I wonder how many people there are like me who considered themselves lifelong left-leaning Democrats and then were horrified by the left wing's reaction to COVID and now consider themselves to be centrists. Sure Trump was still an idiot about the whole thing, but the hypocrisy, ludicrous grandstanding and outright panic from politicians and the media on the left was arguably worse. I'll never forget the NYT publishing articles basically cheering on the spread of COVID in the southern states because we weren't adequately panicking for their standards. In the meantime, my kids in South Carolina have been in school all year, there haven't been any serious consequences of keeping the schools open, unemployment is low and in general COVID has been no worse down here then in other places that banned people from going out in boats and commissioned posters of their self-aggrandizing governors. I miss level-headed people on both the left and right, but based on the reaction to COVID, the closest thing I saw was certain Republican governors in the South.
Trump is just a lame excuse offered by those who called him all the same things they called every Republican President or candidate since Nixon. Trumps only difference was a willingness to engage his critics instead of wishing they would go away. This just made them crazy. Which is what underlies many of the critics of Republicans.
Trump caused them to out themselves as what they always were.
I have been a registered democrat for over four decades but used to vote independent. Moscowdonnie was , in no way ,a typical repug , and helping russia to meddle in an American election cant be excused by any means.
I voted for Reagan but will Never vote for another republikkkan again in my life. Courtesy of drumf for bringing to my attention the fact that the repugs have sold US out completely.
And the quality about tRump that made 99.9% of the world despise him was that he ignored the constitution on a daily basis and had no ethics, morals or sense of reality at all. And didnt try to hide it at all.
You absorbed and assimilated your media indoctrination well, right down to repeating verbatim their focus group-tested talking points and even their hilarious late night talk show "comedians'" juvenile pet names and sophomoric puns.
You are the archetypal embodiment of why the democRat (!!!) party continues to exist despite half a century of nothing but policy failure at virtually every level of government, and no salient arguments to offer other than "the other side is [insert your -ism of choice here]."
Also, no one believes that you "voted independent" and yet can't resist the urge to refer to the hated opposition as "repugs" and "republikkkans." Why the fake post? You left-wing cultists can't even lie very well.
Cry all you want , I really dont care. I really would be concerned if you DID believe me , since you represent a group that refutes Truth and pushes Lies.
And your comment that the Party of Patriots ( Democrats ) has had " half a century of policy failure " is not based in reality , or Facts.
A Prime example of this being 19 out of 20 of the poorest states are Republikkkan led.
Showing without a doubt that the repug way doesn't t work. Plenty more examples as well but let's see how you spin this into
I think there are LOTS of us. I am utterly horrified at the collapse in media standards and ethics. I feel that the takeover of NYT et al by leftists children amounts to a full blown constitutional crisis. When the founders stressed the importance of a free press I imagine they were assuming that it would also be functional as such.
If you considered the " left leaning pols and media " worse than Moscowdonnie, you Never were a Democrat at all. That is a manufactured comment to try to convert Real Democrats. And all that praise of ignoring a pandemic that killed over 700,000 Americans is lower than pathetic.
I said Trump was an idiot about the whole thing. I'm not sure Cuomo, Newsome and Whitmer were any better, and especially the first two. I live in South Carolina and saw the local and state reaction down here and it was a lot better than what I saw from larger states on the national media. Your whole "left vs. right" mindset is exactly the problem. We should have higher standards than "better than Trump."
We , the Party of Patriots ( Democrats ) do. If you're unaware of this then you re enforce my suspicion that you were Never a democrat at all. A Democrat doesnt excuse Anti American behavior and claim that someone pointing it out is wrong.
Isn't the most obvious explanation for this that amid the barrage of self-interested misinformation and outright lies from the Trump administration, a lot of journalists assumed that the lab leak theory was just another one? sure maybe they overcorrected in this instance, but when you are reporting on a president who just funnels nonsense allegations out by the bucketload every day, you are going to occasionally categorise something that way that turns out to be not quite as clear cut.
Its not really that surprising from this author that his explanation chooses to focus on the terrible threat of social justice journalism as the primary problem, but omitting the context in which the allegation was made was pretty sloppy. Yes we should aspire for some journalists at least to aim at impartiality, but if you made a list of the worst and most consequential partisan media errors of the last couple of years, youd find it hard to put this one in the top 20 imho, so I cant see how it really merits being presented as so significant
This is a perfect example of the thought processes of those in the left. You are literally parroting Maggie Haberman’s excuse. “Since Trump lied, we have to assume he lied here”. Which is intellectually dishonest.
I’m sure you’re one of those who devoured the lies from the media about Trump and “Russian collusion” as well.
One of the best things to come out of Trump’s presidency, was the unmasking of the leftist groupthink found in the MSM, confirming decades of Republican complaints regarding the leftist bias of the MSM.
Leftists will still deny it’s existence, but more and more Americans are coming to realize just how dangerous this group think is, after watching the media lie for three years about “Russia! Russia! Russia!”
Sadly, there’s really no coming back from this. Trust of the MSM is at all time lows… and there’s nothing they can do to change this… because just like you, they won’t admit to it… they’ll just find ways to justify it.
For decades, those of us on the Polite Right knew leftist media bias.
With Trump, the actual corruption and intellectual dishonesty of the legacy media was exposed for all to see, except those like Stanley so blind they will not see.
" The actual corruption and intellectual dishonesty of the legacy media was exposed for all to see " because of leftist media bias is your claim.
First of all, what you refer to as leftist bias is called Truth by everyone outside of tRumpists.
And this mythical " polite right " you mention isnt polite if they consider the Truth to be " leftist media bias ".
Regardless of party the Truth is the Truth, or was , until " the Art of the Deal " reclassified Truth as ---Whatever you can get people to believe ( which , no matter how accepted that notion is, it's still not Real Truth ).
And your comment would lead one to believe the media should have left the Chief Liar with an awesome legacy---which would have been the height of dishonesty.
Your remark is a perfect example of the thought processes of those in the right. Whereas you are all in for tRump and Dead against " the left " what you should be asking is why the Orange Turd didnt investigate this reasonable request from a member of his own party.
This happened on tRumps watch. And since the " left based media " are so despicable for being unfair about anything to do with the right tRumpy keeps Proving there is a sub basement to being the Lowest of the Low . Him ignoring this information is an act against humanity , regardless of party.
However, apparently it is being investigated under the Biden administration.
The Same administration that has the pandemic under control. A realist would thank Joe, regardless of Party. Anything less would be intellectually dishonest.
I think you’re right about this originally being pushback against the pathological liars of the right wing and the Trump admin, and the assumption that, like they were doing with everything else at the time, they were spreading misinformation. But dismissing the theory outright - when the virus originated in a city with a lab specifically designed to study coronaviruses - was a massive mistake, and should have been an obvious one at that. Dismissing the theory that it was an act of biological warfare seems perfectly reasonable to me, but there was always a reasonable possibility that it originated from a lab leak. Now they’re back tracking and it has validated all of the distrust the right wing base has for mainstream media, and has served right wing politicians a massive W on a silver platter that they will be hammering home until the 2022 elections.
Seems to me what they should be asking is why tRump didnt investigate this reasonable statement FROM A MEMBER OF HIS OWN PARTY.
