'Journalisming at its absolute finest': CBS News dials the drama up to 11 with breathless reporting on one Texas ER's wait times

Let’s be clear about something: long ER wait times are bad and potentially dangerous.

Let’s be clear about something else: this framing of long ER wait times is ridiculous.

Take it away, CBS News:

Patients forced to wait thousands of minutes in rural Texas ER: "We've never seen this. Ever." https://t.co/gfNbeKDgvJ

— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 7, 2021

We’ve never seen ER wait times given in thousands of minutes, so this is new territory for us as well.

Pretty sure that's the first time I've seen the phrase "thousands of minutes" before. https://t.co/KDgfgnPFti

— Andrew Donaldson (@four4thefire) September 8, 2021

What bizarre phrasing. https://t.co/S9liJ3o4Tl

— Noam "MF Blum" (@neontaster) September 8, 2021

I want to print out this tweet and frame it

— Jessica O’Donnell (@heckyessica) September 8, 2021

It really is a gem. Check out the ratio:

Not too shabby, right?

https://twitter.com/BecketAdams/status/1435600837334679562

What strange way to say “hours.” Weirdos. https://t.co/L29IicPfSS

— Brandon Darby (@brandondarby) September 8, 2021

Hours? What’re those?

Thousands of minutes? https://t.co/cjgSQXcWhE

— Frank J. Fleming (@IMAO_) September 8, 2021

https://twitter.com/PartymanRandy/status/1435603608855355393

It’s so much more dramatic!

but how many Scaramuccis tho? https://t.co/LscRyWkvbE

— Dr. Ricardo Harambe (@Richard_Harambe) September 8, 2021

They’ll have to get back to you.

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“Thousands of minutes” = someone trying too hard to pump up the drama. https://t.co/SzzZDSRhL5

— RBe (@RBPundit) September 8, 2021

"thousands of minutes?" did a five year old write this https://t.co/PnSbKiq66V

— Mairead Elordi (@JohnsonHildy) September 8, 2021

"thousands of minutes" is #Journalisming at it's absolute finest.

:/ https://t.co/LLkE9iaAtj

— Torrey M. Spears 🇺🇸 (@torreymspears) September 8, 2021

Over 16 hours, huh? Nope nothing smells funny with this reporting.

— Aldous Huxley's Ghost™ (@AF632) September 7, 2021

Maybe there’s a very simple explanation:

When the Chinese try to eliminate the middleman and write news copy directly. https://t.co/oIqEsNv4pf

— Pinche Gringo, WebMD (@HarambeActual) September 8, 2021

***

Update:

FYI:

The story cites exactly one patient who was moved to a facility that they needed after a couple of phone calls. https://t.co/bSJ2HZOIoZ

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) September 8, 2021

But making those phone calls probably took trillions of nanoseconds https://t.co/CX2HQjDDPR

— John Hayward (@Doc_0) September 8, 2021

Fair.