A CNN report recently made this ridiculous anti-scientific and absurd claim: “It’s not possible to know a person’s gender identity at birth, and there is no consensus criteria for assigning sex at birth.”
This is a fringe opinion, not hard-news reporting. It has no basis in reality. Yet, the CNN reporter who produced it merely states something that is verifiably false, presents it as fact, and leaves it at that.
Elsewhere, National Public Radio claimed this week, in a since-amended article, the Hunter Biden laptop story has been “discredited” by the U.S. intelligence community and independent media investigations.
This also has no basis in reality. The intelligence community never issued a statement to that effect, nor has any newsroom conclusively “discredited” the story. Later, NPR had to issue a correction to that effect.
The New York Times, meanwhile, falsely reported last week that COVID-19’s Chinese lab origin story is “debunked” or otherwise untrue.
Sorry, but the theory has not been “debunked,” the Chinese government’s dubious assertions to the contrary notwithstanding. There is ample disagreement over the theory, but it certainly has not been “debunked.”
The New York Times’s report is careful to highlight an April 30, 2020, statement by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence wherein it concurred “with the wide scientific consensus that the Covid-19 virus was not man-made or genetically modified.”
Conveniently absent from the New York Times article is any mention of the part where the ODNI statement promises the intelligence community “will continue to rigorously examine emerging information and intelligence to determine whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan.”
Then, there’s the Washington Post, which declared on March 25 there’s “no migrant ‘surge’ at the U.S. southern border.” The online version of the story was edited later so that it now concedes there is, in fact, a “surge” but that it is merely part of “a predictable pattern.” Well, that’s a bit of a change in the story, isn’t it?
Border Patrol has encountered an average of 5,000 illegal immigrants per day over the last 30 days, putting it on track to surpass 150,000 crossings for March, far greater than anything seen during the Trump administration.
Also, for the record, the Border Patrol reported 100,441 encounters with migrants in February (this figure includes apprehensions plus crossings of migrants at legal ports of entry). In contrast, it reported 76,545 in February 2019, back when the Washington Post reported there was a “surge” at the border.
There are additional recent examples of media organizations inserting straight-up falsehoods into their news coverage, including the wealth of media-promoted disinformation regarding Georgia’s new voting laws, but you get the point.
These are not misleading statements. These are not poorly chosen words. These are not inaccuracies published in the fog of a breaking news event. These are falsehoods written by reporters, approved by editors, and published despite the availability of contradictory data and facts.
Something is terribly broken in the news industry. Its concern for truth no longer exists.
