There’s a fascinating article in UnHerd by Ashley Rindsberg, author of The Gray Lady Winked: How the New York Times’ Misreporting, Distortions and Fabrications Radically Alter History. He asks why the New York Times was so quick to dismiss the lab leak theory last year and concludes it may have been because of its Chinese interests.
In the opening months of the pandemic, the lab leak hypothesis was actively discredited by the media and scientific establishment, with anyone associated with it smeared as “racist”. The question we have to ask now is how, and why, did this happen?
To a great extent, I believe the answer lies with the world’s most powerful news outlet, the New York Times. At the start of the pandemic, the Times set the news and policy agenda on the lab leak hypothesis, discrediting it and anyone who explored it. The Times did so while taking money from Chinese state-owned propaganda outlets, such as China Daily, and while pursuing long-term investments in China that may have made the paper susceptible to the CCP’s strong-arm propaganda tactics in the first months of the pandemic.
As someone who has spent years researching the history of the Times, I was struck by the paper’s markedly pro-China bent at the start of the pandemic. It opposed Trump’s travel ban to and from China as “isolationist”. It all but ignored the unparalleled success of China’s arch-enemy, Taiwan, in containing the virus. It downplayed China’s economic war against Australia, whose prime minister early on questioned the CCP story on the pandemic’s origins. And it celebrated China’s success in battling COVID-19, taking the CCP’s absurd mortality numbers at face value, reporting in August 2020 that 4,634 Chinese people died from the virus and, six months later, that there were 4,636 total deaths. That in a country of 1.4 billion people only two people died of Covid-19 in the half a year defies logic and common sense. Still, the Times legitimised the CCP numbers by printing them as hard fact.
Of course, over the past year newspapers across the world have fallen for the CCP’s distorted COVID-19 narrative. And there is no evidence to suggest that the CCP did put pressure on the Times. But when it came to the lab leak debate, the Times was relentless. Starting in early 2020, when little was known about the virus – and nothing about its origins – the Times adopted a stridently anti-lab leak stance. In its first report on the topic, a February 17th, 2020 article covering comments made by Sen. Tom Cotton, the Times stigmatised lab leak as a “fringe theory”. Once the story was published, its reporter took to Twitter to describe it as “the kind of conspiracy once reserved for the tinfoil hatters”.
Only one week prior, another outlet made strikingly similar claims. In an editorial, the CCP-owned China Daily thundered that Cotton’s decision to spread “malicious rumours” shows “how irresponsible some are in their haste to attack China”. The Times, echoing China Daily, also cast the lab leak hypothesis as a “rumour”.
Over the months, the Times’s coverage grew even more strident – and more in line with Chinese propaganda. In February 2020, it gave a platform to zoologist Peter Daszak, publishing an opinion piece by him which claimed that the pandemic was caused by “road-building, deforestation, land clearing and agricultural development”. Daszak argued that “discovering and sequencing” viruses like COVID-19 in labs like the one in Wuhan should be a priority.
The Times, which used Daszak as a key source in over a dozen articles, has never mentioned that Daszak’s organisation funded the Wuhan lab, in particular research into bats and coronaviruses, a flagrant conflict of interest. Crucially, there was no mention of this when a reporter interviewed Daszak this February, following his return from a heavily criticised WHO investigation into the virus’s origins. (Danszak later recused himself from the investigation because of the conflict of interest.)
But the Times also never revealed that Daszak was a favoured source for another outlet: China Daily. The state-owned media organisation, along with Xinhua and sister outlet Global Times, repeatedly quoted Daszak to assure readers of China’s full cooperation in the search for the virus’s origins — and to discredit the possibility of a lab leak.
Worth reading in full.
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Maybe the Daily Sceptic has given up hope in making the basic case against the coronamadness, hence a lot of fairly tangential stuff and largely playing by the mad rules of the game that has been invented
But I think this is a mistake
Once you accept covid was something exceptional, you’re lost down countless rabbit holes, and the door is open for more madness
Absolutely.
Various interests have been playing out during the shit-show. Chinese investment is but one, and the general corruption of the media is a given.
To anyone with a brain, the ‘Lab Leak’ issue was always a live possibility with the geographical coincidence of Wuhan being rather stronger than the possibility of a bat leak.
In the end, it is a side issue – the real issue being what was made of a low risk virus.
Yes and was it simply opportunistic or preplanned. I’m inclined to the former as the latter would be simply too complicated to manage, I think.
I no longer think that accepting the lab leak theory, is accepting that this was something exceptional. But what it does show, especially when backed by the Fauci emails and early paper trail, is that governments, NGO’s, business and media leaders all believed it was the “Big One”. They all panicked in unison, some more than others at first.
