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Where Things Stand: Choosing Between Covering A Sitting POTUS And Reporters’ Health

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Members of the White House Press Corps wait in line to be administered a test for COVID-19 ahead of the Coronavirus Task Force press briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, on April 9, 2020. - The White House ... Members of the White House Press Corps wait in line to be administered a test for COVID-19 ahead of the Coronavirus Task Force press briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, on April 9, 2020. - The White House announced that everyone in the room attending the briefing would be given a COVID-19 test, with results expected before the start of the briefing. (Photo by JIM WATSON / AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images) MORE LESS

October 13, 2020 1:01 p.m.

The nation’s top news outlets are no strangers to the task of weighing how to cover this unprecedented president. Over the last few years, they’ve wrestled with how to avoid both-siderism, what to do with his distraction techniques, and whether or not to fact-check the blustering, evidence-free speaker.

But now newsroom leaders are facing a new challenge with President Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis: How do they justify risking reporters’ lives in order to cover the public health-defying campaign?

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