‘So Embarrassed for You’: BBC Reporter Attacked for Hours Over Tweet About Biden’s Mask-Wearing

Caleb HoweDec 4th, 2021, 4:21 pm
 
Biden not wearing a mask and wearing mask at different times.

Win McNamee, Samuel Corum, Getty Images

BBC correspondent Tara McKelvey drew the extreme wrath of “blue check” Twitter on Friday night and well into Saturday afternoon after reporting about President Joe Biden‘s mask-wearing in a restaurant.

McKelvey was with the pool on Friday as they waited for President Biden to finish up at Imperfecto restaurant in Washington, D.C. She tweeted from outside that a colleague, Justin Sink of Bloomberg, had observed Biden in the restaurant “not wearing a mask,” and added that when Biden was outside “in front of the cameras” he was wearing one.

It was only a couple of months ago that President Biden was spotted in another restaurant not wearing his mask. In that case, there were photos and video showing it was while he was walking around, not just at the table with food.

McKelvey’s report did not specify whether he was at a table or exclusively at a table maskless. But that angle was snagged by progressives, journalists, and pundits as the basis for a serious outrage surge.

That barely scratches the surface of the verified user swarm of journos and liberal commenters that came out of the woodwork to attack this particular instance of mask-shaming, suddenly.

This exchange was one of the more recent today:

So TV writer Bill Prady is baffled, as folks like Atlantic writer and frequent MSNBC guest Tom Nichols seem to be, about why on earth anyone would mention Joe Biden not wearing a mask while inside a restaurant.

Keeping in mind that although many of the tweets suggested that Biden – who has a very noticeable cold at the moment – only took his mask off while putting food in his mouth, but that this was not something mentioned by the reporter or established after the fact, there were also people not baffled by the report. Especially considering that this “gotcha” game has already been underway for months and months and months.

Pradheep Shanker, a prominent contributor to sites such as National Review and The American Spectator on subjects related to health policy, was among those not confused.

That is a factual statement. Not only do individual airlines like Delta and American explicitly require masks to cover your face “between bites and sips,” the TSA has released that as their official requirement(PDF). California uses that same guideline for diners in restaurants, though to no giant blue check revolt.

So in answer to tweets like this one:

… it would certainly be fair to point out that there are a lot of covid concerned public officials who actually do not agree you should take your mask off entirely while eating. However, it is also fair to say most people are not actually doing something that silly.

Still, the case has been made many times over the last two years that public officials should set a good example even if they are not in a setting that specifically requires a particular precaution. Plus, catching officials who do not do that has practically been a sport on cable news and among verified journalists on Twitter for most of that time, though perhaps not quite so often with Democrats.

Some on Twitter responded more to the responses to the BBC reporter than to the reporter herself.

Some simply noted, as Tom Nichols did above, that the wearing of masks has become “theater” in many circumstances that involve public figures.

But most responses, at least among verified users, were of the vicious variety, such as this exemplary moment from writer and director Jay Arnold:

The GOP got in on it, too, of course.

It’s safe to say that verified progressives and liberals on Twitter are very unhappy that someone talked about Biden’s mask-wearing. Seeing an opportunity to mock that report for its implication of an absurd constraint – that is, trying to eat while wearing a mask – they lashed out in enormous numbers. The exact enormous numbers which fail to turn out when any another policy related to the pandemic could be called absurd, such as the TSA and individual airlines or Gov. Gavin Newsom saying explicitly and in print to wear a mask literally while you are eating.

Perhaps if mask theater has in fact become exposed as ridiculous, and through this tweet episode we can now expect even progressives and journalists to object to objectively silly rules and requirements at last, then the whole thing was worth it.

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Caleb Howe - Contributing Editor

Caleb Howe is an editor and writer focusing on politics and media. Former managing editor at RedState. Published at USA Today, Blaze, National Review, Daily Wire, American Spectator, AOL News, Asylum, fortune cookies, manifestos, napkins, fridge drawings...