The Great Smoky Mountain Journal
Source:
Tuesday, January 01, 2019 02:42 PM
Anti-Trump Members Of Mainstream Media Bash President's Decision To Target Highly Qualified Doctor To Lead VA
Dr. Ronny Jackson was appointed by President Obama, served in Iraq, is a highly trained Navy admiral and even on faculty at a Harvard-affiliated hospital. But media members apparently blasted his looming nomination to head Veterans Affairs simply because he dared to give President Trump a clean bill of health.
The BBC tweeted that Trump picked his doctor to replace fired Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, promoting Donald Trump Jr. to defend his father’s choice.
“You mean ADMIRAL Ronny Jackson who BTW was also Obama’s doctor? Just so we are clear and eliminate any of what your conveniently misleading headline suggests,” the president’s oldest son tweeted.
The Hill’s health care columnist compared Jackson’s appointment to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao's being replaced with an Uber driver. MSNBC’s Peter Alexander went out of his way to say Jackson had "no real experience heading a sprawling and problem-filled bureaucracy like the VA."
Many headlines regarding Jackson’s nomination simply referred to him as Trump’s doctor and completely ignored his qualifications. MSN wrote, “VA secretary to resign, Trump to nominate personal physician,” while Reuters wrote, "Shulkin to resign and President Trump will nominate his personal physician.”
CNBC’s breaking news tweet said, “Trump will nominate personal doctor Ronny Jackson to take over.”
“There were lots of names floated in the search to replace David Shulkin,” CNN’s Kaitlan Collins tweeted. ” I’m not sure anyone predicted it would be the president’s physician.”
Jackson is not Trump’s “personal physician,” despite what liberal media members have stated. He is the White House physician, responsible for overseeing the care of the president – any president – and Obama appointed him to the role in 2013.
CNN’s chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta, attempted to mock Jackson, tweeting a quote uttered in jest by the White House physician.
“Flashback — Dr Ronny Jackson on Trump: "I told the President that if he had a healthier diet over the last 20 years he might live to be 200 years old,” Acosta tweeted as news of Jackson’s new gig was unfolding.
Back in January, it was the media that appeared to be in bad shape after Jackson gave the commander-in-chief a clean bill of health. The disbelieving media scoffed at the official report, mocking the doctor's findings, offering its own diagnoses and ultimately questioning the credentials of Jackson, a U.S. Navy rear admiral.
Jackson declared that Trump was in "excellent health," with the exception of being a tad overweight, needing more exercise and taking medication for high cholesterol – things that the president has in common with millions of Americans.
CNN's chief medical correspondent, Sanjay Gupta, was ridiculed across social media for declaring that Trump has heart disease despite Jackson saying otherwise.
Reporters spent months diagnosing the president as mentally unfit for office and unstable, and there was even speculation Trump had early-onset Alzheimer’s disease or some other form of dementia. So many liberal pundits appeared disappointed when Jackson declared Trump was healthy.
The Federalist even published a story headlined, “10 of the dumbest questions reporters asked during Trump’s health press conference,” that details the embarrassing line of questions that makes it hard for traditional journalists to defend their anti-Trump peers.
Considering the plethora of CNN staffers mocking Jackson's nomination with misleading comments, it should come as no surprise that the network is citing anonymous White House officials to claim Jackson’s performance during the January press conference helped him land the nomination.
Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera probably summed it up best, tweeting, “This is so typical, the media’s unsavory passion to denigrate.”
Brian Flood covers the media for Fox News. Follow him on Twitter at @briansflood.