The Amsler Grid: you should see a dot and bunch of squares.
September 4 // August 21, 2017
"Blinded by the light." And the headlines.
NO ONE will believe this but just about two weeks ago, we all had tons o’fun with internet memes about President Trump and the solar eclipse. Remember that?
As documented by Time Magazine, we predictably and immediately jumped on the viewing eclipse activity from the White House balcony and enjoyed sharing our reactions to the President taking his unprotected views of the celestial event. No argument here – even glancing at the sun for a few seconds during the eclipse seemed to be an unnecessary risk and showed poor judgement on the part of the President.
We don’t know about anyone else, but Two Weeks Ago News has been waiting and watching for the health updates to come from the White House. We all saw the couple of seconds President Trump (and Melania, by the way) looked toward the sky with unprotected eyes. The actual timing and duration of this is debatable but sure, it looked like that to us. Now what? Has the President suffered any damage to his vision, and more important – does this damage count as a pre-existing condition in terms of his healthcare coverage? Does insurance cover someone who does something this ill-advised?
Well, just in case the President is looking for answers, we’ve added a small visual aid (get it?) to our narrative here. It’s called the Amsler Grid and it’s pretty easy to use, even at home in the privacy of your own living quarters.
TWAN hopped onto our favorite place, Whitehouse.gov and spent some time reading the Press Briefings and Press Gaggles that took place in the days immediately following the solar eclipse. The following media outlets published or broadcast stories (and this is partial list) about the “bonehead on the balcony” behavior (note that some headlines have been updated since original publication.) Also, as you read the headlines, imagine what message you would take away from the story, assuming you read not one more word beyond the headline. Interesting.
CNBC: Trump watched the eclipse without viewing glasses
VOX: Donald Trump looked at eclipse without glasses
Washington Post: Trump celebrates solar eclipse by looking up without special viewing glasses
NY Post: President Trump stares straight into solar eclipse without glasses
Newsweek: Donald Trump Rejects Advice from basically everyone; Watches Solar Eclipse Without Glasses
CBS: Trump Watches Eclipse from the White House
Excerpt: “For most of the viewing, the president and first lady wore solar eclipse glasses, but Mr. Trump was also photographed looking up at the sun without the protective eyewear for less than a second.”
Huge congrats to the photographer who captured the image for the ages, in less than a second. Nice work.
ABC: Trump Watches Eclipse from White House
NBC: Total Eclipse: Trump Ignores Please of ‘Don’t Look!’ to Stare Directly at the Sun
MSNBC: Trump looked at eclipse without glasses 6 times
The clip shows the count of the times the President looked at the sun – total of six according to their video montage.
FOX News: Trump Watches Eclipse from The White House
BBC America: Solar Eclipse 2017: Donald Trump looks Directly at the Sun
Given the activity and repeated warnings about the danger of unprotected eyes, and given that fact that these same media organizations are represented at press briefings, wouldn’t you think the press had dozens of questions about the health of the President’s vision? We did, too. But….nothing. Not one question from the press regarding the President’s activity on the balcony. Not one.
So what have we learned?
But the world goes on. With news and headlines about natural phenomena - this time in the form of a disastrous and enormous hurricane - taking precedence over personality in the coming weeks. More observations to come. Please stay tuned!
"Blinded by the light." And the headlines.
NO ONE will believe this but just about two weeks ago, we all had tons o’fun with internet memes about President Trump and the solar eclipse. Remember that?
As documented by Time Magazine, we predictably and immediately jumped on the viewing eclipse activity from the White House balcony and enjoyed sharing our reactions to the President taking his unprotected views of the celestial event. No argument here – even glancing at the sun for a few seconds during the eclipse seemed to be an unnecessary risk and showed poor judgement on the part of the President.
We don’t know about anyone else, but Two Weeks Ago News has been waiting and watching for the health updates to come from the White House. We all saw the couple of seconds President Trump (and Melania, by the way) looked toward the sky with unprotected eyes. The actual timing and duration of this is debatable but sure, it looked like that to us. Now what? Has the President suffered any damage to his vision, and more important – does this damage count as a pre-existing condition in terms of his healthcare coverage? Does insurance cover someone who does something this ill-advised?
Well, just in case the President is looking for answers, we’ve added a small visual aid (get it?) to our narrative here. It’s called the Amsler Grid and it’s pretty easy to use, even at home in the privacy of your own living quarters.
TWAN hopped onto our favorite place, Whitehouse.gov and spent some time reading the Press Briefings and Press Gaggles that took place in the days immediately following the solar eclipse. The following media outlets published or broadcast stories (and this is partial list) about the “bonehead on the balcony” behavior (note that some headlines have been updated since original publication.) Also, as you read the headlines, imagine what message you would take away from the story, assuming you read not one more word beyond the headline. Interesting.
CNBC: Trump watched the eclipse without viewing glasses
VOX: Donald Trump looked at eclipse without glasses
Washington Post: Trump celebrates solar eclipse by looking up without special viewing glasses
NY Post: President Trump stares straight into solar eclipse without glasses
Newsweek: Donald Trump Rejects Advice from basically everyone; Watches Solar Eclipse Without Glasses
CBS: Trump Watches Eclipse from the White House
Excerpt: “For most of the viewing, the president and first lady wore solar eclipse glasses, but Mr. Trump was also photographed looking up at the sun without the protective eyewear for less than a second.”
Huge congrats to the photographer who captured the image for the ages, in less than a second. Nice work.
ABC: Trump Watches Eclipse from White House
NBC: Total Eclipse: Trump Ignores Please of ‘Don’t Look!’ to Stare Directly at the Sun
MSNBC: Trump looked at eclipse without glasses 6 times
The clip shows the count of the times the President looked at the sun – total of six according to their video montage.
FOX News: Trump Watches Eclipse from The White House
BBC America: Solar Eclipse 2017: Donald Trump looks Directly at the Sun
Given the activity and repeated warnings about the danger of unprotected eyes, and given that fact that these same media organizations are represented at press briefings, wouldn’t you think the press had dozens of questions about the health of the President’s vision? We did, too. But….nothing. Not one question from the press regarding the President’s activity on the balcony. Not one.
So what have we learned?
- That facebook and twitter memes flicker out pretty quickly. Even everyone who enjoyed mocking this poor decision by the President got bored of it in no time.
- That the memes, however, did their job. They drove web activity and gathered the page views that media outlets promise their advertisers. Nice work.
- That ABC, CBS and FOX all used the same headline.
- That on August 22, many members of the press were apparently unconcerned about the headlines they’d published just one day earlier. They were also unconcerned on August 23 and after that – well, it was really old news at that point.
- That the President has some kind of super-vision or something, because if he had suffered eye damage, the headlines would have been immediate, disparaging and relentless. And - quite honestly - not unexpected nor unwarranted.
But the world goes on. With news and headlines about natural phenomena - this time in the form of a disastrous and enormous hurricane - taking precedence over personality in the coming weeks. More observations to come. Please stay tuned!