President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Monday, April 13, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Each Monday, since January 2012, the Washington Examiner’s Paul Bedard features a “Mainstream Media Scream” selection in his “Washington Secrets” column. Each pick is then rated by Media Research Center’s Vice President of Research, Brent Baker, on a scale of one to five “screams.” Baker found the following diatribe from The Baltimore Sun’s David Zurawik to be so egregious, he gave it a full five screams. See for yourself.

So triggered by President Trump’s daily White House briefings, Zurawik crosses the line in a reckless rant leaving others on the panel slightly amused, but speechless. Zurawik says:

People are dying these horrible deaths. Health workers are risking their lives daily. And to see him come out there and for 90 minutes, and two hours, sometimes, doing exactly what you said — he’s spinning a narrative. And the narrative is, ‘I didn’t do anything wrong. I was ahead of everybody. I was great. The federal government’s doing great work.’ And it’s an outrageous lie. But what’s worse is every minute he spends doing that, he is not getting respirators to hospitals, he’s not helping the states out with the kind of PPE they need. People are dying because of his foolishness. It’s really foolishness at this point.

You know, America — you know, folks who loved him, fine. You voted for him. You stuck it to the elites for three years. But now your loved ones can die. The game’s over. This isn’t reality TV anymore. People are dying and this guy is acting a fool.

(Note: In the first video below (1:00), Zurawik recites only the above remarks. In the second video, he expands upon those comments.)

Obviously, the most shocking takeaway from Zurawik’s diatribe is that he considers himself an elite. This disgusting, raving lunatic believes he is superior to us.

CNN’s Brian Stelter, surprisingly, asks Zurawik, “Don’t you think it’s too simplistic to say it’s just Trump’s fault? You’re in Maryland. I grew up in Maryland. There’s a nursing home near where I grew up. Eighteen people have died at that nursing home so far. And I can’t just blame the White House for that. Those local authorities have got to be blamed for that, too.”

This question seems to break the spell for Zurawik and he backpedals – at first.

Zurawik replies, “It’s not just Trump’s fault by any stretch of the imagination. But he is now the leader and he has to act like a leader…The only leadership we’re seeing is from the governors.”

Then he begins to heat up again and blames Trump for not supplying enough ventilators to the states. Actually, Trump has. Zurawik might be surprised to hear that New York has used less than 15% of the 30,000 ventilators Cuomo demanded several weeks ago. Shortly after Vice President Pence had delivered 4,000 ventilators to New York State, which were sitting in a warehouse, Cuomo asked reporters passionately, “What am I going to do with 400 ventilators when I need 30,000? You [President Trump] pick the 26,000 people who are going to die because you only sent 400 ventilators.” (Cuomo mistakenly said 400 instead of 4,000.)

This cannot even remotely be considered journalism.

Baker explains Bedard’s weekly pick: “Will journalists ever tire of this pernicious ‘Trump is causing people to die’ storyline? It’s lost its potency through repetition, to say nothing of inaccuracy. And if Trump is so incompetent, why does Zurawik want him spending more time on logistics? What Trump says at briefings certainly annoys reporters, but how does it prevent thousands of government workers at all levels, and the healthcare industry, from doing what they think best?”

Rating: Five out of five screams.

Watch the video:

“People are dying because of his [Trump] foolishness” – Balitimore Sun’s @DavidZurawik on CNN’s @ReliableSources. “You voted for him, you stuck it to the elites for three years, but now your loved ones can die, the game’s over.” pic.twitter.com/ILW7K8f3QA

— Brent Baker (@BrentHBaker) April 12, 2020

Baltimore Sun media critic @DavidZurawik: "Folks who loved him, fine. You voted for him. You stuck it to the elites for three years. But now, your loved ones can die. The game's over. This isn't reality TV anymore…" https://t.co/HpzDz5Cinj

— Reliable Sources (@ReliableSources) April 13, 2020