(AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)

The media exhibit zero curiosity about the hydroxychloroquine merits and focus only on the narrative.

What more can be said about a national press corps that declared not enough was being done by the administration to come up with a solution and now complains that one may be available? Stepping back from the story a few paces makes this sound like an entirely preposterous concept, yet we are living in that very reality. As the President is trying to arrange for the availability of a possible remedy to the viral outbreak, most of what we are receiving from the media figures these days is intemperate grousing over the prospect.

The New York Times has been on a remarkably inept roll this week regarding its approach to the drug that is showing promise worldwide as a weapon against the viral contagion. Yesterday, we were told by the outlet that a company producing the drug hydroxychloroquine had been invested in by President Trump, and this was supposedly the motivation to his touting it so energetically. That story unraveled faster than a sweater made from a communist bloc sweatshop. Today’s new narrative is even lamer.

The Times has come out to announce that another drug maker is assumed to be guilty of some such insurrection because someone in its management has a familiarity with the President. In the true NY Times style during the Trump Era, it is all about getting the blaring headline out first and then they will clean the mess up later in a less notable fashion.

Drugmakers gearing up to produce hydroxychloroquine include Amneal Pharmaceuticals, whose co-founder Chirag Patel, is a member of Trump National Golf Course Bedminster in NJ and has golfed with Mr. Trump at least twice since he became president: https://t.co/07iWopCZwP

— Jesse Drucker (@JesseDrucker) April 7, 2020

The news aspect of this is so suspect as to become laughable. The Six Degrees of Deplorable aspect is infantile, at best, but even if there were anything suspect behind this tenuous connection the question then becomes, ”So what?!’’ Is not the focus right now to work any means possible to get a solution on the market for those afflicted? Is the point here to say this pharmaceutical is somehow invalidated because Trump swung a club with one executive a couple of times? What is the Times even doing trafficking in such a shallow ‘’gotcha’’ report that could only impede the delivery of a potentially helpful medication?

To even suggest there is a nefarious corporate component in all of this is embarrassing. Just as the story yesterday of possible investment motivations by the President imploded due to facts, so, too, does this wan expose. The drug in question is a generic, one on the market since the 1950s. As such, the profit potential is severely limited; note we are now discussing two drug makers providing the same medication. Others have also contributed to the national stockpile. Profits become all but eliminated when you realize the companies have been donating the supplies. Hard to sell us on a craven capitalist plot when money is not even exchanging hands.

The best way to measure what the press wants to craft as a narrative is in the balance of reporting. While outlets have covered some of the details surrounding the drug hydroxychloroquine and the potential benefits in fighting the COVID-19 virus, the bulk of the coverage on the drug has centered on Donald Trump’s insistence upon it as a potential solution. Instead of informing the public, the primary focus has been on dredging up any and all potential negatives involving HCQ.

Note how many of the articles about the drug, as well as the questions asked at the daily task force briefings, are intent on raising doubts about the efficacy of the drug when those concerns are actually addressed if the barest of research is conducted. Reporters act as if Trump is telling people to ingest a drug found in vending machines, when it is only available via doctor’s prescription. The talk of potentially harmful or even fatal side-effects is childish when concerning a drug known for generations.

The worst aspects of HCQ side effects are realized after long term usage. The applications of HCQ for COVID-19 have been with a mere 5 day application protocol. It cannot be deemed reckless of Trump to suggest this is potentially useful for the new flu strain when the drug already has over a dozen off-label applications, some regarding similar usages. These are all details which are researchable. Journalists can obtain these specifics, and report on them to the public.

Instead, they resort to digging through investment portfolios to come up with tangential connections which are intoned to be evil and therefore must be stopped. Public health and well-being be damned. The important thing, for the press, is tearing down the President.