The COVID lab leak theory is the latest example of reporters and pundits from organizations like CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times and Washington Post dismissing something as "debunked" before uncovering the facts, and watchdogs believe the dangerous trend undermines the media’s already poor credibility.
Once broadly cast aside as a conspiracy theory, "debunked bunkum" and misinformation, the possibility that COVID-19 accidentally leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology has continued to gain credibility over the years.
On Sunday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Energy Department feels the virus likely originated from an accidental lab leak in China. The stunning report triggered yet another reckoning for mainstream media journalists who dismissed the lab leak theory because it didn’t coincide with the popular narrative.
DePauw University professor and media critic Jeffrey McCall believes "the establishment media failed to use independent reportorial judgment" in covering the COVID lab leak theory.
MEDIA SCOLDED, LAMPOONED FOR DISMISSING NOW-LIKELY COVID LAB LEAK THEORY AS MISINFORMATION
"Instead of doing enterprising journalism to carefully explore the prospect, activist media simply demeaned anybody who raised the possibility, without possibly knowing what the facts might actually be. Anybody who raised the possibility of COVID coming from a lab, including Senators [Tom] Cotton and [Rand] Paul and President Trump, were quickly dismissed as conspiracy loons or even racists," McCall told Fox News Digital.
"Such journalistic negligence was not only irresponsible and unprofessional, it further erodes public confidence in news outlets to first seek out facts and then go where those facts lead," McCall continued.
"Uncovered" author Steve Krakauer noted the media didn't just report that COVID started in a wet market, or that the reporting favored that origin, but took it even further.
"They treated the opposing theory, about a ‘lab leak’ as if it was too toxic and contaminated to even entertain. They fully supported, passively and actively in some cases, the suppression and censorship of anyone who would report out these details. As Josh Rogin of The Washington Post tells me in ‘Uncovered’, it was a combination of all sorts of biases for what we saw -- a confirmation bias, a source bias, an anti-Trump bias. At the core, though, it's a fundamental distrust in the American public," Krakauer told Fox News Digital.
ANOTHER US AGENCY ASSESSES COVID-19 ORIGIN LIKELY A CHINESE 'LAB LEAK': REPORT
Krakauer feels members of the media assumed if they let this "competing theory" become public, it would somehow become dangerous.
"It’s absurd, and shows how truly out of touch they are, and that the priorities of our current press are more about being complacent toward those in power and pushing whatever consensus opinion exists at the moment than actually being curious and getting at the truth," he said.
MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace, one of the media's most rabidly anti-GOP voices, blamed then-President Trump for pushing intelligence agencies into investigating one of his favorite "conspiracy theories."
The MSNBC host put a spotlight on a 2020 New York Times piece headlined, "Trump officials are said to press spies to link virus and Wuhan labs." The Times report claimed, "administration officials have pushed American spy agencies to hunt for evidence to support an unsubstantiated theory that a government laboratory in Wuhan" was the source of the virus, and "analysts are concerned that the pressure from administration officials will distort assessments about the virus and that they could be used as a political weapon in an intensifying battle with China."
"The effort comes as President Trump escalates a public campaign to blame China for the pandemic," the Times reporters added. "Most intelligence agencies remain skeptical that conclusive evidence of a link to a lab can be found."
MSNBC’s Joy Reid took things even further, calling the lab leak theory "debunked bunkum" being pushed by Trump.
New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman appeared on CNN’s since-canceled "New Day" to suggest the theory was political because Trump didn’t share any evidence that COVID began actually in a lab.
Then-CNN anchor Chris Cuomo called the lab leak theory a distraction, while then-CNN correspondent John Harwood suggested the theory was a way for Trump to "deflect blame" from the performance of his administration.
Grabien Media founder Tom Elliott, who tweeted multiple clips of pundits dismissing the theory, also unearthed CNN reporter Drew Griffin bashing the late Rush Limbaugh for mentioning potential lab leaks with "zero proof."
