I & I Editorial BoardRemember how, until just this week, anyone who suggested that COVID-19 originated in a Chinese lab was called a Trump-style conspiracy nut? Well, the mainstream media is treating election fraud the exact same way.
Soon after Sen. Tom Cotton said that COVID-19 might have originated in a Wuhan lab, the media pounced. The Washington Post accused Sen. Cotton of repeating an already “debunked” coronavirus “conspiracy theory.” Anyone who brought it up got similar treatment.
USA Today called the lab-leak story a “myth.” The New York Times called it a “fringe theory.” Others called it “baseless.” Fact-checking site Politifact said the claim that COVID originated in a lab “is inaccurate and ridiculous. We rate it Pants on Fire!”
Just two months ago, ABC News ran a story headlined: “Sorry, conspiracy theorists. Study concludes COVID-19 ‘is not a laboratory construct'”.
And just days ago, Forbes ran a story declaring that “Science Clearly Shows That COVID-19 Wasn’t Leaked From A Wuhan Lab.” Up until this week, Facebook was taking down posts that suggested COVID was man-made.
But now reporters are all furiously backpedaling as the idea that the virus originated in a lab has suddenly gained credibility in the wake of new revelations. Politifact even retracted its bogus “fact check.”
Leftist reporter Matthew Yglesias took the time to trace how the media came to decide in lockstep that any claim of a lab leak was a lie, and concluded that the press coverage over the past year was “a huge f—up.”
This revelation of media malpractice, by the way, comes shortly after the press got caught peddling a bogus story that Russia was paying bounties to Taliban who killed U.S. soldiers, and widespread reporting that Capitol Building “rioters” killed Officer Brian Sicknick during the melee.
Yet even as the press grudgingly admits that it horribly mishandled the Wuhan lab leak story and in the process needlessly besmirched those who brought it up, these same outlets are playing the same game with the election fraud story.
As with the lab leak theory, we have been told repeatedly that there is no evidence to back it up. We’re told that court cases alleging election fraud were dismissed. We’re told, as with the Wuhan lab story, that the experts all agree that there’s no truth to election fraud claims. And we’re told that anyone who suggests fraud took place in the November 2020 elections is a Trump-loving conspiracy nut.
Here’s a typical headline, this one from CNN: “Arizona, Georgia audits move forward as Republicans continue to push election fraud lies.”
And as with the lab leak story, the narrative being peddled by the press just happens to fit into their political bias. The press was happy to dismiss the Wuhan lab story because President Trump was among those suggesting it. They’re happy to dismiss any claims of election fraud for the same reason.
Never mind that, as with the lab leak story, there is reason to doubt the media’s chosen narrative. There’s no question that strange things were happening on election night. There is no doubt that the Democrats’ push for universal mail-in balloting made fraud easier to commit. There are reasons to doubt several of the official election counts.
A credible press would investigate such claims on their own, and even call for their own audits – as they did after the disputed Florida election in 2000 when they sent armies of reporters down to the state to conduct their own ballot recounts.
But no. The press will allow no one to make such claims without labeling them “conspiracy mongers,” or “ridiculous,” or calling any such claims “fringe theory,” “baseless,” a “myth” or any of the other pejoratives they so assuredly hurled at those mentioning the Wuhan lab. States that are prudently enacting election integrity laws are routinely demonized as trying to “restrict” or “suppress” voting to appease Trump’s warped fantasies.
Of course, the lab origin theory for COVID may in the end not pan out, just as election audits might not turn up evidence of massive fraud. But what we are seeing more and more is what happens when the press decides that its job isn’t to report the news but to push a biased and partisan narrative. They get things terribly wrong.
So, the question for today isn’t so much “Is the election fraud story bogus?” as it is “When will the press be forced to admit that it had f—d up that story, too?”
Correction: The editorial had misspelled Sen. Tom Cotton’s first name. It has been corrected.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
Armando Simón
Using these vague “policy violations,” Google is now threatening to demonetize us. It’s part of Big Tech’s effort to silence conservative voices.