Every article I’ve read on the subject, increasingly seems to point to this being the case.
My worry all along is that it’s just a distraction that gets us no further to the crux of the matter. It may or may not be proved one way or another, ever, and we could spend years debating it when we should we ramming home the point that covid was not exceptional and that pandemic planning needs to return to the real world rather than mad fantasy.
Is it not possible to do both?
It will be proven. Fauci is on the back foot. The British Civil Service are also beginning to be questioned in USA. Ferguson, Witty, Valance, are all deeply involved with Gates and Wuhan. Many faux scientists are being named and shamed in America.
Dr Yeadon has left this country and now resides in Florida. He is already now able to release information on this virus and the British Government’s involvement.
What we have to do is stop listening to the Johnson Regime. Live our lives and make sure we never vote for any if these people. We have. To change the way we do politics in this country. We have to follow the young MAGA movement and constantly question the politicians and put them on the spot.
There is no pandemic to plan for.
No way.
This is the Reset. All planned and being centrally co-ordinated.
Something big and unpleasant is planned for the back end of this year.
Like what?
SARS Cov 2021/22 AKA the Omega variant.
The internet will shut down while the Banks steal the pensions and savings of people. Stop using card and start using cash.
Secondly all this double jabbed will be very sick this winter or next spring. If they old their homes will be taken to pay for their care path. If they have lost their jobs their homes will be repossessed.
This is the great reset that us ‘cranks’ have been warning about for four years. We have known about it for many years because we do not watch msm and do our own research. It’s all in the internet, not hidden. We are being advised to stock up in food and water. Avoid the NHS anything to do with it. Including the bloody app.
As usual the majority chose to believe a government they wouldn’t vote for and a media they hold in contempt. It seems to me the ridiculous are those who love their bread and circuses.
And they have been covering their arses ever since…
And thanks to the work of a proper young Republican journalist Natalie Winters and the support of many young Republican congressmen and women who stood proud for their beloved MAGA movement, this is all finally becoming unavoidable for the corrupt mainstream and the sloppy British Government who want a Globalist World Government. It seems being part of the socialist EU has corrupted our good governance and our good sense. The Democrat Party are illegitimately in the WH and I think the Tory government are probably undeserving of ever holding power again. They all knew, and they were all complicit.
More madness has already happened, hence, avoiding that isn’t an option anymore.
Just-for-fun conspiracy theory I came up with on one of those “miserable, rainy English summer afternoons”: Sars-CoV2 is indeed a Chinese bioweapon and was released intentionally. But it was never meant to be very dangerous to people, just so much that most of China’s global antagonists could be coaxed into committing economic and social/ political suicide.
I suppose by “more madness” I meant more stupid measures for covid, flu and whatever other present or future infectious disease fake pandemics appear.
I expect the leak if there was one was accidental but what happened afterwards was calculated to benefit China and probably to harm other nations, though God knows why we believed them.
I can’t any longer buy into the west as victim narrative. The descent into tyranny was too eager. Global capital – the source – embraces China.
We’ve Andrew Lloyd-Webber (no less) claiming that he knew of plans for lockdown #1, way back when Johnson was still playing it cool. (Article featured in LS, but significance highlighted BTL. Can’t remember whom to credit, sorry.)
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/what-to-see/andrew-lloyd-webber-want-stop-theatre-have-arrest-us/
The Grey Lady was once a fine newspaper.
Now it’s just a mouthpiece of the elite establishment and will do everything in its power to suppress anything inconvenient.
Like the Election Steal, origin of covid …
‘Once’? You’re talking decades ago. For a long time now it has been a fount of smug, low-information, bigoted poison.
For example, its putative ‘coverage’ of the UK’s drawn-out escape from the European Empire has been a despicable travesty – an exercise in deceitful, spiteful and bigoted garbage.
It’s a truly wicked outfit.
Walter Duranty ‘Nuff said…
Does the NYT supress investigative journalism and debate?
Is the NYT financially influenced by the same group of people that financially influence the rest of the corrupt media?
Is a corrupt media the biggest threat to the free world?
“Is a corrupt media the biggest threat to the free world?” One of the biggest, yes, if you include Google, Facebook, Twitter in your definition of media. And governments who ask them to censor more rather than less – “online harms”.
Blimey, the people who get to decide the online harms will be in a might y powerful position. Who appointed these people though? That’s what I’d like to know…
If there’s one positive thing to yet come out of this whole debacle it’s that a much greater proportion will wake up to MSM and it’s manipulative powers and their own gullibility. Lessons learned.
