Topic: Media Research Center
When the number of COVID cases increased over the summer, the MRC leaned into its conspiracy toolbox and started whining about the idea of wearing masks again. Alex Christy complained in an Aug. 1 post:
MSNBC is, if nothing else, totally committed to self-parody as Tuesday’s Jose Diaz-Balart Reports took a break from incessant coverage of all things Donald Trump to talk about another one of their favorite obsessions: masks and why you need to “bring them out again.”
Even by the segment’s own reporting, the conclusion was absurd. As Diaz-Balart kicked things off by admitting the sky is not falling, while also trying to gin up fear, “If you've noticed more of your friends, neighbors, loved ones are testing positive for COVID, you’re not alone. According to the CDC, COVID-19 hospitalizations are up 12 percent from last week and while we’re nowhere near previous levels, it’s still raising concerns.”
Christy didn't explain what, exactly, was "absurd" to be concerned about increasing COVID cases.
Clay Waters whined in an Aug. 8 post:
After three and a half years, there’s still no immunity from COVID hysteria at the New York Times or PBS NewsHour. A slight, predictable summer uptick in COVID cases (up from very low levels) caused a mini-frenzy in the liberal media, which were always eager to enjoin citizens to “mask up” and get their umpteenth booster shot while shunning other people. Both outlets relied on epidemiologist and dedicated mask-pusher Katelyn Jetelina.
Jetelina appeared on the taxpayer-supported NewsHour Thursday evening to comment on what host Geoff Bennett called the “COVID-19 summer surge….John Yang looks at the growing concerns.”
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Of course, Jetelina’s advice also included masks, masks, masks, prodded by Yang, who ran down the tedious list of pandemic precautions:
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The New York Times’ notorious COVID reporter Apoorva Mandavilli made her own pandemic plea in Friday’s edition. It was less hysterical than her usual output, but still leaned into overzealous precautions: “Amid Signs of a Covid Uptick, Researchers Brace for the ‘New Normal.’”
Jetelina made her appearance warning that “Covid is still a thing” that we should never be allowed to move beyond.
It's not the New York Times' fault that COVID refuses to completely go away, something Waters doesn't seem to understand.
Nicholas Fondacaro had his own mask meltdown in an Aug. 14 post:
During Monday’s CBS Mornings, the liberal crew lamented that Americans were “letting down their guard” with COVID and weren’t masking anymore, leading to a small summer spike in cases. Even though the pandemic was officially over and most Americans wanted life to return to normal, the pearl-clutchers at CBS demanded a return to masking in indoor public spaces and for people to get more booster shots.
Without giving any form of context or underlying numbers, co-host Gayle King hysterically warned that “Hospitalization rates, they are up more than 12 percent in the most recent weeks surveyed by the CDC.” She added that “COVID has been found in a rising number of wastewater samples. The virus is usually detected in wastewater up to a week before people start actually start testing positive.”
King then looked to CBS medical contributor Dr. Celine Gounder to tell people to snap out of their post-pandemic apathy and bust out their masks again. Gounder bemoaned about “people letting down their guard” and trying to go back to normal:
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Possibly hoping for a grim update, co-host Nate Burleson wondered if the latest cases were leading to more serve hospitalizations. But Gounder admitted, “They are on average not more severe right now. If you look at sort of ICU admissions, they're probably stable.”
Christy returned for an Aug. 23 post with more huffing about masks:
It may be August of 2023, but the media still can’t quit COVID alarmism. The latest COVID freak out came on Wednesday’s CNN This Morning as the assembled cast wondered whether it was time to bring back masks.
Co-host Poppy Harlow got things started by asking, “With COVID cases rising, some people are masking up. You have probably seen that in your neighborhood, work, etcetera. What does it mean for you and what does it mean for people at higher risk of severe illness?”
She then introduced chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta and asked, “I keep thinking this, when I see people with masks on ‘am I making a mistake? What should I do?’ What should we do?”
Gupta began his response with “the good news,” proclaiming that when “you look at the map of the country and look at the CDC recommendations, most of the country is considered low risk right now. It's mostly green.”
Indeed, as Gupta was speaking, CNN put up the map in question and it was overwhelming green with several states regardless of whether they be red, blue, or purple, being entirely green.
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Gupta further cited “a lot of the experts” as reason to bring back masks including media favorite and classic narcissist “Peter Hotez, for example, he said he’s gone back to masking.”
Christy's evidence that Hotez is a "classic narcissist" was a 2022 post he wrote complaining that Hotez portrayed politically motivated attacks on Anthony Fauci as attacks on science in general.Christy then complained that "the media tries to pretend it is still March of 2020" -- never mind that his employer loves to fearmonger when it's politically expedient for it to do so, i.e., its obsession with the "Biden border crisis."
John Simmons devoted a Sept. 8 post to grousing that some California high schools canceled football games "because of a COVID-19 outbreak at least one of the schools in these matchups," unironically adding, "What’s really rough is that in 2023, we’re still cancelling sporting events because of COVID." Rather than the anti-vaxxer conspiracy theories among his fellow right-wingers that scared people away from vaccines and, thus, helped COVID continue to spread, Simmons blamed the vaccines for purportedly not working:
California had some of the strictest vaccination laws in the country during the pandemic, and a high majority of Californians had to get the jab. So one would think that if the vaccine prevents COVID that stuff like this shouldn’t be happening two years after the vaccine craze was at its peak.
Or, maybe the vaccine doesn’t do what the government said it would do, and this is just the latest example proving that point.
Or, you know, it's because one needs regular boosters, like with flu vaccines. But for Simmons, partisan conspiracy theories come before scientific fact.
When Fauci made a TV appearance, Kevin Tober went into conspiracy overdrive in a Sept. 10 post:
On Sunday's This Week on ABC, co-moderator Jonathan Karl dredged up the disgraced former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Tony Fauci to discuss the reported uptick in COVID cases in the United States. While Fauci didn't explicitly push for mask mandates and boosters, when pressed by Karl he did advocate for their effectiveness despite the fact that nearly everyone who wore a mask and was fully vaccinated became infected with COVID.
Needless to say, Tober offered no evidence whatsoever to back up his claim that Fauci is "disgraced" or that "nearly everyone" who was vaccinated caught COVID. Instead, he whined further that Fauci said that vaccines work and that "There’s a lot of good data that masks work," while, again, refusing to offer any evidence to the contrary.