We’ve had partisan journalism/journalists with us since before independence. I was about to say that the difference between then and now is the lack of objectivity in today’s media, but a glance at any 18th-19th century broadsheet would put the lie to that – the media was not just partisan, it was rabidly so.
And yet, isn’t it the purpose of the media to provide the consumers of its product ALL the information necessary to reach their own conclusions on a given topic? Isn’t it true, that in the not distant past, the media outlets’ politics was found exclusively on the editorial page and in the op-ed columns or was announced as opinion in the broadcast media? In today’s media, sadly, politics don’t just color the reporting, politics determines what’s reported and what’s not, what’s “true” and what isn’t. Instead of standing to one side and informing us, the media has come to shape the news to fit its agenda.
Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, there was a respected newspaper whose masthead proudly declared “All the news that’s fit to print” and mostly tried to live up to that motto. Today, though, that motto has been rewritten and, in effect, now says “All the news that fits, we print”. Today, there’s a paper whose masthead declares “Truth dies in darkness”, while busily obscuring the truth and the facts and slanting the stories that do appear to satisfy their agenda. This is as true of the few outlets remaining on the right of the political spectrum as it is of the “Grey Lady” and the WaPo, of Fox as of CNN, of I&I as of Vox.
But the problem really isn’t the media. We are the problem, because we haven’t demanded honesty and objectivity of the people whose job it is to inform us. We’re the problem, because we (mostly) silently accept what’s shoved at us in print and electronically
All true, with one exception. Unlike the other news outlets you mention, we are a commentary and opinion site. We state our viewpoint up front, and label our editorials clearly as such.
For those still watching main stream media “news” there is a healthier alternative. Stick your head in the toilet and press flush.
Media is always on the wrong or lying side of everything! It only takes no brains, no guts, and the desire to be a toady of the left!
It is Sen. Tom Cotton, not Tim Cotton.
Thanks. It has been fixed.
Continuing to refer to these partisan activists as ‘media’ is absurd. They have zero interest in reporting news. They are paid to frame everything according to the party narrative.
It’s too fuzzy to say “There’s no question that strange things were happening on election night.” Trump’s charges are specific, and you should take a specific stand on his accusations. Below are the 56 claims Trump made about election fraud on January 6th. Most of these, he wouldn’t make in court. But he used these to raise over $200 million, and urge his supporters to convince Mike Pence to stop certifying the election. This was the reality in the minds of the Insurrectionists. These were the talking points that has fueled election law changes in Georgia, Florida, Texas, and elsewhere. Many election officials, judges, and public and private investigators looked – and the vast majority of these are nowhere in the ballpark of truth. That matters. If you want a 57th at bat, you have to accurately state what happened the first 56 times. You have to take a stand on the integrity of the accuser, and why it holds up to you. It’s irresponsible to ignore Trump’s specific claims, and suggest it’s others – not you – who have failed to look. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ufqHUieBbDzxHVPQbMh7PSWl4iirvb5L7enYGbCF4U4/edit#gid=0
Please go to Hereistheevidence.com
According to what I read today, now there is a question beyond the Wuhan lab, and I might mention that we went through a lot of iterations besides just the lab or not the lab. The supposed origin was bats, and everybody was revolted at the suggestion that some people ate bats. But now some sources are saying it’s not bats at all, but scaly pangolins. Who knew? A pangolin seems to look like a big lizard but scaly. And I have no idea if people actually eat them.
The MSM air and publish propaganda, not the truth. Who can stop them?
They are essentially subsidized by the advertising tax breaks which amount to over $250 billion/year which provide multimillion dollar salaries to mobs of dishonest talking heads, athletes, actors, agents, and more whose soapbox drowns out common sense and facts. Common sense and facts are censored.
