Politics - News Analysis

OAN Reporter Banned From Briefing Room for Ignoring Social Distancing Rules and Protocol

I have already written a column on Chanel Rion, the carefree and rule-free “reporter” from OAN, who was not supposed to be in the briefing room today (there is a rotation), and yet crashed the briefing anyway, standing in the back. In any presser, the camera is always on Trump. Usually, I cannot tell who asked the question – except when it’s Rion from OAN. I noticed her question instantly today, it’s always the sugar-coated softball that Trump loves.

Rion is not a “reporter” in any sense of the word. Her job is to further Trump’s interests, serving up a platter of questions that includes derision of Democrats. If someone took a spokesperson for the Trump campaign and gave him or her a press pass and said “Now you’re a reporter. Do your job,” I doubt we’d be able to tell the difference between that person and Rion.

Yet even though the WHCA knows that Rion has “Most Favored” status, still stood up and still kicked out her out.

 

This will make her a martyr of the Right, and one almost has to wonder if that was her plan all along. It is just so easy. If you were with us last night, we noted that the far-Right Trumpers believe it is tough and cool to ignore laws. They sneer at people who believe that a government by law is good, just, and can work. These people aren’t interested in governing. They want to “rule.”

“Objective.”

“Most”

And this:

These people are not a majority, not even close. But there are far too many out there that truly crave a Trump dictatorship. They would sign away the constitution in a minute to let Trump rule as President, Congress and Supreme Court. They are dying to do it.

I saw a tweet today, and I meant to pull it but got distracted. It was from a man who praised Trump with two lines of flags and crosses, which then said: “May Trump’s will be done.” He is their diety, or very very close.

This is getting scary. My brother and I go back and forth between positions, as to whether these people are just laughable kooks that will all fade away once their obsession moves on, or whether they are something much much darker. A movement that wants Trump to declare martial law, and wants to fight (and maybe “bleed”) for that cause.

For now, I’m on the side of laughing at them, because even the Ruperts, Fox and Hannity realize that this virus has caught a lot of them flat-footed, and exposed a great deal of reality about Trump. The average casual Fox viewer is concerned right now, that Trump seems far less infallible, and far less competent. It doesn’t mean they’ll vote Democratic, but they’re not insane. Only the OAN crowd – a minority of the right, is truly dangerous if they gain traction.

Having Rion kicked out of the briefing room is actually a good sign, because I do believe that Trump could allow anyone he wants in that room no matter what the WHCA thinks. Yet they stood up for rules and principles and dared the White House to pushback. That’s a good sign.

****

Peace, y’all

Jason

[email protected] and on Twitter @MiciakZoom

meet the author

Jason Miciak is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is originally from Canada but grew up in the Pacific Northwest. He now enjoys life as a single dad raising a ridiculously-loved young girl on the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He is very much the dreamy mystic, a day without learning is a day not lived. He is passionate about his flower pots and studies philosophical science, religion, and non-mathematical principles of theoretical physics. Dogs, pizza, and love are proof that God exists. "Above all else, love one another."

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