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Here at Twitchy we’ve loved Drew Holden’s threads for a long time, but he really struck gold with his latest about the media and the origins of Covid-19.
Drew Holden’s threads documenting the malfeasance and hypocrisy of the legacy media are Twitter gold. @DrewHolden360 https://t.co/kq0WAG7Axo
— kanekoa.substack.com (@KanekoaTheGreat) March 10, 2023
Amazing thread! https://t.co/85Y11XB9pw
— “You’re not special because you’re a journalist.” (@MaceChan) March 10, 2023
Nobody does a “media got a major story incredibly wrong” megathread like @DrewHolden360. https://t.co/SGvrpH2cuR
— stevemur (@stevemur) March 10, 2023
Right? Holden’s thread is something else, and it starts this way:
🧵THREAD🧵
As the Covid lab leak hypothesis gains institutional traction, I wanted to take a moment to highlight the enormous shift in press coverage it’s received.
Originally the idea was a right wing conspiracy theory. Now, the press accepts it may be true.
Follow along ⤵️
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 9, 2023
Without further adieu…
We’re off and running:
For my money, they worst offender here is @NPR.
While they now begrudgingly admit that the Energy Department believes the lab leak hypothesis is likely accurate, they ran an April 2020 piece titled “Scientists Debunk Lab Accident Theory of Pandemic Emergence” pic.twitter.com/J968nqB2BG
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 9, 2023
Hey, NPR had an alternate reality to cling to and they were running with it.
This wasn’t the only time that @NPR ran a straight news story suggesting the lab leak hypothesis was a conspiracy.
A December 2020 tweet asserted that a potential lab origin was a “baseless conspiracy theory” pic.twitter.com/FAh0Zlb6dc
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 9, 2023
And these pieces are still (mostly) live online. Here’s a link to the original piece from @NPR that still makes the inaccurate claim that the lab leak hypothesis is a debunked conspiracy theory: https://t.co/xovzacuIva
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 9, 2023
The media really covered themselves in glory these last few years:
But not all of the pieces are still online w/o correction.@washingtonpost had to seriously backtrack on their original hit piece on @SenTomCotton, “Tom Cotton keeps repeating a coronavirus conspiracy theory that was already debunked.”
Compare that to their recent coverage. pic.twitter.com/t0iL0vwqTT
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 9, 2023
A lot of outlets jumped in on @SenTomCotton. Here’s @nytimes, who described his observations as an “unsubstantiated rumor” that “has been dismissed by scientists” and a “fringe theory” for Chinahawks.
Their recent reporting stands in stark contrast. pic.twitter.com/He8uLAzssp
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 9, 2023
And of course many in the media have already admitted their automatic dismissal of Trump’s suggestions that the virus could have been a lab leak because they hated Trump and he couldn’t possibly be correct about anything:
A lot of what drove the original coverage, I think, was a symptom of the press’s revulsion of President Trump, like this headline from @washingtonpost.
It’s worth pointing out that this coverage was only six months prior to the 2020 election.
Now WaPo is far more receptive. pic.twitter.com/cHw4qcXXXN
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 9, 2023
@nytimes similarly used this as an opportunity to hit President Trump as his re-election was drawing near, calling his admin’s support for the hypothesis “unfounded conspiracy theories” pic.twitter.com/Q7WIIpanZO
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 9, 2023
One of the worst in the light of hindsight was this @AP piece from Dec 2020, “Debunked COVID-19 myths survive online, despite facts”
One of those “debunked myths” that fact-checkers had struggled mightily to quash was the idea that the virus could’ve leaked from a lab. pic.twitter.com/PK0DJxo4vU
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 9, 2023
More media glory:
In some cases the headlines tell most of the story. But in others – like this piece from @CNN – the real inaccuracy comes in the body of the piece.
“It’s origin is up for debate, but it wasn’t made in a lab” pic.twitter.com/zPM9SG2Y1T
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 9, 2023
Ditto that from this @NBCNews piece that similarly set out as a hit on @SenTomCotton.
The change between the original reporting and their latest is…stark. pic.twitter.com/fonmY7knap
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 9, 2023
And of course there were “the experts”:
One of the big problems was the over-reliance by the corporate press on experts who agreed with them.
Here @ChrisCillizza for @CNN quotes an expert who said of the lab leak hypothesis that you can “draw a line through it and say that didn’t happen.”
The tune has since changed. pic.twitter.com/IADCvy2K0k
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 9, 2023
One disconcerting consistency – from @Reuters and others – has been the corporate press’s insistence on pushing China’s narrative, even in recent days. pic.twitter.com/qbbdOrOLu0
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 9, 2023
I want to drive a point home: the lab leak hypothesis hasn’t been proven. It may never be.
But it’s a HUGE problem that the press dismissed a hypothesis about the origin of the most consequential event in our lifetime *for no legitimate reason* b/c it didn’t fit their narrative
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 9, 2023
Because the media was more interested in the narrative that aided Democrats than the actual facts.
If I were @Forbes, I’m not sure I would want to (still) stand by the assertions made by the director of the Wuhan Lab like this. pic.twitter.com/FIGnhTZObB
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 9, 2023
I think you’re getting the gist here, but here’s another example from @ABC.
I hope they can feel the schadenfreude here, too. pic.twitter.com/OXTvCaTGpL
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 9, 2023
@politico went from suggesting the lab leak hypothesis was a conspiracy theory to suggesting the big question now was what the GOP (who hold one house of Congress) would do about it. pic.twitter.com/nYrKL32olf
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 9, 2023
There were plenty of individuals in the media and online who have egg on their face.
I wonder if @chrislhayes can see why his original suggestion that the lab leak was Trump “grasping at straws” could be behind the theory’s politicization that he now laments. pic.twitter.com/AuUIeldbZG
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 9, 2023
Obligatory for this topic:
And it wouldn’t be a thread without @JRubinBlogger pic.twitter.com/87m8O6q19g
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 9, 2023
I tried to be charitable in this 🧵. The lab leak hypothesis was often bundled up with other assertions that (at least for now, anyway) still register firmly as conspiracies.
But “conspiracy theory” becoming a catchall for “what my opponent said,” is how the truth gets buried.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 9, 2023
It’s a fool’s errand, but I can’t stop wondering about the implications if this theory had been given daylight.
Could we have better understood COVID’s origins?
Could lives have been saved?
Could China have faced accountability?
And what about an impact on the 2020 election?— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 9, 2023
But if anyone has some real explaining to do, I think it’s probably Dr. Fauci pic.twitter.com/7KvRf1yJmu
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 9, 2023
This 🧵 feels like a good place to re-up my pinned tweet from April 2020: https://t.co/n5djUaYTIG
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 10, 2023
In closing, we second this a thousand times:
Drew: Before I read this golden thread, I just want to say I’m glad you’re on the rebound and getting better. Secondly, I missed these 5 star posts more than you can imagine. Welcome back!!!!!!!!
— JP Boles (@boles_jp) March 10, 2023
Thank you!!
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) March 10, 2023
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Related:
Drew Holden shares moving thread about why he’s been quiet ‘for a while’ (sending #PrayersUp)
Drew Holden’s WaPo shot & chaser highlights narrative backpedal about the 2016 election
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