Several journalists and supposedly reputable media companies are now acknowledging that they were wrong to dismiss the Wuhan lab leak theory with regards to the origins of COVID-19.
What was in 2020 believed to be a conspiracy theory touted by Republican leaders, including former President Donald Trump, is now a credible possibility that scientists are looking into given new reports that have surfaced to support the idea that an accident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology was really the source of COVID-19.
FOX News reported that mainstream media journalists are experiencing another "reckoning about groupthink and bias in the industry." Some reporters who were brave enough to acknowledge their misstep said that there were political reasons for them to dismiss the Wuhan lab leak theory, especially when former President Trump, ex State Secretary Mike Pompeo, and Republican Senator Tom Cotton were the ones who pushed for the theory to be investigated.
"I think a lot of people have egg on their face," ABC News' Jonathan Karl said on Sunday. "Trump was saying so much else, that was just out of control, and because he was making a frankly racist appeal talking about Kung Flu, and the China virus, he said flatly this came from that lab, and it was widely dismissed."
But Karl soon realized, "Some things may be true even if Donald Trump said them...Now serious people are saying [the Wuhan lab leak theory] needs a serious inquiry."
David Leonhardt from the New York Times also acknowledged his early dismissal of the Wuhan lab leak theory, which he believed was downplayed just because former President Trump's ally Sen. Cotton was the one who said it. Sen. Cotton has long been a critic of China.
"A lot of people on the political left and a lot of people in the media made the mistake," Leonhardt admitted. "They said, 'If Tom Cotton is saying something, it can't be true.' Or they assumed that and that's not right."
Former Trump Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Pottinger admitted that some "political mistakes" lead to "trouble in government" and "institutional shortcomings," referring to both Trump and Pompeo claiming they have seen evidence of the Wuhan lab leak theory but refused to make it public.
The Washington Post's Glenn Kessler argued, "The Trump administration's messaging was often accompanied by anti-Chinese rhetoric that made it easier for skeptics to ignore its claims." Kessler is the very same "fact-checker" who criticized Republican Senator Ted Cruz in 2020 for speaking out on the Wuhan lab leak theory, which the Washington Post now believes is a credible theory.
Last week, they reported on U.S. intelligence that recounted how several Wuhan lab researchers fell ill with COVID-19 like symptoms and required hospital care in November, way before the outbreak was declared by China.
According to The Blaze, some journalists and media outlets are not only backtracking, but are also trying to escape accountability by pinning the blame on Trump, this time for allegedly not presenting the evidence he and his administration claims to have seen.
Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin, however, said mainstream media did not "ignore" the lab leak theory. Rather, MSM, he said, dumped the theory "for over a year" due to "Trump Derangement Syndrome" or TDS, among other reasons.
An obvious shift in media bias and presentation can be seen along with the change of the administration: from a Republican one under Trump to a Democratic one under President Joe Biden, who ordered a ban on using "China virus" and/or "Wuhan virus" to refer to COVID-19 in federal communications. It's worth noting, however, that a CCP-linked Chinese professor called it the "CCP virus."
