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Josh Rogin: Media ‘crapped’ on Wuhan lab leak theory until they didn’t, with ‘zero self awareness’

May 30, 2021 | | Print Article

That COVID-19 may have leaked from the Wuhan lab in China was dismissed as a mere conspiracy theory, until it wasn’t.

All of a sudden, the corporate media has vested the story with some degree of credibility. In a Twitter thread, Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin, who is one of the few journalists that delved into China’s role in the outbreak, is trying to explain why.

The journalism echo chamber started to change its tune, in part, after a recent Wall Street Journal report, based on intelligence sources, that three researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology were hospitalized in November 2019 with COVID-like symptoms

According to Rogin, the gullible media’s approach to covering the Wuhan lab leak theory included a generous helping of Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) and went beyond merely downplaying the possibility.

“Most MSM reporters didn’t ‘ignore’ the lab leak theory, they actively crapped all over it for over a year while pretending to be objective out of a toxic mix of confirmation bias, source bias (their scientist sources lied to them), group think, TDS and general incompetence.”

Rogin continued his message, indicating that the lab leak theory was credible from the start, despite the current spin.

“Also, the lab leak theory didn’t change. It didn’t suddenly become credible. It didn’t jump from crazy to reasonable. The theory has always been the same. The people who got it wrong changed their minds. They are writing about themselves, with zero self awareness.”

Rogin concluded by decrying the attempts at revisionist history in the hypocritical, agenda-driven media that is now trying to evade accountability.

“All these reporters scrambling to defend their own records on the lab leak theory are exposing their own hypocrisy & ignoring their basic error. Just report the facts. Don’t act like its your job to tell us whats ok to think or talk about. Own up to it when you fail your readers.”

Along these lines, a Rogin colleague at the Washington Post seemed to admit last week that the media was skeptical about the Wuhan lab leak theory because President Trump and his allies talked about it.

Communications specialist and columnist Drew Holden last week authored a lengthy Twitter thread that similarly blasted the liberal media for looking the other way while perhaps accepting CCP talking points at face value.

Perhaps this form of media malpractice is exemplified by a quote attributed to playwright and filmmaker David Mamet, who purportedly once said that “in order to continue advancing their illogical arguments, modern liberals have to pretend not to know things.”

Later in the thread in a response to a detractor, Rogin commented that “I kept my intellectual integrity and independence. That means acknowledging the fact that others let their Trump hate cloud their judgment. That’s my honest and true opinion.”

Apart from those who are still harboring Trump hate, Rogin’s analysis is winning plaudits on social media. Here is a sampling:

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Robert Jonathan
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