This entire COVID exercise is turning into a mere public relations exercise, training the dogs to obey without question.
Complete with a press corp proclaiming the need to Obey the Leader, and point-blank refusing to even acknowledge the questions regarding the cost/benefit of the restrictions, the lockdowns, or even if there were any additional deaths in the supposed “plague years” of 2020 compared to 2019, or 2018.
The press obviously cannot come out and expressly advocate for a policy of lockdowns and one-man rule, of course. Doing so would risk the very thing that allows them to shape public opinion so effectively—the perception that they are independent and neutral arbiters of fact. They can, however, move public opinion in their preferred direction through other, more effective means. One way this is done is by simply removing the constitutional issues from the conversation. Another is to reframe efforts to abide by the Constitution as dangerous actions that will lead to more death.
The opening paragraph of a recent Associated Press story shows how it is done:
“The Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ statewide mask mandate on Wednesday [March 31, 2021], stripping the governor of one of his last remaining tools to curb the spread of the coronavirus as the state stands on the precipice of another surge in infections.”
Wisconsin’s Emergency Powers Act expressly states that the governor must receive legislative approval to extend an emergency beyond sixty days. As the governor did not receive the required legislative approval after sixty days, the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the law and ended the state of emergency. But because the Associated Press disagrees with the outcome of that ruling, they did not describe it as the straightforward legal analysis it was, but instead framed it as a potentially deadly policy choice. (“stripping the governor of one of his last remaining tools to curb the spread of the coronavirus as the state stands on the precipice of another surge in infections.”) I suppose the honest description — “enforcing the Legislature’s sixty-day limit on the governor’s ability to unilaterally make the law”—runs the risk of getting readers to think about that pesky Constitution and separation of powers thing!
It is worth mentioning that the court’s ruling did not prevent Wisconsin from enacting a mask mandate or even extending the state of emergency. It only required that such actions be done in a constitutionally permissible way, as Justice Rebecca Bradley explained in her concurring opinion:
“Because the Wisconsin Legislature never extended Governor Evers’ declared state of emergency, it ended on May 11, 2020. Any exercise of executive power in the name of the COVID-19 pandemic beyond that date is unlawful unless the people consent, through their elected representatives in the legislature.”
Although the AP did not cite a single word from Justice Bradley’s opinion, they did want readers to know that she once received a campaign donation from someone tangentially related to one of the plaintiffs in this case—because ruling that 360 days is longer than sixty days can only be explained by corruption.
Conclusion
The media coverage of covid is remarkably similar to the coverage of former President Trump. The traditional aim of being an impartial source of news has been replaced by the advocacy deemed necessary to confront such an existential threat. At some point, the premise that lockdowns and one-man rule are the only sensible response to COVID was adopted,1 and ever since then, the press has abused its power to push that narrative aggressively.
Consequently, trust in the media has appropriately fallen to an all-time low. And while it is good that more people are waking up to the agenda-driven nature of these organizations, the decline of journalism is terrible for society.
Who’s to Blame for Normalizing One-Man Rule? by Robert Fellner
No questions, no debate, no challenges… and plenty of censorship for those who challange the narrative.
And when places like Texas and Mississippi and Florida ignore the Fear-Generating Noise Machine, and reap the benefits?
Total Media Silence.
“It’s not about the Truth and the Facts. It’s about Obedience and Compliance.”
Acrosss the Stars 