The statement Sen. Cotton made was in feb. Of 2020. Since it was such a crime for the " biased media " to Not seek the Truth , it should have been a Massive crime for the " president " of the United States to not seek the Same Truth. Especially on such a Major thing. Oh that's right, he was to busy complementing China for the fine job they did on the follow up to the virus. Hhhmmmm...
And , lacking said investigation , it has validated all the mistrust the left wing base has for tRamp.
I’m starting from a place where no reasonable person needs their distrust of Trump to be further validated by anything. I stopped being mad at Trump a long time ago though, and I suggest you try to do the same. Preventing Maga and America First from growing larger should be a collective goal for everyone who sees how dangerous it is - left, right, and center - and that means calling out the media in an honest way, so that the right wing base can’t say I told you so, and be right about it. We have to recognize that at the root of some of Maga’s complaints lie legitimate grievances - MSM bias, drain the swamp - and we have to address that if we’re going to prevent neo-fascism from growing larger.
You should seek psychological help. You’re rambling here. Every time someone tries to engage you with reasonable debate, you go deeper off the rails. No one is taking you seriously.
I dont really think the right wing base needed any excuse or validation of their distrust of the mainstream media - that boat sailed a long time ago. If you're looking for people to blame in the media whose journalistic errors supply right wing politicians with their talking points, there are many many other culprits worse than these
I wonder why the major topic of conversation is the dishonesty of the media. The big question in my mind is why this reasonable request from a member of the right wasnt investigated by Moscowdonnie.
The comment was made in 2020 when tRumpy was in office and obviously ignored . And that cant be blamed on the media, but lies squarely on the shoulders of the " president " , Donald I tRump.
This, and much much more, supplies left wing politicians with their talking points.
So you are claiming it was the fault of the media and people like Fauci that this epidemic was largely ignored by the tRump admin.
A classic example of Attempting to sidestep the inept Donald j tRump. He was supposed to be in command, not the media or Fauci.
And by the way, thanks to Joe and Fauci the US did " have an actual science - based approach to mitigating the pandemic " . All we had to do was get rid of drumf. And now the pandemic is under control. Repeat after me---- Thank you Joe and Mr. Fauci.
Are you actually giving credit to Fauci who stated early on that China was "transparent," that the threat of Covid was "miniscule," that masks don't work before reversing himself and that a lab leak was extremely unlikely? The same Fauci who was involved in funding dangerous gain of function research which most likely caused this pandemic? And you're crediting Joe for the vaccines which were developed and astutely funded under Trump? Your TDS seems to have affected your thinking. And I'm not a Trump supporter but a clear thinking independent.
I'm giving Fauci credit for taking a science based approach to the pandemic vs. The Orange Traitor for trying to wish it away , ignore it and Lie about it ( as he admitted in an interview months later ).I'm giving Fauci credit for , along with Joe , getting the American people inoculated. I will believe your points against him when I see Proof.
You make the Orange Turd sound like a jerk for finding research . Any president would have funded it. But now that you mention it, I doubt any other " president " would have eliminated the agency created for just such an emergency.
And the TDS you mention is reserved for those that Attempt to defend Moscowdonnie , as everyone else knows better.
And it seems everyone that tries to defend the indefensible , djt , always then tries to distance themselves " I'm not a trump supporter ".
While I cant blame you for being embarrassed, you are a tRumper to defend him for being WRONG.
What I would like to know is how " the media shutting down discussion of this hypothesis " Prevented Moscowdonnie from investigating this matter, especially since the request came from a member of his own party. You All claim mistrust of the " left wing " is justified but it would seem the Orange Pretender didnt trust the right wing either....or he was just a Lousy " president ". Take your pick but IF the media were so terrible in dealing with this matter Drumf was Much worse.
Sorry but that is no excuse. Yes, Trump taunted the media but they paid him back by cherry picking clickbait, distorting reality and using every second of every day to both profit off of ratings by Trump clickbait and to distort reality. Sorry, no way out of this one. It is just one piece of an entire year of gaslighting by the media to push a narrative and win an election. 100% corrupt and unethical.
You're right, that is no excuse for the media. But consider this, sen. Cotton made his comment in Feb. 2020 . It's also no excuse for Moscowdonnie to NOT investigate a reasonable request from a member of his OWN PARTY.
Oh yea, that's right . In feb. 2020 tRumpy was Trying to wish the virus away.
Now, over ( I believe ) 700,000 deaths later, the Biden administration seem to have things Well under control. And it sounds like this suspicion is being investigated, under the Biden administration.
And That is no " distortion of reality ". Sorry, no way out of this one. Sound familiar?
So in order to sell your fantasy as fact, give US a link to prove this massive " distorting reality " and " entire year of gaslighting by the media to push a narrative and win an election " . And that is a new conspiracy theory I havent heard yet , that Moscowdonnie lost because of the " fake media coverage ".
It seems the Cult will blame the massive loss on everything except ---that he was a terrible " president " and was legitimately beaten in a fair election.
It is not worth having a conversation with you about this since you are already convinced you are right about everything. You assume (wrongly) that I am a Trump supporter or a conservative (also wrong). So once I encounter someone who thinks this way I know there is no point in engaging. If you were serious about it I would but this would be a waste of my time.
" It is not worth having a conversation with you about this since you are already convinced you are right about everything ". Even though you are unable to come up with Any Proof that I'm wrong ?
And Anyone that makes outrageous claims about Moscowdonnie losing the election due to... haha...media dishonesty is Definitely a tRumper.
I understand you being embarrassed about being a tRumper but you let the cat out of the bag .
Just keep telling yourself that. But if conspiracy theories are all you have ( and one would think that if you had anything better you would have presented it ) don't bother me.
Yes, it's Trump's fault that journalists didn't do their jobs. Because reporting something as fact based on "assumptions" you've made is perfectly fine journalism. "Oh, that guy was wrong before so now we'll report everything he claims as false without actually checking, and furthermore, we'll suppress any information that contradicts us in the name of 'preventing misinformation.'" Thanks a lot, Trump, for breaking journalism.
Here's another idea. Have you considered how many other "conspiracy theories" and "lies" attributed to Trump might also be bullshit? That would be the appropriate thing to ponder in response to this massive uncovering of the fakest of fake news (you know, that thing the media also say isn't real because Trump coined the term). Of course, that would require you to consider the possibility that you, yourself, may have executed bad judgment in swallowing whatever the press shoveled into your face with nary a moment's consideration, so you are not likely to favor it.
Cognitive dissonance is the term for what you're experiencing, in case you're curious.
According to PolitiFact, "Arbiter of Truth," Biden and his administration have peddled a considerable number of falsehoods. Will you adhere to your own standard, "Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus," and no longer trust Biden and his administration with the same zeal as Trump's?
That would be a more credible opinion if the media wasn't the prime vector of misinformation and lies about the Trump administration (Russian collusion, Kavanaugh, pissing on soldier's graves, etc)
Right Wing Propaganda is the prime vector of misinformation and lies about your untrue vision of russia and kavenaugh. Russian interference and serious doubts about kavenaugh were proven. Whether you admit or not.
The allegations of Russia being contacted by Trump's campaign team and inner circle were proven to be true. The Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee reported such. Read up on it. Furthermore, it's almost a certainty that Trump is a Russian asset.
