Would removing Trump's live coronavirus briefings make him worse?

More than 3,000 Americans had died in the coronavirus pandemic as of Tuesday, but President Donald Trump appeared to have his eyes glued to another set of numbers: his television audience ratings.

"Because the 'Ratings' of my News Conferences etc. are so high, 'Bachelor finale, Monday Night Football type numbers' according to the @nytimes, the Lamestream Media is going CRAZY," Trump tweeted.

He also quoted The New York Times story in three other tweets and a CBS News poll that found Republicans have far more faith in Trump than the news media.

(As if that was news. Media criticism has been a hallmark of conservatives at least since conservative Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater's disastrous campaign against President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. Blaming the messenger for unpleasant news, regardless of party, goes back much further than that.)

But Trump's tweet conspicuously left out how some journalists and public health experts say that his ratings achievement could be a frivolous or dangerous -- take your pick -- thing.

Team Trump, you may recall, did away with daily press briefings last year because they called for a level of accountability with which this president would not put up.

But after the coronavirus pandemic took away the president's favorite medium, live rallies in front of his supporters, Trump discovered the value of daily virus updates.

Trouble is, he doesn't follow the valuable advice that my wife once gave me before speaking to a college graduation ceremony: "Remember, all of these people didn't come here just to hear you."

Even Dr. Anthony Fauci, the popular straight-talking immunologist on Trump's task force, knows that people are tuning in to get crucial information about the international crisis that we and our families need.

But the president has an unhelpful habit of putting himself in the middle of the story even at times like this. CNN, I noticed, cut away from the briefing Monday near its beginning when the president introduced Mike Lindell, CEO and popular TV ad face of MyPillow, who was followed by several other corporate execs.

Worse, you never know when this president is going to respond to reporters' questions with unreliable information or explode into a tirade against "fake news" -- which still, as ever, tends to be any news that he doesn't like.

On Sunday, for example, he barked at PBS "NewsHour" reporter Yamiche Alcindor after she questioned a claim he had made to Sean Hannity on Fox News that governors don't really need all of the equipment they were requesting to fight the pandemic.

First, he tried repeatedly to deny saying that, although he had said it.

"I don't believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators," the president told Hannity. "You go into major hospitals sometimes, and they'll have two ventilators. And now, all of a sudden, they're saying, 'Can we order 30,000 ventilators?' "

But with Alcindor the president shifted into a tirade against "you people," you blankety-blank reporters, and a lecture on being "nice." "Be nice," he said with maximum condescension and shushing. "Don't be threatening. Be nice."

You can see in the exchange a Spartacus-like move by CNN reporter Jeremy Diamond, who handed the microphone back to Alcindor so she could ask a second question that the president had interrupted.

Since Alcindor also is a black woman, the admonition to "Be nice" and "Don't be threatening" carries a history and message fraught with insult. But white guys get the Trump-dump treatment too.

After ABC's Jonathan Karl asked twice whether every state and hospital that needs a ventilator will get one, the president responded as if he'd been insulted. "Look, don't be a cutie pie. OK?" Trump said. "Nobody's ever done what we've done. Nobody's done anything like we've been able to do."

When NBC's Peter Alexander recently asked whether the president's attempts to put a positive spin on things might be giving people a false impression, Trump exploded, "You're a terrible reporter," and "That's a nasty question" when the American people are looking for hope.

"Nasty" question? We have a couple of old sayings in journalism that sound appropriate here.

One is that a failure to ask questions isn't journalism, it's stenography.

The other is that there are no "stupid questions," but there are plenty of stupid answers.

As a public service, I think broadcasters should reserve the right to broadcast the president live or on tape. Ultimately, as our ratings-conscious president knows, it is best to have you, the audience, decide where you think you are being served best -- and, in my experience, you have not been shy about letting us know.

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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)