"Trump Made Me Do It" is No Excuse
Calling out the Flawed Logic of the Media's Defense of its Covid Lab-Leak Theory Coverage
A couple weeks ago, I posted the following poll on Twitter.
Today on FOX News, Marjorie Taylor Greene reportedly said “Also, in my opinion, y’all, you should wash your hands after you take a #2.” Therefore, washing your hands after you use the restroom is:
(1) Perpetuating Systemic Racism
(2) A Symbol of White Supremacy
(3) Actively Taking Lives
(4) Something You Should Still Do
This poll is unfortunately limited by Twitter to just four options.
Because I would have added three obvious additional answers: (5) A legacy of Jim Crow, (6) Reinforcing the sexist and heteronormative oppression of the patriarchy. And of course, the answer that many leading progressive academics, scholars, journalists, heads of social media company content monitoring departments, Diversity-Equity-Inclusion consultants, and political pundits: (7) All of the Above!
Before anyone gets the wrong idea, I am not a Marjorie Taylor Greene supporter or defender. (The only reason I doubt her culpability in the January 6th Insurrection is because I think she has a Pedro Guerrero defense to the crime). And no, I haven’t seen any of the aforementioned individuals author LA Times op-ed pieces decrying “the inherent white supremacy of washing one’s hands after using the toilet” - yet.
The tweet is a joke. At least partly. I use this extreme and silly hypothetical scenario to point out two common fallacies I have seen, with increasing frequency during the Trump era, promoted in the news media and academia with a microphone.
First, a pseudo-intellectual trend of seeking to turn anything one doesn’t like into something that is “inherently rooted in white supremacy and a perpetuation of systemic racism”, often done by drawing extremely causal connections and ignoring basic rules of logic. Second, reflexively taking a position on any issue simply because it is the opposite opinion of that held by someone we on the left strongly dislike. Even if taking that position is grounded in zero evidence, contradicts many of our typically political positions, and makes no sense.
My concern over the use of these fallacies may seem overwrought. But they seem to be on full display in the response to the news of numerous federal government agencies concluding that a lab-leak in Wuhan, China is the likely origin of the COVID-19 pandemic.
When first suggested, the idea of a lab-leak was dismissed almost universally by journalists and pundits. Many on social media found themselves banned for even suggesting the theory, which was derided as nothing more than a crazy and racist conspiracy.
For myself, I have always suspected this disease was more than just naturally occurring. The way that it spread and the manner in which it impacted people selectively seemed so unprecedented and unusual that it seemed like it had to have some man-made component to it. And during the height of the pandemic, I actually wondered why people were so hardline anti-conspiracy theory, adding the lab-leak origin theory to ever growing list of “MISINFORMATION!” or “DISINFORMATION!”.
But my own suspicions did not change my personal behavior during the pandemic or affect my opinion about many of the public policies embarked upon during the pandemic. I have taken every precaution I possibly can against the disease and I have only dropped precautions as new scientific research comes out conclusively demonstrating their ineffectiveness.
I have spent most of the pandemic making sacrifices (driving myself slowly insane), mostly out of a belief in societal duty owed to others. Taking precautions to avoid getting the disease and making sacrifices to attempt to slow the spread didn’t depend upon whether the disease stemmed from a natural process or arose from a lab-leak.
If anything, some humility is in order for those in the media who have frequently made definitive statements about the disease and denounced those who opposed or even questioned those statements as evil, only to later discover their own definitive statements were not accurate. There are many things that people got wrong during COVID-19 and many more things we are still discovering about the disease.
I don’t think it was due to intentional malevolence as many conspiracy theorists allege. It was simply the fog of war and continues to be. The science is evolving. The disease itself is evolving. But given the definitive statements and denunciations of people who voiced disagreement, many in the media demonstrated a high level of arrogance.
When it comes to dismissing the lab-leak theory, journalists (and social media companies) should be considering making apologies. Perhaps, they should reflect and examine why they acted in the manner they did. This might help them improve themselves for future reporting, not just on COVID-19 and other pandemics, but for other stories.
However, instead of humility, we are instead witnessing a beguiling line of thought being expressed as a defense. It goes something like this:
“Donald Trump made stupid and racist statements about COVID-19. It came at a time when there was an increase in violent hate crimes committed against Asian Americans, seemingly in retribution for what was perceived as their fault for bringing deadly and destructive disease to this country. Therefore, journalists had to censor all discussion of lab-leak theory and dismiss even the suggestion of it (or desire to have it investigated) as a crazy racist conspiracy of the lunatic fringe.
And if only Donald Trump hadn’t been making stupid and borderline racist statements, journalists would have done their jobs and investigated. Plus, Trump was doing such a horrible job on responding to the pandemic, we couldn’t investigate the lab-leak because it might justify his claims that he was doing a good job on handling the disease. Plus, it might further enable the COVID-19 deniers who are doing everything in their power to get more people sick.”
In other words, as to why journalists didn’t do their job: “Trump made me do it”.1
This explanation is a giant load of bulldreck. You will hear no argument from me on how horrible Donald Trump is. But that does not give journalists license to abandon journalistic ethics and not perform their basic journalistic duty. Nor should Trump’s actions make journalists bury their heads in the sand and turn off their brains just to show their disgust with him.
Moreover, if one truly opposes Trump, one should consider that shutting down a conversation just because of him gives the man far more power and control than he ever should have. We are all individual human beings who have agency. We can think for ourselves and we do not need to surrender that to Trump. Trump has taken enough from the American people already. Journalists ought not to give him any more.
Committing racially motivated acts of violence against random people is never okay. It is one of the worst types of crimes in society. The idea that somehow investigating the origins of COVID-19 had to be censored because of the potential of people committing hate crimes almost suggests a justification for them. As if, people who would commit hate crimes against Asian Americans would be justified in doing so if they knew the virus came from a lab-leak.
However, there is never a justification for committing racially motivated acts of violence. Moreover, anyone who would be stupid and evil enough to attack their fellow citizen for something they clearly had nothing to do with is probably not one who pays close attention to news or will cease from their bad act simply because journalists ignore a theory this individual believes in.
Furthermore, whether one should take precautions and make sacrifices during a deadly pandemic doesn’t depend on how the pandemic came to be. The disease exists regardless. Precautions must be taken and sacrifices must be made to protect ourselves and others.
Similarly, it doesn’t excuse poor performance from governing officials who are tasked with protecting our nation’s well-being from a deadly pandemic. Trump’s response to the pandemic was piss-poor (at best). It led to far more people dying from COVID-19 than otherwise would have, hurt the economy more, and prolonged our general suffering. Whether the pandemic occurred naturally or was due to a lab-leak is irrelevant to evaluating Trump’s handling of the pandemic.
Whether the COVID-19 pandemic was caused by a lab-leak or occurred naturally is newsworthy and something that should be a topic of general discussion. And while we may never find out the answer, it is important to consider when making policies for future disease research. It is also important for our on-going relations with China. If they inflicted this disease upon the world, refuse to take responsibility for doing so, and refuse to mitigate the suffering they caused, it teaches us how we must deal with China in the future as an opponent.
No favor is done to the public by denying public discussion of the issue and censoring the information. And doing so out of motivation against Trump was an abandonment of journalistic duty.
Just because Marjorie Taylor Greene says that you should wash your hands after going to the bathroom doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t. Just because Donald Trump suggests a lab-leak origin doesn’t mean it’s automatically untrue and shouldn’t be investigated or reported on by journalists.
Journalists failed at their basic duty. Trump is no excuse for that.2
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