LOL:

https://archive.ph/c1qIh

WaPo: The new mask guidance relies on an honor system. Do we trust each other enough to make it work?

https://archive.ph/Rc7bv https://mtracey.substack.com/p/as-new-evidence-emerges-for-covid

7 May 2021 20:43:49 UTC

As New Evidence Emerges For COVID "Lab-Leak" Theory, Journalists Who Screamed “Conspiracy” Humiliate Themselves

Michael Tracey 3 hr ago

I asked numerous journalists who authored these stories for comment on whether they stand by their over-assured denunciations from early 2020 of this supposed “conspiracy theory,” which according to them had been “debunked.” None replied to me in time for the publication of this Substack item. (If that changes, I will update the post.) However, the author of the Washington Post article, Paulina Firozi, did reply in the sense that she disabled her ability to receive DMs shortly after I messaged her on Twitter:

This is all the more ironic in the case of the Washington Post, whose editorial board on April 30 called for a new investigation into the origin of the virus, including into “the possibility of a laboratory leak.” Which is the exact same “possibility” Cotton was decried by the Washington Post as a debunked conspiracy theorist for raising last year. Columnist Josh Rogin also just published an article May 6 lauding congressional investigations into the lab-leak theory.

The New York Times pulled a similar routine by parroting the “conspiracy theory” label, as though that’s the be-all-end-all and no further inquiry on the subject was required:

Unfortunately, I’ve received no reply from Alexandra Stevenson.

The Daily Beast was as pathetic as usual, with Executive Editor Tracy Connor lambasting Cotton for having “amplified a debunked conspiracy theory about the origin of the coronavirus outbreak.”

Tracy Connor sadly has not replied to my email.

The cratering and staff-shedding HuffPost had been hot on Cotton’s trail for some time vis-a-vis the COVID “panic” they claimed he was shamefully stoking. Here’s an incredible-in-hindsight article from January 2020 lashing into Cotton:

Unchastened by this humiliation, HuffPost persisted in mocking Cotton:

It’s truly amazing that HuffPost writer Mary Papenfuss possessed the copious scientific knowledge required to dismiss the lab-leak theory as a “debunked conspiracy” in February 2020. Perhaps she ought to consider a career change and become an epidemiological fortune-teller of some sort. I’m devastated to report that she also has not responded to my query.

It goes on and on. Here’s the Guardian’s masterful summary in April:

“Virus conspiracy.” Just stated as fact over and over again. In keeping with the pattern, I’ve gotten no response from Martin Pengelly.

Here’s the Kaiser Family Foundation’s news page — which you might have wrongly suspected would have higher standards on this subject area — dutifully repeating the “conspiracy” mantra:

Notably, these media reports are all indistinguishable from the take proffered by Democratic Party propaganda organ Media Matters:

Media Matters @mmfa

Fox anchor Maria Bartiromo and Sen. Tom Cotton keep pushing coronavirus conspiracy theory about coronavirus and a bioweapons laboratory Cotton cited a study by the Lancet. Lancet a month ago denounced the misuse of its study to push the conspiracy theory Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo and Sen. Tom Cotton keep pushing coronavirus conspiracy theory mediamatters. org

March 30th 2020

A number of factors likely contributed to these journalists proclaiming hard-and-fast certainty about this issue, despite having no grounds for such certainty. Many likely thought they were heroically combating anti-Asian xenophobia by dismissing a theory that could’ve assigned some measure of culpability to Chinese state authorities for the origination and spread of the virus, although it’s unclear why this should have implicated individual Chinese-Americans. Either way, lying or misrepresenting stuff in the name of combating xenophobia can’t be justified journalistically, and is liable to backfire anyway.