CNN’s Kaitlan Collins is not too happy that a video of her removing her mask the moment she thought the cameras had turned off has gone viral (see Busted: CNN Reporter Who Chastised Trump for Non-Mask Usage Rips Off Mask the Moment She Thinks the Cameras Are Off). In fact, it’s gone so viral that President Trump and his sons have gotten in on sharing it.

For background, here’s the original video.

The mask is for show? pic.twitter.com/XnRLiEJ1L5

— Power Tie (@realPowerTie) May 15, 2020

And here’s the response from the President.

A CNN Faker! https://t.co/boSTXeIWcU

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 17, 2020

That incensed Collins, who fired back citing the number of people who have died from the virus.

Nearly 90,000 Americans have been killed by coronavirus, and the president is tweeting about me pulling my mask down for six seconds on Friday. https://t.co/UYib8tS7pO

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) May 18, 2020

That’s a cute deflection, but it ignores the reality of her behavior. Collins is not just a bystander here. She has actively criticized the Trump administration for not wearing masks, even at outdoor briefings where people are socially distanced. She’s also written articles on the matter, again taking shots over non-mask usage by the President. If she’s going to be such a Karen about this matter, she can’t then be the person who rips their mask off when they think no one who will tell is looking. She wasn’t socially distancing when she removed her mask. She was doing the opposite, walking into the crowd of her colleagues after taking it off. That’s hypocrisy and deserves to be called out.

“It’s ok if I’m a complete hypocrite because other things also happen.” https://t.co/s2WyPlrlid

— The Partyman (@PartymanRandy) May 18, 2020

But let’s also talk about how stupid this talking point is in general, and for the record, Jake Tapper tried the same response this morning.

A better focus for you, Mr. President:

* at least 1,482,916 cases of coronavirus in the US;

* at least 89,318 dead in the US from coronavirus;

* tens of of millions unemployed and even more suffering.

Insult me all you want; please focus on helping the American people, sir. https://t.co/LgYqrwpRhK

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) May 17, 2020

Are these people under the impression that Trump pointing out their hypocrisy in a tweet is killing people? Or stopping us from developing a vaccine? These kinds of false conflations are weak attempts at argument. Tapper could actually acknowledge he and his network’s mistakes. He won’t do that, though.

Regardless, if Collins is so concerned with those 90,000 dead, why is she contradicting that notion by making the story about herself in response? Perhaps she should just stick to the facts and not waste time pretending it’s out of bounds to point out her hypocrisy. Further, why is she removing her mask in the first place if this is all so very important to her?

Nearly 90,000 Americans have been killed by coronavirus, and you continue to make yourself the story. https://t.co/RZ7UpPppXm

— Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) May 18, 2020

Here’s the simple reality. If she is going to take cheap shots at people about mask usage, and her previous shots at Trump were cheap shots that ignore the reality of social distancing, she should expect to take incoming when she’s shown to not follow her own rules. A large part of the country view the media as virtue signaling grifters at this point, perhaps because a large percentage of them are. If Collins, Tapper, or whoever would like to counter that narrative, simply reporting honestly would go much further than responding with deflections and more snark.

If these journalists really believe their new talking point in which they point out the dead resulting from coronavirus, they could start by reporting outside of the lens of just the orange man being bad. Not everything is about Trump, nor is everything Trump’s fault. Some things aren’t preventable and not everything is a scandal. Schoolmarming about masks while not following one’s own rules is doing nothing to help the situation.