Back in early 2020, the Washington Post’s alleged fact checker Glenn Kessler declared the Wuhan lab leak theory bunk on numerous occasions. The entirety of the media (and Dr. Fauci) rejected the lab leak hypothesis right off the bat, seemingly on the sole basis that President Donald Trump had floated it.
Watch this amazing video by @mmkelly22 @SarahCahlan Was the new coronavirus accidentally released from a Wuhan lab? It’s doubtful. –>https://t.co/fmxQywwzAI pic.twitter.com/kSfN7df5Bh
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) May 1, 2020
Trump'a answer on Wuhan lab's role is more about how China handled the virus but not about what possible role the lab had. We interviewed top scientists, who say an accidental outbreak via the lab is unlikely –> https://t.co/ihkr4j9QHZ
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) May 4, 2020
“Renewed questions about the virus’s origin brought a rush of alternative theories. Some claimed the virus was a bioweapon. Others suggested it had been altered for a scientific experiment or was simply a viral sample that escaped from a lab. Let’s be clear: No scientist we spoke to thinks the new coronavirus was designed as a bioweapon” Kessler wrote last spring.
When mocked by Sen. Ted Cruz for “abandoning all presentences of journalism to produce CCP propaganda,” Kessler fired back that “We deal in facts, and viewers can judge for themselves.”
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. https://t.co/TprMnaHSZL
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) May 1, 2020
Now just over a year later, his latest article for the post is titled “How the Wuhan Lab-Leak Theory Suddenly Became Credible.”
NEW #FactChecker –> Timeline: How the Wuhan lab-leak theory suddenly became credible https://t.co/TfRw3x5mwW
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) May 25, 2021
While it seems obvious that the “sudden” event was Trump no longer being president, Kessler tries to rationalize how he got it wrong. “For one, efforts to discover a natural source of the virus have failed. Second, early efforts to spotlight a lab leak often got mixed up with speculation that the virus was deliberately created as a bioweapon,” he wrote.
He also blamed Trump for the lab leak theory not being taken seriously, claiming that “The Trump administration’s messaging was often accompanied by anti-Chinese rhetoric that made it easier for skeptics to ignore its claims.” Or in other words, he’s blaming Trump for the hysteria of his critics.
Kessler also makes note of the recent findings that “The U.S. government has reason to believe that several researchers inside the WIV became sick in autumn 2019, before the first identified case of the outbreak, with symptoms consistent with both covid-19 and common seasonal illnesses.”
Meanwhile, the show “War Room” called this all back on January 25th 2020.
Steve Bannon’s War Room talked about COVID 19 being manufactured in a Chinese lab on…. January 25, 2020.
WATCH:pic.twitter.com/kFLecJpbtU
— Boris Epshteyn (@BorisEP) May 25, 2021
It’s increasingly looking like we need a whole new set of fact checkers just to fact check the existing fact checkers out there.
Matt Palumbo is the author of Dumb and Dumber: How Cuomo and de Blasio Ruined New York, Debunk This: Shattering Liberal Lies, and Spygate
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