CNN has been critical of President Donald Trump for blaming the Chinese for the coronavirus; however, the network referenced the coronavirus as “The Chinese Coronavirus” on Twitter on January 21.
“A new Chinese coronavirus, a cousin of the SARS virus, has infected more than 200 people since the outbreak began in Wuhan, China, in December. Scientist Leo Poon, who first decoded the virus, thinks it likely started in an animal and spread to humans,” CNN tweeted.
This tweet is the exact copy of the first paragraph in the story called “Coronavirus explained: What you need to know.”
A new Chinese coronavirus, a cousin of the SARS virus, has infected more than 200 people since the outbreak began in Wuhan, China, in December. Scientist Leo Poon, who first decoded the virus, thinks it likely started in an animal and spread to humans. https://t.co/mnZKFC5ZDW
— CNN (@CNN) January 21, 2020
Trump in tweets on Wednesday called the coronavirus the “Chinese Virus.”
I only signed the Defense Production Act to combat the Chinese Virus should we need to invoke it in a worst case scenario in the future. Hopefully there will be no need, but we are all in this TOGETHER!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 18, 2020
I always treated the Chinese Virus very seriously, and have done a very good job from the beginning, including my very early decision to close the “borders” from China – against the wishes of almost all. Many lives were saved. The Fake News new narrative is disgraceful & false!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 18, 2020
Just last week, the network’s White House Correspondent Jim Acosta was critical of the president saying COVID-19 was a “foreign virus.”
“The president referred to the coronavirus as a ‘foreign virus,’ that I think was interesting because, I was talking to sources earlier this evening, one of the points that the president wanted to make tonight, wanted to get across to Americans, is that this virus did not start here, but that they’re dealing it,” Acosta said. “Now, why the president would go as far to describe it as a foreign virus, that is something we’ll also be asking questions about.”
“It is going to come across to a lot of Americans as smacking of xenophobia,” he added.
Jim @Acosta says it is "going to come across to a lot of Americans as smacking of xenophobia" with regards to Trump pointing out the coronavirus started out in Wuhan, China. pic.twitter.com/CFs1GVm3dt
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) March 12, 2020
However, in January Acosta called the COVID-19 virus the “Wuhan Coronavirus.”
Even though the network has been critical of the president blaming the Chinese, CNN’s anchors have commonly used phrases like “Wuhan” and “Chinese”to describe the virus.
Liberal media pundits want you to think referring to the coronavirus as the "Wuhan" or "Chinese" virus is racist.
Here's just a few of the times the liberal media did just that. pic.twitter.com/ss3kV5smSP
— MRCTV (@mrctv) March 12, 2020
Currently, the United States has a little over 9,000 cases of the Chinese coronavirus and 154 people have died from it, according to worldometers.info.
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of Star News Digital Media. If you have any tips, email Zachery at [email protected].
Photo “CNN Center” by Josh Hallet. CC BY 2.0.
