After repeatedly mocking President Trump for suggesting on March 19 that hydroxychloroquine could be an effective treatment for coronavirus, media organizations have begun acknowledging that the drug -- now approved for emergency use to treat coronavirus by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) -- may be useful after all. Journalists and top Democrats have beaten a similarly hasty retreat from their previous claims that Trump's ban on travel from China was both xenophobic and ineffective. But media outlets' misinformation on hydroxychloroquine was unique because it involved not simply policy disagreements but also suggestive medical advice and directives that could have dissuaded some from seeking certain treatments.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, went from threatening doctors who prescribed the drug with "administrative action" to requesting that the federal government ship her state some.

"Trump is giving people false hope of coronavirus cures. It’s all snake oil," read one Washington Post headline. Added the Post's editorial board: "Trump is spreading false hope for a virus cure -- and that’s not the only damage."

USA Today's editorial board was similarly aggressive and mocking, writing, "Coronavirus treatment: Dr. Donald Trump peddles snake oil and false hope."

Salon, Holden noted, called Trump's hope in the new treatment his "most dangerous flim-flam: False hope and quack advice."

The New Yorker pondered "The Meaning of Donald Trump’s Coronavirus Quackery,"

Michael Cohen, a Boston Globe columnist, urged networks to stop airing Trump's coronavirus press briefings

And, NBC News complained, "Trump, promoting unproven drug treatments, insults NBC reporter at coronavirus briefing."

he New York Times' Kurt Eichenwald reported that a "Louisiana MD" (emphasis added) on the "front lines of the COVID-19 fight" had told him that "Hydroxychloroquine doesn't work"

Vox mocked Trump's "new favorite treatment" for the drug, and said the evidence is "lacking" that it works.

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