thought process being that if a mask was contaminated, it would remain isolated. Further, they did not want nurses to bring in their own masks as there’s no way to know if they’ve been properly sterilized. Nothing about those requests is out of line and the context is that they were trying to keep everyone safe.
But this nurse showed up and then quit in a fury after one day because she didn’t even have the expertise to understand why the protocols were in place. Despite that, CBS News and a myriad of other blue-check mark accounts (including Bernie Sanders) shared the video without any question.
Even then, CBS News’ follow-up tweet still doesn’t tell the whole story because they don’t want to tell the whole story. You’d think a journalist outfit would seek to actually garner the details and question why someone with a bi-polar disorder said the things she said. Instead, we get a meager correction that doesn’t take responsibility for the originally awful reporting. That’s the quality of our mainstream media these days.