Reporter’s Reaction to Tom Tiffany’s Plane Incident is Outrageous

A guy says his plane went down at 1 a.m., and the first instinct from parts of the press is to make it about him being the “wrong” kind of Republican. That’s the vibe around the reaction to Tom Tiffany’s emergency landing in Lake Wausau, and it’s ugly. He’d just left the La Crosse County Lincoln Day Dinner, the plane lost power on approach, and they put it in the water. That is not a punchline. A water landing at night is not a “gotcha” moment.

It’s also worth saying plainly: Tiffany and the others on board did exactly what you hope anyone would do in a nightmare scenario. They got out, they swam, and they lived. That’s not politics, that’s survival. If a Democrat had posted the same thing in the middle of the night, the headlines would be about courage and gratitude, not snark and side-eye. When the story is “everyone made it,” decent people act decent.

We can debate candidates all day. We should. But there’s a line between criticism and ghoulishness, and too many reporters and influencers sprint over it the second a conservative is involved. The public sees that, and it’s why trust keeps cratering. You don’t have to like Tom Tiffany to say, “Thank God he’s okay,” and move on. Start with basic humanity, then do your job..