In the Soviet Union, if the USA was first to land on the moon, they didn't need to report it. I don't know if the moon landing was reported there, in good time and with good coverage, or not. But, I am sure there are examples of how things the Soviets didn't want know were simply played down, ignored, or silenced.
  I found myself reflecting on President Trump's downplaying of the Corona Virus. Stung by the rebukes for doing so, he might have come around, some. But, initially, there was the administration official saying the virus had been contained, and there were comments suggesting it was no more dangerous than the common flu.
  Your life's work, to some degree, is the economy, if you are Trump. It is the one thing he has been able to hang his hat on. To see the stock market take a historic dive might make you jump to try throwing a cover over it. If you were ruler in the same sense as the rulers of the old Soviet Union, that is what you would do.
   He didn't get away with it. This so far remains America -- mostly -- despite how much President Trump tries to imitate the Soviet Union. I worry at the many things he tries to do that mimic the Soviets, the same.