Drew Holden is a treasure. Unless you're a member of the mainstream media then you probably aren't a huge fan. Holden has a habit of making them all look like the liars and propagandists they are, especially when it comes to COVID coverage. And if I'm even more specific, their coverage of the lab-leak theory around COVID. As Holden calls it in this honestly glorious and impressive thread, 'media malpractice'. It's easy to forget just how obnoxious and dishonest they all were to push a narrative that would ultimately cost Trump his presidency. Oh spare me, I'm not even going to make a tinfoil hat joke here, this was never about informing people about the virus, it was about keeping us in check and making sure we all believed what they wanted us to believe.
To 'fortify the 2020 election'.
See for yourself.
🧵THREAD🧵
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 24, 2024
Do you remember how bad the media’s “Covid lab leak” - the hypothesis that the virus came from a lab - coverage was?
I thought I did. But it was a more dramatic example of uniform media malpractice than even I remembered.
So I revisited it. Buckle in, it’s long. ⤵️
He's not kidding. It's very long. And since it's COVID-related and calling out the media and big tech, I've put this behind a paywall so they don't punish us for covering it.
I know.
Recommended
It started in Feb 2020 when @SenTomCotton suggested looking into the CCP lab studying bats near the initial cases in Wuhan.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 24, 2024
The media were outraged. In a since-updated piece, @washingtonpost said the idea was a “conspiracy theory that has been repeatedly debunked by experts.” pic.twitter.com/kAQFbA4baF
They called is XENOPHOBIC.
Keep going.
It wasn’t just WaPo. Shortly thereafter, @nytimes trotted out a similar allegation, calling the lab leak hypothesis a “fringe theory” and a “tale” designed to inflame social media. @CNN’s @ChrisCillizza said Cotton was “playing a dangerous game” with his suggestions. pic.twitter.com/Xr7eXaNaKE
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 24, 2024
Cillizza who once claimed the media does not pick sides.
Hilarious.
@USATODAY, in a since-updated fact check, said that Cotton’s claims were “false” because “overwhelming scientific evidence” said so. pic.twitter.com/ZMTekytd3L
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 24, 2024
WHAT evidence?
A quick pause here to point something out. What the media were up in arms about wasn’t the veracity of the lab leak idea.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 24, 2024
Just that people thought it was *plausible*. That it “may” be true, as @SenTomCotton said.
Look how close the lab is to the first cases. “May” is too much? pic.twitter.com/9v5eRdLKJP
The media spends a good bit of time in the, 'HOW DARE YOU,' world of reporting.
Anyway, back to the coverage. This was the dawn of what I like to call “experts say” reporting, where an outlet finds someone with credentials who agrees with them to make the point the outlet wants to make.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 24, 2024
Here’s @NatGeo, @Forbes, @CBSNews & @washingtonpost doing that here. pic.twitter.com/3Of32wYYzl
Experts say the media is full of crap.
Hey, that does work.
There were some even more dramatic examples I want to call out.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 24, 2024
Maybe my all time favorite is from @NPR who, with the confidence that only that station posses, claimed that the lab leak theory had been “debunked” in April 2020. pic.twitter.com/Ne6JWdYX4L
Debunked.
Adorable.
This @ABC headline presented without comment pic.twitter.com/4wp49FkL0F
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 24, 2024
*sigh*
It was really a banner time period for outlets using “fact checkers” as a political weapon with no connection to facts, as @CNN does here.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 24, 2024
The word of the year had to be “debunked,” which many outlets seemed to believe meant “we don’t like this idea.” pic.twitter.com/aj0x6LZND5
Fact-checking became a weapon.
It’s impossible to ignore how this story intersects with Trump & his admin.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 24, 2024
Once he said he believed the lab leak idea, the press decided it must be a lie.
Some really rich headlines here from @business (really?), @VICE (remember them?), @CNN (“crushed”!) and @BusinessInsider. pic.twitter.com/bkeOZBe4WN
Rich. Good word.
