Commentary

'You Wanted A Reality Show Host As President, Well Now You're On Survivor'

"You wanted a reality show host as President. Well now you're on Survivor."

I don't know who created that meme, but he or she should join Joe Biden's campaign, because there's no more effective message for the 2020 race as Americans of all political persuasions realize that having a reality TV show host as President, may at best be entertaining, but at it's worst, it is horrifying.

But that's what we have folks, and he reminds us of it all the time, boasting about the TV "ratings" of his national health crisis press conferences, as if Americans are tuning in to watch him, and as if it is affirmation of what a good job he's been doing. It's not even the right metric, and trumpeting it as a meaningful measure makes us all feel how detached he is from the reality he is hosting.

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Americans are tuning in at record numbers for two reasons: 1) Many are stuck at home due to state or community mandates, or just self preservation; 2) Most of us are scared out of our minds and hoping we'll actually learn something that can help us between all the sideshow histrionics -- self-aggrandizing over his handling ("I'd give myself a 10"), battling self-imposed foes (mostly the press), or just his standard gaslighting.

As entertaining as some might find our reality TV show President in "normal" times, there is something about being in a literal episode of "Survivor" that makes his performance even more alarming for the rest of us.

I've always believed his success wasn't attributable to one thing, but was a combination of performance arts: his natural improvisational instincts, combined with his finely honed PR and Hollywood production experience, plus some good old-fashioned grifting.

It has served him well through some minor American crises -- a few Constitutional ones, trade wars, some actual war or potential ones -- but this time it's personal. Very personal.

While models are just projections until we see their outcomes, the current ones the White House is projecting -- between 100,000 to 240,000 American deaths -- means we are all likely to feel the effects of this crisis in very personal ways. And those numbers may be conservative, as the White House says they are only attainable if we achieve the most optimum "mitigation" possible.

When people ask me how I'm doing, I usually respond, "so far, so good," but I feel like we are in the calm before the storm. But no one will really know until it's over, including how much is just a media effect.

"The problem is the obsessive media coverage is making us hysterical," Bob Guccione Jr. said while we were discussing it over the weekend.

“Sixty-one thousand people died of the flu two years ago. Thirty-four thousand died last year. And in the end, I think the [COVID-19] death toll is going to be a lot less than that," he continued.

I hope he's right. But even if he is, I disagree that this is just media hype, any more than the obsessive wall-to-wall weather reports are when a Category 5 hurricane is approaching a populated area. Yes, it's hysterical, but for good reason -- and if it moves some people to alter behavior they otherwise would not have changed without some hysteria, I think that's a good thing, not a bad thing.

Does it makes us nuts, yes. But sometimes it's good for us to go nuts, because that's the only way some people will do the right thing and take the necessary steps to make it to the next episode of "Survivor."

During our conversation, Guccione asked me why the media doesn't cover the flu he way it's been covering COVID-19. Putting aside the magnitude of epidemiological difference between the two diseases, I said, "maybe the media should."

If the media covered the flu the way it covered COVID-19, it might influence enough people to save tens of thousands of lives each year. I mean, there actually are ways of combating the flu, starting with vaccinations, but also adopting some of the same protocols for battling COVID-19.

Honestly, I think the media should start covering more existential threats with the same "hysteria" it has been covering the current pandemic, especially climate change, because in the long run, there's nothing more threatening than that. And if the only way to change human behavior is to make us hysterical, well, then I'm all in favor of it.

I don't understand climate change deniers, any more than I understand COVID-19 deniers, including some members of my own family.

But I'm starting to see some of them break ranks.

"How can you have a scoreboard that says 2,000 people have died, and tell us it's okay if another 198,000 die? That's a good job? How is that a good job in our country?," popular sports radio host and a diehard supporter of the President Mike Francesca said during an incredibly emotional broadcast Sunday (see below).

I point this out, because to me, Francesca embodies the kind of deniers I know best, White, angry, working class people from Long Island that were happy to have a reality TV host as President, because if nothing else, he owned the Libs.

Well now, they're on "Survivor" with the rest of us too.

15 comments about "'You Wanted A Reality Show Host As President, Well Now You're On Survivor'".
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  1. Len Stein from Visibility Public Relations, April 1, 2020 at 2:16 p.m.

    Let's hope we're on "Survivor" better the 'Apprentice" so T could just fire Covid. As the Book says, reap what ye have sowed...

  2. Ken Kurtz from creative license, April 1, 2020 at 3:23 p.m.

    That meme is based on BS, inasmuch as the first line...

    You Wanted A Reality Show Host As President...

    ... is just more silly hooey from the left, and addresses absolutely nobody in real life.

    I didn't vote for Trump, voted Libertarian in 2016 as I had twice before when the Republican, and Dem candidates felt unsuitable to me, but I don't know ANYBODY that voted for Trump because they wanted "A Reality Show Host For President." So, bullshit from the get-go, a red herring, a strawman easily set up to be knocked down.

