New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman has thoughts on who’s partially responsible for the press’s failure last year to investigate the theory alleging the coronavirus originated in a research facility in Wuhan, China.
She blames former President Donald Trump, of course. Haberman also blames former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for the media’s knee-jerk rush last year to dismiss an entirely plausible and now increasingly likely theory.
Who knew these two men had the power to control news coverage of the biggest public health crisis of our lifetime?
Haberman’s comments came during an interview this week with CNN’s John Berman.
The CNN host began first by noting chief medical adviser to the White House Dr. Anthony Fauci says now he is “not convinced” the virus developed “naturally.” Fauci’s comments come after both he and many in the press spent a year dismissing the lab-leak theory as preposterous, dangerous, debunked, and also somewhat racist.
“This matters,” Berman said at the outset of his interview with Haberman. “Understanding how the coronavirus and the pandemic began matters. … [W]e’ve come a long way from people dismissing this as a conspiracy theory to a lot of people taking this seriously.”
Haberman responded, “Look, I do think it’s important to remember that part of the issue back when this was first being reported on and discussed back … when the pandemic had begun, then-President Trump and Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, both suggested they had seen evidence this was formed in a lab, and they also suggested it was not released on purpose, but they refused to release the evidence showing what it was.”
Haberman is not just incorrect, but also mendacious. More on that in a minute.
“And so,” she added, “because of that, that made this instantly political. It was example 1,000 when the Trump administration learned, when you burn your own credibility over and over again, people are not going to believe you, especially in an election year. However, that does not mean it’s not worth discussing.”
In other words, “Stop making me hit you!”
The press embarrassed itself with the Wuhan story because, as with all things related to the Trump administration, its only inclination those years was to ridicule and condemn even perfectly plausible factual statements and assertions by the former president and his administration. If Republicans back it, the media is going to resist — you can bet on that.
Moreover, the notion journalists didn’t take the theory seriously because the president didn’t provide proof is an unintentionally hilarious thing for an investigative reporter to say. If only there were an industry that specializes in investigating theories and allegations. Ah, but does such an industry exist?
It also can’t be overstated how rich it is to hear a reporter from the New York Times, of all newsrooms, allege a lack of evidence is why the press initially dismissed the Wuhan theory. A lack of evidence didn’t stop the New York Times from covering the Russia-collusion conspiracy theory, which they indulged for years. Their fact-free conspiracy-theorizing and speculation about Russian collusion even won them Pulitzers. They should be ashamed of these awards — they will be a massive embarrassment for the newspaper going forward.
Lastly, what Haberman alleges is not just false, but an actual lie — historical revisionism. Indeed, if you look at the record, the press denounced the Wuhan lab-leak theory long before Trump or Pompeo even had a chance to weigh in on it.
Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas first brought up the possibility of a lab leak in February 2020. Newsrooms condemned the senator right away as a scaremongering right-wing conspiracy theorist, conflating his suggestion the virus may have escaped from a lab with a separate theory alleging it’s a Chinese bioweapon
“It was wild to see [Tom Cotton] spreading rumors about a Chinese bioweapon that were easily debunked within minutes,” Politico managing editor Blake Hounshell said on Feb. 9.
The New York Times said in a headline on Feb. 17, “Senator Tom Cotton Repeats Fringe Theory of Coronavirus Origins.”
“Tom Cotton keeps repeating a coronavirus conspiracy theory that was already debunked,” reads the headline to a Feb. 17 Washington Post report.
The senator is playing a “dangerous game,” CNN reported on Feb. 18.
It’s a “myth,” USA Today said of Cotton’s remarks on March 6.
It wasn’t until April 30, 2020, literally months later, that Trump claimed he had seen evidence showing the coronavirus started in a Chinese lab. It wasn’t until May 3, 2020, that Pompeo said there’s “significant” evidence supporting the theory. (Neither produced hard evidence to back the Wuhan hypothesis, which is now being accepted increasingly as credible.)
We know now that three Wuhan lab employees contracted symptoms consistent with the coronavirus in November 2019 — months before the coronavirus went big, according to a new intelligence report.
“There has been a persistent, albeit relatively quiet, focus on whether that was the origin of the virus, and it is compounded by the fact there have not been clear answers from Chinese officials about it, and investigators trying to find out the origin have been stymied,” Haberman said this week.
She concluded, “So I do think we’re in a different period of this, John, but it’s important to remember it’s been framed in a way that’s not true … by Trump supporters about what happened when this was originally raised.”
The only thing that’s “not true” are the words coming out of Haberman’s mouth. It is just plain fatuous to blame Trump and his supporters for the media’s ridiculous antagonistic attitude toward anything Trump said. It is even more so considering Haberman’s explanation requires time-travel to support it.
