Journalism: Research paper finds 91% of US news coverage of Covid-19 is negative in nature
Research paper finds 91% of U.S. news reports about Covid-19 are negative in nature, even when there are good news items to report.
Covid-19: The media wants to keep you scared-but it looks like things may be improving
While too early to tell, it seems that the 3rd wave of Covid-19 may have peaked, nationally, in the past week. There will continue to be regional growth areas, however, as the entire nation does not peak simultaneously. There is much good news at this point – but as the linked fear porn news item illustrates, the media’s sole purpose is to keep you in a frightened state, scared to step outside. As the new cases curve subsides, the media’s attention will focus on hospitalizations and deaths – numbers which lag the new cases peak by 1-4 weeks, typically – while hiding the new cases curve. This is effectively media propaganda intended to keep you scared.
A”fact check” that contradicts itself
The Associated Press runs a “fact check” on a slightly misleading statement from Trump and concludes his statement is false. Except, once you read the last sentence of the fact check and give a moments thought it turns out Trump’s statement is mostly true – and that’s according to the fact check that is claiming he was wrong. Pretty funny. Trump says a lot of stupid things but occasionally makes dumb statements that accidentally turn out to be correct – hah hah.
Journalism: C-SPAN suspends Steve Scully after he admits to lying about an alleged Twitter hack
C-Span’s political editor, who was to moderate the 2nd presidential debate, has been placed on indefinite suspension after admitting to lying and falsely claiming his Twitter account had been hacked. The lie was much worse than the original stupid Tweet.
Modern News: “Juicy narratives”,”terrifying yarn”
Today’s “news” is “storytelling” and “juicy narratives”. In other words, news is so last century. The NY Times finds severe questions about the work of a star reporter.
Propaganda: “Person X” who opposes mask mandates tests positive for COVID-19
The media has undertaken a national propaganda campaign on face masks: They only report when a person opposed to face masks tests positive. They NEVER report that most people testing positive were probably wearing face masks much of the time. This intentionally biases your perspective on the effectiveness of face masks.
The media may do this because they know that keeping readers and viewers emotionally inflamed is good for click bait and ad revenue.
We are being horribly manipulated by the media
The media is manipulating your thinking on covid-19 and relative risks by headlining daily body counts and new cases counts. In my state, the odds of being hurt in a car crash – today – are very similar to the odds of being diagnosed with Covid-19. The odds of being hospitalized due to a car crash are many times greater than being hospitalized for Covid-19. But which one do you fear and have daily panic attacks over? Probably not the car crashes. We are being manipulated by media and public health officials who are frequently acting like quacks.
BGR is a fake news site? “Stock up on these 5 things while you can – experts say more grocery hoarding is coming – BGR”
BGR cites an old news story from mid July, about grocery item shortages in June and July (now being overcome), and throws in a made up assertion that “experts say” a huge second wave of Covid-19 is coming and you should stock up on essential items. This report uses FEAR to get you to take action, and click on their links to buy stuff – for which BGR appears to receive an affiliate marketing payment.
Is using out of date data “fake news?
Today is August 17, 2020. Why is CNBC using a chart whose data ends at July 21st – especially since data up through yesterday is readily available?
Amazing story of an intense, large scale propaganda campaign waged in the U.S. over health care
A detailed expose, by a participant, in a massive, highly coordinated propaganda campaign that trashed Canada’s health care system during discussions about the ACA. Ultimately, the ACA’s first draft was written by the former legal counsel of a health insurance company – who had been hired by Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) to do just that. In other words, the ACA was, to a large extent, written by the health insurance industry itself. Source: Health insurance whistleblower: I lied to Americans…