    Let's never forget the fatigue that sets in after eight years. How, after nearly a decade of Slick Willy's smarminess, and anti-ME-TOOism, a guy like Dubya could start to look OK to many (Not to me though. Dubya never looked OK to me!).

    How after eight years of Dubya's "What, Me Worry?" Alfred E Neumanism the relatively cool, understated cerebralism of Obama could start to look OK to many (including me).

    How after eight year's of Obama's stilted shepherding of us through the most tepid economic recovery in history due in part to the silly liberal policies that so many predicted would lead to tepid, and laggard recovery, and his lie about wanting to be "the most inclusive President in history" by reaching across the aisle to a greater degree than ever before (he actually reached across the aisle LESS than any previous President in history, and got little accomplished in his eight years as a result)... even a buffoon like Trump (the anti-Obama) could start looking OK to many.

    Francesca aside, I don't see that Trump fatigue has sufficently set in, so it's likely we will have four more years (the fact that the left has been so irresponsible with its demonization of Trump for almost four years now makes that four more years "a fait accompli). The silver lining on that, I suppose, is he is more capable of sheperding us through this new recession caused by coronavirus than Bernie, or Joe would be (or Obama for that matter).

  3. Ken Kurtz from creative license, April 1, 2020 at 3:59 p.m.

    As for Francesca's obvious frustration (just listened), he is asking the wrong questions. He's actually asking "strawman" questions based upon pure speculation, and conjecture. The question is not whether this country losing 200,000 people to coronavirus constitutes a "good job" (it might, it might not, but we're in no position to make such a call now).

    Question 1: Why, Joe Mandese, does your piece underreport the number of American deaths two years ago from that year's sixteen week flu season by 25%? The article below speaks to 80,000 American deaths from the garden variety flu that came through during that sixteen week season...

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/last-years-flu-broke-records-for-deaths-and-illnesses-new-cdc-numbers-show/2018/09/26/97cb43fc-c0ed-11e8-90c9-23f963eea204_story.html

    ... yet you report only 60,000 deaths. Why? And why were no eyebrows raised during that flu season of 2017/2018 when 80,000 died? When5000 Americans were perishing every week for 16 weeks?

    Honestly, if one considers that we're already in Week 13 of Coronavirus in America (many say we're actually in Week 15, with the first American cases presenting as early as mid-December, but with no testing, or proper diagnoses but every symptom of COVID 19) the potentially more reasonable question is...

    We had 80,000 Americans die from flu two years ago throughout that SIXTEEN week flu season. So far, in the FIFTEEN Week coronavirus pandemic (just one less week) we've only had 2000 Americans perish. 78,000 fewer Americans dead from COVID 19 in about the same timeframe. In what parallel universe is that "not OK?" In what parallel universe, all things compared, and considered, does that not represent a "good job" by somebody, or some group of people?  

  4. Kenneth Fadner from MediaPost, April 1, 2020 at 5:36 p.m.

    Ken Kurtz: I suggest we wait until pandemic Coronavirus season is over to see whether it's a "good job" or bad job relative to flu.

  5. Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited, April 1, 2020 at 9:32 p.m.

    Got my Covid-19 shot today before going to the supermarket 6:30 am for a few things and to pick up other stuff for the over 70 crowd in the building. Lots of empty shelves. How 'bout youse guys ? Did you get yours just like the shots the local elementary school teachers got where my friend contracted the virus from another teacher ? She is 77 and her husband is 86, now in the hospital on a ventilator, who has been on chemo for the past 4 years yet still was selling cars full time (therapy for him). His odds are not so good. He should have gotten his protective shot. Just another story. Yeah, I do know what the flu turned into pneumonia is like. This is not the same.

  6. Ken Kurtz from creative license replied, April 1, 2020 at 10:03 p.m.

    Funny, Ken Fadner.

    First, I suggest the same thing, in principle, in my post.

    Second, 80,000 dead in a standard 16 week flu season is certainly fair game for commentary, and assessment vis a vis the 2000 dead in about the same timeframe from COVID 19 two years later. Most funny is the thought of who will determine when "pandemic Coronavirus season is over."

    Will the looney left make that determination to build more strawmen?

    Maybe we eliminate the concept of a standard 16 week flu season altogether (although, the notion that flu slows down, and ultimately disappears when weather warms does somewhat warm the cockles of my heart because many doctors are saying that warmer weather will have a similar effect on coronaviris). Do we simply start comparing annual American deaths from flu with annual deaths from coronavirus for a more apples to apples contrast? 

  7. Ken Kurtz from creative license replied, April 1, 2020 at 10:15 p.m.

    Good for you, Paula. Did you stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, adding extra weight to your silly comment that "coronavirus turned into flu is markedly different than flu turned into pneumonia?"

    Pneumonia is pneumonia. Always deadly for segments of our population regardless of its genesis.