"CNN has spoken to a half dozen virus hunters who, right now, say anyone who claims they know the exact source of the novel coronavirus is guessing," Griffin said. "Did it come from bats? Most likely."
In another 2020 segment, Griffin said the theory that COVID began in the Wuhan lab was "widely debunked."
ABC funnyman Jimmy Kimmel once mocked Trump for embracing the lab leak theory.
"That’s his new angle to feed the wingnuts, to treat this virus like it was a conspiracy of some kind," Kimmel said. "Tomorrow he’ll blame the Spanish flu on Antonio Banderas."
"Morning Joe" regular John Heilemann called it a "made up" theory. NBC News correspondent Janis Mackey Frayer offered a look at the lab with a chyron referring to it as at the "heart of conspiracy theories."
Kasie Hunt, who was at MSNBC at the time, bluntly said "we know it’s been debunked that this virus was manmade or modified," while CNN host Fareed Zakaria said "the far right has now found its own virus conspiracy theory" when discussing the possibility of a lab leak.
Elliott, who has become a popular conservative Twitter personality for sharing clips that illustrate bias in the media, believes the press never attempted to investigate Covid's origins because they were so consumed by their hatred of Trump.
"This isn't my opinion, it's literally how they've explained what happened. John Heilemann, Joe Scarborough, Maggie Haberman -- they all said after Trump blamed China for COVID, that ‘made the issue political’ and these self-described journalists had no choice but to reflexively counter whatever Trump says," Elliott told Fox News Digital.
"Even worse than their failure to do actual journalism into the biggest story of the decade were their efforts to help censor those who did. As I've been documenting, the mainstream media was only too happy to stamp a ‘debunked’ label on any reporting supporting the lab leak theory, which was all social media needed to ban these -- more reliable -- sources of information," Elliott continued. "As always, the American people are the biggest victims of these so-called journalists' cowardice."
Many print pieces echoed the messaging from cable news.
The Washington Post reported on Feb. 17, 2020, that Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., had "repeated a fringe theory suggesting that the ongoing spread of a coronavirus is connected to research in the disease-ravaged epicenter of Wuhan, China."
Two months later, the Post published a fact-check video declaring it was "doubtful" the virus escaped from the nearby Wuhan Institute of Virology, known for its research on bat coronaviruses and lab safety concerns. The video included Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, flatly denying the virus could have emerged from the lab and praising the autocratic Chinese government as "incredibly open."
Daszak had worked for years with Dr. Shi Zheng-li, who went on to run the Wuhan Institute of Virology and who initially voiced fears that the virus had leaked from her lab. Daszak spearheaded a letter in The Lancet signed by 27 scientists last year that "strongly condemn[ed] conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin," without disclosing to readers that Daszak's group had funded coronavirus research at the Wuhan lab through U.S. government grants.
REPORTERS ADMIT DISMISSING WUHAN LAB LEAK THEORY IN PART BECAUSE REPUBLICANS PROPOSED IT
The Post’s editorial board eventually called out Daszak in 2021 for his lack of transparency while loudly pushing the natural origin theory for the virus. Post Fact Checker Glenn Kessler also declared the Wuhan coronavirus lab-leak theory "suddenly credible." Before Kessler came around, he famously mocked Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, for embracing the lab leak theory.
"I fear @tedcruz missed the scientific animation in the video that shows how it is virtually impossible for this virus jump from the lab. Or the many interviews with actual scientists. We deal in facts, and viewers can judge for themselves," Kessler tweeted on May 1, 2020.
"If the major media cared about their integrity, they would be begging us for our forgiveness," Elliott said. "Instead, they're still pushing the people aside, so they can protect and pamper the powerful."
NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck said the reaction from the press was a "seismic blow" to its credibility.
"It's been rather amusing to see the liberal media caught flat-footed on a story that takes, at minimum, a heavy chiseling to their ostracization of any and all discussion of the lab leak theory. Their pompousness certainly did them in as it's a safe bet they didn't believe such a possibility would go mainstream, let alone from the Biden administration's Department of Energy," Houck told Fox News Digital.
