Sometimes I find myself wishing there was a live, fluctuating irony meter superimposed on the television screen whenever some political expert or health official spoke, given that so often the words they murmur are dripping with unintentional, self-prosecuting satire. If one such meter existed, I can all but guarantee that Dr. Anthony Fauci would have just overwhelmed its fragile systems and caused it to explode with this performance:
Either that man has no shame or no self-awareness given the inauspicious track record of his team of health officials and their buddies at the CDC.
- March 2020: CDC announces "15 days (of lockdowns) to slow the spread"
- April 2020: CDC announces that face masks don't work to stop the spread of COVID
- May 2020: CDC announces that face masks do work, but that doctors, rather than the general public need to be wearing them
- June 2020: CDC announces the public should be wearing face masks, and encourages mask mandates because it's about protecting other people, not yourself with the mask
And that was just the beginning. The mixed-messaging and disinformation about vaccine efficacy has been a masterclass in disinformation. And Fauci's clan has been at the forefront; don't forget, Fauci himself admitted to fabricating herd immunity threshold numbers in order to "influence behavior."
But while Dr. Fauci and the CDC's record of straight-shooting is not something to brag about, the argument could be made that most of the time the problem isn't them making things up that are wrong, but rather them refusing to acknowledge that they really don't know what is right yet.
The same cannot be said for the media – those who proudly strut around feigning a role of ultimate arbiters over COVID truth, but who have consistently been guiltiest of perpetuating misinformation.
The recent egregious situation at Rolling Stone offers a case study in this modern media malpractice. In case you missed it, the leftist outlet published a story about Oklahoma gunshot victims having to wait in line at the hospital while human overdoses of "horse dewormer" Ivermectin filled emergency rooms.
The first indication the story wasn't credible was the fact that Rolling Stone used an image of citizens lined up last spring (in coats and jackets) to get the COVID vaccine – not an image of gunshot victims bleeding out in the waiting room while clinging to their "take-a-number" tag.
Further, the entire framing of the story reeked of hyperbole and misinformation. Ivermectin, while lacking official approval as a treatment for COVID, is a Nobel Prize-winning anti-inflammatory treatment that has saved countless humans from blindness and parasites. More than just a few physicians are convinced the drug effectively combats the "cytokines" released into the bloodstream by COVID. That Rolling Stone castigates it as "horse dewormer" betrays an evident bias.
But the worst part, of course, is the fact that the entire account – not a detail, a key part, or even the larger message – the entire account, is based off the unsubstantiated testimony of a former employee. Rolling Stone didn't bother to make a phone call to the hospital to corroborate the source. Not because they didn't know that was the appropriate journalistic approach to such an eye-popping story, but because they didn't want to find out it was false.
Self-important reporters at places like Rolling Stone scoff at conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones, sneering with disdain at his lack of journalistic pedigree. But what they did here was far worse than any InfoWars "gay frog" reporting.
To make matters worse, the magazine appears to show no remorse. They issued a comical "update" about their debunked hysterics, rather than a retraction, apology, and pledge to rectify their obvious editorial shortcomings.
Yet far from rebuke or reproach, leftist media outlets amplified the very kind of "disinformation" Dr. Fauci warned about. Drew Holden chronicled just some of the worst – just click this tweet and read the whole, elaborate, disgusting thread:
No one is debating the fact that honest mistakes happen. But when those mistakes continue to cut only one way, happen to one side of the political spectrum, impact only one group, the "mistake" defense becomes a far less plausible explanation than bias. Ditto that for the continued de-platforming, de-monitizing work of social media outlets whose "unfortunate errors" never seem to involve censoring, silencing, or banishing left-wing voices.
And what's the consequence of all this? Ironically, the left's media misinformation, and the utter lack of accountability they feel for it, leads directly to the proliferation and propagation of the very conspiracy theories they animatedly pretend to oppose.
