U.S. intelligence agencies are now reporting what has been obvious for weeks: When it comes to the coronavirus, as with many other things, the Chinese government is lying. The communist regime has, in all likelihood, dramatically underreported the total number of infections and deaths in China.

That means the United States almost certainly doesn't lead the world in coronavirus cases, as was widely reported last week, and almost as widely celebrated (sarcastically) by members of the media and Hillary Clinton.

He did promise "America First." https://t.co/bzks3hqCUE — Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 27, 2020

Those people, especially Hillary Clinton, should feel like idiots now. But they probably don't, because much of the media's coverage of the coronavirus pandemic—which began in China—has failed to demonstrate even a hint of skepticism about the Chinese government's response. Dozens of articles were published on what the United States can "learn" from China's heroic efforts to contain the virus. Meanwhile, some outlets were blatantly regurgitating Chinese talking points and propaganda.

Early coverage of the outbreak, for example, took the data coming out of China at face value and warned against an overly aggressive government response. For example, President Trump's decision to ban travel from China in early January was denounced as racist fear-mongering. So-called experts assured us in op-eds and interviews that the coronavirus was no more dangerous than the flu.

Members of the media continue to go out of their way to earn the distrust of the American people, who are much more likely to say that Trump, for all his shortcomings, has done a better job of handling the crisis than the national media. Snarky tweets "celebrating" America's status as the world leader in coronavirus cases certainly aren't helping.

The coronavirus is now the American virus https://t.co/eZnspOld9f pic.twitter.com/KRxC2KgOcg — The Verge (@verge) March 26, 2020

Opinion: Trump made us No. 1 — in the spread of a deadly disease https://t.co/CQKB4pRq3F — The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) March 27, 2020

https://twitter.com/MollyJongFast/status/1243327754432663553

Trump wanted to make America First-well he did it. Of the 175 countries that have the coronavirus, the US is #1 in terms of cases thanks to Trump's FAILED leadership. This is all Trump! pic.twitter.com/iByXBeHmK1 — (((DeanObeidallah))) (@DeanObeidallah) March 27, 2020

https://twitter.com/JoeNBC/status/1243281640882921482

The United States has passed China and Italy in coronavirus cases, a stark milestone as the US becomes the world's most infected nation https://t.co/3yGZgbBmQD — USA TODAY (@USATODAY) March 26, 2020

Just to be clear, @realDonaldTrump, we are not just the world leader in the number of infections, we have 4 times as many cases per capita as China—and only going up. https://t.co/0Ms0UAhnTp — Richard Stengel (@stengel) March 26, 2020

When Americans chanted "We’re Number One!" in the past it was because we won the Olympics. Now "We’re Number One!" because we’ve outstripped the world in confirmed cases of coronavirus. — Elizabeth Drew (@ElizabethDrewOH) March 26, 2020