Former CNN Head Jeff Zucker Ordered Staff Not To Even Investigate the Lab Leak Theory, Because It Was a "Trump Talking Point"

Trust the media. They have no agenda except the truth.

Undoubtedly he gave this order so that his network would not give any air to any Trump statement, and so CNN could not blunder and inadvertently wind up reporting that Trump was right.

Best not to do any journalism at all, decided the "journalists."

CNN's then-president Jeff Zucker told his staffers not to investigate the "lab leak theory" behind the origins of COVID-19 because he thought it was a "Trump talking point," according to a report.

A "well-placed" CNN insider told Fox News Digital on Monday that Zucker gave the order in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic.

"People are slowly waking up from the fog," the insider told Fox News Digital.

"It is kind of crazy that we didn't chase it harder."

...

One of Zucker's charges who followed through on his boss's reported edict was Oliver Darcy, the network's media reporter, who wrote an item in the initial days of the pandemic titled: "Here's how to debunk coronavirus misinformation and conspiracy theories from friends and family."

"While the coronavirus pandemic has isolated family and friends inside their homes, it has in many cases increased online or over-the-phone communication with loved ones," Darcy wrote on March 28, 2020.

"But, in some cases, relatives and friends share poor information -- whether it is bad science related to how to prevent the virus, debunked rumors about cities being put on lockdown, or conspiracy theories about the origins of Covid-19," he wrote.

"While any strain of misinformation is not ideal, misinformation related to a public health crisis has an especially dangerous element to it."

Fareed Zakaria, the host of CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS," said during a broadcast that "the far right has now found its own virus conspiracy theory" when discussing the lab leak.

Just straight down-the-middle reporting.

Via Intapundit, Powerline reports that the UK Telegraph has obtained 100,000+ WhatsApp messages sent by UK government officials and "scientists" during the pandemic.

They're publishing these as "The Lockdown Files," a bit like the Twitter Files.

This shows the mindset of our noble Technocratic Non-Elite -- this bastard talked of "deploying" a new covid variant just to scare people into complying with his tyrannical orders.

Now, by "deploying" it, he means, if I understand the context, rolling out a publicity blitz about a new strain they were tracking. He wanted to "shock and awe" the populace by "frighten the pants off" them by rolling out details of this new strain.

Which I'm sure he would be reporting in a neutral manner, and not juiced up just to achieve his stated goal of "frightening the pants off" the citizens he supposedly serves.

[Secretary of State for Health and Social Care] Matt Hancock wanted to "deploy" a new Covid variant to "frighten the pants off" the public and ensure they complied with lockdown, leaked messages seen by The Telegraph have revealed.

***

In a WhatsApp conversation on Dec 13, obtained by The Telegraph, Damon Poole -- one of Mr Hancock's media advisers -- informed his boss that Tory MPs were "furious already about the prospect" of stricter Covid measures and suggested "we can roll pitch with the new strain".

The comment suggested that they believed the strain could be helpful in preparing the ground for a future lockdown and tougher restrictions in the run-up to Christmas 2020.

Mr Hancock then replied: "We frighten the pants off everyone with the new strain."

Mr Poole agreed, saying: "Yep that's what will get proper bahviour [sic] change."

***
Mr Hancock expressed his worry that talks over Brexit would dominate headlines and reduce the impact, and probed Mr Poole for his media advice. "When do we deploy the new variant," asked Mr Hancock.

Powerline comments: "Just as many U.S. liberals have attacked Elon Musk for releasing the Twitter files, many journalists in the U.K. have criticized the Telegraph and reporter Isabel Oakeshott... It is a weird aspect of our present historical moment: journalists hate journalism." "Journalists'" new creed is to comfort the comfortable and afflict the afflicted.

More here:

In another message Simon Case, the Cabinet Secretary, said that "the fear/ guilt factor" was "vital" in "ramping up the messaging" during the third national lockdown in Jan 2021.

The previous month, Matt Hancock, the then health secretary, appeared to suggest in one message that a new strain of Covid that had recently emerged would be helpful in preparing the ground for the looming lockdown, by scaring people into compliance.
In a WhatsApp conversation on Dec 13, obtained by The Telegraph, Damon Poole - one of Mr Hancock's media advisers - informed his boss that Tory MPs were "furious already about the prospect" of stricter Covid measures and suggested "we can roll pitch with the new strain".

The comment suggested that they believed the strain could be helpful in preparing the ground for a future lockdown and tougher restrictions in the run-up to Christmas 2020.

...

The discussion came two days after Mr Hancock was informed of the emergence of a new variant -- known as alpha or the Kent variant, in Dec 2020. A surge in cases later led to the effective cancellation of Christmas on Dec 19.

...

During the pandemic, the Government was accused of scaremongering but it was denied, with Mr Hancock's department saying such accusations were "misleading".

Oh sure yeah, it was totally "misleading" that they were engaged in "scaremongering."

Oh and when do we deploy the new variant? That will really frighten the pants off the commoners and change their "bahavior."

Also via Instapundit, at Zero Hedge, congressmen say that Anthony Fauci "prompted" -- commissioned, basically -- the hit-piece article by the two scientists who first told him that covid-19 was almost certainly made in a lab that then said that it was definitely the product of natural evolution and any claim contrariwise was a conspiracy theory and racist to boot.

On February 1, 2020, Fauci and his boss, NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins, and at least eleven other scientists participated in a conference call during which several of them warned that COVID-19 may have leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China - may have been intentionally genetically manipulated.

Three days after the call, four participants from the call (Scripps Research virologist Kristian Andersen, University of Sydney virologist Edward Holmes, Tulane School of Medicine virologist Robert Garry, University of Edinburgh virologist Andrew Rambaut and Columbia University virologist Ian Lipkin) seemingly discarded their concerns over a lab-leak, and drafted "The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2," which they sent to Fauci and Collins.

Also heavily involved (yet not credited) was Dr. Jeremy Farrar, the current Chief Scientist at the World Health Organization.

...
Now, according to the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, Fauci 'prompted' the creation of the paper:

"New evidence released by the Select Subcommittee today suggests that Dr. Fauci "prompted" the drafting of a publication that would "disprove" the lab leak theory, the authors of this paper skewed available evidence to achieve that goal, and Dr. Jeremy Farrar went uncredited despite significant involvement."

And you know what? The scientists who reversed their position completely in forty eight hours and then wrote that cover-up paper did wind up #Winning the grant lottery soon after.

As a related aside - the Washington Examiner revealed last week that two authors of "Proximal Origin" who initially expressed concerns over a lab-leak and then changed their tune (Anderson and Garry), received millions in NIH grants under Fauci.

Video of Dr. Marty Makary making that point here.

posted by Ace at 12:00 PM

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