Misreporting by error of omission: “These 5 states have less than 10% of ICU beds left as Covid-19 overwhelms hospitals – CNN”

Misreporting by error of omission: “These 5 states have less than 10% of ICU beds left as Covid-19 overwhelms hospitals – CNN”

Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Florida and Arkansas have less than 10% left of their ICU bed capacity, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services

Source: US coronavirus: These 5 states have less than 10% of ICU beds left as Covid-19 overwhelms hospitals – CNN

The CNN news story paints this story as one of Southern, conservative states being impacted.

CNN intentionally omits a reference to Oregon which has only 6% left of ICU bed capacity of August 31, 2021 and just 7% of hospital beds available.

There are likely more but there does not appear to be an updated table of ICU bed use, by state, that is readily available online.

Oregon is not just a blue state – the legislature has super majority Democrats and a Democrat for a Governor. Where the media has run many negative stories about Florida and Texas, known are published about Oregon – where two counties in the state are among the hardest hit in the nation.

This illustrates how political bias seeps into a news story – its known as an “error of omission”. A lie would be an “error of commission”. The reporter deliberately chooses what facts to reveal, and selectively chooses who to quote, to shape the message they wish to form. This is a standard form of journalistic propaganda.

It is not done on party lines either – when a newspaper publisher has other business interests at stake, they will often shape the reporting to favor their other interests.

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