Hunter Biden doesn't own any businesses. He was on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian natural gas company. His choice to profit from his father's position in government was not illegal in any sense, but certainly should be. Good luck having any law to that effect passed. Our forced rule, two party duopoly is thoroughly corrupt and incapable of serving the interests of the average citizen, if you haven't noticed.
At least One Party is thoroughly corrupt. So , how is the Biden admin incapable of serving the interests of the average citizen, exactly? And I'm not saying either party is made of Angel's. However, it seems ( most of ) the dems take care of US the best they can. Considering all the obstruction of the repugs .
The Major complaint here ( from the Party of tRump ) is that, and you are assuming the article is true, the Fault of this reasonable comment NOT being investigated is due to " media malpractice ".
So I went back and reread the article. Sen Cotton made this comment in Feb. Of 2020. This was during tRumps " presidency ".
So , regardless of media's " bias " this should have been investigated , but wasnt , by the tRump administration.
The comments should be aimed at the incompetence of one Donald j trump and his lack of investigating said comment. If the media are such Bad Guys because, according to you , they are Bised against repugs , that makes Moscowdonnie out to be Quite Despicable for not following through on a reasonable request from a member of his own party.
I'm waiting to read a comment from at least one Cult member Trying to spin this to show what an extraordinary Patriot the Orange Turd is , yet if it could be blamed on the " leftist media " they cant be trusted at all --- for doing the Same exact Thing ha.
Anything that fits the tRumpers agenda is considered significant to them. And that Seldom Ever happens outside of Right Wing Propaganda.
So, this is like hitting Gold--- the Mother Lode. Or, in their case, the Mother Load.
I fail to believe this article without farther research because I don't think any reasonable statement would be shot down out of hand, without some rudimentary research at least . And this sounds like a reasonable statement, without knowing the surrounding circumstances. I think there is More to this that isnt mentioned.
Since the comment made, the centerpiece of this article, was in feb. 2020 when tRumpy was complementing China on the wonderful job they did of following up on the epidemic who should we blame?
It seems he should have been following up on a reasonable statement by a member of his own party instead.
So, once again, in your opinion whose fault was it ?
I wish Tom Cotton was from Arizona, but, alas, he’s from Arkansas. Getting this fact wrong at the top of your article shines doubt on the validity of your opinion. A tragic mistake in Wuhan does not mean it was intentional malfeasance.
Seriously? You'll dismiss this on a typo? The bigger picture here is that the mainstream media no longer cares to find the truth but maybe the viewers/listeners don't want to see/hear the truth anymore either. The us vs them media has given us tunnel vision. If the virus came from a lab in Wuhan, the US could be held accountable as well considering the collaboration with Dr. Shi Zhengli and our lab in North Carolina.
Hardly a typo. A typo is a misspelling or misplaced punctuation, not a completely different state. Just because they both begin with "Ar" does not excuse the factual error.
As was suggested by someone at Substack, when you exclude extraneous information and focus on all of the knowns (Occam's Razor), the lab leak hypothesis is the only viable explanation for COVID 19 at this point. Journalism schools teach progressive revolutionary cultural Marxist ideology instead of empiricism and critical thinking skills. The media's entire approach to COVID 19 has been based on ad hominem thinking: if Trump supports or advances a position, its a rightwing conspiracy theory, if Trump-haters promote a position or theory, its science and settled fact. Likewise, a time-tested and favorite woke canard is criticism of the CCP and the mandarins in Beijing or the progressive future of humanity is Sinophobia and nativism. The easiest way to show the left the fallacy of ad hominem logic is to give them a counter example, i.e. do they bash Russia and Putin based on hatred of Christianity and proof that communism is a failed civic?
Hahaha. A very illogical explanation of anything tRump did being good and why the Cultists defend russia so. And you cant combat Truth with lies anyway. At least you make no pretenses about being russian Ritzik. Unlike most of your fellow tRump/putin trolls.
This was more than a media failure but gross media malpractice. All the circumstantial evidence in support of a lab origin (accidental or otherwise) has been extremely significant from the beginning - the pandemic starting with a couple miles of the virology lab reportedly engaged in "gain of function" research and prior concerns regarding lab safety there, the natural habitat of the possible natural animal reservoir over 700 miles away and a massive coverup and obstruction of investigations by the Chinese government. Unfortunately, the media likely allowed its left wing political bias affect its reporting. The Left needed to portray Trump as the ultimate villain and couldn't afford a real alternative villain. The excuses made here and elsewhere for the media's malfeasance are beyond ridiculous. Trump is probably no more dishonest than any other politician and whether any less than honest politician supports a certain idea, people need to think for themselves.
If it was complete malfeasance on the part of the media what are your thoughts on the complete malfeasance of Moscowdonnie for Not investigating this statement by a member of his own party , but instead complimenting China for doing such a fine job on the follow up of covid?
Trump's initial praise of China on Covid was clearly wrongheaded. Perhaps he was trying to be diplomatic while gathering more information. To his credit, he did subsequently address China's culpability in the matter - both calling out their misinformation and suggesting a lab leak needed to be considered. He was actually restrained in these statements. Unfortunately, the Leftwing media and scientific establishment strenuously objected to these concerns and attacked any criticism of the Chinese or any suggestion of a possible lab leak. The Left wouldn't even allow the virus to be named after its area of origin.
Moscowdonnie was " trying to be diplomatic while gathering more information " hahaha. Gee , I cant Ever recall him doing either of those two things.
And I'm not Nearly as concerned about the origins as much as I am about a so called " leader " that ignores said epidemic , needlessly costing Lots of American lives , especially when confessing he knew the truth months later in an interview.
And that is inexcusable. Had you lost loved ones ( or faced the truth about a creature as vile as drumf ) I'm sure you would agree .
Your recollection seems very poor. I really don't like Trump but he was not responsible for the outcome in the US. Any objective individual would come to that conclusion. The US has had the same outcome of any country with similar demographics, lack of isolation and likely reasonably accurate numbers. The same. Your lack of concern for the origins of this horrible tragedy is disturbing.
And I did lose friends to this terrible pandemic. I also took care of quite a few others who perished from this disease. It is not a laughing matter.
" Any objective individual " would come to the same conclusion as you is your claim. More attempted vindication of a " president " that ignored US in losing American lives , at least in part , to his indifference and lack of action to Save lives. I'm pretty sure you're agreeing with a tiny fraction of the population that also tries to excuse the inexcusable.
Doesnt matter ...
Over 700,000 lives lost
And according to you , a competent Leader would've done just as bad. Joe is Proof that you are wrong wrong wrong...
Group-Think In the "Main-Stream-Media" (MSM) has been a fact of life in America for the last 30 years. But it was the Trump administration and the MSM hatred of it. That freed the MSM from even considering "objectivity" and "proof of concept" as an objective in reporting.
Now the MSM are simply "propagandists" that promote "Washington Group-Think" in a ongoing stream. That is what happens when the MSM is controlled by just a few corporations. Which are controlled by the Federal Government. Much like the MSM was controlled in the USSR.
Except controlled by International Corporate Capitalists in America. Not Marxists in the USSR.
There are two possibilities for the Wuhan lab's involvement. One is that the strain was altered or engineered in the Wuhan lab. The sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 doesn't have any of the 'tool marks' you'd expect from that case, and it's been dismissed by serious scientists.