It’s really the condescending tone here from @chrislhayes that gets me. pic.twitter.com/WmVM5FUKTr
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 24, 2024
Chris has always been condescending, it's like his thing.
Apropos of absolutely nothing, I want to remind you that @NPR is funded in part by your tax dollars.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 24, 2024
More on your tax dollars soon. pic.twitter.com/QTqJzNOM1K
Yay.
Just a quick aside. The press at the time purported to be very upset that Trump was using the same language that they had used a few weeks before, to describe the virus as Chinese.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 24, 2024
Here’s @CNN. pic.twitter.com/QIF55kIfYK
Oh, they did that all of the time, not just with COVID.
Then a poll came out finding that lots of people believed the lab leak theory: about a third of Americans.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 24, 2024
The press leapt to tar the believers as rubes & the people who convinced them as charlatans.
There’s a lot of this but a few from @CNN, @Forbes, @voxdotcom & @thehill. pic.twitter.com/fZkWphnC6g
YA' DON'T SAY!
One moment you may’ve forgotten: in April 2020, Trump stopped US funding to the lab in question in Wuhan.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 24, 2024
Read: up until then, your tax dollars were paying for dubious research in an autocratic regime that maybe started a plague.
Naturally the media applauded that move, right?
Heh.
Wrong. The press were incensed Trump would stop giving your tax dollars to a shady lab in China.@CBSNews said it was “jeopardizing” a Covid cure. @nytimes did much the same. @ABC blamed the bad move on “conspiracy theories” as @VanityFair pointed to “right-wing disinformation.” pic.twitter.com/nMSKxc2teb
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 24, 2024
Again, HOW DARE HE?!
One phenomenon that really stuck with me is how the press elevated China’s claims in an effort to, I presume, stick it to Trump.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 24, 2024
Look at how @nytimes, @CNN and @TIME put the U.S. and China on equal believability footings. pic.twitter.com/cPc63kEHQX
It was all about sticking it to Trump.
All of it.
This wasn’t a mere momentary blip. All the way until December, @AP was writing up the lab leak as a conspiracy theory that survived online “despite facts.”
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 24, 2024
Right. pic.twitter.com/sD2wZohlnx
Right.
The enormous irony of the @AP story about Covid “conspiracy theories” is the image that accompanies it.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 24, 2024
“Wear a mask outside” the 1984-esq wall art reads. pic.twitter.com/p8ugGHMZi7
So many conspiracy theories have come true we've lost count.
The real facts aren’t as hospitable to what the media was claiming in 2020.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 24, 2024
Further investigation into the lab leak in 2021 gave the idea a respectability even the mainstream media couldn’t ignore. They started to change their tune. Here’s @nytimes pic.twitter.com/Hjh4DTOTqs
In other words, they said, 'Our bad'.
But by then, Trump was out of office so it was easy to admit they were wrong.
Then in 2023 Biden’s own Department of Energy said that the lab leak theory was the most likely explanation for Covid’s origins.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 24, 2024
The side-by-sides of the original reporting vs the newly indisputable facts are what I see when I close my eyes at this point. @NPR pic.twitter.com/nfPLdQDpzA
HA HA HA HA HA HA
Sorry, if we don't laugh we'll never stop throwing up.
You probably don’t need me to spell it out for you, but you really can’t overstate the impact of the failure. When we should’ve been investigating what happened, the press had given social media platforms cover to censor the mere mention of the lab leak.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 24, 2024
The media cheered along. pic.twitter.com/5OM3y7iocN
The media loves censorship.
Big tech loves censorship.
As a result of the media refusing to consider a politically inconvenient idea — and their need to throttle its very mention — we may never definitively know what caused a pandemic that’s killed millions and irrevocably changed the course of modern life.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 24, 2024
Lab leak.
I said what I said.
And it may mean that some people get off scot-free for what they’ve done to play a role in that disaster.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 24, 2024
Hard to imagine that wasn’t the goal all along, in my humble opinion. pic.twitter.com/SK7ZMOA6Vw
Sadly, it's not all that hard to believe at all.
And that's my humble opinion.
