CNN blasted for now declaring 'Wuhan virus' as 'racist' after weeks of network's 'China's coronavirus' coverage

CNN appeared to take the position this week that describing the coronavirus as the "Wuhan virus" or the "Chinese coronavirus" is racist but had a much different tone before the outbreak hit the U.S.

On Wednesday night, CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta was extremely critical of President Trump's Oval Office address on the coronavirus outbreak, but not because of the factual errors the White House had to clarify later that many critics flagged.

“The president referred to the coronavirus as a ‘foreign virus,’ that I think was interesting because, I was talking to sources earlier this evening, one of the points that the president wanted to make tonight, wanted to get across to Americans, is that this virus did not start here, but that they’re dealing it,” Acosta said. “Now, why the president would go as far to describe it as a foreign virus, that is something we’ll also be asking questions about.”

Acosta then insisted Trump is "going to come across to a lot of Americans as smacking of xenophobia" too because he said the coronavirus came from a foreign source.

"Cuomo Prime Time" anchor Chris Cuomo also dinged Trump and Republican lawmakers for what he described as a "message shift" with the China-infused terminology, saying they're "looking for someone to blame."

However, weeks leading up to the coronavirus outbreak, as the Media Research Center demonstrated in a video on Thursday, several CNN anchors and reporters referred to it as the "Wuhan coronavirus" and "China's coronavirus."

Earlier today NBC News wrote an article highlighting several instances where Republicans used these same terms when referring to the coronavirus:

Republican lawmakers have persisted in using “Wuhan virus” or “Chinese coronavirus,” despite remarks by Democrats and the director of the CDC that such phrases are inaccurate and even racist.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., used the term “Wuhan virus” on Thursday in announcing that his Washington office was closing because of the illness. His comments came two days after the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Robert Redfield, agreed when questioned at a House hearing that it was “absolutely wrong and inappropriate” to use such labels.

Redfield said the virus had now expanded beyond China to other parts of the world, particularly Iran, South Korea, Italy and “now all of Europe.”

Other GOP officials who have referred to the virus by country or ethnicity have been accused of perpetuating racist associations with the virus. Wuhan is the Chinese city where the outbreak began.

Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., called it the “Wuhan Virus,” Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., referred to the “Chinese coronavirus,” and President Donald Trump retweeted a comment using the term “China Virus.”

Gosar and other Republicans defended themselves by saying the media had used the same terms in early reporting on the outbreak.

They go on to quote Democrats who are attacking these Republicans for using these terms. But as Gosar and McCarthy have pointed out, they are just saying what the media has been saying from the beginning and the video above is absolute proof.

They hypocrisy of the media and the left simply knows no bounds.