The other possibility is that the Wuhan lab collected something in the wild with the potential to jump to humans, and it did, due to a failure of lab safety practices. The early reasoning was that that was unlikely; not because the lab didn't collect viruses that might do that; it did; nor because lab safety practices are perfect; they're not; but just because the potential exposure-space for such jumps in one lab (where they propagate the viruses, but also take precautions) is quite a lot smaller than the exposure space in all the wide world where people raise animals, poke into caves, haul carcasses to open-air markets, and generally muck about. While I think that's still a compelling statistical argument, it'd be nice if there'd been more transparency on the Chinese side, and they said 'here's all the virus stocks in the Wuhan lab, here's the sequencing data, we didn't find SARS-CoV-2.'
Wouldn't stop the conspiracy-nuts, of course; and wouldn't entirely erase doubt, because it's not that hard to omit that one one data-point; but you can never prove a negative. The press rightly dismissed case one, but the distinction between them hasn't necessarily been made clearly all the time; sometimes deliberately, sometimes just because.
There's a big difference between the virus being a natural virus that escaped from a lab where it was being studied and it being "man-made or manufactured".
The function of the lab was to mutate natural viruses to study how best to combat them, so yes, it was altered and man made. In fact, the best evidence to date is that the way the virus is structured has never been seen before in nature.
"Researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, led by China’s leading expert on bat viruses, Dr. Shi Zheng-li or “Bat Lady”, mounted frequent expeditions to the bat-infested caves of Yunnan in southern China and collected around a hundred different bat coronaviruses.
Dr. Shi then teamed up with Ralph S. Baric, an eminent coronavirus researcher at the University of North Carolina. Their work focused on enhancing the ability of bat viruses to attack humans so as to “examine the emergence potential (that is, the potential to infect humans) of circulating bat CoVs [coronaviruses].” In pursuit of this aim, in November 2015 they created a novel virus by taking the backbone of the SARS1 virus and replacing its spike protein with one from a bat virus (known as SHC014-CoV). This manufactured virus was able to infect the cells of the human airway, at least when tested against a lab culture of such cells.
The SHC014-CoV/SARS1 virus is known as a chimera because its genome contains genetic material from two strains of virus. If the SARS2 virus were to have been cooked up in Dr. Shi’s lab, then its direct prototype would have been the SHC014-CoV/SARS1 chimera, the potential danger of which concerned many observers and prompted intense discussion."
The fourth virologist interviewed was Nikolai Petrovsky of Flinders University. Petrovsky first addressed the question of whether the natural zoonosis pathway was viable. He told the Media Centre:
“no natural virus matching to COVID-19 has been found in nature despite an intensive search to find its origins.”
Gain of function research, which was being conducted at the Wuhan Institute, involves mutating natural pathogens. It's part of what gain of function research is and why it's so controversial. Risks versus rewards.
Yes a major failure. One of many. I have a list of these I have compiled for my own entertainment. Some I have particularly enjoyed, in a dark way, were these: Universal media freak out over opening beaches in Florida in spring 2020. Accompanied by numerous photos claiming to show large crowds. I could see they were taken with a telephoto lens, which compresses everything in the field of view to make them seem very close together. I found the photographers site, and he had all the photos he had taken that day. Showing... people in small (family sized groups) WIDELY separate by yards.
There was the piece in a business magazine that reported a dramatic 30% spike in cases after Germany had loosened restrictions. The problem? They had loosened the restrictions on a friday and the spike was on a Tuesday. About a week short of the time necessary to actually see an effect, if there were one. The further problem - a second's look at reporting data would reveal that Tuesdays are ALWAYS high, because facilities do not report on Sunday, and Mondays reports are therefore always low, and Tuesdays always were catch up. Totally bogus.
More you ask? OK - A report in the respected (sarcasm there) NYTimes was about the unfortunate physician in Florida who contracted TTP (An autoimmune disease that destroys platelets) and died a few weeks after his vaccination. There was a clear implication of a causal relationship. The enterprising reporter (Me, not the NYT) can find the yearly incidence of TTP in the US per million and easily determine that the ~ 6 million people who had at that time been vaccinated would be expected, in the 2-3 months the vaccinations had been given, to have about 20-30 cases of TTP as natural incidence. This took me maybe 5 whole minutes to determine. Of course I alerted the NYT, and of course no reply of any sort. There was a similar report elsewhere of a 60 year old man who had a heart attack two days after his vaccination, again, with vaccination implied as a cause. As if 60 year old men should perhaps be immune to heart attacks also after vaccination?
The issue, of course, is that when they need to communicate something that is true, how can this be differentiated from their past numerous errors?
Folks, the US anthrax attacks of 2001, were (arguably) a 'lab leak'. These thinks happen. The fact that they happen, only shows that it is possible that CV-19 came from the Wuhan lab.
Perfectly phrased here: " The goal of journalism is to seek the truth. The consequences of telling the truth should be secondary to getting the truth out there in the first place . . . .'
To wit: NOTHING is about race, or skin color; EVERYTHING is about behavior, conduct, civility and obeying US LAW. Without that, we are no better than the Taliban.
Good article, except you are dead wrong here- "But until very recently, we could at least expect that the mainstream media would make a legitimate effort to seek the facts and report fairly,". This horribly slanted coverage has been going on for decades. Yes decades. I was done with the MSM when I saw how they handled the 2000 election and I'm not talking post election.
It's pretty hard to criticize the news media for "dishonesty" and abdicating their responsibility to seeking the truth when we've lived with the 24/7 lie-fest of Fox News and talk radio for decades. The damage they have done to our fellow citizens is obvious, both from their wildly extreme ideology which is now mainstream and, even more frightening, the events of January 6th.
I suppose journalists giving a pass to mostly peaceful protesters burning down Minneapolis last year was also a result of not believing the Trump administration? How tortured your reasoning.
I wonder how many people there are like me who considered themselves lifelong left-leaning Democrats and then were horrified by the left wing's reaction to COVID and now consider themselves to be centrists. Sure Trump was still an idiot about the whole thing, but the hypocrisy, ludicrous grandstanding and outright panic from politicians and the media on the left was arguably worse. I'll never forget the NYT publishing articles basically cheering on the spread of COVID in the southern states because we weren't adequately panicking for their standards. In the meantime, my kids in South Carolina have been in school all year, there haven't been any serious consequences of keeping the schools open, unemployment is low and in general COVID has been no worse down here then in other places that banned people from going out in boats and commissioned posters of their self-aggrandizing governors. I miss level-headed people on both the left and right, but based on the reaction to COVID, the closest thing I saw was certain Republican governors in the South.
Trump is just a lame excuse offered by those who called him all the same things they called every Republican President or candidate since Nixon. Trumps only difference was a willingness to engage his critics instead of wishing they would go away. This just made them crazy. Which is what underlies many of the critics of Republicans.
Trump caused them to out themselves as what they always were.
1000%.
I have been a registered democrat for over four decades but used to vote independent. Moscowdonnie was , in no way ,a typical repug , and helping russia to meddle in an American election cant be excused by any means.
I voted for Reagan but will Never vote for another republikkkan again in my life. Courtesy of drumf for bringing to my attention the fact that the repugs have sold US out completely.
And the quality about tRump that made 99.9% of the world despise him was that he ignored the constitution on a daily basis and had no ethics, morals or sense of reality at all. And didnt try to hide it at all.
