Today's JG rant: JG editors just make it up

Editors of the JG, like most MSM lemmings, lack self-awareness.  A case in point is the JG’s April 7, 2020 editorial “Unworthy effort”.

While the JG allows all manner falsehoods, innuendos, malicious lies and just plain stupidity to permeate their editorial page, JG editors have the nerve to criticize Rep. Banks for telling the truth about the Chinese virus.

The JG editors, who make a living with words, require 369 words to explain why Banks’ 25 word retweet is an unworthy effort.  In that 369 word opinion piece JG editors falsely accuses the Washington Times’ and by extension Rep. Banks of alleging that China “deliberately created or spread this fearsome virus.”  No such allegation was ever made.  The JG editors made that fake news up out of whole cloth.

The JG should have done a ten minute internet search on the subject contained in the retweet.  It’s not just Banks, the Washington Times, and an Israeli biological warfare expert making the allegation that the Chinese Virus might have escaped from a Chinese lab near Wuhan.  A Chinese research paper suggests the EXACT same thing – that it’s likely the virus was accidentally released from one of two nearby labs.

The only allegation contained in the tweet was that the virus “may have originated in a Wuhan laboratory linked to China’s biological weapons program.”  There’s not a hint in the tweet or the link contained therein that the Chinese deliberately released the virus as the JG’s bogus opinion piece suggests.

Honest people caught in such an unworthy effort to smear Rep. Banks would admit their error, apologize for their monumental screw up, fire the people involved and print a front page retraction.   

Jim Banks

@RepJimBanks

·

Jan 27

“The #coronavirus spreading globally may have originated in a Wuhan laboratory linked to China’s covert biological weapons program, according to an Israeli biological warfare expert.” https://washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jan/24/virus-hit-wuhan-has-two-laboratories-linked-chines/

 

Tuesday, April 07, 2020 1:00 am

Editorial

Unworthy effort

Trafficking in conspiracy theory detracts from Banks' work for his constituents

Conspiracy theories are not always false. But it is irresponsible for elected officials to peddle those theories without compelling evidence. It is especially unwise during times such as these, as Americans look to their leaders for reliable information about the pandemic.

Regrettably, U.S. Rep. Jim Banks, R-3rd, chose to relay speculation that the coronavirus now sickening and killing Americans by the thousands may have originated in biological warfare labs in Wuhan, China.

As The Journal Gazette's Brian Francisco reported Sunday, Banks used a Jan. 27 tweet to link to a story in the Washington Examiner on the allegation. That story, Francisco wrote, “quoted a former Israeli military intelligence officer as saying that virus research laboratories in Wuhan, China, where the virus is believed to have started, 'have probably been engaged' in covert biological weapons research and development.”

In an interview last week with The Daily Caller, a conservative internet site, Banks said that tweet was an attempt to draw the attention of Congress and the administration to the coming pandemic. Indeed, Banks was calling for a harder line against China long before anyone became aware of the coronavirus threat.

But though the virus did originate in China and there appear to be serious questions about how forthcoming officials there were about the problem, so far there is no evidence that anyone deliberately created or spread this fearsome virus, just as there is nothing to support the inference being peddled by some in China that the U.S. military developed and introduced the disease.

Writing in The New Yorker, Elizabeth Colbert noted that throughout history victims have often placed the blame for epidemics and pandemics on “outsiders.” This is not only misleading but dangerous; as Francisco noted, Asian-Americans have in some instances been harassed as fear about coronavirus has spread.

Like other officials at all levels of government, Banks must be especially cautious about encouraging or spreading unfounded accusations. Trust and credibility are precious commodities at such a time. Let others trade conspiracy theories on the internet; Banks should be focused on helping his constituents in northeast Indiana deal with the health, economic and social consequences of the COVID-19 crisis.