    So, you were injected with a "potential" protective vaccine today? Good for you, and good luck with that. With the flu killing 80,000 two years ago, and around 50,000 every other year on record, we still can't seem to make that annual protective vaccine effective for more than around 2 to 3 out of 10 annually.

    Me, my wife, and one daughter have you beat. We've already beaten coronavirus, with the attendant antibodies that come with that. 

  8. Ken Kurtz from creative license, April 1, 2020 at 10:32 p.m.

    Sorry. Meant to write...

    Good for you, Paula. Did you stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, adding extra weight to your silly comment that "coronavirus turned into pneumonia is markedly different than flu turned into pneumonia?"

    Pneumonia is pneumonia. Always deadly for segments of our population regardless of its genesis.

  9. Arthur Tung from Presbytery of Philadelphia replied, April 2, 2020 at 12:19 a.m.

    Of course, Trump didn't self-identify as a "reality-show host."  Do you really think that's Joe's point?  But reality-show host was what Trump was best known for -- and the most successful at (in a socially-acceptable way, that is).

    Meanwhile, to assess this *pandemic*, I'll listen to doctors and scientists.

  10. Douglas Ferguson from College of Charleston, April 2, 2020 at 10:20 a.m.

    Thanks for reminding us how much you dislike Trump. It never gets old.

  11. Ken Kurtz from creative license, April 2, 2020 at 10:58 a.m.

    You're welcome, Doug. As you know, I'm not alone in my dislike of Trump (many voted for him in the midst of their active "dislike"). 

    What the left needs to come to grips with, is that there are many things more unlikable than even that insolent buffoon, and the left is engaged in dozens of those more unlikable things right now, to an even greater degree than it was preceding the election of 2016.

    The left's engagement with those unlikable, and despicable things in the months leading up to 2016 is what got Trump elected in the first place, and almost incomprehensibly, it is doubling down on those unlikable, despicable, and reprehensible things today.

    I'm glad it "never gets old for you." Particularly since my dislike for Trump will continue ad infinitum as far as I can tell...

    But so will my disdain for ideologically blinded lies, deceit, and irresponsible demonization. I dislike Trump enough for what's true about him without being barraged with the hatred of the left that piles on with UNTRUTHS designed to make me dislike him even more.

    That's where the paradoxical backfire occurs every time, yet the left is blind to it.

  12. Ken Kurtz from creative license, April 2, 2020 at 11:35 a.m.

    Hey Arthur Tung. Not sure what you meant by...

    Of course, Trump didn't self-identify as a "reality-show host." Do you really think that's Joe's point?

    Here's what Joe wrote at the beginning of his piece...

    I don't know who created that meme, but he or she should join Joe Biden's campaign, because there's no more effective message for the 2020 race as Americans of all political persuasions realize that having a reality TV show host as President, may at best be entertaining, but at it's worst, it is horrifying. But that's what we have folks...

    You ask if I really think that's what Joe's point is, which is confusing. Joe wrote what he wrote. He's clearly espousing his belief that MOST EFFECTIVE MESSAGE for the Biden campaign would be that America got what it wanted, a reality TV host, and how we are now stuck with that "horror."

    Joe's point couldn't be more clear there. My caution to him was that the meme itself, the very meme that he thinks should be the foundation af all Biden's messaging, is so incomplete, and inconclusive that it is misleading, and defamatory, like so much of what the left is putting out there. As such, it would not only not help Biden get elected, it would pardaoxically help Trump get re-elected because it is nothing more than an ideologically driven caricature.

    Trump was a reality TV show personality (I don't think I ever disliked him more than when he was doing The Apprentice) but as somebody that was born, and raised in NY, reducing that unlikable, insolent buffoon to "reality TV host" alone (regardless of his relative "success" in that arena) is incredibly shortsighted, and ignorant as a campaign strategy. 

  13. Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited, April 2, 2020 at 12:01 p.m.

    Mr. Kertz: You are so hyped up, you decided to read what you wanted in which I wrote. You translated 2 things into ..... babble. Here's a hint for 1 of them - no, I didn't get a Covid-19 shot. OY.

  14. Ken Kurtz from creative license, April 2, 2020 at 12:33 p.m.

    Whatever Paula. You wrote...

    Got my Covid-19 shot today before going to the supermarket 6:30 am...

    I've been sick with coronavirus for fifteen days now, reading the WSJ every day to keep up, and I thought that perhaps I could take you take you at your word on at least that one thing.

    Yes, I assumed that you were taking part in one for the NIH trials going on with experimental vaccines right now. Apparently, you are not. But then again, the lesson is probably to NOT BELIEVE a single, solitary thing espoused by revolutionary "comrade puppets" like you ever again.

  15. PJ Lehrer from NYU, April 3, 2020 at 11:30 a.m.

    People make bad decsions when they are under stress...
    http://pjlehrer.blogspot.com/2020/04/trump-is-making-bad-covid-19-decisions.html

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