Media’s Smear Of NYT’s Leonhardt Reminds Us Why They Can’t Be Trusted – The Federalist

New York Times liberal David Leonhardt has had plenty of dumb things to say about the pandemic.

Exhibit A, this remark he made back in October on CNN: When people quit or get fired because they wont take the vaccine, I would think of that there is some really good news there.

A month before that, he said Republicans were rejecting vaccines at a higher rate than Democrats, in large part because conservatives had grown hostile to science. Then he acknowledged in a subsequent column that health officials were deliberately withholding information from the public, as happened with masks, and said their refusal to acknowledge uncertainty can undermine officials credibility. (When conservatives doubt what their leaders are telling them, its because theyre hostile to science. When Leonhardt does it, hes just being a skeptical journalist!)

In June 2020, he made the arrogant declaration that We know how to slow the spread of the coronavirus, and pointed to South Korea as a sterling example of one of those countries that had avoided outbreaks or beaten them back. A few months later, the deputy commissioner of the nations health department would say, We are facing our biggest ever coronavirus crisis because the current wave is neither temporary nor regional, but steady and nationwide. We dont have one central cluster that we can shut down with a focused testing and isolating campaign

And so, Leonhardt doesnt get any credit for his Johnny-come-lately attitude about how Democrat and media-championed restrictions on the economy, social life, and schools have severely retarded this country. Plenty of people knew that was the case from the beginning and when they said so aloud, elitist dummies like Leonhardt denounced them as reckless science deniers hellbent on ushering more spread of a deadly virus.

But its wild anyway that, for becoming more vocal lately about the harm Democrats have done to children and the economy with their beloved lockdowns, Politico decided it was time to let a bunch of miserable liberals trash him. And do it anonymously!

Reporter Joanne Kenen wrote last week that she had viewed a letter sent to the Times from a group of prominent pandemic experts who called Leonhardts Covid analysis irresponsible and dangerous. Who were these so-called prominent experts? We dont get to know. Kenen said when she got ahold of the letter, it came with the full list of signatures withheld.

How, then, does she know any of the names are prominent? Moreoever, how does she know theyre experts at all? Maybe we shouldnt ask. We wouldnt want to seem hostile to science.

But Kenen even declined to identify someone she interviewed directly and who said that the majority of Leonhardts opinion pieces downplay risk, downplay prevention. This assessment, according to Kenen, came from a physician at a prestigious academic medical center. If thats true, and were talking about a matter of life and death, and that a prominent writer is misleading millions of people about the risk to their health, there is literally no reason for a doctor to hide his name when making such a milquetoast accusation. And there is literally no reason for a reporter like Kenen to allow it other than that shes simply crap-stirring and continuing to feed the alarmism that invites Democrats to continue hyping up their control-freak restrictions.

These people swear that theyre not enjoying the pandemic, that everyone wants to be done with it. No, they dont.

Leonhardt isnt a sympathetic victim in this smear campaign. But hes a useful reminder that the people were told incessantly by the national media to listen to and trust are in no way forthcoming or honest.

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Media's Smear Of NYT's Leonhardt Reminds Us Why They Can't Be Trusted - The Federalist