I promised to report back regarding media coverage of several Covid-19 related stories. I'll lay this out short and sweet.
Anyone can do the same quick media survey I just did today. It will take 20 minutes, and it's well worth the 20 minutes because it demonstrates some very odd elements of current American media coverage. You may as well research the lessons yourself; the lessons are likely to stay with you longer than if you just read my blather.
The Studies
1) The first study is a January 25 JAMA publication that indicates myocarditis rates in recently vaccinated young males are more than a hundred times the normal rate. Given that the study uses American VAERS data, which seems more-than-prone to underreporting, it is a vaccine-caveat kind of result. Matthew Oster, Davis Shay, and John Su are the primary authors.
2) The second study was published February 18 in JAMA. The authors are Steven Chee Loon Lin, Chee Peng, Kim Hey Tay, et al. The study found no differences in disease progression between control groups and groups receiving five-day Ivermectin treatment. I discuss the study in a little more depth in my February 28 "A Tale of Two Studies." The study, conducted in Malaysia, calls into question Ivermectin effectiveness.
3) The third study comes from Brazil. Lucy Kerr is the lead author. It's a clinician-driven study, with those kinds of built-in drawbacks, but it indicates that Ivermectin has prophylactic value for preventing severe disease and death.
4) The fourth study has, interestingly, not yet been published but has found its way into mainstream reportage. McMaster University in Ontario reported that patients at risk for severe disease derived no benefit from three days of Ivermectin administered after they had sought treatment.
Media Survey
We therefore had three Ivermectin-related studies, two showing no benefits and one showing benefits. Plus we had one study demonstrating vaccine dangers. So how did media searches highlight these studies, if at all?
1) A CNN search yielded no report on the myocarditis study. It did, however, pop a February 18 piece immediately after the Malaysian negative Ivermectin study was published. And no mention of the positive Ivermectin study.
2) MSNBC searches revealed no report on the myocarditis study. There was a feature on the negative published Ivermectin study. And no mention of the positive Ivermectin study. The results were therefore identical to CNN.
3) Plugging into searches of The New York Times yielded no mention of the myocarditis study, no mention of the positive Ivermectin study, but a piece regarding the negative published Ivermectin study. The only myocarditis results are from 2021 and 2020 articles.
4) A survey of USA Today showed no mention of the myocarditis study, no mention of the positive Ivermectin study, and no specific mention of the negative Ivermectin study. There was, however, a February 2 piece examining why doctors continue to prescribe Ivermectin.
5) Curiously, the Wall Street Journal ran a feature on the McMaster Ivermectin study before the study was published. A search for myocarditis yielded years-old articles, similar to The New York Times results.
Conclusion
For a decade, I had rolled my eyes at the labels "mainstream media" or "corporate media." CNN, MSNBC, the NYTimes, the Washington Post -- I mean, c'mon, there's no grand interlocking editorial board, right? Right? Bottom line: my days as a journalism major may have buffered my cynicism and made me late to the conspiratorial party. These patterns of media presentation cannot simply be accidental. In some ways, I've been an idiot.
My first tip-off that something really, really wasn't right was an August 24, 2021 CNN television piece about Ivermectin. It broke every Journalism 101 rule and damned near every rule of logical argument. It was a mess. I watched it in wonderment. How had such a thing made it onto the air at an alleged science-based network? I'm neither here nor there on Ivermectin, but this piece, a lengthy televised spectacle, was a complete and biased wreck.
I grew up, as I say, with Walter Cronkite. Unfortunately, the journalism I knew is dead, and Lazarus it ain't.
Bob Dietz
March25, 2022