You absorbed and assimilated your media indoctrination well, right down to repeating verbatim their focus group-tested talking points and even their hilarious late night talk show "comedians'" juvenile pet names and sophomoric puns.
You are the archetypal embodiment of why the democRat (!!!) party continues to exist despite half a century of nothing but policy failure at virtually every level of government, and no salient arguments to offer other than "the other side is [insert your -ism of choice here]."
Also, no one believes that you "voted independent" and yet can't resist the urge to refer to the hated opposition as "repugs" and "republikkkans." Why the fake post? You left-wing cultists can't even lie very well.
Cry all you want , I really dont care. I really would be concerned if you DID believe me , since you represent a group that refutes Truth and pushes Lies.
And your comment that the Party of Patriots ( Democrats ) has had " half a century of policy failure " is not based in reality , or Facts.
A Prime example of this being 19 out of 20 of the poorest states are Republikkkan led.
Showing without a doubt that the repug way doesn't t work. Plenty more examples as well but let's see how you spin this into
Repug good
Dems bad
I think there are LOTS of us. I am utterly horrified at the collapse in media standards and ethics. I feel that the takeover of NYT et al by leftists children amounts to a full blown constitutional crisis. When the founders stressed the importance of a free press I imagine they were assuming that it would also be functional as such.
If you considered the " left leaning pols and media " worse than Moscowdonnie, you Never were a Democrat at all. That is a manufactured comment to try to convert Real Democrats. And all that praise of ignoring a pandemic that killed over 700,000 Americans is lower than pathetic.
I said Trump was an idiot about the whole thing. I'm not sure Cuomo, Newsome and Whitmer were any better, and especially the first two. I live in South Carolina and saw the local and state reaction down here and it was a lot better than what I saw from larger states on the national media. Your whole "left vs. right" mindset is exactly the problem. We should have higher standards than "better than Trump."
This USfirst persons comments are basically solid proof that you, SilentCenter, are correct and the so called Left have mostly gone bat-shit crazy.
We , the Party of Patriots ( Democrats ) do. If you're unaware of this then you re enforce my suspicion that you were Never a democrat at all. A Democrat doesnt excuse Anti American behavior and claim that someone pointing it out is wrong.
To today’s corrupt journos I pose this question:
What is the alternative to truth?
Is it preferable?
The alternative is , of course , alternative facts. Brought to you by the tRump admin and explained away by whats-her-name. Conway I think.
exactly.
Isn't the most obvious explanation for this that amid the barrage of self-interested misinformation and outright lies from the Trump administration, a lot of journalists assumed that the lab leak theory was just another one? sure maybe they overcorrected in this instance, but when you are reporting on a president who just funnels nonsense allegations out by the bucketload every day, you are going to occasionally categorise something that way that turns out to be not quite as clear cut.
Its not really that surprising from this author that his explanation chooses to focus on the terrible threat of social justice journalism as the primary problem, but omitting the context in which the allegation was made was pretty sloppy. Yes we should aspire for some journalists at least to aim at impartiality, but if you made a list of the worst and most consequential partisan media errors of the last couple of years, youd find it hard to put this one in the top 20 imho, so I cant see how it really merits being presented as so significant
This is a perfect example of the thought processes of those in the left. You are literally parroting Maggie Haberman’s excuse. “Since Trump lied, we have to assume he lied here”. Which is intellectually dishonest.
I’m sure you’re one of those who devoured the lies from the media about Trump and “Russian collusion” as well.
One of the best things to come out of Trump’s presidency, was the unmasking of the leftist groupthink found in the MSM, confirming decades of Republican complaints regarding the leftist bias of the MSM.
Leftists will still deny it’s existence, but more and more Americans are coming to realize just how dangerous this group think is, after watching the media lie for three years about “Russia! Russia! Russia!”
Sadly, there’s really no coming back from this. Trust of the MSM is at all time lows… and there’s nothing they can do to change this… because just like you, they won’t admit to it… they’ll just find ways to justify it.
Excellent post.
For decades, those of us on the Polite Right knew leftist media bias.
With Trump, the actual corruption and intellectual dishonesty of the legacy media was exposed for all to see, except those like Stanley so blind they will not see.
" The actual corruption and intellectual dishonesty of the legacy media was exposed for all to see " because of leftist media bias is your claim.
First of all, what you refer to as leftist bias is called Truth by everyone outside of tRumpists.
And this mythical " polite right " you mention isnt polite if they consider the Truth to be " leftist media bias ".
Regardless of party the Truth is the Truth, or was , until " the Art of the Deal " reclassified Truth as ---Whatever you can get people to believe ( which , no matter how accepted that notion is, it's still not Real Truth ).
And your comment would lead one to believe the media should have left the Chief Liar with an awesome legacy---which would have been the height of dishonesty.
Sen. Cotton made his statement in feb. Of 2020.
Your remark is a perfect example of the thought processes of those in the right. Whereas you are all in for tRump and Dead against " the left " what you should be asking is why the Orange Turd didnt investigate this reasonable request from a member of his own party.
This happened on tRumps watch. And since the " left based media " are so despicable for being unfair about anything to do with the right tRumpy keeps Proving there is a sub basement to being the Lowest of the Low . Him ignoring this information is an act against humanity , regardless of party.
However, apparently it is being investigated under the Biden administration.
The Same administration that has the pandemic under control. A realist would thank Joe, regardless of Party. Anything less would be intellectually dishonest.
I think you’re right about this originally being pushback against the pathological liars of the right wing and the Trump admin, and the assumption that, like they were doing with everything else at the time, they were spreading misinformation. But dismissing the theory outright - when the virus originated in a city with a lab specifically designed to study coronaviruses - was a massive mistake, and should have been an obvious one at that. Dismissing the theory that it was an act of biological warfare seems perfectly reasonable to me, but there was always a reasonable possibility that it originated from a lab leak. Now they’re back tracking and it has validated all of the distrust the right wing base has for mainstream media, and has served right wing politicians a massive W on a silver platter that they will be hammering home until the 2022 elections.
Seems to me what they should be asking is why tRump didnt investigate this reasonable statement FROM A MEMBER OF HIS OWN PARTY.
The statement Sen. Cotton made was in feb. Of 2020. Since it was such a crime for the " biased media " to Not seek the Truth , it should have been a Massive crime for the " president " of the United States to not seek the Same Truth. Especially on such a Major thing. Oh that's right, he was to busy complementing China for the fine job they did on the follow up to the virus. Hhhmmmm...
And , lacking said investigation , it has validated all the mistrust the left wing base has for tRamp.
I’m starting from a place where no reasonable person needs their distrust of Trump to be further validated by anything. I stopped being mad at Trump a long time ago though, and I suggest you try to do the same. Preventing Maga and America First from growing larger should be a collective goal for everyone who sees how dangerous it is - left, right, and center - and that means calling out the media in an honest way, so that the right wing base can’t say I told you so, and be right about it. We have to recognize that at the root of some of Maga’s complaints lie legitimate grievances - MSM bias, drain the swamp - and we have to address that if we’re going to prevent neo-fascism from growing larger.
If you consider the right to have legit complaints for " MSM bias " and " drain the swamp " you are a repug.
And if you are suggesting that we forgive Moscowdonnie for being a Traitor and just pretend it never happened Dont hold your breath.