Makes me laugh when people poo poo RT because its Russian – all RT have to do is tell it how it is (none Russian issues) – and it sounds like propaganda against main stream media propaganda
Agree. Some decent journalism coming from RT.
Rather a long article, but gives you an idea what the Australians are up against:
https://www.sott.net/article/456293-Abusive-Aussie-police-commissioner-on-lockdown-protesters-Filthy-disgusting-and-selfish-and-thats-only-the-beginning
That is a disturbing write up. It reminds me somewhat of a homegrown outfit. GMP comes to mind.
And didn’t Lockdown Sceptics play it’s part too? I seem to remember it was all cock-up and no conspiracy.
The trouble faced by the Daily Sceptic is the simple fact that if you automatically treat every explanation sceptically eventually you reject the truth.
That’s an assertion which makes no sense: The point is to determine the truth through elimination of untruths. In order to be able to do so, one must start at a point where nothing is presumed to be true just because someone talked about it.
That’s not how ‘scepticism’ works.
Not that I don’t like hearing a semi respected site has called out the NYT for its usual disinformation but, for most of us, this isn’t news, just reification of what we already knew.
When they figure out that the US election was rigged, that the January 6th “insurrection” was a set up, that the coronavirus was patented created leaked and the pandemic was planned by big Pharma, and that the entire point of all this is digital ID to control and re set the global financial system, THEN, I’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Big Pharma couldn’t organise a punch-up in a Glasgow pub near an Old Firm game.
They’re too busy raking in the millions from various harmful drugs.
Right
Dr David Martin Patented coronavirus https://www.bitchute.com/video/4FdvU43qOdfD/
Dr David Martin follow up with Stew Peters https://www.bitchute.com/video/zjEuyUObdh30/
get back to me when you’re done watching these….
Quite why anyone believes a word written/spoken by NYT, WaPo, Guardian, BBC, CNN is a matter of disbelief. They are all major drivers of the pysop.
Its unlikely you will read/hear about the tentacles of BlackRock in these organs.
Daszak makes you want to change nationality ( but certainly NOT to French!).
NYT, WaPo, BBC-Guardian, Economist, FT, CNN, NBC, CBS, ‘Independent’, The European….
Just terrible, terrible and truly evil outfits.
Another excellent article in ‘The Spectator’ by Gavin Mortimer. He gets the French mood just right, its about protecting Liberté, égalité, fraternité .
Not against vaccines per se, but against health passes and the discrimination.
The media coverage outside France is appalling, inside France as Gavin says its toned down. How can a national paper/TV oppose the support of the three pillars of France’s rationale?
Macron might have bitten more than he can chew. But there are still depressing reminders of the ‘little hitlers’ in society every day. Today the amateur football organisation is insisting on health passes for games, players, staff and entry to stadia, dressing rooms, pitches etc. They are not acting like this has a legal end of 15 November.
Macron’s profoundly evil nature is surely apparent to all by now.
Even if they did will it matter?
Will they be sanctioned in any way for it?
No.
This is perhaps what is undermining people’s faith in western liberal democracy more than anything else.
If you are strong enough and powerful enough, you don’t face consequences for terrible harmful actions whereas ordinary people go to jail for far less.
Blair walks free despite the illegal invasion of a country with a completely fabricated excuse.
Pharma companies pay billions in fines for misconduct that leads to death.
Banks pay billions in fines for frauds.
The responsibility is dispersed and hidden within these enormous institutions so that in the end no real people are held responsible.
When there is one set of rules for the powerful (or those protected by powerful instituions) and a different set of rules for the rest, that is what ultimately kills liberal democracy.
Why would anyone take New York Pravda seriously?
It has been a fountain of falsehood for decades. A seriously evil outfit.
“Daszak a key source in over a dozen articles”.
Are they lazy, or could it be that they have an agenda? (Incidentally, I seem to remember the BBC quoting that Grantham institute again the other day).
Other zoologists are available…
Boris Johnson had the chance to form a strong conservative alliance with President Trump and could have stopped these globalists in their tracks.
Maggie and Regan understood the threat of USSR and the plight of ordinary Russian people and helped bring down communism.
Johnson had exactly the same opportunity to work with an extremely strong and well loved President, to bring down Global communism beginning to stalk the world. The UK breaking away from a socialist EU could have made this country a beacon for freedom and democracy with the strong support of a Republican President.
Instead Johnson’s legacy will be the killing of a great country. The instigator of the first ever communist regime and genocide in these British islands.
He chose to walk side by side with a Democrat Party known for KKK, segregation of its people, selling out its manufacturing to China and deep corruption within its leadership, including the destabilisation of nations and the drug trafficking. What a shameful and disgusting legacy for the last PM of the United Kingdom.
All msm suppressed the truth