Faces of the liberal commentariat from @chrislhayes to @yashar to @CharlesMBlow spread a conspiracy theory about #COVID escaping from a Chinese lab.
The story was a complete hoax leaked by Trump's State Dept to neocon @joshrogin.
My latest, w/@ajitxsingh thegrayzone.com/2020/04/20/tru…
The story was a complete hoax leaked by Trump's State Dept to neocon @joshrogin.
My latest, w/@ajitxsingh thegrayzone.com/2020/04/20/tru…
Here's a dead giveaway that Washington Post resident neocon @joshrogin was pushing a Cold War hoax:
He cited a "research scientist" with no scientific credentials, omitting his background as a regime change activist funded by the US govt's National Endowment for Democracy.
He cited a "research scientist" with no scientific credentials, omitting his background as a regime change activist funded by the US govt's National Endowment for Democracy.
WaPo neocon water carrier @joshrogin based his innuendo about the Wuhan Intitute of Virology on a US embassy cable apparently leaked to him. But the actual content of the cable - which he refused to publish in full - undermined the conspiracy theory he was advancing.
WaPo's State Department leak receptacle @joshrogin claimed it was an "unusual step" for US officials to visit the Wuhan lab.
He doesn't know dozens of official & scientific Western delegations have visited the lab – itself a product of Chinese & French gov't collaboration?
He doesn't know dozens of official & scientific Western delegations have visited the lab – itself a product of Chinese & French gov't collaboration?
WaPo neocon propagandist @joshrogin smeared Shi Zhengli, the head of Wuhan Institute of Virology's research team, as unsafe. Rogin cited an article that didn't even name Shi, referring instead to a study that took place in the US – not Wuhan. And he ignored this disclaimer on it:
When @joshrogin's WMD-style conspiracy theorizing on Wuhan Institute of Virology and #coronavirus was criticized by actual virologist @angie_rasmussen, he accused her of "ad hominem attacks" and melted down.
No virologists were quoted in his article
No virologists were quoted in his article
This was hardly the first time @joshrogin smeared targets of national security hardliners and published things that were not true in the service of the neoconservative agenda.
But in the midst of a national moral panic about China & #COVIDー19, none of these details mattered.
But in the midst of a national moral panic about China & #COVIDー19, none of these details mattered.
Trump allies tested the conspiracy theory on the Wuhan lab in January, relying on an Israeli ex-military intel official & US propaganda organ Radio Free Asia.
This month, they fished the story out of the far-right political wet market, planted it in WaPo & duped many liberals.
This month, they fished the story out of the far-right political wet market, planted it in WaPo & duped many liberals.
The Wuhan lab story is the Trump admin's Iraqi WMD and the Washington Post's @joshrogin is playing the role of @JMfreespeech. To turn up the heat on China, the White House is employing the same tactics used against it in Russiagate. But this time, corporate media's playing along.