You sound like a repug trying to excuse inexcusable problems.
So if you are happy with Traitors that's your right but I aim to help make sure it doesnt happen again.
If you perceive that as being Wrong , oh well I'll live with it.
You should seek psychological help. You’re rambling here. Every time someone tries to engage you with reasonable debate, you go deeper off the rails. No one is taking you seriously.
I dont really think the right wing base needed any excuse or validation of their distrust of the mainstream media - that boat sailed a long time ago. If you're looking for people to blame in the media whose journalistic errors supply right wing politicians with their talking points, there are many many other culprits worse than these
I wonder why the major topic of conversation is the dishonesty of the media. The big question in my mind is why this reasonable request from a member of the right wasnt investigated by Moscowdonnie.
The comment was made in 2020 when tRumpy was in office and obviously ignored . And that cant be blamed on the media, but lies squarely on the shoulders of the " president " , Donald I tRump.
This, and much much more, supplies left wing politicians with their talking points.
So you are claiming it was the fault of the media and people like Fauci that this epidemic was largely ignored by the tRump admin.
A classic example of Attempting to sidestep the inept Donald j tRump. He was supposed to be in command, not the media or Fauci.
And by the way, thanks to Joe and Fauci the US did " have an actual science - based approach to mitigating the pandemic " . All we had to do was get rid of drumf. And now the pandemic is under control. Repeat after me---- Thank you Joe and Mr. Fauci.
Are you actually giving credit to Fauci who stated early on that China was "transparent," that the threat of Covid was "miniscule," that masks don't work before reversing himself and that a lab leak was extremely unlikely? The same Fauci who was involved in funding dangerous gain of function research which most likely caused this pandemic? And you're crediting Joe for the vaccines which were developed and astutely funded under Trump? Your TDS seems to have affected your thinking. And I'm not a Trump supporter but a clear thinking independent.
I'm giving Fauci credit for taking a science based approach to the pandemic vs. The Orange Traitor for trying to wish it away , ignore it and Lie about it ( as he admitted in an interview months later ).I'm giving Fauci credit for , along with Joe , getting the American people inoculated. I will believe your points against him when I see Proof.
You make the Orange Turd sound like a jerk for finding research . Any president would have funded it. But now that you mention it, I doubt any other " president " would have eliminated the agency created for just such an emergency.
And the TDS you mention is reserved for those that Attempt to defend Moscowdonnie , as everyone else knows better.
And it seems everyone that tries to defend the indefensible , djt , always then tries to distance themselves " I'm not a trump supporter ".
While I cant blame you for being embarrassed, you are a tRumper to defend him for being WRONG.
And " clear thinking " is one thing you are not.
What I would like to know is how " the media shutting down discussion of this hypothesis " Prevented Moscowdonnie from investigating this matter, especially since the request came from a member of his own party. You All claim mistrust of the " left wing " is justified but it would seem the Orange Pretender didnt trust the right wing either....or he was just a Lousy " president ". Take your pick but IF the media were so terrible in dealing with this matter Drumf was Much worse.
Sorry but that is no excuse. Yes, Trump taunted the media but they paid him back by cherry picking clickbait, distorting reality and using every second of every day to both profit off of ratings by Trump clickbait and to distort reality. Sorry, no way out of this one. It is just one piece of an entire year of gaslighting by the media to push a narrative and win an election. 100% corrupt and unethical.
You're right, that is no excuse for the media. But consider this, sen. Cotton made his comment in Feb. 2020 . It's also no excuse for Moscowdonnie to NOT investigate a reasonable request from a member of his OWN PARTY.
Oh yea, that's right . In feb. 2020 tRumpy was Trying to wish the virus away.
Now, over ( I believe ) 700,000 deaths later, the Biden administration seem to have things Well under control. And it sounds like this suspicion is being investigated, under the Biden administration.
And That is no " distortion of reality ". Sorry, no way out of this one. Sound familiar?
And That
So in order to sell your fantasy as fact, give US a link to prove this massive " distorting reality " and " entire year of gaslighting by the media to push a narrative and win an election " . And that is a new conspiracy theory I havent heard yet , that Moscowdonnie lost because of the " fake media coverage ".
It seems the Cult will blame the massive loss on everything except ---that he was a terrible " president " and was legitimately beaten in a fair election.
It is not worth having a conversation with you about this since you are already convinced you are right about everything. You assume (wrongly) that I am a Trump supporter or a conservative (also wrong). So once I encounter someone who thinks this way I know there is no point in engaging. If you were serious about it I would but this would be a waste of my time.
" It is not worth having a conversation with you about this since you are already convinced you are right about everything ". Even though you are unable to come up with Any Proof that I'm wrong ?
And Anyone that makes outrageous claims about Moscowdonnie losing the election due to... haha...media dishonesty is Definitely a tRumper.
I understand you being embarrassed about being a tRumper but you let the cat out of the bag .
Honey, no offense, but you are no match for me if this is the best you got.
Just keep telling yourself that. But if conspiracy theories are all you have ( and one would think that if you had anything better you would have presented it ) don't bother me.
Creating clever nicknames is a noble pursuit.
Exactly. It reveals a unhealthy obsession with subject.
If you are referring to Moscowdonnie that is a moniker he EARNED as anyone with more than Three brain cells realizes.
So you obviously don't deny any of my statement. Kewl....
Good job justifying dishonesty. How is this post different than what you seem to despise?
Yes, it's Trump's fault that journalists didn't do their jobs. Because reporting something as fact based on "assumptions" you've made is perfectly fine journalism. "Oh, that guy was wrong before so now we'll report everything he claims as false without actually checking, and furthermore, we'll suppress any information that contradicts us in the name of 'preventing misinformation.'" Thanks a lot, Trump, for breaking journalism.
Here's another idea. Have you considered how many other "conspiracy theories" and "lies" attributed to Trump might also be bullshit? That would be the appropriate thing to ponder in response to this massive uncovering of the fakest of fake news (you know, that thing the media also say isn't real because Trump coined the term). Of course, that would require you to consider the possibility that you, yourself, may have executed bad judgment in swallowing whatever the press shoveled into your face with nary a moment's consideration, so you are not likely to favor it.
Cognitive dissonance is the term for what you're experiencing, in case you're curious.
According to PolitiFact, "Arbiter of Truth," Biden and his administration have peddled a considerable number of falsehoods. Will you adhere to your own standard, "Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus," and no longer trust Biden and his administration with the same zeal as Trump's?
Absolutely! It's all Tump's fault! That's the ticket!
It happened on his watch and he was supposed to be the " Commander in chief ". Who should we blame it on, in your opinion? Hillary?
That would be a more credible opinion if the media wasn't the prime vector of misinformation and lies about the Trump administration (Russian collusion, Kavanaugh, pissing on soldier's graves, etc)
Right Wing Propaganda is the prime vector of misinformation and lies about your untrue vision of russia and kavenaugh. Russian interference and serious doubts about kavenaugh were proven. Whether you admit or not.
The allegations of Russia being contacted by Trump's campaign team and inner circle were proven to be true. The Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee reported such. Read up on it. Furthermore, it's almost a certainty that Trump is a Russian asset.
He was Definitely an asset as he made russia stronger and US weaker.
It’s Hunter Biden’s firm that received the $3.5 million wire transfer from a Russian oligarch.
