When it comes to COVID-19, there are a few facts that are difficult to massage away, no matter how hard the Chinese government and its shills in the mainstream American media try. Whether the virus started in a lab or a wet market, it first became a serious problem in Wuhan, China. Doctors and scientists in Wuhan became aware of it in December and January, but when they spoke up, they were silenced, sometimes permanently.

In January, as frightening videos emerged showing round-ups and mass sanitation efforts, China insisted that nothing serious was wrong and assured everyone that the disease in Wuhan had not mutated to human-to-human transmission. And at all times, the World Health Organization (WHO) had China’s back.

Throughout January, WHO insisted that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission, even as videos showed Wuhan hospitals packed with patients and China speed-building new facilities. On February 3, WHO was still insisting that there was no need to restrict travel from China. WHO also consistently praised China for its transparency and support for other countries. Meanwhile, it sought to silence Taiwan, which credibly claims to be the legitimate Chinese government and which was giving early warnings about the disaster brewing in China.

When Trump started making noises about freezing WHO funds and investigating WHO’s carrying water for China, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus threatened that there would be body bags. Despite that threat, on April 14, during the daily Wuhan virus briefing, Trump announced that his administration would engage in a 60-to-90 day investigation into WHO’s handling of the pandemic, during which time America would withhold funds from WHO. As matters stand, we currently give WHO $400 to $500 million per year, compared to China’s $40 million annual contributions.

Following Trump’s announcement, Fox News quoted Trump’s statement about WHO and provided information about America’s funding. It then gave a short chronology of WHO’s habit of echoing China’s press releases about the Wuhan virus. Fox finished its report about WHO with the usual Democrat rebuttal that the world will end if WHO doesn’t get money and by saying that Trump has insisted for years that international agencies must be held accountable before getting American money.

CNN and MSNBC took a different approach to reporting on the story. Both reports have as their predicate the theory that Trump is scapegoating WHO because he mismanaged the virus. This is CNN:

Trump's announcement comes in the middle of the worst global pandemic in decades and as he angrily defends his own handling of the outbreak in the United States.

Amid swirling questions about whether he downplayed the crisis or ignored warnings from members of his administration about its potential severity, Trump has sought to assign blame elsewhere, including at the WHO and in the news media.

[snip]

His decision to withdraw funding from the WHO follows a pattern of skepticism of world organizations that began well before the coronavirus pandemic. Trump has questioned US funding to the United Nations, withdrew from global climate agreements and lambasted the World Trade Organization -- claiming all were ripping off the United States.

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said earlier Tuesday that while the WHO and China "made mistakes," Trump is also looking to deflect blame from his own administration.

"Right now, there is a very coordinated effort amongst the White House, and their allies to try to find scapegoats for the fatal mistakes that the President made during the early stages of this virus," he said.

Meanwhile, MSNBC produced a video that’s almost seven minutes long entitled “Failure: Debunking Trump’s dangerous new attack on W.H.O. during pandemic.” If you want to watch it, you can find it here.

In the video, Ari Melber cites to the New York Times attack on Trump to justify claiming that Trump’s attacks on journalists were false. Melber also runs video showing Trump in January saying he thought China was being open and honest. What thrills Melber is when Trump says that WHO is working with China, which is why Trump has faith that China’s being honest. To Melber, that January statement means Trump is lying now when he attacks WHO.

The contrary is true. The statement supports Trump’s current contention that WHO was promulgating China’s lies. Because WHO turned out to be China's mouthpiece, rather than an honest actor, the world was deceived into believing China's lies.

You don’t have to be naïve to believe MSNBC; you just have to be stupid.

The thing to understand about CNN and MSNBC is that they are not reporting the news. One doesn’t go to them for information. One goes to them for Democrat Party talking points. In other words, they are arguing a position.

No wonder the media is enraged by Trump’s press conferences. Finally, Trump gets to argue back.