Yesterday we told you about Charles C. W. Cooke’s must-read exposé on Rebekah Jones, the fired data scientist and supposed Covid-19 whistleblower in Florida who is still claiming that Gov. Ron DeSantis hid the true coronavirus death toll in his state. Drew Holden also had a great thread explaining how Jones’ grift went on for so long, all while many in the media took her claims seriously, which helped fuel lies about DeSantis all in an attempt to save face for Andrew Cuomo and other Democrats who crippled their states’ economies.
But now the media are backing away from Jones. CNN’s Oliver Darcy shared this quote from Cooke’s story about Jones at NRO:
"There is an extremely good reason that nobody in the Florida Department of Health has sided with Jones. It’s the same reason that there has been no devastating New York Times exposé … That reason? There is simply no story here." https://t.co/SsN4r6Xwlu
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) May 13, 2021
CNN White House correspondent Kaitlyn Collins gave that a retweet:
And with Jones’ claims having imploded, questions for CNN’s journos followed:
Hi Oliver, then why did she appear on your network repeatedly last year?https://t.co/2Y4ujTzRfN
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) May 14, 2021
Hi Oliver, then why did she appear on your network repeatedly last year? https://t.co/MRJNOwG6sw
— Unring This Bumblebee 🐝 (@UnringThisBell) May 14, 2021
CNN certainly did their part to give Jones a platform to spread the conspiracy theories.
wow, you’re finally covering news and not propping up a grifter. *golf claps* https://t.co/M9SEGw9cIb
— kaitlin, RINO birthing person (@thefactualprep) May 13, 2021
— Greg (@giggitygreg) May 13, 2021
In all fairness it was an election year…
— Tim Mathis (@timmathiscomedy) May 14, 2021
But of course there was much triggering on the Left over Darcy using NRO as a source:
Summarizing many of the comments: “I didn’t read the article, but it’s all fake.” 🤣 https://t.co/ASyqmHksnq
— Wooferville 🐶❤️ (@LizzerMack) May 14, 2021
The responses to this are hilarious. "It's a hit piece, how do we know it's true?" But of course, they had no problem accepting Jones' lies. They never bothered to check her statements and were convinced Fl was cooking the books. https://t.co/nMRL0ZXRwg
— Amphibious Rodent (@inthecitylimits) May 13, 2021
Some will never allow themselves to loosen their grip on what was a bogus narrative the entire time.
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