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The media's lab leak fiasco

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Re: The media's lab leak fiasco

#11

Post by dbt00 »

partiallypro wrote: post #4

To me what gives me credence to the "lab leak theory" more than anything, was China's behavior during and initially after the outbreak. Where they thwarted any investigations from WHO or anyone else and arrested journalists even attempting to cover it. Now we have additional information of lab workers being sick back in November...I genuinely wonder why people immediately jumped in to defend China's actions through t…

The problem with this thinking is assuming the government of China actually knows the truth and is acting to protect itself from a dangerous reveal. They might not have known then (or now!) and are simply acting based on some probability it could be true, default secrecy, and organizational fear.

Re: The media's lab leak fiasco

#12

Post by danboarder »

One problem with politically charged issues is that one's bias can significantly color unresolved factual issues. In the article the early 'red flags' pointed out in the January 2020 study by The Lancet left clear open questions regarding the Seafood Market hypothesis, but many in the media glossed over these red flags. Now that additional facts are coming to light including the fact that multiple scientists at the lab were hospitalized with Covid like symptoms in late 2019, the facts are starting to pierce through the early dismissal of the lab leak theory by many journalists. I think this will result in a rethink of how we tag unresolved topics as "False Information" or before enough facts are gathered. Perhaps a "Controversial" tag would be preferred. I really like the site https://www.allsides.com/ that provides Left/Center/Right bias indicators for any story so you can read all sides and get the gist of how politics is coloring current stories in the media.

(1) https://www.allsides.com/tags/wuhan-lab?search=wuhan%20lab#g...

Re: The media's lab leak fiasco

#13

Post by generalizations »

andybak wrote: post #6
deadalus wrote: post #5

Reminder that Facebook and Twitter banned users for talking about the lab-leak theory. Youtube accounts also got demontized/banned.

I'm generally in favour of the actions taken against misinformation but this situation surprises me. Lab leak always seemed plausible and non-crazy even if you think the odds are against it. I don't envy the task of making a call on any of this stuff.

If we accept that taking action against misinformation is good, then this sort of mistake will inevitably happen.

If you're in favor of taking action against misinformation, then you should be willing to accept this situation as an acceptable failure. I'm not willing to accept that.

Re: The media's lab leak fiasco

#14

Post by Leary »

The US has intelligence that three Wuhan virologists were hospitalized.

China says nobody was sick.

It's quite simple, the US should release the names of those who were sick.

Re: The media's lab leak fiasco

#15

Post by nodesocket »

Hopefully people will start to realize that questioning norms and diversity of thought should be accepted on social media. Silencing and suppression of questions and thought by media is rampant and occurs here on Hacker News as well.

The population as a whole (especially under the age of 30) feels like a bunch of sheep to me these days. They can't think freely, question things, or ask hard questions. They all just want to fit in. Ideology that doesn't align with bit tech and social media agendas is quickly dismissed as right-wing idiocracy.

Re: The media's lab leak fiasco

#16

Post by Moodles »

The media is so disappointing these days. A lot of people don't remember this, but the mainstream media outlets were actually playing down the coronavirus pandemic at the start. Then they attacked the travel ban to China. Then did a complete U-turn. Pelosi was dancing in the streets of Chinatown San Francisco to prove how safe and not racist she is. It seemed like they hated Trump and would fight anything he did.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/time-for-a-reality-che...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/02/03/why-we-sho...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/18/world/europe/coronavirus-...

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/01/29/8008132...

I saw a viral clip of the Kayleigh McEnany pointing out this hypocrisy and the immediate response as she dropped the mic and walked off was someone in the press shouting "you were prepared for that!". No shit she was prepared for that? That's her job? How is that a bad thing? Oh, because your gotcha question didn't work. Ridiculous.

Re: The media's lab leak fiasco

#17

Post by Spooky23 »

partiallypro wrote: post #4

To me what gives me credence to the "lab leak theory" more than anything, was China's behavior during and initially after the outbreak. Where they thwarted any investigations from WHO or anyone else and arrested journalists even attempting to cover it. Now we have additional information of lab workers being sick back in November...I genuinely wonder why people immediately jumped in to defend China's actions through t…

I think given the demagogue POTUS and the mob of crazy followers, it was in the public interest to avoid agitating the mob. Even Facebook had the sense to realize that.

As it stands, asian people are getting targeted for attacks in the street by deranged individuals.

Re: The media's lab leak fiasco

#18

Post by generalizations »

danboarder wrote: post #12

One problem with politically charged issues is that one's bias can significantly color unresolved factual issues. In the article the early 'red flags' pointed out in the January 2020 study by The Lancet left clear open questions regarding the Seafood Market hypothesis, but many in the media glossed over these red flags. Now that additional facts are coming to light including the fact that multiple scientists at the l…

> I think this will result in a rethink of how we tag unresolved topics as "False Information" or before enough facts are gathered. Perhaps a "Controversial" tag would be preferred.

If anything, it will taint the credibilty of people who claim they have the insight to tag the information's credibility in the first place.

Re: The media's lab leak fiasco

#19

Post by RcouF1uZ4gsC »

deadalus wrote: post #5

Reminder that Facebook and Twitter banned users for talking about the lab-leak theory. Youtube accounts also got demontized/banned.

Facebook, Twitter, and much of the news media have been in the service of CCP as part of an influence operation and suppression of dissent.

There needs to be an investigation. The people involved in these decisions need to be put under oath and testify how they came to the decision to ban users. Emails and messages should be subpoenaed to see if there was illegal coordination across services. There needs to be an complete investigation if any of the people involved were being influenced by or were agents of the CCP.

Re: The media's lab leak fiasco

#20

Post by vmception »

e40 wrote: post #9
partiallypro wrote: post #4

To me what gives me credence to the "lab leak theory" more than anything, was China's behavior during and initially after the outbreak. Where they thwarted any investigations from WHO or anyone else and arrested journalists even attempting to cover it. Now we have additional information of lab workers being sick back in November...I genuinely wonder why people immediately jumped in to defend China's actions through t…

I think it was because the Trump admin had a history of China bashing and many of us just thought this was more of the same.

My experience was people using the authorities as assuming credentialed people actually looked into it and subsequently ruled it out

Thats been a recurring assumption on this virus that I find frustrating

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