Did we mention Fauci lied and people died? Because Fauci DID lie and people DID die.
As Twitchy reported yesterday, Sen. Rand Paul delivered perhaps the biggest and baddest ‘I told you so’ ever on social media when the news broke that Dr. Fauci had indeed lied about Gain-of-Function research at the Wuhan lab. For months, Paul has been trying to tell Americans the truth, and for months the media has protected Fauci, going so far as to attack the senator from Kentucky. Drew Holden was good enough to ‘collect’ all of the media tweets (and some pundit tweets) to show how desperate they all were to protect the High Priest of COVID.
Even if that meant hiding the truth.
🧵THREAD🧵
The NIH announced a bombshell: despite what Dr. Fauci said under oath, US taxpayers paid for gain-of-function research in Wuhan.
I hope that outlets will correct the record from when they assured us this wasn’t happening.
If they’ve forgotten, I’ve got screenshots⤵️
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 21, 2021
AKA, Drew brought the receipts.
First, a bit of context. Today, NIH contradicted Dr Fauci & others, clarifying that a grantee, the EcoHealth Alliance, had conducted research (supposedly w/o NIH knowing) to see if bat coronavirus could jump to human receptors in mice.
More details here: https://t.co/CHmfyVN4dv
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 21, 2021
In other words, oopsie, Paul WAS right and Fauci lied.
You may remember a dust up in July between Dr. Fauci & @RandPaul around precisely this point.
It seems inarguable that what Fauci told Congress isn’t true. And the press uncritically helped him convince the American people otherwise. Look at how @CNBC frames it: pic.twitter.com/rZsaCvALvR
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 21, 2021
The press did what they always do and protected THE NARRATIVE instead of reporting on the truth.
Some places were even worse.
Does @CNN still think that Fauci “excorciated” Senator Paul, when we now know that @RandPaul was right all along?
Will we get any follow up? Or perhaps an apology for Senator Paul? pic.twitter.com/GsVCXK38Yl
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 21, 2021
Shocker. CNN got it wrong.
Again.
You may remember that we had an entire news cycle about how Fauci had owned Paul.
The worst had to be @MSNBC, who ran a full court press to discredit Paul and applaud Fauci.
Here’s how it started: pic.twitter.com/1EdXxWwiSJ
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 21, 2021
MSNBC claiming Fauci ‘owned’ Paul.
Keep in mind, Joy Reid works for MSNBC.
Get it yet?
But then they doubled down across the network.
Perhaps @maddow/@MaddowBlog would like to revisit the assertion that “if the senator thinks the exchanges are going well for him, he’s mistaken”? pic.twitter.com/IVScQt9uX4
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 21, 2021
C’mon man, even a judge has said Maddow is simply entertainment and not the news.
I mean, @MSNBC even had a follow up with Fauci where they intro’d the video as “Slander”! Cmon! pic.twitter.com/i4e1NcFwaP
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 21, 2021
SLANDER! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
This interview was courtesy of @AriMelber. Needless to say, he didn’t exactly grill Fauci in this one.
In retrospect, it sure seems like a tougher question or two might’ve been in order.
Maybe Dr. Fauci will be invited back on to discuss the latest news? pic.twitter.com/dVPasOECRA
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 21, 2021
Wouldn’t hold your breath on this one.
(@Newsweek and others actually picked up this interview as it’s own separate news item, again treating Fauci’s word as gospel) pic.twitter.com/oi6XUDoYz3
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 21, 2021
Interesting. Fauci lies, one outlet does an interview with Fauci to claim he didn’t lie, then other outlets treat THAT interview as gospel.
See a trend yet?
You guys are surely sick of me talking about this, but this is yet another example of the power of media to frame stories.
By choosing to focus only on what Fauci had to say, it conveys that there is only one side of this debate worth believing. That’s clearly not true. @nytimes pic.twitter.com/l552PxFAzp
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 21, 2021
Not true in a big way.