So, even IF that were True, just when was hunter president?
Hunter Biden doesn't own any businesses. He was on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian natural gas company. His choice to profit from his father's position in government was not illegal in any sense, but certainly should be. Good luck having any law to that effect passed. Our forced rule, two party duopoly is thoroughly corrupt and incapable of serving the interests of the average citizen, if you haven't noticed.
At least One Party is thoroughly corrupt. So , how is the Biden admin incapable of serving the interests of the average citizen, exactly? And I'm not saying either party is made of Angel's. However, it seems ( most of ) the dems take care of US the best they can. Considering all the obstruction of the repugs .
The Dems are better than the Repubs, which means they're better than nothing. Shame we can aim higher though.
The Major complaint here ( from the Party of tRump ) is that, and you are assuming the article is true, the Fault of this reasonable comment NOT being investigated is due to " media malpractice ".
So I went back and reread the article. Sen Cotton made this comment in Feb. Of 2020. This was during tRumps " presidency ".
So , regardless of media's " bias " this should have been investigated , but wasnt , by the tRump administration.
The comments should be aimed at the incompetence of one Donald j trump and his lack of investigating said comment. If the media are such Bad Guys because, according to you , they are Bised against repugs , that makes Moscowdonnie out to be Quite Despicable for not following through on a reasonable request from a member of his own party.
I'm waiting to read a comment from at least one Cult member Trying to spin this to show what an extraordinary Patriot the Orange Turd is , yet if it could be blamed on the " leftist media " they cant be trusted at all --- for doing the Same exact Thing ha.
Anything that fits the tRumpers agenda is considered significant to them. And that Seldom Ever happens outside of Right Wing Propaganda.
So, this is like hitting Gold--- the Mother Lode. Or, in their case, the Mother Load.
I fail to believe this article without farther research because I don't think any reasonable statement would be shot down out of hand, without some rudimentary research at least . And this sounds like a reasonable statement, without knowing the surrounding circumstances. I think there is More to this that isnt mentioned.
There’s that blame Trump first riff again. How predictable. Trump tended to believe China at first.
Since the comment made, the centerpiece of this article, was in feb. 2020 when tRumpy was complementing China on the wonderful job they did of following up on the epidemic who should we blame?
It seems he should have been following up on a reasonable statement by a member of his own party instead.
So, once again, in your opinion whose fault was it ?
Hint: hillary and obama are the top two picks.
I wish Tom Cotton was from Arizona, but, alas, he’s from Arkansas. Getting this fact wrong at the top of your article shines doubt on the validity of your opinion. A tragic mistake in Wuhan does not mean it was intentional malfeasance.
Seriously? You'll dismiss this on a typo? The bigger picture here is that the mainstream media no longer cares to find the truth but maybe the viewers/listeners don't want to see/hear the truth anymore either. The us vs them media has given us tunnel vision. If the virus came from a lab in Wuhan, the US could be held accountable as well considering the collaboration with Dr. Shi Zhengli and our lab in North Carolina.
Copy editor here. Thank you for flagging this. It has been fixed on the website. Red-faced apologies.
Hardly a typo. A typo is a misspelling or misplaced punctuation, not a completely different state. Just because they both begin with "Ar" does not excuse the factual error.
My mistake. I should have said an auto correct that wasn't caught. I'd rather focus on the message....
I wish the same critique would have been applied to Moscowdonnie.
As was suggested by someone at Substack, when you exclude extraneous information and focus on all of the knowns (Occam's Razor), the lab leak hypothesis is the only viable explanation for COVID 19 at this point. Journalism schools teach progressive revolutionary cultural Marxist ideology instead of empiricism and critical thinking skills. The media's entire approach to COVID 19 has been based on ad hominem thinking: if Trump supports or advances a position, its a rightwing conspiracy theory, if Trump-haters promote a position or theory, its science and settled fact. Likewise, a time-tested and favorite woke canard is criticism of the CCP and the mandarins in Beijing or the progressive future of humanity is Sinophobia and nativism. The easiest way to show the left the fallacy of ad hominem logic is to give them a counter example, i.e. do they bash Russia and Putin based on hatred of Christianity and proof that communism is a failed civic?
Actually it's superbly logical in it's content, and you no doubt live in mommy's basement. tRump - please
Hahaha. A very illogical explanation of anything tRump did being good and why the Cultists defend russia so. And you cant combat Truth with lies anyway. At least you make no pretenses about being russian Ritzik. Unlike most of your fellow tRump/putin trolls.
This was more than a media failure but gross media malpractice. All the circumstantial evidence in support of a lab origin (accidental or otherwise) has been extremely significant from the beginning - the pandemic starting with a couple miles of the virology lab reportedly engaged in "gain of function" research and prior concerns regarding lab safety there, the natural habitat of the possible natural animal reservoir over 700 miles away and a massive coverup and obstruction of investigations by the Chinese government. Unfortunately, the media likely allowed its left wing political bias affect its reporting. The Left needed to portray Trump as the ultimate villain and couldn't afford a real alternative villain. The excuses made here and elsewhere for the media's malfeasance are beyond ridiculous. Trump is probably no more dishonest than any other politician and whether any less than honest politician supports a certain idea, people need to think for themselves.
If it was complete malfeasance on the part of the media what are your thoughts on the complete malfeasance of Moscowdonnie for Not investigating this statement by a member of his own party , but instead complimenting China for doing such a fine job on the follow up of covid?
Trump's initial praise of China on Covid was clearly wrongheaded. Perhaps he was trying to be diplomatic while gathering more information. To his credit, he did subsequently address China's culpability in the matter - both calling out their misinformation and suggesting a lab leak needed to be considered. He was actually restrained in these statements. Unfortunately, the Leftwing media and scientific establishment strenuously objected to these concerns and attacked any criticism of the Chinese or any suggestion of a possible lab leak. The Left wouldn't even allow the virus to be named after its area of origin.
Moscowdonnie was " trying to be diplomatic while gathering more information " hahaha. Gee , I cant Ever recall him doing either of those two things.
And I'm not Nearly as concerned about the origins as much as I am about a so called " leader " that ignores said epidemic , needlessly costing Lots of American lives , especially when confessing he knew the truth months later in an interview.
And that is inexcusable. Had you lost loved ones ( or faced the truth about a creature as vile as drumf ) I'm sure you would agree .
Your recollection seems very poor. I really don't like Trump but he was not responsible for the outcome in the US. Any objective individual would come to that conclusion. The US has had the same outcome of any country with similar demographics, lack of isolation and likely reasonably accurate numbers. The same. Your lack of concern for the origins of this horrible tragedy is disturbing.
And I did lose friends to this terrible pandemic. I also took care of quite a few others who perished from this disease. It is not a laughing matter.
" Any objective individual " would come to the same conclusion as you is your claim. More attempted vindication of a " president " that ignored US in losing American lives , at least in part , to his indifference and lack of action to Save lives. I'm pretty sure you're agreeing with a tiny fraction of the population that also tries to excuse the inexcusable.
Doesnt matter ...
Over 700,000 lives lost
And according to you , a competent Leader would've done just as bad. Joe is Proof that you are wrong wrong wrong...
