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The lab leak theory was pushed heavily by QAnon and then got picked up by the usual right wing news outlets without actually providing any proof. It made great
by bb88 5y ago
The lab leak theory was pushed heavily by QAnon and then got picked up by the usual right wing news outlets without actually providing any proof. It made great TV, and also made conservative news outlets a bit of good profit as well.
But since Fox news' (and others) prime time is mostly opinion, not news, it makes it hard to separate what is "fact" and what's someone's opinion stated as fact.
I think what you're complaining is valid, but you need to look at both sides. There appears to be a million different hypotheses for how the first transition to human happened, the lab leak is just one of them. Responsible journalism would have included the other hypothesis instead of highlighting the most panic/profit inducing one.
- dragonwriter 5y ago> The lab leak theory was pushed heavily by QAnon IIRC, what QAnon pushed was beyond the standard lab-leak theory, that it was an lab leak of something created as an offensive bioweapon. I do think that that had the effect of poisoning the well on the plain lab leak theory (one might even speculate that that was the purpose for which QAnon pushed the theory.)
- the_optimist 5y agoIronically, we're on a thread discussing Assange, who ran Wikileaks, which published (often cryptographically verifiable) source information. The editor of that publication has been locked in prison indefinitely. So if you're having trouble distinguishing trusted information, you might think that the solution extends beyond "responsible journalism."
- Natsu 5y agoThen we had another thread on HN thereafter suggesting that Google & co. rotate out their DKIM keys to make this sort of news less verifiable. This seems to suggest that factual accuracy is not always the primary concern.