We saw something similar from @washingtonpost, who reiterated that experts had repeatedly dismissed these allegations.
Will we get a follow up now that NIH has corrected the record? pic.twitter.com/sv8cDadpOw
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 21, 2021
When will they slap Four Pinocchios on Fauci?
And themselves?
The @washingtonpost story links to a fact check from @GlennKesslerWP where Senator Paul’s allegations – which, again, have since been confirmed by NIH – are given two pinnochios for supposedly being untruthful.
Will we be getting a follow up on that, Glenn? pic.twitter.com/dg3UQyn7dY
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 21, 2021
Glenn Kessler.
Of course.
Not only does @NBCNews make use of this same framing – Fauci was said to be “rebuking Paul’s claim” – but they end the piece with Fauci saying “I have not lied. Case closed.”
Seems clear how they wanted readers to interpret the coverage. pic.twitter.com/wWVtuPis5Q
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 21, 2021
Seems clear NBC had an agenda to push.
Case closed.
@Reuters goes even a step further on this, not just featuring only Dr. Fauci’s perspective, but blaming Sen Paul for causing Fauci to lose his “mostly calm and diplomatic” bearing.
Sheesh. pic.twitter.com/dOTDScP29q
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 21, 2021
It was Paul’s fault Fauci got combative, not that he’d been caught lying his arse off.
There are too many outlets to mention here who covered this poorly, but a couple additional ones stand out, such as:@VanityFair (embarrassing)@ABC (“misinformation” plus look at the created graphic)@DEADLINE@factcheckdotorg (“There’s no evidence that Fauci lied to Congress”) pic.twitter.com/Da9UOLpuUW
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 21, 2021
Factcheck.org.
HA HA HA HA HA HA
Shame on these a-holes.
I don’t have space here to give detailed shoutouts for all the bluechecks involved in the resulting pile-on, but here are a few people with egg on their face:@DrEricDing@RexChapman (head, meet desk)@CapehartJ pic.twitter.com/KLYDNxsPqq
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 21, 2021
We’re not the least bit surprised Feigl-Ding, the nutritionist who pretends to be a real doctor who moved his kids out of the country and sent them to private school IN PERSON while he fought to keep Americans’ kids out of school, was on the Fauci bandwagon.
And of course a number of our fan favorites jumped into the melee with some tweets that didn’t age well.@ananavarro (woof)@SethAbramson (always)@atrupar (go figure, check out both of these) pic.twitter.com/AEm5n1rrGV
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 21, 2021
Navarro. (woof) EL OH EL
Sorry, but it would be more newsworthy if Seth and Aaron actually DIDN’T get something wrong.
Okay, I had to shout out @ProjectLincoln, who are seemingly never right about anything. pic.twitter.com/YtLjXINJvG
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 21, 2021
Never. Right. About. Anything.
Nope.
And can someone check on @Laurie_Garrett? Unhinged. pic.twitter.com/tF5ENnFoOb
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 21, 2021
People with masks in their avatars need help.
Seriously.
Some might say that media are only as good as their sources: if the authority on this wasn’t truthful, how could the media know better?
The problem, however, is that there was never even a shred of incredulity. The press took the government at its word and moved on.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 21, 2021
It should go without saying, but this is simply an inexcusable way to handle getting to the bottom of whether American taxpayers were responsible for funding research that could’ve contributed to a global pandemic that has killed millions of people.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 21, 2021
What if all adds up to is blatant media malpractice on the most consequential story in recent memory.
Given the NIH has now corrected the record, these outlets have a responsibility to do so as well.
But something tells me we won’t be hearing much at all from them.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 21, 2021
This one went off so for new folks/those asking, I don’t have anything to sell or subscribe to.
But if you’re able, food banks remain in desperate need of support. For those in DC (or otherwise) I think Capital Area Food Bank does great work: https://t.co/OFkePtudmZ
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 22, 2021
Drew is so damn cool.
And the media is so damn awful.
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