Pardon the whiplash! It feels like the media suddenly decided the theory saying the deadly coronavirus leaked from a lab in Wuhan is now considered plausible, when, in 2020, they aggressively dismissed it as a “fringe theory.”
It’s not a mystery why this happened. The Democrats thought the coronavirus was going to be that silver bullet that would remove former President Trump from office. Their arrogant belief that Trump was an ignoramus led them to shame anyone or any theory that Trump endorsed the year’s biggest story. They were willing to embrace the supposed authority of communist China, the China-enabling World Health Organization and the “prevailing opinion” of the science journals and magazines that endorsed Joe Biden for president.
Needless to say, science doesn’t operate on this principle. The “hard news” business does.
Washington Post “fact-checker” Glenn Kessler posted an article on May 25 titled “How the Wuhan lab-leak theory suddenly became credible.” Kessler’s timeline suggested some media figures and media outlets, including two former New York Times science reporters and CBS “60 Minutes,” have been warming up to this once-“debunked” thesis since Trump’s defeat.
He notes that Sen. Tom Cotton proclaimed during a Jan. 30, 2020, Senate Armed Services Committee hearing: “This coronavirus is a catastrophe on the scale of Chernobyl for China. But actually, it’s probably worse than Chernobyl, which was localized in its effect. The coronavirus could result in a global pandemic.”
He was even generous enough to say that Cotton “from the start pointed to the lab’s location in Wuhan, pressing China for answers, so the history books will reward him if he turns out to be right.”
What Kessler leaves unsaid is all the vicious media rhetoric against Cotton for his merely demanding China should have to answer for this. He does admit that “The Trump administration’s messaging was often accompanied by anti-Chinese rhetoric that made it easier for skeptics to ignore its claims.”
“Tom Cotton keeps repeating a coronavirus conspiracy that was already debunked,” warned a headline from his own Washington Post.
“Senator Tom Cotton Repeats Fringe Theory of Conspiracy Origins,” screamed The New York Times.
“Tom Cotton is playing a dangerous game with his coronavirus speculation,” wrote Chris Cillizza on CNN.com.
Kessler also left out of his timeline his own tweet in which he called the theory “virtually impossible,” dismissed Sen. Ted Cruz and promoted his shop’s explanatory video on Wuhan: “I fear @tedcruz missed the scientific animation in the video that shows how it is virtually impossible for this virus jump from the lab. Or the many interviews with actual scientists. We deal in facts, and viewers can judge for themselves.”
Liberal journalists “deal in facts” — by asserting the theory is “virtually impossible.” What happens when they suddenly reverse themselves? As Kessler demonstrates, even “fact-checkers” do a terrible job of actually apologizing or admitting what they said last year. They pretend like no one could Google it and post it on social media.
This explicit reversal — this undebunking — exposes the ridiculousness of the media’s assertion that they represent facts, truth and science, and aren’t emotionally blinded by Trump hatred. It also exposes the “independent fact-checkers” and their clients such as Facebook who squashed this theory because the liberal knee jerked at every presidential utterance of “China virus” and “Wuhan flu.”
One easy way for the media to build trust with a larger readership is to dial down their arrogant belief that they know everything, especially regarding highly important matters on which we were woefully underinformed. Will this massive embarrassment cause them to change anything?
Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org. To find out more about Tim Graham, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
Liberals in the press do not do any investigative work. The liberal “truth” in journalism is smearing anyone who is Conservative / anyone who tells the real truth, not the Pravda truth / communist truth that is the epitome of the communist journalism that the Pravda journalists promote / preach!
They promoted the version approved by the Left—they don’t want to eat crow.
Simple case of “Better to ask for forgiveness after the won stolen election, than persission to tell the truth before the election you might just lose on account of it.”
IF a conservative came up with it.. ITS WRONG. BUT if a liberal came up with the same thing, its GOOD… That’s literally how the so-called media is operating these days… AND WHY FOR YEARS< i have been saying THEY NO LONGER deserve any protections under the first amendment..
To Democrats, Truth, Facts, Reality and History are all irrelevant,
if the Democrats do not WANT to believe them.
Democrats will just make up their own Truth, Facts, Reality or History
To fit what they WANT to believe
or fits into the Con or Deception that they are running at the time.
That’s so sickeingly true..
It’s IMPOSSIBLE to embarrass the Left. They never look at their debacles let alone own up to them, just dance away to their next pack of lies.
Too many Americans in the politically unaligned Mushy Middle (misnamed Independents) remain semi-comatose hooked up to propaganda outlets called TV and phones. Will they ever wake up (opposite of “woke”) to the Left’s double standard with Demedia burying entire mountain ranges of Dem **** like Hunter Biden’s laptop while inflating Repub molehills into Everest?
Exactly. YOU cannot embarrasss those who lack a soul.
I submitted a lengthy comment which was rejected so I will try to be shorter in my new submission. China, with USA collusion has developed a biological weapon in their Wuhan Virology Lab we call Civid-19. It’s purpose is to help solve the growing food shortage for its subjects and the millions of prisoners that they have and use for free labor. With just a 5% removal from their 1.4 Billion population, they need to eliminate 75 million or import enough food to feed the same 75 million.. China is pragmatic and has chosen to eliminate the growing number of mouths.
It’s as easy as that for any fool to see. Let’s see how long it takes for the naive world to see figure out. Can someone out there prove me wrong?
I forgot to mention the millions of “collateral” deaths in other countries but that is acceptable to China’s plan.