As Twitchy reported this morning, Vanity Fair has published an extensive 11,000-word bombshell on the origins of COVID-19 and the Wuhan lab-leak theory — the one that Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler just last week tweeted had “suddenly” become credible. It was so credible that Kessler’s own paper went back 15 months and changed a headline accusing Sen. Tom Cotton of pushing a debunked conspiracy theory.
Ben Smith is the New York Times’ media columnist. He was also editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed and the one who decided to publish the Steele dossier in full after every other media outlet had passed on it because it couldn’t be verified — something Smith admitted but defended. So when it comes to the media covering conspiracies, Smith has a past. Still, he finds it “really amazing” how the media — including the New York Times, we assume — mostly looked away from the Wuhan lab-leak theory.
One of the really amazing things about this piece is how a bunch of confrontational twitter people, some experts and some laypeople, … broke all the news on a huge story, while the media mostly looked away. https://t.co/lGalu9Zad9
— Ben Smith (@benyt) June 3, 2021
Go on…
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) June 3, 2021
“Amazing”
— ⚡️Erick Brockway⚡️ (@erickbrockway) June 3, 2021
Weird, huh?
— jimtreacher.substack.com (@jtLOL) June 3, 2021
There were some in the media that covered it closely, that just didn't make it into this 11,000 word story somehow. But no, the rest didn't "look away." They looked at it and called it a conspiracy theory, because they got misled by their best scientist sources.
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) June 3, 2021
*willingly misled
— The Unmasked Avenger! (@Crapplefratz) June 3, 2021
The TDS had a lot to do with that.
Groupthink was stronger than sensationalism that time
— Dems in Array (@HopeisRevolutio) June 3, 2021
It's certainly a phenomenon not exclusive to the lab-leak story!
— Anthony L. Fisher (@anthonyLfisher) June 3, 2021
Ben, can you tell us why the media did that?
— Flash of Greatness (@flashofgreatnss) June 3, 2021
Sounds like good topic for a certain Media Journalist to explore…
— Kevin Bartley (@notkevinbartley) June 3, 2021
“Media mostly looked away.”
Don’t you work for the nation’s top newspaper?
You’re the “media,” bro.
— Timothy Wood (@nagaeboko1) June 3, 2021
Lol. It really was amazing, right Mr. Journalist?
— Nah Bruh (@Queso_Matador) June 3, 2021
Why do you suppose that is?
— Chris Post (@ccposter) June 3, 2021
Yes, your industry failed a lot last year. Completely dropped the ball in a lot of cases.
— Shaner (@shaner5000) June 3, 2021
Might be worth thinking about what other stories have been completely blown when the media operated in this fashion
— PP (@PurportedPundit) June 3, 2021
So if the media is that incompetent, why do those people have jobs? And when will you call all of them out, including your compadres at the @nytimes?
— Ron Ley (@Rallyo42) June 3, 2021
They looked away while they covered it's face with a pillow until it stopped moving. Just like the Hunter Biden laptop and oh so many other stories.
— Mother B (@mabennett1982) June 3, 2021
They didn't look away, they actively opposed and suppressed the story.
— HoodlumDoodlum (@HoodlumDoodlum) June 3, 2021
Not just looked away, they willfully ignored and denigrated anyone who believed that this was even a possibility. Their MO was to cover this with a pillow.
— Opinionated Witch🧙 (@opinionwitchy) June 3, 2021
Why is it amazing? It’s literally textbook for media in 2021. It’s normal.
— Daniel Fullam (@daniel_fullam) June 3, 2021
If by "mostly looked away" you mean the media insisted it was a debunked conspiracy theory…https://t.co/OemZVqzagY
— @JoJoMichigan (@JoMichigan1) June 3, 2021
They didn’t look away, they actively covered it up.
— Roger Maris (@HellsComgWithMe) June 3, 2021
Again, this amazes the guy who decided to publish the “pee-pee tape” dossier and then noted (after publication) that there was “serious reason to doubt the allegations” contained within and that none of it had been verified. But the media couldn’t look into a conspiracy theory like a lab leak.
Related:
'Our CDC/Govt Scientific community completely failed us': Vanity Fair publishes 11,000-word bombshell on the Wuhan lab-leak theory https://t.co/cO6TbH6UGt
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) June 3, 2021
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