But in the early months of the pandemic, then-CNN president Jeff Zucker didn’t allow his network to continue the story of the lab leak because he thought it was a “Trump talking point,” according to a well-placed CNN source.
“People are slowly waking up from the fog,” the source told Fox News Digital. “It’s kind of crazy that we don’t try harder. “
FBI DIRECTOR SAYS COVID PANDEMIC ‘MOST LIKELY’ COMES FROM CHINESE LAB
Throughout Zucker’s tenure as CNN chief, he led what was once widely noted as a direct news organization to an anti-Trump operation. because the White House noticed him as an enemy through the net.
Former CNN chief Jeff Zucker had ordered staff not to follow the COVID lab leak theory because it’s a “Trump talking point,” according to a CNN insider. (Getty Images)
On March 28, 2020, CNN’s Oliver Darcy published an article titled “Here’s How to Debunk Misinformation About the Coronavirus and Conspiracy Theories from Friends and Family,” which featured recommendations on how to deal with annoying enjoyees who didn’t have unusual accounts of COVID-19. then.
“While the coronavirus pandemic has pushed family and friends away from their homes, in many cases online or phone communication with loved ones has improved,” Darcy wrote.
“But, in some cases, poor information from the circle of family and friends, whether it’s bad science, like how to save you from the virus, debunked rumors about city closures, or conspiracy theories about the origins of Covid-19. While not every type of bad data is perfect, bad data like a public health crisis has a harmful element,” Darcy continued, before stating that “erroneous data during a public health emergency poses a threat to those who suffer from it. “
Darcy’s warning came as CNN, one of the mainstream media outlets, claimed that the perception of a lab leak was completely absurd.
CNN anchor Fareed Zakaria once said that “the right has now put forward its own viral conspiracy theory” while discussing the option of a lab leak.
On February 18, 2020, CNN published a “Facts First” review of the claims of Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, an early proponent of the lab leak theory. CNN insisted that “it is possible, but unlikely, that the lab was connected at the beginning of the outbreak,” quoting an infectious disease expert who said of the lab leak theory: “I haven’t noticed anyone providing false data to this theory. I think at this point you can draw a line and say it didn’t happen. “
CREDIBILITY CRISIS: THEY WANTED MEDIA “FACT-CHECKERS” TO DISMANTLE COVID THEORY LAB LEAKS, THEY MUST ISSUE CORRECTIONS
CNN anchor John Vause called Cotton’s theory “misinformation” on air in a verbal exchange with Dr. Anthony Fauci that year, who responded that “theories that are not based on evidence and facts can actually mislead people. “
An April 2020 CNN headline that read “Nearly 30% in the U. S. “In the U. S. , a coronavirus theory is almost not true” was based on a Pew Research vote conducted at the time.
“Its origin is a matter of debate, but it was not done in a laboratory,” CNN reported. “There’s still a lot we don’t know about the coronavirus pandemic, but virus experts agree on one detail of its origin story: the virus probably in a bat, not in a Chinese lab. “
CNN, one of several legacy media outlets that hijacked discussion about whether the COVID pandemic is due to a lab leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)
On May 5, 2020, CNN published an investigation through Chris Cillizza, who has since been fired from the network, titled “Anthony Fauci Just Crushed Donald Trump’s Theory About the Origins of the Coronavirus. “The article notes that Trump “argued that the coronavirus did not yet come from the nature of a lab in Wuhan, China,” but insisted that Fauci’s claim that the virus likely spreads naturally is more accurate.
“Now, before you play the game of ‘he said, he said,’ this: only one of the other two people is a world-renowned infectious disease expert. And it’s not Donald Trump,” Cillizza wrote.
“In short, Fauci’s view of the origins of the disease is far more important than Trump’s view of its origin,” he continued. very skeptical of Trump’s narrative that the virus came out of a lab, either on purpose or on purpose. “
CNN REJECTS REDFIELD’S THEORY THAT CORONAVIRUS CAME FROM WUHAN LAB AS ‘CONTROVERSIAL’ AND ‘WITHOUT EVIDENCE’
In 2021, former CDC Director Robert Redfield, a career virologist, told CNN he believed the coronavirus escaped from the Wuhan lab but temporarily said goodbye. CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta told the audience that the World Health Organization (WHO) believes the lab leak theory is “unlikely” and that Chinese officials have pointed to “multiple” origins, adding “U. S. military laboratories. “”U. S. “
CNN’s “New Day” Twitter account, which has since been canceled, even presented Redfield’s theory as “clear evidence” missing. CNN’s online policy on Redfield’s interview went further, calling it “evidence of controversial theory. “
Chris Cuomo, who was CNN’s biggest star at the time before his firing in December 2021, admitted to the audience in May 2020 that he didn’t know if the lab leak theory was true, but suggested CNN correspondent Alex Marquardt downplay it, reporting that “the evidence framework is circumstantial. “”Foreign intelligence partners” dispute” the theory, calling the World Health Organization “speculative” and even echoing China’s coup that opposed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as “crazy” for promoting the theory.
The early stages of COVID were a complicated time for CNN, as the network not only rejected the lab leak theory and allowed Chris Cuomo to laugh with his brother, then-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, D. , but also accused him of hypocrisy. .
CREDIBILITY CRISIS: EGG IN THE MEDIA’S FACE AFTER DISCOURAGING COVID LAB LEAK AS ‘UNFABRICATED’ CONSPIRACY THEORY
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, right, and former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo welcomed him on the airwaves in 2020 at the start of the COVID pandemic. (CNN)
Jim Acosta, now a left-wing weekend anchor who at the time was CNN’s leading reporter in the White House, scoffed at Trump calling the virus “foreign” could simply be “a smell of xenophobia. “A few weeks earlier, Acosta himself had tweeted about the “Wuhan coronavirus,” and his own network had used the same term.
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CNN responded to requests for comment.
Brian Flood is a reporter for Fox News Digital. La story can be sent to brian. flood@fox. com and on Twitter: @briansflood.