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Heime Israel's avatar

Great CNN puff piece. I would agree that correcting the lab leak story would be “accountability” IF the story unfolded in the innocent manner that this article attempts to paint…

Fact is: it did not. There was a strong body at the time that a lab leak was a real possibility. In fact, we now have evidence that information and opinions were manipulated to discredit lab leak hypothesis.

But was the MSM (a/k/a, the guardians of freedom) the least bit curious? No. They brought the disinformation story hook, line & sinker and ran with it. The “experts” that the MSM outlets (like CNN) put on the air openly mocked the idea. Fauci said it didn’t happen despite what we now know about him towing the narrative for others.

But the critical part of the problem isn’t that they got the story wrong. It’s that there was ABSOLUTELY ZERO journalist curiosity at the time about the origin. Why? Simple: Trump said it came from the Wuhan lab so that now cannot be what happened.

We have all witnessed this same “M.O.” with the Russian Dossier and the Hunter Biden laptop. The MSM didn’t get these stories wrong - they actively engaged in willful blindness that involved covering up the truth - something they are still engaged in to this very day. They never ever entertained the thought that the story may have more and different facts and truly investigated that angle - not once.

But now that Biden’s president, they can try and use this opportunity to “un-spin” the cover-up in the vain attempt to regain an semblance of integrity they wrongly perceive they have left.

But people are too smart - they can smell a rat in the woodpile. Accountability is not defined as simply taken action AFTER you’ve been caught red handed - like CNN - it involves making sure it doesn’t happen again, but for the MSM (and CNN and MSNBC in particular) that would be way too hard a job to really address.

So expect more “fake news” and more disinformation…and certainly more puff piece about how proactive and accountable the MSM is in doing their job.

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Michael Berkowitz's avatar

The author keeps doubling down on this interpretation, but I don't know how many of us who saw it in real time will be convinced.

His thinking seems to be that either we accept the MSM as flawed but basically reliable or we're -- oh my stars and garters -- playing "Trump's game"! He seems unaware that, to paraphrase Portia, "The quality of skepticism is not strained." My lack of trust in the New York Times -- which it has come by honestly over the course of decades, but never more so than now -- doesn't increase my trust in Trump one whit.

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