Another one bites the dust. Another media lie, that is.
The latest lie to die is the false claim the feds cleared Lafayette Park of protesters last year so then-President Donald Trump could hold a photo op. The Interior Department’s inspector general says police planned to clear the park so a contractor could install a fence, a decision unrelated to Trump’s walk to a nearby historic church burned in a riot.
If the debunking feels familiar, it’s not your imagination. Only the details differ from earlier cases where the media mob got it all wrong. Sadly, the truth usually emerges not because of the press, but despite it.
Take growing acceptance of the idea the COVID-19 pandemic started with a leak from a virology lab in Wuhan, China. The idea was always plausible, but the press and big tech declared it a “conspiracy theory” and snuffed it out of circulation.
But after China couldn’t prove the virus jumped from bats to humans, the lab-leak theory gained credence. Suddenly, it became acceptable to share it on Facebook, which appointed itself guardian of all that is proper in American discourse.
The pattern is so pronounced that it’s easy to assemble your own list of Top Ten Media Lies. On mine, the recent cases involving Lafayette Park and the lab-leak theory are Nos. 8 and 9.
No. 1 is the oldest and biggest: Trump colluded with Russia to win in 2016 and might be a Russian agent. That scam involved crooked FBI agents and led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller, who took two years to conclude there was no evidence to back the charge.
