‘Businesses are getting destroyed and people’s lives are being upended. Not by the virus, but by the panic…’
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) Celebrity psychologist and physician Dr. Drew Pinsky said that the media’s irresponsible rush to encourage widespread panic during the coronavirus frenzy was tantamount to negligence and it should be held accountable.
“[B]usinesses are getting destroyed and people’s lives are being upended. Not by the virus, but by the panic,” he said during an interview with a Los Angeles radio DJ, according to the Washington Times.
“The panic must stop, and the press, they really, somehow, need to be held accountable, because they are hurting people,” Pinsky said.
Pinsky said that the push for containing the virus was well-intended but had given way to the darker, more exploitative instincts of many in the media.
Many consumers already scoffed at the hysteria given the lack of credibility among most left-leaning outlets following recent over-sensationalized coverage, which has led to several defamation suits and embarrassing mea culpas.
But the press seemed unrelenting in the face of the current pandemic, huffing at any that dared question their dogma of universal quarantines and business closures.
Pinsky said putting the panic into perspective compared to the risks of other health concerns exposed the irrationality of the media-goaded public reaction.
“A bad flu season is 80,000 dead. We’ve got about 18,000 dead from influenza this year; we have 100 from corona,” he said. “Which should you be worried about, influenza or corona, 100 versus 18,000? It’s not a trick question.”
The statements echoed recent criticisms Pinsky made that his own elected congressman, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., was failing his constituents by fixating on impeachment of President Donald Trump while ignoring a homeless epidemic in Los Angeles.
Trump, for his part, recently attempted to hold media accountable by filing libel lawsuits against three of his most biased media adversaries: the New York Times, the Washington Post and CNN.