The CCP’s Wuhan lab coronavirus (Covid 19/SARS2) pandemic proved deadly. The MSM scared doctors into not treating patients with readily available cheap, effective therapeutic treatment protocols. They have blocked information concerning informed consent regarding the adverse effects of emergency use authorized vaccines. The VAERS totals should have been aired and published as the Covid 19/SARS2 infection and death rates were. Many doctors and epidemiologists are warning that these vaccines are a ticking time bomb of adverse reactions from hypercoagulation and antibody dependent enhancement autoimmune episodes. Whether infected or injected, aspirin and those effective therapeutic treatment protocols may still save the day.
Let’s hope the MSM undergoes bursts if Mea Culpas and starts airing the truth on the CCP’s Wuhan lab coronavirus and Fauci’s complicity in hiding facts, the truth concetning national and international operatives organizing to manipulate the 2020 election to achieve fraudulent results with undeserving candidates, and the truth about the Marxist inspired destruction of urban areas while the fomenters enriched themselves in real estate, etc.
There is lawlessness on our border, in our cities, and throughout the highest echelons of federal law enforcement, intelligence, and other agencies.
Are the MSM just going to facilitate the destruction of America?
“Fact-checking site Politico …”
PolitiFact
Thank you for pointing that out. It’s been corrected.
The difference between 19th and 20th century press and now is that historically there was less effort to completely censor and suppress opposing views. People back then believed in the sentence, “I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” The left no longer believes that at all.
The left believes that free speech only covers true statements, and that only the left is qualified to determine what’s true and what’s not. This conceit is ultimately totalitarian, but it’s sold to useful idiots as the true fulfillment of the 1st Amendment.
The point is that people who depend on censored news have no idea what they’re missing.
I am amazed that you would push the election fraud narrative and not mention the fact that Barr and the Justice Department found no systematic fraud, that of the 60 plus cases that were presented to challenge the results in state courts, all but one or two lost, that the Supreme Court did not want to hear any of these cases, that Republican election officials in Georgia and Arizona certified the election and found no fraud despite their own audits. Can you explain the absence of argument?
Why is it impossible to get Democrats to admit to any 2020 election irregularites? Before the 2020 election, courts and election officials made numerous changes in election procedures, contrary to state law. The US Constitution says state legislatures set the conditions for the selection of presidential electors. During the election, unsolicited mail in ballots were sent to all registered voters, dead or alive, resident or moved, in many states contrary to law. Many of these votes were harvested by Democrats who watched voters fill out the ballots to make sure they voted for Democrats. During the vote counts election night, counting was suspended in several swing states, then massive numbers of added votes were suddenly posted with 99% plus of the votes for Biden. In several Democrat stronghold cities, Republican poll watchers were expelled during the vote count. In Atlanta, poll watchers were told there was a water main break, and counting was halted. There was no water main break, and counting continued without the poll watchers. In many counties, rejection rates for mailed ballots dropped over 90% from 2016.
We can’t prove beyond a shadow of a doubt the election outcome was changed. We were denied court hearings on a number of pretenses, mostly because Republicans have no legal standing in any vote fraud case. It might be that Biden actually won in very suspicious circumstanses. But Trump didn’t cause our suspicions. He hopped in front of a parade that was already rolling.
Just because all of the facts were censored by news and social media, aka the Ministry of Truth, doesn’t make them non facts. It just makes the Democrats who run news and social media big liars who don’t believe in Freedom of Speech and the Bill of Rights. Democrats are the real threats to the Constitution. When they accuse Trump, they’re just protecting.
Saying that the Justice Department found no systemic election fraud is like saying the WHO found no evidence of a lab leak in China. The DOJ is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Democrat Party, just as the WHO is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Communist Chinese Party. And courts “refusing to decide” is not the same as “losing in court.” No one believes your spin.
There has been a mountain of evidence accumulated that conclusively and overwhelmingly proves the election was hacked. All it takes is one court case to allow discovery and the dominoes will fall.
Hear anything from Dominion lately?