(Ezekiel Loseke, Headline USA) CNN prohibited its reporters from covering the lab leak theory because it was allegedly nothing more than a Trump talking point.
This prohibition, ironically, was issued amid CNN‘s “Facts First” campaign, according to PJ Media.
CNN’s then-President Jeff Zucker said the lab-leak theory was ‘a Trump talking point,’ according to an insider, reported Fox News.
Though the FBI and Energy Department officially supported the lab leak theory in late February, that development was new. In 2021 when Republicans like Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Trump suggested the lab-leak theory, they were attacked by CNN.
CNN produced a story that bore the headline, “Nearly 30% in the US believe a coronavirus theory that’s almost certainly not true,” on April, 13, 2020
“Its origin is up for debate, but it wasn’t made in a lab,” it read. “There’s still much we don’t know about the coronavirus pandemic, but virus experts agree on one piece of its origin story: The virus likely originated in a bat, not in a Chinese lab.”
CNN anchor John Vause called Cotton’s lab-leak theory “misinformation” while interviewing Anthony Fauci. Fauci responded that “theories that are not based on evidence and facts often can really mislead people.”
Fauci also suppressed the lab-leak theory.
On Feb. 18, 2020, CNN ran a “Facts First” story covering claims made by Cotton. The mainstream media outlet insisted “it’s possible, yet unlikely, that the lab was connected to the start of the outbreak,” citing an infectious disease expert who said of the lab leak theory, “I have seen no one provide any solid information to support that theory.”
“I think at this point you can draw a line through it and say that didn’t happen.”
CNN’s Oliver Darcy published a story headlined, “Here’s how to debunk coronavirus misinformation and conspiracy theories from friends and family,” on March, 28, 2020.
“In some cases, relatives and friends share poor information – whether it is bad science related to how to prevent the virus, debunked rumors about cities being put on lockdown, or conspiracy theories about the origins of Covid-19,” Darcy wrote.
CNN host Fareed Zakaria once said “the far right has now found its own virus conspiracy theory” while discussing the possibility of a lab leak.