Dixie Pixie9 min ago
Group-Think In the "Main-Stream-Media" (MSM) has been a fact of life in America for the last 30 years. But it was the Trump administration and the MSM hatred of it. That freed the MSM from even considering "objectivity" and "proof of concept" as an objective in reporting.
Now the MSM are simply "propagandists" that promote "Washington Group-Think" in a ongoing stream. That is what happens when the MSM is controlled by just a few corporations. Which are controlled by the Federal Government. Much like the MSM was controlled in the USSR.
Except controlled by International Corporate Capitalists in America. Not Marxists in the USSR.
What's really funny is the Fact that the majority of media Corp. Are owned by repugs. Haha
Translation: silly repugs are losing an opportunity. They should get smart, follow the libs' lead, and dictate how the media covers stories.
No , what they should do , is tell the Truth and then would receive just as much coverage.
There's a more-nuanced story to tell here.
There are two possibilities for the Wuhan lab's involvement. One is that the strain was altered or engineered in the Wuhan lab. The sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 doesn't have any of the 'tool marks' you'd expect from that case, and it's been dismissed by serious scientists.
The other possibility is that the Wuhan lab collected something in the wild with the potential to jump to humans, and it did, due to a failure of lab safety practices. The early reasoning was that that was unlikely; not because the lab didn't collect viruses that might do that; it did; nor because lab safety practices are perfect; they're not; but just because the potential exposure-space for such jumps in one lab (where they propagate the viruses, but also take precautions) is quite a lot smaller than the exposure space in all the wide world where people raise animals, poke into caves, haul carcasses to open-air markets, and generally muck about. While I think that's still a compelling statistical argument, it'd be nice if there'd been more transparency on the Chinese side, and they said 'here's all the virus stocks in the Wuhan lab, here's the sequencing data, we didn't find SARS-CoV-2.'
Wouldn't stop the conspiracy-nuts, of course; and wouldn't entirely erase doubt, because it's not that hard to omit that one one data-point; but you can never prove a negative. The press rightly dismissed case one, but the distinction between them hasn't necessarily been made clearly all the time; sometimes deliberately, sometimes just because.
There's a big difference between the virus being a natural virus that escaped from a lab where it was being studied and it being "man-made or manufactured".
The function of the lab was to mutate natural viruses to study how best to combat them, so yes, it was altered and man made. In fact, the best evidence to date is that the way the virus is structured has never been seen before in nature.
Any cites for those claims ("function was to mutate viruses", "yes it was altered", and "structured ... never been seen")?
There are no cites showing that it "was" altered, but the lab had engaged in gain of function research on coronaviruses. If you haven't read it, I recommend this piece: https://nicholaswade.medium.com/origin-of-covid-following-the-clues-6f03564c038
"Researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, led by China’s leading expert on bat viruses, Dr. Shi Zheng-li or “Bat Lady”, mounted frequent expeditions to the bat-infested caves of Yunnan in southern China and collected around a hundred different bat coronaviruses.
Dr. Shi then teamed up with Ralph S. Baric, an eminent coronavirus researcher at the University of North Carolina. Their work focused on enhancing the ability of bat viruses to attack humans so as to “examine the emergence potential (that is, the potential to infect humans) of circulating bat CoVs [coronaviruses].” In pursuit of this aim, in November 2015 they created a novel virus by taking the backbone of the SARS1 virus and replacing its spike protein with one from a bat virus (known as SHC014-CoV). This manufactured virus was able to infect the cells of the human airway, at least when tested against a lab culture of such cells.
The SHC014-CoV/SARS1 virus is known as a chimera because its genome contains genetic material from two strains of virus. If the SARS2 virus were to have been cooked up in Dr. Shi’s lab, then its direct prototype would have been the SHC014-CoV/SARS1 chimera, the potential danger of which concerned many observers and prompted intense discussion."
The fourth virologist interviewed was Nikolai Petrovsky of Flinders University. Petrovsky first addressed the question of whether the natural zoonosis pathway was viable. He told the Media Centre:
“no natural virus matching to COVID-19 has been found in nature despite an intensive search to find its origins.”
https://www.independentsciencenews.org/health/the-case-is-building-that-covid-19-had-a-lab-origin/
Gain of function research, which was being conducted at the Wuhan Institute, involves mutating natural pathogens. It's part of what gain of function research is and why it's so controversial. Risks versus rewards.
Yes a major failure. One of many. I have a list of these I have compiled for my own entertainment. Some I have particularly enjoyed, in a dark way, were these: Universal media freak out over opening beaches in Florida in spring 2020. Accompanied by numerous photos claiming to show large crowds. I could see they were taken with a telephoto lens, which compresses everything in the field of view to make them seem very close together. I found the photographers site, and he had all the photos he had taken that day. Showing... people in small (family sized groups) WIDELY separate by yards.
There was the piece in a business magazine that reported a dramatic 30% spike in cases after Germany had loosened restrictions. The problem? They had loosened the restrictions on a friday and the spike was on a Tuesday. About a week short of the time necessary to actually see an effect, if there were one. The further problem - a second's look at reporting data would reveal that Tuesdays are ALWAYS high, because facilities do not report on Sunday, and Mondays reports are therefore always low, and Tuesdays always were catch up. Totally bogus.
More you ask? OK - A report in the respected (sarcasm there) NYTimes was about the unfortunate physician in Florida who contracted TTP (An autoimmune disease that destroys platelets) and died a few weeks after his vaccination. There was a clear implication of a causal relationship. The enterprising reporter (Me, not the NYT) can find the yearly incidence of TTP in the US per million and easily determine that the ~ 6 million people who had at that time been vaccinated would be expected, in the 2-3 months the vaccinations had been given, to have about 20-30 cases of TTP as natural incidence. This took me maybe 5 whole minutes to determine. Of course I alerted the NYT, and of course no reply of any sort. There was a similar report elsewhere of a 60 year old man who had a heart attack two days after his vaccination, again, with vaccination implied as a cause. As if 60 year old men should perhaps be immune to heart attacks also after vaccination?
The issue, of course, is that when they need to communicate something that is true, how can this be differentiated from their past numerous errors?
It can't.
Folks, the US anthrax attacks of 2001, were (arguably) a 'lab leak'. These thinks happen. The fact that they happen, only shows that it is possible that CV-19 came from the Wuhan lab.
Perfectly phrased here: " The goal of journalism is to seek the truth. The consequences of telling the truth should be secondary to getting the truth out there in the first place . . . .'
To wit: NOTHING is about race, or skin color; EVERYTHING is about behavior, conduct, civility and obeying US LAW. Without that, we are no better than the Taliban.
Sounds like a Good description of the tRump admin
Good article, except you are dead wrong here- "But until very recently, we could at least expect that the mainstream media would make a legitimate effort to seek the facts and report fairly,". This horribly slanted coverage has been going on for decades. Yes decades. I was done with the MSM when I saw how they handled the 2000 election and I'm not talking post election.
It's pretty hard to criticize the news media for "dishonesty" and abdicating their responsibility to seeking the truth when we've lived with the 24/7 lie-fest of Fox News and talk radio for decades. The damage they have done to our fellow citizens is obvious, both from their wildly extreme ideology which is now mainstream and, even more frightening, the events of January 6th.
I suppose journalists giving a pass to mostly peaceful protesters burning down Minneapolis last year was also a result of not believing the Trump administration? How tortured your reasoning.