Article by Fletch Daniels in The American Thinker
It's the Story of the Century, and the Media Yawn
Never before in human history has a global pandemic resulted in the dismemberment of first-world economies, highly divisive universal vaccine and mask mandates, education-stunting school shutdowns, and the isolation of entire societies to the point of extreme mental health damage.
Throughout all this, the media have remained incurious as to how this historic misery happened.
Anyone with half a brain cell already knew that a new virus that started within a stone's throw of a biosafety level 4 laboratory in an authoritarian nation likely either leaked or was released from that laboratory. But acknowledging this obvious fact immediately led to expulsion from "polite" society, or at least from social media.
But the fact that Saint Fauci is the director of an organization, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, that provided U.S. funding on "gain of function" research to the tune of nearly $600,000 on several types of coronaviruses at the very lab where the leak happened may well be the biggest story of the last fifty years.
Gain of function is shorthand for research that adds a new function to an existing virus, which in this case is the rather inconvenient function of infecting humans. We were literally funding research by our biggest geopolitical rival on how to turn a harmless virus to humans into one that could wreak chaos in human populations. Mission accomplished.
That's an earth-shattering story that fully vindicates Senator Rand Paul, who has been at the forefront of this, even as he was lyingly insulted by the guilty Fauci himself.
If I submitted a novel manuscript with a supervillain who conspires with his nation's chief rival to do research that causes a global pandemic, and then is tasked with leading the response to this disaster, I would expect publishers to tell me the story is too far-fetched. And yet that is exactly where this story leads.
In between yawns, the media's primary response to the story is to bury it and disparage anyone who notes it.
The media continue to have a tremendous negative impact on America in their war on truth. And one of the most pernicious influences is in the stories they choose to bury, which is a lot of them, while setting the daily news agenda. They say it's time to move on, and America largely moves on.
I asked a few colleagues about this story, and not one of them had the foggiest idea what I was talking about thanks to a near-total media blackout.
After reading the story, one colleague asked, "Why on Earth would we want to take a natural virus and turn it into something far more deadly to humans? Aren't viruses bad enough without us making them worse?" Good question.
Even if there is perhaps some benefit that could be found in such research, the risk seems ridiculously high (as is now rather apparent) — so high that it would far outweigh any potential benefit short of the wicked one of creating a biological weapon to paralyze a rival society.
These media blackouts occur almost daily. For example, just using today as an example, how many people who don't read conservative outlets like this know that four out of the five Taliban members traded for an American traitor, the worst of Guantanamo's worst, are now leaders of Afghanistan?
Or how about the fact that history's newest Picasso, who sells paintings for more money than most Americans will ever see in a lifetime, is none other than Hunter Biden, who admitted that he and his father are likely compromised by a laptop stolen by Russians?
This selection of what to cover to drive the narrative is the greatest damage that the media do to America. For all their protestations, I don't think "enemy of the people" is that inaccurate of a description for an institution that has declared war on the truth and done incalculable damage to American society.
The media also do damage through repetition, another contrast currently on display. The media absolutely destroyed President George W. Bush through nonstop and blatantly unfair attacks on him during Hurricane Katrina. Yet when a mentally challenged Democrat goes on vacation following a similar hurricane, while much of the same state is still without power, the media marvel at his tremendous competence and compassion.
For those who were lauding the media for negatively covering the administration's Afghanistan disaster, they really had no choice. The historic incompetence was at such a level that they were forced to do what they hate the most, even if they did it in the kindest way possible. But they raced to turn the page and start the rehabilitation effort vice driving him from office, as would have likely happened to a Republican president under the same horrific self-inflicted circumstances.
Returning to the story of the century, do any of the "mainstream" media outlets not find it rather coincidental that we were conspiring with China to turn a harmless bat virus into one that is lethal to mankind? Does it not seem a little odd that the very man the media have lionized, since he is part of their cultural tribe, as the leader of the U.S. response provided funding to this effort? I'm not a big believer in coincidences, and if this was a coincidence, it is the biggest one of all time.
For those who might question that this "nonpolitical" wunderkind is part of their tribe, anybody who says about Hillary Clinton that "we all love her and are very proud to know her" is a leftist to the core.
If Fauci was aligned with the right instead of the left, the biggest question we'd likely be contemplating is which prison he would be heading to.
Frankly, I don't know if the COVID release was an experiment gone bad or something far more sinister and intentional. But it is always worth considering cui bono, or who stands to benefit, when looking at an issue like this. The greatest beneficiaries of the destruction wrought by COVID (and the overheated response to it that is still paralyzing Western democracies) were China and leftists and globalists worldwide.
The release of the virus accomplished a number of objectives. It reversed the damage that the Trump administration was doing to China while resulting in a significant increase in China's comparative power. It resulted in a strong move toward authoritarianism across the globe. And it resulted in the weakest and most compromised American president of my lifetime. Cui bono, indeed.
At worst, this is a global conspiracy that rivals any in history. At best, this is the worst cover-up of recent history. The story is the blockbuster of all blockbusters. But Democracy dies in darkness, as the paper that marveled at President Biden's competence and compassion intones, and darkness is what we have at the moment.
I've gained a lot of respect for Senator Rand Paul for his commitment to the truth. Here's to hoping a few other politicians buck the cultural power of the left and demand accountability and answers to the biggest questions of recent history. The leftstream media certainly aren't going to do it, but we shouldn't let them bury a story of this magnitude.
