We know it’s been several days since the viral Oklahoma-ivermectin story promoted by the likes of Rolling Stone and Rachel Maddow was revealed to be completely bogus, but we’re still pretty pissed that it was ever a story in the first place. It didn’t make any sense on its face, and if the so-called “journalists” who pushed it had bothered to look into it at all, they would’ve found that it didn’t hold up under even basic scrutiny, either.
But sometimes a narrative is just too good to check, and journalists just didn’t feel like checking this one. Well, most of them didn’t. There have been a handful of exceptions.
One of those exceptions is Zaid Jilani. Jilani, despite being a liberal, has been admirably consistent in calling out liberal media malpractice (and progressive malpractice in general). And he’s done that with the Oklahoma-ivermectin story as well:
Two ivermectin stories zoomed around major outlets before being shot down as false. Outlets involved didn't seem to do even a cursory amount of reporting to confirm them first. But maybe reporting isn't the point. Welcome to the world of post-journalism. https://t.co/jTqt5N7WDQ
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) September 7, 2021
When I first heard the story about ivermectin overdoses crowding out gunshot victims, I thought to myself — wait, in rural Oklahoma there's a lot of gunshot victims? I looked up the stats — there's about 1 murder a year in this county. But journalism isn't the point.
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) September 7, 2021
Increasingly, press outlets see themselves as representing a worldview and promoting righteous causes. In the service of this "moral clarity," as it has been called elsewhere, getting all the facts exactly right and the stories reported fairly isn't the point.
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) September 7, 2021
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Do you think any of these outlets' readers are particularly disturbed by them getting these stories so wrong? They aren't focused on the facts or the process of reporting. The goal is to promote a righteous worldview. Mission accomplished. https://t.co/jTqt5N7WDQ
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) September 7, 2021
It's the same reason the news media didn't mind all the lying around the Hunter Biden story last year. They have readers who come to them to defeat Donald Trump. What was more important, defeating Donald Trump or getting the facts right? That's post-journalism.
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) September 7, 2021
This is fine if you think that there is no longer a role for traditional journalism — reporting the facts and getting the truth out there. But post-journalism can't co-exist with journalism. Institutions have to choose. https://t.co/jTqt5N7WDQ
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) September 7, 2021
It seems that most of those institutions have made their choice. And they have chosen poorly.
UPDATE: I talked to Sequoyah County's Sherriff (where the ivermectin story began). He described the ivermectin story as "ridiculous" and gave me the statistics on gunshot victims there this year https://t.co/gLI67v00Vl pic.twitter.com/amPOYWEUdV
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) September 7, 2021
Not only has Jilani skewered the pathetic excuse for “journalism” that led to the Oklahoma-ivermectin story’s unwarranted and shameful ubiquity, but he’s demonstrated how the story should have been approached from the very beginning.
I can't believe you went out and committed first degree journalism.
— Noam "MF Blum" (@neontaster) September 8, 2021
You love to see it. If only the MSM loved to see it, too.
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